Gamasutra Member Blogs: From the evil FPS god to survival horror combat guidelines

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, such as survival horror combat guidelines, the illusion of fluidity and the evil FPS god, 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 The illusion of fluidity and the evil FPS god (Mihai Cosma) Video game performance is an issue that has always been highly debated and picked-apart by both developers and gaming enthusiasts. Mihai Cosma believes the leading issue seems not to stem from processing power or video quality per se, but more about customer mentality. Can press and industry work together (seriously)? (Neil Schneider) The words "3D Ready" have little to no meaning, argues Neil Schneider. As standardized as displays are becoming, the concept of 3D content is as wild west as ever. What would happen if press, game developers, and technology enablers worked together? Time to find out! Four key traits for designers (Thomas Grove) Thomas Grove shares the traits that he looks for when hiring designers. These are also the first things that he teaches when training new designers. Gamification: Thoughts on definition and design (Zachary Fitz-Walter) Difficulty arises when attempting to understand what gamification exactly means, separating it from the notion of serious games and then trying to work out the best way to design it, says Zachary Fitz-Walter. Crafting a monster: guidelines for survival horror combat (Nick Masercola) Nick Masercola offers a dissection on what makes a good horror combat system using Fatal Frame, Condemned, and Alone in the Dark: Inferno ( yeah, not kidding) as examples.