The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for writing about Norse Gods, reinstalling Windows and compiling a list of the fine (mostly) games related reading from across the week, while trying to avoid linking to what one of your favourite music critics have been recommending this week.

• We haven't mentioned this story yet, by Activision are running a competition for unannounced indie games. This has caused much debate in Indie Circles because... well, the small print has raised eyebrows. Let Wolfire walk you through it, and its various implications.
• Paul Millen takes apart the Deus Ex: Human Revolution trailer and highlights its - er - influences. Yes.
• Post-Hype on why he can't think of a game as destroyed by its dialogue as Splinter Cell: Conviction, leading to general meditations about what games can and can't do (or rather, what they're allowed to do). Also lots of stuff about his experience as a scripter too, which is fun. Especially finding the END OF EXCEL!
• Lee Bradley over at Resolution writes on Samorost 2, touching on art history.
• Papa Voodoo points me at this: Boy's World of Warcraft skills saves him from moose.
• Cracked gives us five reasons why it's still not cool to admit you're a gamer.
• Richard Cobbett resurrects Amiga Power's Kangaroo Court with his Gaming Crime article, dragging common gaming faults into the docks and declaring them guilty or non guilty. I don't agree with him on all of them, but fun.
• Stuart Campbell writes about Lemmings 3D, which he considers the most overlooked awesome game ever.
• Three responses to the Hey Baby thing this week, with various stances. Here's one. Here's another. Here's a third.
• Brendy_C on twitter pointed at the Escapist piece about "Hardcore" and "Casual" gaming at the Escapist, arguing that it's just a synonym for "Blokes" and "Girls" - and the contempt of the hardcore gamers use the phrase is just another example of misogyny in game culture. As a general rule, I actually don't see much wrong with it, though as you can imagine, the comments thread doesn't agree.
• Lewis Denby chews over last week's talking point: the response to the Privates press release.
• Courtesy of Christopher Webb, here's Ars Technica talking to sociologists who are peering at MMOs as petri-dishes.
• The Sunday Papers isn't the only round-up of games reading in existence, of course. I haven't plugged Critical Distance's week in blogging for a while, so if you're not reading it, and you enjoy this, you'll find much to enjoy over there. L.B. Jeffries piece on Gaming Architecture particularly caught my eye.
• I enjoyed Comrade Rossignol blogging about the apparent Victory For The Apocalypticians. Example quote: "The current surge of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic themes in films, games, and fiction could be purely coincidental. But perhaps it is nevertheless irresponsible....Authors: is that nihilism really what you want to leave behind? Your silhouette a stoop, rather than a hurrah?". It's been othering me.
• I was going through the Why We Fight column archives at Pitchfork and hit this particularly good piece on Irony and Knowingness. Coming so closely after the Hey Baby stuff, I found it particularly interesting.
• We've never mentioned we're mostly on Formspring, have we? Here's Alec. Here's John. Here's me. Jim shows as little good sense.
• Everett True's had a good week with me, pointing me at the lovely new album by Teenage Fanclub (It's on Spotify if you want to listen. Stand-out track, as True notes, is "When I Still Have Thee") and Neverever's jangly girl-popness (And you can start with Coconut Shampoo).

Failed.