• "…what Civilization provides is a story with a beginning, middle, and end, which is three times more than what you probably started with. If you play the game in particularly interesting way, then you can be rewarded with a delightful, surprising experience that you can’t help but weave into a story, inventing characters and lovers and intrigues all round. This story might tug at you so insistently that you begin to jot down notes and timelines, writing diary entries and newspaper reports of battles. Eventually, you might join all those pieces up, rewrite them, throw it all away, and rewrite it again – and then you might call yourself a storyteller." And this is one of the kinds of storytelling that games are best at: collaborative tales weaved between ruleset and player, between man and machine.
  • Wow. One to return to: a super-comprehensive look at Pac-Man, including its AI routines and collision detection.

Off Reservation

07 August 2010

In about an hour, I’m jumping in my little car with hiking kit, camera gear, and a stack of books. I’m off to a little village in the Brecon Beacons for a week of walking, eating, reading, and recharging.

So: off-grid, by and large, for a week. Can’t wait. Crossing many fingers about the weather. See you soon.

  • This looks like it could be great – very Karateka-esque take on duelling. Bonus points for a "throw sword" move and the slide; it's all just-Douglas-Fairbanks enough.