rolling thread of stuff worth reading on videogames

god damn you george lucas

None of those abandoned games sounds like a big loss tbh

Day of the Tentacle HD sure does.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/10/hiroshi-yamauchi-henk-rogers/

via Tom - http://tevisthompson.com/on-videogame-reviews/

that's pretty good, yeah

I can't wait to play Infinite and find out if these guys are right

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/technology/this-is-war-for-a-game-industrys-soul.html

i don't agree with the article's idea that the health of DICE is a canary for the whole industry, but still a nice profile

Tevis makes good points and I generally agree but the "I'd give it a 2/10" biz is slightly distracting.

Well, there's really two separate points being made - "I am really critical of this game and here's why" and "I am concerned by how unvaried the 'criticism' is in this field." The challopsy 2/10 stuff is more about the latter than about this game as such, as I took it. I thought it was a really good read, although I haven't played any Bioshock whatsoever.

yeah his primary point is right on and painfully valid and he's a fantastic writer so all around it is a really good read. it also lead to four or five days of annoying and defensive debate on a game writer list serve.

do you guys have any links to forums or msg boards where people are debating this tevis piece? thought it was superb, nails all my distrust of game reviewers (across the board 9/10s for la noire was the point where it properly hit me)

Neogaf thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=698719

haven't read it

thanks

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/203801/How_Typing_of_the_Dead_Overkill_survived_its_studios_apocalypse.php
i think i need to buy this

i'm smacking myself for forgetting to buy it, even after i posted about it in the deal thread

it's a sega title though, it'll go on sale again

just read the article, ha, i love that they put so much effort into getting it out

If a half an hour is good, imagine how good 2 hours/day is!

http://www.kurzweilai.net/video-game-playing-found-beneficial-for-the-brain

You need to play more videogames (see my post right above yours)!

;)

ha my ilx stylesheet hides linked text too well

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-13-why-xbox-failed-in-japan

I imagined someone would have already polled the list in this on the board, but probably for the best that it did not happen.
http://gamepolitics.com/2013/11/25/official-report-does-not-tie-sandy-hook-shooting-video-games
who would've guessed he was hardcore into DDR, though (mentioned in a lot of articles today)

Relevant to this thread?
http://storybundle.com/

Dreamcast Worlds by Zoya Street
Kill Screen Issue 1 by Kill Screen Magazine
Blue Wizard Is About To Die by Seth Barkan
Kill Screen Issue 7 by Kill Screen Magazine
The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures by Kurt Kalata
Vaporware by Richard Dansky
Rise of the Videogame Zinesters by Anna Anthropy
A Slow Year by Ian Bogost
Replay: The History of Video Games by Tristan Donovan

in it for the Kalata and Anthropy books, interested in the playable Bogost Atari 2600 "games" too

indie developer sells 177 copies of their game, asks why
http://www.seaven-studio.com/indies-going-all-in-with-self-publishing-an-ethan-meteor-hunter-post-mortem/

omg i need to stop posting about these bundles and then forgetting to buy them :(

pm me if you want me to send them over, there's no drm and I wouldn't have picked them up without your tip off so I reckon sharing them is pretty much justified.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/2/5264192/dayz-early-access-lessons
Good article. Though I have absolutely zero interest in spending time with this game, I like to know what's appealing about it.

its been the top seller on Steam for almost the whole of the winter sale despite never having a discount. it's the sort of game i'd rather read about than play (see also: Eve Online)

looks like open world mmorpg demons souls

i can't wait for it to come to mac

Ayo, what's a good place to pitch longform pieces on games to? I have a few years worth of writing experience but have never written 'properly' about games before? It'd be based on this:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BdTufijCQAAiKz_.jpg:large

Hell, is there a thread in this topic?

sounds like something maybe for game studies, or a relevant gaming conference CFP - i can't see a mainstream video game review magazine being particularly interested in lacan

gamestudies.org

Nice one Mordy, thanks - checking out game studies now.

http://mccaine.org/2013/10/09/dwarf-fortress-a-marxist-analysis/
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/empire-down/

thought this was interesting, guy made a minigame diary using Warioware DIY for the DS
http://tinycartridge.com/post/72792526317/my-warioware-life-four-years-of-video-game
original blog http://microcartridge.tumblr.com/

http://www.dromble.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-of-gamecube/

emily short on the failings of gone home:
http://emshort.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/reading-and-hypothesis/

Not quite videogames-related, but Michael Lewis' book The New, New Thing, which that Gamecube article takes a lot from, is well worth reading for an insight into the madness of the dotcom boom days and also one mega-rich obsessive's quest to build a fully computer-controlled luxury yacht.

really belongs on the rolling thread of stuff worth reading on boardgames thread:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/in-the-world-of-role-playing-war-games-volko-ruhnke-has-become-a-hero/2014/01/10/a56ac8d6-48be-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_story.html

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/tecmo-super-bowl/

Has nightmaremode.net disappeared for good? They hadn't updated for weeks and the page is 404ing now.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3025201/most-creative-people/dayz-a-murder-simulator-psychology-study-and-zombie-game-tests-your-emo

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/01/robot_odyssey_the_hardest_computer_game_of_all_time.html

mordy i saw that, and i started playing 'gate' (the more recent one inspired by robot odyssey—which when i looked at it at first, cold, was just incomprehensible and cryptic). it's super engrossing! (i never play games anymore either, so it's weird to just become engrossed in something like that.) i programmed from when i was an adolescent all up through college, have a math degree, studied lots of logic, etc., but never learned about circuits, so just that extra twist is super goading—like, i understand all the right things, but not the language, not the way of organizing things, so the puzzles are all the more challenging. and suddenly i'm feeling the cruftiness of engineering, or of some of the worst code i ever wrote—solving levels in 'gate' with whatever works rather than with the kind of overview of what makes a solution a correct one that i learned from all the years of writing proofs, etc.

: )

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/187601/untold_riches_the_intricate_.php

Jeff Walker (VP of sales and marketing, Capcom USA):

Every meeting we had, the kid would do something bizarre. He'd get really wasted ... He's the kind of guy who would like run up behind you and try to pull your pants down when we were in Japan. Just a nut 24 hours a day.

AkiranishitaniAkira Nishitani (Planner, Capcom Japan):

We often would work really hard, all through the night and into the morning, so during the daytime I would sometimes doze off. One time I fell asleep in a meeting, and Mr. Okamoto turned off all the lights, changed the clock to say 3 a.m. and made everybody leave the room, so when I woke up I felt like, "Oh shit, I slept until 3 a.m."

http://www.polygon.com/a/street-fighter-2-oral-history

Some fans have pointed out that Ken's theme sounds similar to the Cheap Trick song "Mighty Wings" from Top Gun. "I have heard people say that," says Yoko Shimomura. "And I watched the movie before I composed the song, so I can't deny I may have been inspired subconsciously. But I didn't go into it thinking, 'OK I'm gonna make this song sound like Mighty Wings.'"