Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Nepotism To MMO Persistence

Showcasing highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our weblog writers this week examine industry nepotism, adventure games, persistent timelines in MMOs, and more. 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 - Burn, Baybee, Burn... (Kimberly Unger) It's no secret that hiring in the video game industry, as in other entertainment fields, is rife with nepotism. But Kimberly Unger points out that it's a mistake to "burn your credit" with your contacts before you have the chops to back it up. For her effort, Kimberly will receive a lifetime subscription to Gamasutra sister publication Game Developer magazine. - Epic Persistent Timelines in MMOs? That's Unpossible! (Barry Reddy) Perhaps paradoxically, as MMOs are billed as the most dynamic and persistent of games, in almost all cases they also exist in perpetual stasis. In one of his blog posts this week, Barry Reddy argues for the use of persistent timelines. - MMOs and the Suspension of Mortality (Barry Reddy) ...And in another MMO-focused blog post, Reddy considers the devaluation of characterization that arises from most games' lack of mortality, positing that mortality could be introduced to the genre. - An Adventurous Analysis (Josh Bycer) Josh Bycer says he has a love/hate relationship with adventure games, but this blog post is pretty much about the second half. - Retro Game of the Day: Alien Crush (Ron Alpert) In the latest of his ongoing series of blog posts about games from his past, particularly the late '80s and early '90s, Ron Alpert examines NAXAT Soft's Alien Crush, the first title in what became a relatively long-running series of console pinball games.