Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Creating Choices To The Dangers Of Mobile Apps

In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including meaningful choice in MMOs, a look at the state of XNA, and the dangerous rise of the moble App market. 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. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs - Meaningful Narrative Decisions In MMOs (Martin Nerurkar) Decisions in single player games often lose their gravity when players can reset their game and tailor to their liking the consequences of their choices. Martin Nerurkar suggests that online-based games remove the player's ability to replay these decision making moments, making them all the more valuable. - Blurring The Line – An Experiment In Casualcore Gaming: Part 1 (Christopher Totten) Using survey data collected online, Christopher Totten takes a look at casual and hardcore games, and explains why players are drawn to each type of experience. - Opinon: The State Of XNA (Chris Howe) Chris Howe takes a look at XNA, and argues more quality control for Xbox Live Indie Games, among other changes, would help attract more talented independent developers to the service. - Get Your Ego Out Of My Art (Peter Kojesta) Offering advice to artists, particularly 3D modelers, Peter Kojesta suggests creating simple in game models that can be easily manipulated, so other team members can make changes effectively rather than struggle with one artist's complex design. - Surviving The Appdroid Apocalypse (Steve Peterson) Following the success of the iTunes App store and the Android marketplace, Steve Peterson warns that the low priced model may make its way to larger devices like the Apple TV, which in turn could eventually lead to severe sales declines throughout the industry.