The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for taking the time to do something properly. You've been rushing about all week, not taking any time to study or think, so just pause for a moment. Perhaps do some reading.

• US Gamer launched a couple of weeks ago as a companion to our Eurogamer chums, and as such are part of the same network as RPS. It's been interesting to see them starting this thing up, and in a world where there are so many games sites, they're going to have make special efforts to stand out. There are signs of that already, with a random article based on Edward R Murrow quotes, and a look at the bad games they actually like. Keep an eye on US Gamer, anyway, I think think it could make some waves.
• The New Statesman looks at The Arma Problem, aka is it easier to kill a man than a woman in a videogame? "(I)t is the question not of whether people want to play as female characters, but whether they are happy to kill female characters. At first this might sound strange, but on reflection there is some merit to this argument."
• Chris Kohler on the 'used games' debate: "As I said, there is a hard truth here that some people will have to face. It is this: increasingly, there are not enough people buying triple-A games, and they do not spend enough money, to make the production of triple-A games as it is undertaken today a financially viable endeavor. If you are a maker of such games, it is much, much easier to believe that GameStop is the source of all the industry's ills than to believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with the business." This pretty much reflects what I have always said about used games, piracy, and anything else that might affect sales: you can only ever sell what you can sell. Trying to lock things down so that people can't get at your games by any other means is not making sales, in fact it is the opposite: it is spending money to no certain outcome. Focus on making something that people will want to give you money for, and making sure it is easy for them to give you money for it, is all anyone who makes games should be doing.
• Psygnosis box art. I am not much of a collector of material things, but I have many of these.
• How Brad Muir "won" Kickstarter:"It was like a rollercoaster. Leading up to it, I was super stressed out about it. I had a lot of reservations about it. When I pitched Tim [Schafer, Double Fine president] the idea of the game, it was going to be my Amnesia Fortnight game this year. We'd prototype it, hopefully, if people vote for it. We'd been pitching Brazen for a whole year, it looked like it wasn't going to happen."
• Quinns on the win/lose states of videogames, and their negative consequences.
• Edge on the internationalisation of game development.
• A little old, but this is a look at the A Bit Of Alright event in London a few weeks back.
• Saved game horror stories.
• Game development in Wales. That seems to be a theme of 2013, for some reason.
• RPS chums Chris Plante and Russ Frushtick review the Ouya. Two hours to set up? I could build a PC and have Windows half-way installed in that sort of time.
• All the Lego Minifigs. Having a son is going to allow me to buy all these "for him". Parenting really is a profound and moving experience.

The Horror:

I've not been able to listen to any much other than the most recent jon Hopkins album this summer, so here's another track from it, Sun Harmonics.

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