The Sunday Papers

We missed it last week due to a epidemic of laziness (aka being dragged abroad on short notice), so it's a bumper helping of the word of minds here. The idea is, as always, is a series of rapid-fire links to diverse items we thought worth reading on a lazy Sunday afternoon, which we try to post before we start linking to videos of old nineties comedy shows.

• We talked about the GDC Luminary lunch previously, but Next Gen have put a full transcript. Now, if you bring your own finger-foods, you have everything you need to recreate the event in the privacy of your own home. While we're talking NextGen, they also lobbed up Game Developers' Top 50 Developers list. Which is interesting.
• A hefty postmortem on Stalker's AI with Dmitriy Iassenev. Number one on his lessons learned? "Do not reinvent the wheel. Use the Internet to find solutions to your problems." That's the spirit.
• Ernest Adams a swing at another big topic over at Gamasutra - specifically, Gameplay patents and why they should be cast into the void.
• A couple of interesting interview subjects. Firstly, Indian Developers Kreeda on their attempts to introduce gaming to adults via their dance games. Secondly, an interview with Kirsten Perry, a concept artist who've worked for Arenanet and Valve.
• Developer blog news. Raven's Manveer Heir joins the blogosphere. Start with him wondering where Gaming's equivalent to The Wire is. Also, Cryptic Comet's Vic Davis' writes a little about the concept of Appeasement, and how it applies to strategy games.
• EA's Steve Schnur - yet more evidence for Jim's theory that developers are getting better names - talks about how games are useful for breaking bands. And the point becomes ever strong; look at Dragonforce, y'know?
• MMO-clever-peeps Terra Nova have Merci Victoria Grace (See another one!) talking about developing PMOG - the Passively Multiplayer Online Game. Which, at least, is awesome wordplay.
• Point/Counterpoint. 1Up on why Gary Gygax was awesome. Slate on why Gary Gygax was actually a bit rubbish. To be honest, it's more point/missing the point. Erik Sofge's argument can be basically boiled down to "The Wright Brother were shit. The Spitfire was a much better plane".

Failed.