Gamasutra Expert Blogs: Social Games & South Africa

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 (This week's entry actually includes posts spread over two weeks, due to a GDC break.) The 8 Types of Social Game (Tadhg Kelly) Social games on Facebook and other online platforms are exploding in number, but are still relatively young and frequently described in ambiguous terms. Here, Simple Lifeforms CCO Tadhg Kelly lays out what he sees as the eight major genres, and adds his own thoughts on the space. Failure and Learning (Robert Hale) The nature of rules and gameplay means failure is an integral part of nearly every game, but some handle it better than others. To try and determine how to make failure more engaging and useful to players, designer and programmer Robert Hale considers a number of approaches different games have taken to failure. The Four Stages of Wii (Don Daglow) In an amusing and well-sourced piece, development veteran Don Daglow reviews the conventional game industry's reaction to Nintendo's phenomenally successful Wii, from early denial, to anger, to grief, and finally acceptance. Unsurprisingly, a massive, heated comment thread ensued. Game Design in South Africa (Joshua Dallman) Following a six-month stint as a designer in South Africa, designer and producer Joshua Dallman has composed a piece examining the infrequently-covered South African game development community. Discussed topics include the rarity of game consoles compared to PCs, the overwhelming market domination of cell phones, and the surprising lack of internet penetration. Games as a Service: Why I'm Skeptical of OnLive (Dale Beermann) OnLive, the newly-announced cloud processing-based gaming service, was easily one of the most-discussed topics at GDC, with plenty of optimism, skepticism, and concern. Sharendipity co-founder Dale Beermann takes a considered look at the potential pitfalls of the service from a primarily logistical point of view.