Gamasutra Member Blogs: Problems With 'Cinematic' And 'Realistic' Aspirations

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Member Blogs, our bloggers write about diverse topics, including how games aspire to imitate cinema, saturation of the mobile marketplace, and why realism isn't often an ideal to strive for.] 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. Here are the top member blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Member Blogs - Games On Film: What Does 'Cinematic' Actually Mean? (Xander Markham) Xander Markham asserts that while publishers often call their games "cinematic" to entice players, they should instead realize games are flexible enough to eschew that comparison and embrace what makes games inherently appealing. - Designing Invisible Walls: Thoughts On Level Design Part 2 (Etienne Guerrera) Continuing a series of posts on his experience developing an iPhone game, Etienne Guerrera discusses three essential principles of designing difficulty for the player, and not for yourself. - Why I'm Not Worried About The Mobile Race To The Bottom (Jorge Rodriguez) As the number of mobile apps increases daily, demand simply can't catch up to the growing supply. Jorge Rodriguez shares his thoughts on the situation and suggests why some developers aren't making they money they hope to in the mobile space. - Canon 2.0 (Gareth Mensah) Convinced top 10 lists are useless when it comes to categorizing the industry's most innovative games, Gareth Mensah ponders how to best organize a compilation of games that have had the most profound effects on the medium. - Realism VS Idealization (Anjin Anhut) While many players often claim to enjoy realism in games, Anjin Anhut argues that realism isn't something games often strive for, and instead what often becomes more important is an idealistic take on the world we live in.