Essays
There are, of course, many more articles than these that have appeared on the blog. These, however, are ones that did not appear there, but rather appeared elsewhere, on game websites or in various publications.
For design essays that appeared on the blog, I suggest visiting the Recommended Posts page.
 |
A Story About a TreeA story about why online games are not just games. This essay has been widely reprinted, and even has its own Wikipedia article. |
  |
What Rough Beast?The role of the Other, evil, and ethics systems in an online game. |
  |
Who Are These People Anyway?A discussion of how player types affect an online community. |
  |
So Let’s Get PracticalAdministrative issues in online worlds. |
  |
The Man Behind the CurtainGovernance in an online world: can players do it? |
  |
A Community CookbookThings you can do to make your online community stronger. |
|
|
Insubstantial PageantsThe first few chapters of a proposed book on online world design. I never finished it, but there’s quite a lot here nonetheless. |
 |
Current and Future Developments in Online GamesThis was the opening address I was going to give at Online Games ’99. |
  |
Video games, and online worlds, as artCan they be art? If they are art, how do we critique them? Appeared at GIGNews.com. |
  |
Declaring the Rights of PlayersA hypothetical excursion into the notion of avatar rights that leads to surprising conclusions. This has been reprinted in numerous books. |
  |
What My Job IsThis essay was my Comments from the Team essay for the SWG website. (I suppose I’m probably not supposed to reproduce it here, oh well). Basically, it’s a description of how I got into muds at first, and what I see as the task a designer of an online world primarily has to fulfill. |
  |
The Case for ArtAn essay written in rebuttal to Jessica Mulligan’s Biting the Hand article entitled Just Give Me a Game, Please. |
  |
A Philosophical Statement on PlayerkillingOriginally written for the discussion boards for Star Wars Galaxies, this essay sums up my current position on the playerkilling debate. |
  |
Words of Wisdom: What it Takes to be a Junior/Entry Level Game DesignerAnswers to a brief questionnaire written for the IGDA. |
 |
Astromech Stats: Economy StatsThis essay on game economy metrics was written for the Star Wars: Galaxies website in 2004. |
  |
Whither Online?Game Informer Magazine asked me to write an opinion piece a while back, and this is what I wrote. I can’t remember what issue it appeared in, but it was sometime in 2005. |
  |
Geek Fun Isn’t FrivolousThis appeared as an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times. The title is not mine, however! |
 |
Massive Magazine editorialThis was an editorial for the first and only print issue of Massive Magazine, sometime in 2006. |
  |
Investing time and money in virtual worlds: Caveat EmptorThis little piece was requested by VentureBeat in the wake of the CopyBot scandal on Second Life in 2006. |
 |
As Seen in Modern LairTycho of Penny Arcade asked me a game design question: how would I make an MMO that was about industrial construction. This was my reply. |
[…] back to where I was really coming from, you cannot separate the declaration from the essays “Letters to the Players” that I was writing at the time. “A Story about a Tree” was the first […]