Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Accessibility To Storytelling Struggles

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, including guidelines for accessibility, a look back at the Global Game Jam, and why games struggle to tell emotional and engaging stories.] 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 recently updated official posting guidelines. Here are the top member blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Member Blogs - Angry Birds And Accessibility Standards (Kwasi Mensah) Hoping to explore accessibility in casual games, Kwasi Mensah looks at Angry Birds through the lens of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to examine why the game appeals to such a broad audience. - The Tenets Of Playability (Josh Bycer ) Josh Bycer examines how games keep players coming back for more, particularly outlining several elements that can hook a player's attention and keep him or her interested in a game from beginning to end. - From Concept To Game In 48 hours: Global Game Jam 2011 (Ben Weber) Ben Weber details his experience participating in the recent Global Game Jam 2011, and reflects upon the lessons he learned from creating a game from scratch in just 48 hours. - Consequences Of Using The Copy-Paste Method In C++ And How To Deal With It (Andrey Karpov) In an effort to prevent programmers from letting small mistakes slip into their code, Andrey Karpov explains why copying and pasting bits of code can lead to a slew of unintentional slip-ups. - The Difference Between Non-Interactive And Interactive Entertainment (Georg Backer) Georg Backer outlines the differences between interactive and non-interactive media, demonstrating why telling stories in games is far more difficult than in other media.