Weekly Links #103

Oh well. That's what happens when you have a ton of hobbies. After several weeks of game development, I went back to writing fiction for now. But that doesn't mean news are passing me by. This week's most powerful story is about the struggles of a Muslim game developer, ranging from the representation of Middle Eastern people mostly as enemies to be shot, to the simple fact that traveling to conferences can be difficult these days if your name is Muhammad. See my longer comment on Tumblr. Much food for thought, in any event.

On a more cheerful note, I have a couple of very sentimental articles. First is an homage to Tetris, with interesting remarks about the author's unique genius. Then this write-up about what happens when MMOs close down. In short: people become invested in the virtual worlds they frequent. People begin to care. Because that's what people do. There are memories you're leaving behind. And friends. Who are as real as the game was virtual. But somehow we're supposed to just move on because "this is capitalism"? There has to be a better way.

Last but not least, in actual game development news, it appears there are people out there porting indie games to arcade cabinets [via Tales of the Rampant Coyote], and it's a fascinating trip to take. The best postmortem I've read in a long time, really. Especially as many of my own games want to be arcades at their core, but I never quite went the whole way with them. Someday, perhaps.

For now, have a nice week.