The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for trying to motivate your parent's ancient PC into working properly, so you can compile a list of the fine (mostly) games related reading from across the week, while trying to resist linking to some piece of pop music, all in time so you can catch your train. Yes. Yes.

• Here's Tom Bissell's article from last week's Observer which Alec and Walker contributed to a sister discussion piece. Mixed feelings about this. The article itself is an excellent piece about one man fucking up his life because he digs games and coke a bit too much. Read online, it works fine. In the magazine, illustrated pretty much solely with pictures of teenagers and young adults sinisterly uplit with their game-faces on, it codes as "Your child is going to end up fucked up on Coke". Which is trashy tabloid bullshit, to put it mildly.
• They're just videogames, right?
• This is by Bill Harris, and a little old by now, but in December he looked at the FTC report on US marketing to kids. Specifically, it picks up on how good games are at enforcing its age limits.
• Which is another of the numbers I bet Tim Ingham wishes he was able to make the audience on that chatshow listen to. Here Lewis interviews Ingham about the whole event.
• Michael Cook also has a look at that 130,000 number which was brought up on the show.
• Back to Lewis, who also decides it's time to throw down a Games Are Sex analogy. Denby!
• Escort missions! They're awesome! Except not. So why do we still have to play 'em? Tom Francis has a little think. Also, makes jokes.
• Frank Lantz meanwhile writes about truth in games. As in, if the current movement away from rules playing fair - as in, rules becoming weighted in the favour of the player depending on their progress or to play to their expectations - is actually in any way a good thing.
• Simon Wang was inspired enough by Air Pressure to start writing about it. Without even a blog to put it on. Hurrah!
• At Resolution, Daniel Lipscombe writes about the romance of a seafront arcade.
• Tom Hatfield missed the GDC What Colour Is Your Avatar panel, and can't find a full write up for it, so ends up collating his own thoughts on the issue.
• This piece on a 1950s British scare about US horror comics which none of the kids involved had ever read struck me as somewhat relevant and transferable to games.
• Mamet to the UNIT writers in fine shouty mood. Good direct advice for writing this kinda stuff, frankly.
• I found myself a little obsessed by the music of AI Emily Howell.
• Pipettes go DISCO

Failed.