No Time To Play
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Weekly Links #145

Hello, everyone. Somehow, in-between working feverishly on the new mystery project mentioned last time (to be announced Really Soon Now), I managed to gather a good handful of links anyway, half of which are even about game design! Let's start with Emily Short writing about small scale structures in CYOA — something that can seem obvious, but it's worth thinking about explicitly. Then we have Jay Barnson linking to a couple of older articles about the perils of adapting tabletop RPGs to computers. A long read, but very much worth it. Then, on a more political note there's Rock, Paper, Shotgun analyzing how we encode gender stereotypes in videogames — literally. Don't be that game developer, mmm-kay?

(On a similar note, Carolyn VanEseltine has some notes from a conference speech on Arab representation in games post 9/11. It seems to be a recurring theme this year, and things aren't likely to get better any time soon.)

Last but not least, in the way of digital nostalgia, The Atlantic revisits dial-up BBSes, while Rock, Paper, Shotgun (them again) takes a last, long look at Wurm Online. And while the passing of an online virtual world is natural and unavoidable, if sad, it's good to hear that alternate means of digital communication are still alive, even in the small. Because humankind needs alternatives more than ever.

Until next time, don't be a sheep. Thanks for reading.