Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Trial And Error To 'Free' Success

Author: by Staff

In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables talk about how trial and error will "doom" games, Jagex's Runescape income, and looks at Google Reader's video game elements. 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 official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs - Still Think Free Doesn't Work? (Nicholas Lovell) Nicholas Lovell takes a closer look at Jagex’s long-running free-to-play MMO Runescape and its impressive income: “In the 12 months to March 2009, Jagex generated revenues of £38.4 million and profits of £18.0 million (approximately $58m and $27m, respectively).” More within. - Why Trial and Error will Doom Games (Thomas Grip) “It seems to be believed that trial and error mechanics are needed in order to add drama, tension and make the player's actions count.I think this position is wrong and extremely hurtful,” argues Thomas Grip of Frictional Games. - Deque Memory Management (Lee Winder) Blitz Games technical manager Lee Winder describes what exactly a “deque” is (short for “double-ended-queue”) and explains why in terms of memory management developing and STL-style deque is “often not very suitable for the demands of game development.” - Game-ifying Google Reader, And Also Everything (Shay Pierce) Did you hear? Google Reader has been game-ified. - The Dragon Hunter Speaks: an interview w/ Chris Crawford (Stephen Dinehart) Game writer Stephen Dinehart links to his interview with the legendary Chris Crawford “on his definitions of interactive story, playful linguistics, and lessons learned from a life forging new paradigms of interactivity.”