The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for catching up the work you missed on Friday due to having to go along with most of RPS to a Wedding and compiling a list of the (especially this time, I think) fine (mostly) games related writing that crossed your desk this week and trying to not include a link to something with chiming guitars and a sort of forlorn faux-doomed 80s attitude. Go!

• Wired US publishes an excerpt from Tristan Donovan's new book Replay: The History of Videogames. It's dealing with the birth of the British game industry, with special focus on its surreal qualities. It's good enough to make me go and add it to my Amazon ordering list immediately. 500 page history of games with its focus on the world stage, including ever-ignored Europe? Not the sort of thing I can resist. Amazon US and UK pages.
• Michael Castle wondered why we haven't touched this. I wonder too. Nomen Ludi at Boing Boing. I still haven't read this yet, but even scanning down it impresses me. You'll see what I mean.
• Denby left Resolution this week. His swan-song was this lovely, rambling interview with Christine Love of Digital fame. More stuff, Denby. And more stuff, Love.
• The news that Lord of the Rings going Free-to-play was one of this week's big stories. For those who wonder why, here's notes on one of Turbine's presentations about how D&D Online altered when it went Free-to-play. Yeah, you can see why.
• This is very funny. John Teti at Eurogamer tries to gain 10,000 achievement points on his XBox account in a single day. A look into the dark heart of achievements which applies to PC Gaming too, I suspect.
• Point/Counter Point. Laurie Penny writes about Hey Baby for the New Statesman. The Rights Of Man think it's hate speech.
• Wired UK has a big article about Pay What You Want systems, like the recent indie deals. I think this one's a good one, focusing on both the optimistic and pessimistic sides of the debate.
• Simon Parkin on Gaming As Performance, tying together the public-piano playing with the nature of the arcade. Terribly romantic.
• Russ Pitts at The Escapist interview PopCap about the art development of Plants Vs Zombies. A tricky line to walk, as you can imagine.
• Gaming Daily goes back and looks at every single game that Valve has ever released, and analyses its position in history, with lots of anecdotal colour. Fun stuff.
• Following on from last week's piece on Splinter Cell Conviction, here's Kirk Hamiliton collating a load of the barks - specifically, the ones where the character is named. It's funny stuff.
• Wired growls and wonders why gaming isn't about WINNING any more, focusing in on Achievements.
• Dean Love thought this piece at the Guardian Theatre blog reminded him about the linearity/non-linearity debate. I'd agree.
• The Pains of Being Pure At Heart's Say No To Love borders self-parody in its C86-isms. It's also totally lovely.

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