Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Communication to Controller Ergonomics

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, including how games communicate with the player, a roundup of XBLIG highlights, and how to improve control ergonomics.] 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 - Dialogue Is The HUD (Ron Newcomb) Drawing connections between the dissemination of news and communicating information via menus and text boxes, Ron Newcomb argues the age of complicated HUDs is over, and games should find new and better ways to provide information to the player. - In Search Of The Perfect Survival Horror Tactical RPG (Nilson Carroll) Hoping to expand horror elements into new genres, Nilson Carroll suggests ways to create meaningful and genuine horror in a tactical RPG. - XBLIG 2010: The Best And The Worst (Jamie Mann) Jamie Mann compiles a list of the best and worst of the Xbox Live Indie Games offerings of 2010, highlighting, and at times shaming, the services most notable titles. - Creating Player Experience (Shelly Warmuth) Shelley Warmuth draws comparisons between Walt Disney's vision for film and game design, suggesting ways in which developers can create more believable and relatable experiences. - Game Design And Control Ergonomics (David Hughes) David Hugues challenges games that require players to hold buttons to perform specific actions, arguing that this sort of input is not ergonomically friendly, particularly for players who suffer from ailments like carpal tunnel syndrome.