Gamasutra expert blogs: From slow play to outsourcing's secondary costs

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including the secondary costs of outsourcing, appreciation of slow play, 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 The fundamental differences between board and card games, and how video games tend to combine both bunctions (Lewis Pulsipher) What are the fundamental functional differences between boardgames and card games? Lewis Pulsipher isn't sure how important this question is from a game player’s point of view, but it’s certainly important for game designers (even for video game designers). Slow play appreciation (Keith Nemitz) Revisiting slow video games. A bunch of high quality ones are hitting the app stores, right now. Keith Nemitz discusses their significance and presents one approach to developing them. The secondary costs of outsourcing (Paul Culp) When choosing your outsource partner keep in mind all costs, not just their day rate. Paul Culp says every hour you spend reviewing, communicating, and revising work has a dollar value. When added up, a low day rate can have very high costs. The combinatorial itch (Evan Jones) Humans are naturally creative and tend to enjoy finding ways to rearrange existing tools in new combinations. Evan Jones asks how can games do a better job of fostering this creativity?