The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for getting up early so you can go and visit a friend in Brighton, which means getting up even earlier to make sure you can compile a list of the fine (mostly) games related reading which caught your eye across the week, while trying to resist linking to a POP!!!! song.

• Soren Johnson does an overview of the whole Social Warfare over Social Gaming situation, and adds a little of his own editorial spin and contextualisation. If you want something that looks a little further than flag-waving, this is it.
• Laura Michet writes about Sim Ant, having almost played it as a kid. Nice thinking. If I look at my own history, The Ones Which Got Away are some of the fun ones. Why did I never really persevere with Lord of Midnight, eh?
• Brian Fargo talks about Hunted over at PCG's blog.
• Comment Threader Larington's dissertation The Challenge of Puzzle Solving in Games is lobbed online. Yay him.
• On a similar note, Brendan points be at Gamespite's Difficulty Of Difficulty article. Mostly fair stuff, but I wonder about Strategy AI. The problem strikes me - in a real time game - less creating AI which can compete with a human, and more AI that can compete with a human while still acting like a human.
• Igor Hardy writes about What Is An Adventure Game? Reductionist, but fun with it. I'd like to know what Walker's take is on it, but this kind of thing isn't exactly his style.
• Brian Hertler wonders why Pong is still fun. THE IMAGINARY OTHER IN GAMES!!?!?! That's not something he writes, but something which has come to me in my caffeine depleted state.
• Mihai Do points me at this piece, on School, Social Networking and Games.
• Amanita Design (Samarost, Machinarium) is working on a puppet film. Trailer.
• Joel Johnson raids eternity.
• Over at Freaky Trigger, Kat Steven writes about female image in pop in Gag Fug Yourself. I partially add this here for my own future reference.
• Steve Bisette's series on the late-70s/early-80s culture wars in comics is brilliant. Start in Part 4, if you want to dive to the fireworks and knife-fights. I often apply the lessons of this period back to games. They only win if we surrender.
• ATTTAAAARRRRRIIIIIII!!!!! TEEENNNNNAGGGGEEEEEEE!!!!! RIOT!!!!!!!!!! Looks like I'm going to miss the gig in London, but I can still FIGHT THE SYSTEM with new track Activate! Seems they're picking up with the poppier direction where they left of. When I say that, you must remember, all things are relative.

I AM FIGHTING THE SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!