Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Barcrafts To Unwinnable Games

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, such as games that can't be won, becoming a better designer, the Barcraft phenomenon, and more.] Member Blogs can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while invitation-only Expert Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- are written by selected development professionals. We hope that our blog sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information, check out the official posting guidelines. This Week's Standout Member Blogs Games That Can't Be Won (Altug Isigan) Non-winnability is often interpreted as open-endedness, and also being brought up as part of arguments that claim that games aren't stories. Altug Isigan l discusses why these views are flawed. Myths About Static Analysis: The Second Myth - Expert Developers Do Not Make Silly Mistakes. (Andrey Karpov) While communicating with people on forums, Andrey Karpov noticed there are a few lasting misconceptions concerning the static analysis methodology. The second myth -- expert developers do not make silly mistakes. I Honestly Want To Be A Better Designer (Mikael Saker) Mikael Saker outlines what he has experienced to be deep and troubling problems with his and others' design work. Here he pinpoints how he believes our work needs to change in order to create better designs and to be useful in our teams. Barcrafts: The Next American Phenomenon (Michael Hahn) Barcrafts are becoming widely popular in cities all around the United States and Canada, observes Michael Hahn. People are flocking to their local pubs and restaurants to watch matches of their favorite games in competitive settings. Call of Duty And The Stagnation Of A Genre (Judson Rose) Judson Rose argues that the Call of Duty series, though great in its own right, has kept the industry from taking the same crucial step forward that they made with CoD 4: MW. What started out as an innovative leap has partially stagnated much of the genre and games in general.