Gamasutra expert blogs: From Metagame to the Pong Indie Dev Challenge

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including Local No. 12's unique card game Metagame, why Atari's Pong Indie Developer Challenge is bad for developers, 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 Why Atari's Pong Indie Developer Challenge is bad for developers (Brian Robbins) Atari's Pong Indie Developer Challenge may seem to be a great deal for indie developers, but Brian Robbins argues that the specifics of the contest make it something devs should stay away from. How I got started with WIGI (and how you can, too!) (Belinda Van Sickle) Belinda Van Sickle explains how she got her start with Women in Games International to build a community for women working in the video game industry. Designing user stories - Interactive narrative design (Stephen Dinehart) Stephen Dinehard examines methods of creating more engaging and timeless user-experiences in interactive entertainment. All about the Metagame (Eric Zimmerman) In preparation for the second massively multiplayer Metagame, Local No. 12 details the origin of the game, talks about some of its unique design challenges, and hopefully convinces you to take part in the game at GDC. Make your intro not suck (Tyler Glaiel) In light of the recent annual IGF controversy/drama going around, Tyler Glaiel expands and clarifies a point he's continually made every time the yearly IGF drama comes up.