Gamasutra Member Blogs: From Lore To Feature Creep

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, such as the hardships of crafting lore in video games, controlling and embracing feature creep, and what violence means to games.] Member Blogs can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while invitation-only Expert Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- are written by selected development professionals. We hope that our blog sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information, check out the official posting guidelines. This Week's Standout Member Blogs - Is the Industry Overhyping Games? (Robert Bevill) Robert Bevill examines whether the industry is overhyping games in this discussion about how publishers release information on their titles far before their release date comes around. - All Roads Are Now Bent: The Importance of Lore In Video Games & Psychotherapy (Mike Langlois) Gamers are often huge fans of the lore behind the video games they play, but Mike Langlois says people often don’t understand the time, depth and complexity of such lore. - Feature Creep: Control It, Embrace It (Tucker Abbott) Feature creeping is something widely regarded as bad. It has it's place, and people should know that just because it's another feature doesn't mean it's bad. Abbott entreats you to harness your inner creeper and let the positives in each of your ideas into your game! - What Violence Means to Games (Douglas Lynn) In the wake of the famed Supreme Court ruling, Douglas Lynn asks what role violence plays in the history of video games. What are some ways violence impacts games in terms of design, and what does it mean for the industry's reputation? - Game Design Tools: Narrative Graphs (Paul Sztajer) Narrative graphs are a useful tool for charting out any narrative but are especially useful for the development of game stories. Here, Paul Sztajer overviews how this design tool can be used.