The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for listening to unlistenable indie rock bands at ATP. Which means that Thursdays are for compiling a list of the fine mainly games-related reading from across the week into a list for your delectation, while trying to avoid linking to something related to pop music.

• Tadhg Kelly writes an agreeably column about why it's better to be Sexy than Worthy, at least if you want to sell. His delineation and definition of the two concepts is a lot of fun.
• Rich Cobbett does his games of 2009. Always worth listening to. He's played more than most human beings, I'm sure.
• Strategy Informer interview the writer of Avatar: The Game - one Kevin Shortt - about the experience. Lots of stuff, and quite candid.
• I edited this into last week's Sunday Papers late, but most people will have missed it. Go see Steve Gaynor and Chris Hecker debate games' cultural standing.
• Daedren pointed me at this, which is a fun take on the Blizzard/WowGlider situation.
• A classic Your Sinclair review from Duncan MacDonald. MacDonald was one of those formative games journalists in the 80s. Where people like Penn brought the tradition of muscular, incisive writing into being, people like MacDonald birthed anything more whimsical. Or, to link to the 90s, you remove Penn, you don't get Campbell. You remove MacDonald, you don't get Nash. However, one section of the review stuck out, where Duncan admits to have only had played the first level when he wrote the review, without a care in the world. As in, that was accepted. That was fine. When you get some people talking about standards being higher back in the day... well, they're mental. It was the wild west.
• World of Warcraft is 5 years old. Eurogamer do 10 memorable moments from those years. We can only be a few years from a I LOVE THE 00s (IN AZEROTH) style show.
• Jim's been craving map discussion this week. Troy Goodfellow had previously done his Top 10. Top 10 maps! Man!
• Do you fancy patronising people? In the good way. Well, Comrade Laurenn McCubbin needs money to do some splendid art in Vegas. Go help her.
• Comics Archetypes Multiplication Table. Awesome.
• Ariana Is A Bad Person. I applaud her, and her NaNoWrithingy piece.
• Lastfm's yearly charts of the music which people have actually been playing is always fascinating. It's ongoing this month, but - if you've logged in - showing how much you've listened to each one is an agreeably odd touch.
• Dave Eggers on keeping shit real.
• Wasteland is Antony "He Wrote Dead Space" Johnston's labour-of-love comic. You should read it. First issue is available free online. Oh - and Alan Moore's Dodgem Logic seems quite the thing. Oh - and I've got two comics out this week. Phonogram 6, which has a preview here, and SWORD 2 which should have a preview somewhere before the weekend is out. I'll edit it in later, eh?
• ATP is the hyper-indie festival which I avoided for years due to some fascinating inverse-snobbery. I was a fool, as it's often pretty awesome. By the time this is published, I fully expect to have the remainder of my hearing blasted out of my head by curators My Bloody Valentine. They're famously pummeling live. Also, beautiful. Try Only Shallow and think of me. I may be gone some time.

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