Gamasutra expert blogs: From game save design to crowdsourcing

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including whether game saves need a redesign, examining a Kickstarter game project unlikely to reach its goal, 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 Great game design debate: Saves - Integral to the design or time killers? (Josh Bycer) Today's debate from Josh Bycer focuses on the act of game saves: once a luxury feature, it has become a major component in-game design. However should this feature be a major consideration of the design? The "problem" with Mass Effect 3's multiplayer (Taekwan Kim) It's the authorial voice, stupid Crowdsourced hardcore tactical shooter (i.e. not everyone is Double Fine) (Robert Boyd) Robert Boyd presents an examination of a high-budget Kickstarter fundraiser that doesn't look like it will successfully reach its goal. Wolf Toss business postmortem: Revenue comparison for customer acquisition sources (Mike Arcuri) In this post, Mike Arcuri shows some data on Wolf Toss player monetization by customer acquisition channel, and discusses his team's future CAC monitoring plans.