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Letture per il weekend – 04/12/2016

In questa rubrica vi segnaliamo articoli che abbiamo trovato interessanti, sfiziosi, gustosi o, insomma, degni di essere menzionati, e che sono più o meno legati ai temi che ci piace trattare su Outcast. Gli articoli non sono necessariamente in italiano, anzi, è tristemente probabile che non lo siano. La periodicità dell’appuntamento potrebbe essere settimanale, ma vai a sapere.

Weak AAA launches are a precursor to industry transition (leggi l’articolo su gamesindustry.biz)
What's worrying, though, is the effect this has on the AAA market - parts of which suddenly start to seem just as threatened as the now-defunct AA market was only a few years ago.

Un mese in compagnia di PlayStation VR (leggi l'articolo su The Shelter)
La VR è una stanza meravigliosa, affascinante e per certi versi misteriosamente inquietante. Ci siamo affacciati su questa stanza da una piccola finestra, e per pochissimo tempo. Questa finestra ha ancora delle sbarre, possiamo giusto sbirciare e tendere appena la mano lasciandoci sfuggire ciò che si cela aldilà.

Battlefield 1 is a Fantasy (leggi l'articolo su Bullet Points)
When cultural fantasies, especially those that reinforce unthinking national pride, replace the true histories of war, we are susceptible to forgetting, to losing a sense of how the world really was.

Mafia III's NPCs can teach you a lot about history, so long as you don't murder them first (leggi l’articolo su ZAM)
As a history professor, I picked up Mafia III expecting to see this historical detail reflected in the game’s main story. Instead, I learned that much of Mafia III’s best historical material is delivered by nameless cannon-fodder.

We planned for Brexit at Football Manager. So why did no one else? (leggi l’articolo su The Guardian)
When the referendum result came it was a shock – not because pollsters got it wrong. That’s not unusual. But this time the bookmakers got it wrong – and I’m yet to meet a poor bookie. What shocked me even more was the “What do we do now?” coming from the government.

'Star Trek': The Story of the 'Next Generation' Crew's Greatest Movie (leggi l’articolo su The Hollywood Reporter)
The first draft had Riker fighting the Borg on the ship and Picard down on the planet and everything was just backwards. Patrick Stewart, who had read that first draft, said, "Why am I not on the ship? I'm the one who got raped by this species." We were like, "OK. Obviously he is correct."

Tutorials (leggi l’articolo sul blog di sviluppo di Thimbleweed Park)
I think the main reason I hate tutorials is they are conditioning players to be un-inquisitive. Modern players often expect to be led through the experience, and it's starting to go beyond just the tutorial, but into the game itself. Some players don't want to explore, they want to be told where to go and what to do. They are being conditioned to do only what they are told to do.

Q&A: 'Dishonored 2' Director Harvey Smith: "The World is a Sh*tshow" (leggi l'articolo su glixel)
I guess it's a weird analogy, but in the way that the split second of orgasm obliterates you, and you're not even conscious of who you are for a brief period of time, fiction kind of does that same thing on a slower timeline.

The True Story of Nintendo's Most Coveted Game (leggi l'articolo su ESPN)
None of this would've happened had Jennifer Thompson not gone thriftin'. This was in April 2013, and she was browsing clothes and $1 DVDs at the Steele Creek Goodwill in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, when she noticed it behind the glass counter.

We need to make changes so that there can be a Dead Rising 5, 6 and 7” (leggi l'articolo su gamesindustry.biz)
"It can also be a little heartbreaking. You think you have the perfect idea, but then you discover it didn't work. So we have to evolve and change."

How Video Games Change Us (leggi l'articolo su Slate)
They rage when someone like the late critic Roger Ebert insists that video games are not art, and then they rage when someone subjects the medium to the kind of scrutiny that comes with the status of art.

Unearthing Indiana Jones' Legacy on the Atari 2600 (leggi l'articolo su Waypoint)
The thing about playing Raiders is that I feel like I'm on the other end of a 34-years-running cross-country game of telephone with a visionary genius. Hindsight is 20/20, but even then, now that I know the solutions to the game, it makes sense, in a way.