Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Junkies To Little Dudes

In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our weblog writers examine junkies, body usage, relationships, storyplaying, and putting a little dude on there. Member Blogs can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while invitation-only Expert Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- are written by selected development professionals. Our favorite blog post of the week will earn its author a lifetime subscription to Gamasutra's sister publication, Game Developer magazine. (All magazine recipients outside of the United States or Canada will receive lifetime electronic subscriptions.) 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 - Storytelling or Storyplaying? (Xander Markham) See what he did there? Many articles have been devoted to explaining why games should not chase film when it comes to storytelling techniques. This one focuses in on the moment-to-moment experience of the incompatibility between a film's dramatic tension, and a game's perpetual security. For his effort, Xander Markham will receive a lifetime subscription to Gamasutra sister publication Game Developer magazine. - Put a Little Dude on There (Paul Culp) There's really no way you could know what this blog post is about based on its title. I guess this description isn't helping. - Animation is a Sports: Using Your Body as an Animation Tool (Byran Provencher) I was hoping this blog post would describe a method by which game development itself could be treated as a contact sport, but it turns out it's more of a frame of mind thing. - Video Game relationships: Father, husband, brother, boyfriend (Jamie Mann) I bet you were hoping for more stories like the one where the guy marries a Nintendo DS character. No such luck. Turns out it's a lot less completely insane than that. - Star Wars: The Old Republic - Please Save Us From Ourselves (Colm McAndrews) "I'll write as a junkie plays," explains Colm McAndrews, and that's a fairly accurate description of this fractured but compelling and extraordinarily passionate blog post about self-destructive MMO addiction. Alternate description: "Help me, Star Wars: The Old Republic. You're my only hope."