The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for doing work and compiling a list of interesting (primarily) games related reading from across the week for your delectation. Also, desperately resisting linking to a pop song that's set my head on fire all week. Resist. Must... resist.

• Following from Jack Arnott's wry look at adults hiding their gaming, Splash Damage's Ed Stern writes for the Guardian on the inevitable evaporation of the stigma around gaming ... well, when we get past the horseless carriage stage. It's commonly held stuff - but it's also good seeing a developer on a large public stage doing it. I wish more would. That said, I also remember going clubbing with games journalists who introduced themselves to girls as "I'm a mumblemumble journalist". Man! We suck.
• Hello Games' Joe Danger has been getting a lot of splendid coverage after their Eurogamer Expo appearances. We haven't done much on it - not least because they haven't made up their mind on the bloody formats yet - but they've been doing some columns for Edge about the experience. This one on Public Relations is especially good.
• Has Quinns said all he wants to about the Void yet? No. No, he hasn't.
• Comrade Jim Rossignol writes about the history of Artificial Life for the Escapist.
• This one caused some amusing Brit games journalist fisticuffs on twitter. Edge on Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe.
• Hobbit Strategy-King Troy Goodfellow and friends are running a decade feature over at his blog. Basically, year by year, the games and why they mattered. For a taste, here's his look at the immortal Sacrifice.
• Leigh Alexander had a good week. She's got another piece I'll link to next time - I don't think it's up yet - but here she is taking up the conversation-item du jour writing about difficulty. As in, give her some.
• Chris Evans waxes nostalgically about the Half Life enemies.
• Lars Westergren pointed me in the direction of this Portal piece - specifically about its meta-narrative. To me meta-narratives are stories about metahumans who can fly with capes and similar.
• By now Garth Ennis is probably the greatest writer of war stories the comics medium has ever seen. He's starting a new series of them and here's a splendid interview with him about 'em.
• On a similar War And Comics notes, Ellis writes about Jack Kirby's wartime experiences and how they informed the work.
• Meanwhile, Punk Rock Queen Becky Cloonan is made of sparkles.
• Uberbrain Matt Jones' presentation on the topic of time. As in, how it was made, how it comes in different sorts and other splendid things.
• Crash Director Paul Haggis ditches Scientology and writes why.
• I've been obsessing over this one since Gabe McGrath recommended it to me. Go Home Productions' "Finally, Did You No Wrong" Sex Pistols/Ce Ce Peniston piece of bastard pop. It's like some essential missing link from that early-2000s Garage Rock revival. Hell, the band it sounds just like is at the tip of my tongue. Growls!

Failed.