Gamasutra Expert blogs: From watch'em ups to worst game products

In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including "watch'em ups," Electronic Games Magazine's worst product ads, and more. In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the latest official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs Watch'em ups: Sucking the meaning out of action games (Ben Ruiz) Ben Ruiz says the modern beat 'em up has an impostor in its midst in the form of "watch'em ups," or games that take a small amount of input and spit out a spectacular amount of output. App stores and the long tail (Rob Lockhart) After reading "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson, Rob Lockhart realized a few things about being part of an indie team trying to make a name for themselves on the various app stores. Mostly it sucks, but it could suck a lot less. Seeing red: The pitfalls of regenerating health (Eric Schwarz) Eric Schwarz turns his attention to an oft-discussed topic, and why he think health regeneration has been misused in so many games. A look at negative game mechanics (Josh Bycer) Josh Bycer takes a look at a paradox in the game industry with the tools designers use to keep people from playing their games. Top 10 worst products from the pages of Electronic Games Magazine (circa 1982-1983) (Steve Fulton) Back in the golden age of video games, many companies tried to cash-in on the video game "craze" by creating some really bad products and ideas. Steve Fulton collects some of the worst.