Redefining Games- How Academia Is Reshaping Games of the Future is a long article on the gaming website Gamespot - despite the rather odd split and layout it does have some interesting points; (18 sub-pages across some ten headings...)
Game Ontology - how to talk about design and parts of games, trying to create a common "base" definition of terms. Definitly an example of academia getting to grips with a new field.
Frasca suggests that players do not play games for the storytelling. "They are drawn because these games allow them to live an alternative life" This is more or less the point made in this excellent Nemi strip
translation:
1. Shouldn't you start working again soon?
2. I think people need to work...
3. ...set goals, develop, complete tasks...
4. I can do THAT as often as I want on my xbox
America's Army provides young people, who are detached from what military service is actually like, with an impression of life in the Army. "I think, from the Army's point of view, the benefit is not just recruiting but weeding out people who wouldn't benefit or thrive in that kind of environment," Lowood says.
...interesting point, not just getting those who are motivated - but also avoiding the potential recruits who might quit halfway or just cause problems down the line.
"Before digital entertainment, efforts had been made to make text more dimensional. In the 1970s, R.A. Montgomery and Edward Packard published a series of books called Choose Your Own Adventure." - so a forerunner for the Fighting Fantasy books made in the early 80-ties by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (who went on to make lots of crazy/funny games)
The "games-and-new-media blog" called Grandtextauto also offers up some good perspectives and ideas.
...and the sun is nowhere to be seen - fall is coming up north...
