Gamasutra Expert Blogs: Board Gaming's Dangerous Legacy

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 official posting guidelines. This Week's Standout Expert Blogs Twiggy Game: Will Videogaming's Future Look Like Boardgaming's Past? (Greg Costikyan) Greg Costikyan, the game industry's resident outspoken curmudgeon, worries that mainstream video game culture may be going down a similar path to that of 1970s-era boardgaming, which focused on brand above all else. Writing a Resume for a Game Company (Darius Kazemi) Here, Darius Kazemi offers a straightforward, practical guide to constructing a resume for applying to game companies. It's primarily intended for students, but will likely have some tips useful to more experienced developers as well. Improving Readability: Data (Nels Anderson) Playtesting and the data-gathering that can result from it are frequently misunderstood and misapplied. Programmer Nels Anderson lays forth some basic principles on user data, including the difference between listening to players' problems and listening to their proposed solutions. Commentary: Design Lessons from Torture in Games (Reid Kimball) Despite a sudden endcap of out-of-place political opinion, Reid Kimball's analysis of torture as depicted in a variety of indie and commercial games offers a number of interesting observations -- including a reminder of just how difficult it can be to make a meaningful statement in a video game, about torture or anything else. How Konami's MGS4 May Sneak Around PSN Charges (Matt Matthews) Following recent news that Sony has been charging publishers a bandwidth fee for downloaded PlayStation Network content, stats whiz Matt Matthews offers a speculative but well-reasoned theory as to how Konami might be sidestepping that policy -- and why Metal Gear Solid 4 has such a cumbersome online implementation.