Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Books Clubs To Dealing With Death

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, including recommendations for books on game design, and alternate methods of handling player death.] 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 official posting guidelines. Here are the top member blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Member Blogs - Design: Inspirational Books As A Games Designer (Benjamin Hill) Aiming to provide inspiration for game designers, Benjamin Hill lists a number of books that offer insights and new perspectives on making games. - An Analysis Of The Global Decline Of Japanese Console Development Part 2 (Kamruz Mos) In part two of a piece on the decline of the Japanese game industry, Kamruz Mos looks at the missteps taken by Konami and Capcom in their attempts to westernize their titles and appeal to a global market. - Time Travel As A Game Mechanic (Robert Bevill) Robert Bevill examines the storytelling implications of using time travel as a game mechanic, and how it can offer players a means of revoking and changing decisions without the need to fall back on an old save file. - The Good, The Bad, And The One On The Fence (Marc Vousden) Marc Vousden praises Epic Mickey for implementing a morality system that allows for complete ambivalence on the part of the player, arguing that the autonomy of the game world makes the game's setting much more believable. - Against The Death Penalty (Craig Wilson) Frustrated by the checkpoint-based death penalty in games, Craig Wilson looks at alternate ways to incorporate death mechanics without forcing the player to restart a level or reset their place in a game world.