Gamasutra - Stories from the Sandbox
What makes the stories in sandbox games special is that unlike the stories found in other types of games, these are not told primarily by the game’s developer. Instead, they are created and directed largely by the player’s decisions.
The large number of decision points and wide range of possible outcomes in a sandbox game, usually augmented with randomization by various game systems, make the variation in experiences from game to game and from player to player — one of the key selling points of sandbox games — both highly personalized and effectively limitless.
Game Politics - GD: Free Speech Lawyer Tells Game Biz to Defend Against “Junk Science”
Walters advised the game industry to prepare its defense against what he termed “junk science” research used by critics to attack video games:
This is what you’re up against. You have people who will accept anything that the junk scientists try to present as fact, and try to create legislation upon it…
The video game industry needs to clearly and overwhelmingly debunk these theories with its own extensive research… To the extent that the industry can develop a research bank… it should do so before it needs it and not at the 11th hour.
Gamasutra - Designing Games that are Accessible to Everyone
Many of the most popular games and systems are inaccessible to various forms of disability, such as visual impairments. Equally troublesome is that the games that are accessible are generally not playable by the mainstream market, due to the very design quirks that made the game accessible in the first place!
For instance, there are a number of games designed for the visually impaired, but they frequently neglect critical elements for the sighted (i.e. graphics). And therein lies the problem — games for the blind shouldn’t mean games for only the blind. Games for only the blind is a terrible model that most blind people themselves hate.
GeekSugar - Heidi and Spencer Plan to Tap Into the Video Game Market
This is wrong on soooo many levels.
Spencer revealed to Us Magazine that he is working with Electronic Arts’ on the game and that “it’s top secret” and “everyone will be addicted.” He also mentioned that there will be two versions — one for adults and one for minors.
Level Up - Objection: Is the Cultural Trajectory of Videogames Doomed to Parallel That of Comic Books? Part I
Based on this trend alone, even if there were no changes in interface or accessibility, it stands to reason that videogames would become more pervasive simply because videogame “literacy” is becoming more widespread.
