Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From CastleVille to the online world paradox

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including the challenges of designing female characters, story timing pitfalls, and more.] In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the latest official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs CastleVille and agency in Zynga's social games (Steve Mallory) Lvel designer Steve Mallory examines CastleVille and the evolution of player agency in Zynga's social games. Chasing every opportunity (Alexander Bruce) Alxander Bruce, creator of IGF award winner and IndieFund backed game Antichamber, says that on the long road to success, sometimes it's the little things that can matter the most. Permanent record - The paradox of online worlds (John Krajewski) Online games rest on a paradox, says Strange Loop Games' John Krajewski: the player will be the one savior of the world, and so will everyone else. Flash in the Pan? It's like Déjà vu (Mac 1984) all over again ... (William Volk) So Flash wants 9 percent of the revenue for apps that use 'premium' features. William Volk was reminded by Doug Sharp (he of ChipWits fame), of the launch of the Macintosh in 1984, when a similar situation occurred. What happened then is a precautionary tale for Adobe.