Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Eager Apathy To An Elegant Solution

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, such as how learning to design games can ruin your interest in playing them, a solution for fixing major design flaws for projects in production, 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 Eager Apathy (Douglas Lynn) Or: How Learning to Design Games has Ruined My Interest in Playing Them. Douglas Lynn presents a highly subjective tale of how knowing what games are makes them less interesting, and how elements of fandom and fanboyishness clash to restrict a desire to play. Mechanical Breakdown: Boss Battles And Other Climactic Events (Paul Sztajer) Paul Sztajer offers a guide to boss fights and climactic events, looking at what makes them work from both a gameplay and narrative angle. Are Consumers Becoming Immune To Advertising? (Robert Bevill) Last week's Extra Credits/Escapist fiasco raises some interesting questions about making money off of advertising, says Robert Bevill. Here, he looks at how advertising is becoming increasingly more ineffective in this online age. An Elegant Solution (Rafael Vazquez) In due time, you'll find yourself in this terrible position. The game is in production, everyone is hyped about it, and you can feel it staring at your face. A major design flaw... Rafael Vazquez asks, "How do you even begin to fix it without disrupting production?" Spatial Constraints And Narrative Experience (Joey Gibbs) Sharing more game design theory insights, Joey Gibbs discusses the effect that spatial organization has on the narrative experience present in modern games.