Best Of Member Blogs: From The Fall Of Arcades To Gaming's Stigma

Author: by Staff

Member Blogs can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while invitation-only Expert Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- are written by selected development professionals. Our favorite blog post of the week will earn its author a lifetime subscription to Gamasutra's sister publication, Game Developer magazine. (All magazine recipients outside of the United States or Canada will receive lifetime electronic subscriptions.) 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 - Can Science Absolve Us of Our Stigma? (Walter Lippmann) If "science" can purportedly condemn video games, can it save us from the seemingly perpetual stigma that video games are evil? Walter Lippmann tries to provide a satisfactory answer. For his effort, Walter will receive a lifetime subscription to Gamasutra sister publication Game Developer magazine. - Design Analysis: Odin Sphere - Small Team, Big Game (Jeremy Kang) Member blogger Jeremy Kang examines how a 12-person team at Vanillaware was able to "hold its own against today's 100-man-blockbuster-games" with the development of the well-received Atlus-published PlayStation 2 RPG Odin Sphere. - Nickel And Diming The Experience, Or Why The Arcade Scene Died (Josh Bycer) Regular member blogger Josh Bycer identifies seven reasons that arcades went under -- and it's not just because of technical advancements in home consoles, he says. - What Is Episodic Gaming? (Nick Halme) Remember when the episodic gaming business model was the hot topic of the day? Over the past years, some game developers have been able to successfully implement the scheme, but only a select few. Nick Halme explains what he believes must happen in order for episodic gaming to work. - Interactive Storytelling and Non-Digital Games (Emanuel Montero) What can digital games learn from non-digital games? Blogger Emanuel Montero suggests taking a look at non-digital games like Call of Cthulhu to get a better grasp at interactive storytelling.