PixelVixen707

Did you know there’s an erotic Pakistani dating site named “pix vix”? That’s what my incoming search results tell me. Also, my readers are looking for “Violette Szabo torture,” how to kill themselves painlessly, and of course, topless merch girls. And the most popular game search that leads to my blog? For a week or so it was Fallout 3. But the rest of the time it’s … Mobsters - Overdrive. Tip to junior bloggers: find a game that everybody plays and nobody’s covered, and you’ll have traffic to dine on for weeks.

So here are this week’s links. I’ll admit, I’m picking a lot of flawed stories this time - something I said I’d never do. I’m still in a whirl from Valentine’s Day (an I got flowers, thanks all for asking). But here we go. Don’t miss the kicker.

• Vindu Goel, How Google Decides to Pull the Plug (New York Times) - Thanks to Slashdot for this one. Well, sort-of thanks. On the one hand, I love to learn more about the Google empire and how it favors or finishes off its many pet projects. On the other hand, we don’t learn much. Anyone still wondering why the Lively virtual world had its plug pulled after a mere six months probably already guessed the answer: nobody liked it.

 

• Jay Barnson, An RPG in a week, starting from scratch? How hard could it be? - In the vein of global game jams, Barnson talks about his one-week RPG. A fun and detailed post-mortem. Someday if I keep reading these, I’ll talk myself into giving it a whirl. Like the man says - how hard could it be?

 

• Michael Walbridge, The Game Anthropologist: ‘Inside The Penny Arcade Forums’ (GameSetWatch) - Would have liked even more of this write-up of the peculiar character and dignity of the Penny Arcade forums. Penny Arcade brings out the better nature of hardcore gamers; it’s an oasis in the most dreadful online culture this side of religious fundamentalism.

 

• Jim Rossignol, Ragdoll Metaphysics: Good Grief, The Victory Of Eve’s Space Goons (Offworld.com) - Last week I wished for a clear, cogent write-up of one of the great scams in MMO history. Rossignol delivers.

 

• Shawn Elliott and the Gang, Symposium Part Two: Review Policy, Practice and Ethics - Another 13,000+ words, good God. But pro-tip: last time, N’Gai Croal pared it down to a highlight reel on his Level Up blog. Now Croal posts at American Geek. Can we expect the same mercy again?

The Kicker: Here’s a poem to share with your Valentine. Enjoy!