Raph Koster has been talking recently about RMT (real-money trading, or buying in-game items and currency for actual cash, often from gold-farmers) in MMORPGs. And beyond the basic principle of ‘It’s not FAIR!’ I really don’t see what the problem is. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem. But the real impact of RMT to [...]
Filed under: commercial, game design, mmorpg, world of warcraft on December 24th, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Not my usual post about games and design, but…. A lot’s been said about the just-unveiled logo for the London Olympics in 2012, most of it negative. I feel that it’s not been given a fair crack of the whip. It’s not as bad as people are saying. It’s much worse. Brand consultancy Wolff Olins [...]
Filed under: London, commercial, criticism, game design, graphic design, typography and layout on June 4th, 2007 | 3 Comments »
…hell with it, I will write a reposte. The problem we have, the huge great mote in Will Wright’s eye and also in the eyes of most of the people who have called him on his appalling SXSW keynote (see previous entry if you’re bewildered and lost), is that frankly the state of the art [...]
Filed under: commercial, game design, game philosophy, narrative, old media, storytelling on April 4th, 2007 | 7 Comments »
I’ve been in San Francisco. Not for GDC, which as far as I can tell exists only to provide column-inches for excitable bloggers, but for the wedding of Derek Pearcy, the former editor of Pyramid magazine, Origins Award-winning designer of In Nomine, and the man who did all the visual design for the original edition of [...]
Filed under: commercial, game design on March 14th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
TIPS FOR MEDIA AGENCIES ON WORKING WITH EXTERNAL GAMES DESIGNERS (I jotted this about eighteen months ago, probably while on the Tube. I think I had the intention of working it up into a proper document and circulating it. Evidently that didn’t happen. If you’ve got any tips that would fit in the list, bung them down below. If you know of any media agencies that would benefit from this advice, feel [...]
Filed under: commercial, game design, online games on February 26th, 2007 | 1 Comment »