The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for wondering how we let the terrorists win in the board game last night, rambling out a quick post on Ultima and compiling a list of fine (mainly) videogame reading we gathered from across the week, while trying to stop myself linking to a couple of indie-folk-who-follow-on-me-on-twitter's new videos. Yes. Yes.

• When Gamers with Jobs is normally good. When it's full-on, it's phenomenal. Fathers, sons, operations and games.
• While the games-journo twitter community was afire with gags about the games-causes-rickets scare, Joe Martin takes a well-deserved proper swing at it. And then joins twitter, to get the gags.
• Tom Bissel over at Crispygamer on our unhealthy interest in spoilers. As in, gamers. Not specifically RPS. Only John cares about spoilers, because he only cares about stories and weeping. Talking about weeping - a quick note of sympathy to Crispygamer's editorial staff, who've been laid off this week. The site will be missed and I hope everyone finds a new home with little pain.
• Andrew Doull on Game difficulty. I'm chewing over a lot of stuff in this area myself. I think, retrospectively, the re-approaching of difficulty in games is going to be the big theme if we look at this period in games - following the innovations in accessibility of the previous 5. As in, difficult games using the lessons learned to make more entryist games to make better difficult games - for example, the lessons of Lego Star Wars which are at work in VVVVVV.
• Robert Yang on non-interactive games again. KNIFE FIGHT! WE WILL ONLY BE SATISFIED BY THE FLASH OF BLADES IN AN INDIE-GAME ALLEYWAY.
• Meanwhile, Frictional - the Penumbra chaps - say how gameplay and narrative kill meaning in games. THE KNIFE FIGHT IS BACK ON.
• Tom Francis on Open World Games, in a relatively restrained mood What works and why. One day someone's going to give Tom a job making a fucker, and it'll be a better world for that.
• Giles Hitchcock of Rockstar Games London writes a belated response to some of the Modern Warfare "No Russian" level. I actually typoed Modern Warfare as Modern Worfare, which sounds like a brilliant Star Trek spin-off. Go Infinity Ward! You can have that one for free.
• Actually, while we're on that topic, here's the Ethopian review on the lack of Americans in Modern Warfare 2. It's kind of obvious stuff, but in case people haven't thought about it...
• Some of you were wondering the story behind Darwinia + and the multiplayer. Here's Introversion talking to C&VG in a two part interview, and they cover all that kind of stuff. Oh - and as another plug, I'm chairing a public interview thing at BAFTA with Introversion. Tickets available! Probably!
• Especially after the recent VVVVVV and Solium Infernum debates, this is timely. Picked up via Slashdot, Ramblings of a gamer wonders how much a game is actually worth, creating a metric for game's worth including elements of enjoyment and time and... oh, man. This sounds like a lot of work.
• Oh - Chris Webb pointed me at this. It's an Ars-technica article about Indie Game funding. I'd personally deal arms to pay for mine.
• Balrog Bonus. Lyrical flow. Also, combo-flow
• Post Haiti, I found this worth reading.
• Guy cuts out his own appendix. Da Fug!?!?!?!
• Moscow Stray dogs gaining intelligence and using tube. Da Fug!?!?!?!?!.
• The future of journalism is astronomy.
• I finally got around to reading Charlie Stross' Accelerando this week, which is scary and brilliant and so brilliant he scares me. Here's him wrestling with the Moneterization Paradox. It's what pretty much every creative I know is doing, frankly.
• The AV Club on Northern Soul. Unexpected.
• Well, they could have un-subbed by now. Here's Los Campesino's new video Here's Art Brut's Eddie Argos' new solo thingy. And the former was directed my old comrade-in-arms Alex De Campi. Hurrah for social networking!

Failed.