- Nice article by Tony Walsh on using game-like systems to make boring jobs more interesting and make employees more effective. Example used: airport security screening. I agree with a comment on the post — Tony’s design is probably over-engineered, but the idea is, in principle, quite promising.
- Danc of Lost Garden explains why he left the video game industry. A confrontational post, to say the least, but well-written as always. To summarize: he faults the industry for its low wages, long hours, lack of innovation, and poor project management policies and systems. I believe there are many developers that are making strides in these areas, but I hear where Danc’s coming from and respect his position. (I’ve recently flagged a few of these issues myself.) Btw, if you can’t read enough about the evils of crunch time, here’s a pretty thorough article on the subject.
- Next-Gen posted a list of the 100 most successful studios, based on game sales in the UK in 2005. (I’ve linked directly to the top 10). The UK’s a large market, so the list is interesting, but of course games like Madden don’t register quite as much as they obviously should.
