M3mnoch offers the provocative statement that “you can’t really do a sandbox game with an mmo” because of the impact to other players.
CAN MMOs be sandboxes?
(Visited 17684 times) Game talk
Mar 072006
Mechanics to metaphor, illustrated
(Visited 4719 times) Game talk
Mar 072006
When game design is outlawed…
(Visited 4496 times) Game talk
Mar 072006
Allen Varney included my answer is his Escapist article I Will Survive. The question: if you were legally enjoined from making games, what would you do? My answer:
I’d play music in seedy bars, and write, and maybe draw cartoons. All the while, I’d secretly develop games, passing them around on illicit CD-Rs, always tempting fate. Sprites would be traded in back alleys with other like-minded ludotraffickers, and I’d be looking up algorithms on a loose network of pirate BBSes that would go up and down. Eventually, my counterculture existence would attract attention, and depending on how the roll of the dice goes, I’d end up raided by the FBI, a martyr to the movement, and a cause celebre; or I’d be vanished, to work for the NSA providing military-grade puzzle games to keep the troops amused.
Or maybe I’d be an accountant.
A Theory of Fun milestone — and postmortem
(Visited 9992 times) Writing
Mar 062006
Today I got my royalty statement for A Theory of Fun, covering July through December of last year. And to my utter shock (but great pleasure), enclosed was a check. Yes, that means that the book earned out its royalty, sometime between November of 2004 and December of 2005.
In one of the comments, Morgan asked if I’d recap the book process, and I figured this milestone is as good a reason as any to do so!
A bit on how I think games work
(Visited 58980 times) Game talk
Mar 052006
Abalieno at The Cesspit reacted kinda negatvely to “The Healing Game” and raised some interesting points. But I think we’re talking past each other to a degree, so I wanted to take a step back, and make sure we agree on terms. The below is the framework that I am using in thinking about “How Games Work,” which I am thinking about a lot because that is, broadly speaking, the next book.
