Scrawled in Wax

I firmly believe that N’Gai Croal – beyond having the coolest name ever – is by far the smartest writer in the game industry today. No offence Chris Kohler, I just think Croal is more insightful. So I was looking forward to his foray into this “Are Games Art?” debate that has been circulating recently [...]

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In response to the rather petulant “I’m taking my ball and going home” hubbub caused by Jason Calcanis, Om Malik has put up a post suggesting ways to avoid ‘Facebook Fatigue’ where he advises that one think of Facebook friends as simply an extension of your real life friends (which sounds eerily familiar to all [...]

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Last.fm is exactly the sort of service that I think works well on Facebook. If the ostensible point of social networking is to connect with your friends, then sharing your music listening habits – a key marker of identity in North America – seems a pretty good way to do so. Their new Facebook app [...]

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If you’d like one, leave your email address – something like fake (at) gmail (dot) com – in the comments and I’ll shoot one off to you ASAP. Ideally, I should have some vague idea of who you are, but it’s not a big deal really.
For my thoughts on Pownce, go here.

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Just a quick link to Annalee Newitz’s piece on Alternet about the politics of the iPhone launch frenzy. I think it gets a bit too paranoid towards the end – only in America does fear of government surveillance make you a true leftist – but it’s a refreshing voice of skepticism that doesn’t bash the [...]

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Upon their thirtieth birthday, I imagine that most people went out with their friends and got toasted while bemoaning the inevitability of aging, only to wake up the next morning to realise that, yes, they were actually adults and it was time to get on with life. Not me though. What did I do that [...]

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I’m going to respond to this in much more depth when I get the time, but for now – check out Mark Wilson’s response to Roger Ebert’s assertion that games are not and never will be art. It’s articulate, carefully reasoned and literate – well worth the read.
Kotaku: Art Brings Joy – but a joystick? [...]

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Good read – particularly for curmudgeons like me who think Miyamoto’s focus on the mainstream is ruining the potential of gaming.
Wired – Game Life Blog

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Let me first say that Pownce is a smart little piece of webware. The centralisation – and ‘pretty-fication’ – of twittering, email and file sharing is not only practical, it’s actually enjoyable to use. The interface is clean, straightforward and isn’t cluttered with a hundred different options – what you can see is what Pownce [...]

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