July 23, 2012 Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts The RPG Lineage Chart Way back at PAX East I got to talking with some people over dinner Saturday and one of the topics that came up was my Dragon Age II Lineage post I did the year before and the research that went into it. I described what I did and that I ended up making a chart. In looking through my collection of business cards from that weekend I believe it was Scott Macmillan that asked to see that chart if he could. Well, I found it recently after the recent home renovation in a pile of papers and roleplaying books. | more
July 16, 2012 Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts Two More Critical Distance Roundups In the past couple of weeks I took over TWIVGB from Kris Ligman as she went to E3 and needed a break. Kris hand it off more, there are 5 people who can pick up the reins. I don’t want you burning out. First one was for E3 week and I couldn’t help myself making my own little commentary with how I presented that week’s material. As an old timey snake oil salesmen barker. It’s not like there was a convention filled with foul tasting, somewhat sketchily presented hype to products that may or may not be any good around that time, right? | more
July 11, 2012 Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts ‘This Generation is Over’ Takedown I didn’t want to write this. Up until now I have written three takedowns all on pieces I fervently disagreed with and I stand by them wholeheartedly. I constantly threaten to do takedown of particularly egregious pieces on twitter every so often and almost never do. Why? Well, I have over time set down rules for myself. They’re not written down, they’re just thing that naturally grew out of my sense of fairness, kindness and respect towards great thinkers and the need to point out when they’re off their rocker and have no fucking clue what they’re talking about. | more
July 9, 2012 Eric Swain Game Issues, Recent Posts A Clarification of Genre: Conclusion Please read A Clarification of Genre: Introduction because this post will be finishing the foundation concepts put forth there. That post also contains some clarifications for how I will be writing this series. You can read the previous entries of the series: Action, Adventure, RPG, Strategy and Immiscible Games. What was the point? Outside of very limited set of application that all mostly resides in broad based introductions to the material either in a storefront or in explaining what it is, genre is not a useful concept. | more
July 9, 2012 Eric Swain Game Issues, Recent Posts A Clarification of Genre: Immiscible Games Please read A Clarification of Genre: Introduction because this post will be building off of the foundation concepts put forth there. That post also contains some clarifications for how I will be writing this series. You can read the previous entries of the miscible genres: Action, Adventure, RPG and Strategy. Miscible and Immiscible The descriptions of the super-genres up to this point have all been under the assumption that a game has a single focus throughout its play. | more
