"Why Your Game Idea Sucks", an interview, and other publishing updates
Hallo again all -- I am still behind on comment replies to the Mac Attack!, but am on a plane again tomorrow so wanted to post this quickly.
"Why Your Game Idea Sucks", a short-order article I wrote for the Escapist a couple of weeks ago, popped up in my google alerts yesterday. By the time I got to it, it already had about 25 comments, and now it's up to 87 or so. Comments range from "brilliant" and "the most truthful thing ever written about game development" to "how dare you" and "a pointless article", so I suppose YMMV.
Comparison inevitably arises between something like this and Josh Olsen's highly contentious "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script", and ensuing Harlan Ellison shenanigans, which I suppose is fair. Olsen's piece went up coincidentally the same day I got the green light from the Escapist, which made me groan. But thankfully a lot of people are reading the intended humor in the title and finding that it's less acerbic and hopefully a bit more helpful than Olsen's was for many a "butthurt nerd". In all seriousness, I had some anxiety with the piece, because I do think it's a valid criticism that releasing something negative into the world doesn't reap a good result -- but the proof is in the pudding here that people really don't listen when you tell them some things nicely.
But that's enough about that. I have also gotten wind that "Darkest Amber" will be running in the next issue of Electric Velocipede, debuting at World Fantasy, which is conveniently near home this year. It is a cyberpunk smashfest and those of you strange enough to be familiar with the Black9 world may recognize some homages.
But that's not all! Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values Through Play, containing my super-long "Sideways into Truth: Kierkegaard, Philistines, and Denying Death Through Video Games" as well as a coveted intro written by Henry Jenkins will be hitting shelves digital and otherwise this coming February.
You should also check out "Of Shifting Skin and Certainty" by justinhowe in the most recent Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the very excellent "Between Two Treasons" by Michael DeLuca, aka boonofdoom, a continuation of his terrific centaur stories.
Finally, charlesatan was kind enough to request and then write up a very thoughtful interview with me on his Bibliophile Stalker blog. It is going into my profile as a general whowhat?! link. :)
"Why Your Game Idea Sucks", a short-order article I wrote for the Escapist a couple of weeks ago, popped up in my google alerts yesterday. By the time I got to it, it already had about 25 comments, and now it's up to 87 or so. Comments range from "brilliant" and "the most truthful thing ever written about game development" to "how dare you" and "a pointless article", so I suppose YMMV.
Comparison inevitably arises between something like this and Josh Olsen's highly contentious "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script", and ensuing Harlan Ellison shenanigans, which I suppose is fair. Olsen's piece went up coincidentally the same day I got the green light from the Escapist, which made me groan. But thankfully a lot of people are reading the intended humor in the title and finding that it's less acerbic and hopefully a bit more helpful than Olsen's was for many a "butthurt nerd". In all seriousness, I had some anxiety with the piece, because I do think it's a valid criticism that releasing something negative into the world doesn't reap a good result -- but the proof is in the pudding here that people really don't listen when you tell them some things nicely.
But that's enough about that. I have also gotten wind that "Darkest Amber" will be running in the next issue of Electric Velocipede, debuting at World Fantasy, which is conveniently near home this year. It is a cyberpunk smashfest and those of you strange enough to be familiar with the Black9 world may recognize some homages.
But that's not all! Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values Through Play, containing my super-long "Sideways into Truth: Kierkegaard, Philistines, and Denying Death Through Video Games" as well as a coveted intro written by Henry Jenkins will be hitting shelves digital and otherwise this coming February.
You should also check out "Of Shifting Skin and Certainty" by justinhowe in the most recent Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the very excellent "Between Two Treasons" by Michael DeLuca, aka boonofdoom, a continuation of his terrific centaur stories.
Finally, charlesatan was kind enough to request and then write up a very thoughtful interview with me on his Bibliophile Stalker blog. It is going into my profile as a general whowhat?! link. :)