Gamasutra Expert blogs: From dreamers to Gaikai

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including lessons learned from five years of making iOS games, Sony's purchase of Gaikai, 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 Diablo 3 swallows the spider to catch the fly (Neil Sorens) Neil Sorens discusses how Blizzard's basing of Diablo 3's character progression on auction house use led to unhappy players. Reflections on five years of iOS gaming: What have I learned? (William Volk) Five years ago William Volk co-designed what is considered to be the first iPhone game: the browser-based iWhack. Since then, he has helped launch dozens of games for iOS and has seen iOS games evolve. What are the major lessons he's learned? Sony and Gaikai: The console degeneration, part 2 (Armando Marini) A few years ago, Armando Marini predicted the death of the console as we know it. With this week's news that Sony will acquire Gaikai, he's now buying his suit for the funeral. Dreamers (Lewis Pulsipher) This is written for people who want to be game designers but who have not yet got there. It won’t just come to you, you have to do it, you have to pursue it, you have to take every opportunity to learn about it. The ethics of game design (Josh Bycer) Video games have always walked the line between providing entertainment and making money. Josh Bycer believes that with the rise of social games, that line has begun to blur calling into a question of ethics.