As a bunch of “old-school” RPG fans hang out here, we’re accustomed to griping about how “dumbed down” RPGs have become over the years.

But it’s not just our favorite genre. As much as we complain about RPGs becoming first-person shooters, first-person shooters aren’t what they used to be, either.

To illustrate this point, this excellent video by kmooseman

I'm not a survivalist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express Last Night.
I've played this over in my head before and decided there are two lifestyles. Nomadic and Static. The following considers staking out a territory for a "home base" where one is secure for the rest of his days. It also assumes "the grid" is down. No electricity or internet, some plumbing works.

We need an antonym to “gamification” which means adding pointless fun instead of functionless points.

Misery Bear!!!

Scott Pilgrim’s life is awesome. He’s 23 years old, in a rock band, between jobs, and dating a cute high school girl. Everything’s fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms. Flowers isn’t covered in rose petals. Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his life upside-down?

Get previews of the book online here.

Now you can download 6 exclusive Cubeecraft toys based on characters from the series!

Exactly how much fun is it possible for someone have playing a game? My game design philosophy has always been that games create an Experience. For the vast majority of games that are made, I would say around 99%, the core experience that companies, student developers, and indie developers are shooting for is for the game to be fun.

Werewolf is a simple game for a large group of people (seven or more.) It requires no equipment besides some bits of paper; you can play it just sitting in a circle. I'd call it a party game, except that it's a game of accusations, lying, bluffing, second-guessing, assassination, and mob hysteria.
I really like it. But then I go to some strange parties.

Welcome to Creaturekebab Downloads!

You can now make your very own Creaturekebab characters from paper! All you need to do is save & print out the templates (on to craft card if you can get it) below, grab your scissors and glue and get crafting!

A lot of people tend to believe that the only important thing in a game is "fun". There are several problems with this, perhaps the most important being there is more to an experience than fun: self-improvement, information, understanding, and various other good things can come from an experience like watching a movie or playing a game. The hyperfocus on fun means that a lot of other important aspects might get overlooked.

Let's look at some of the problems with finding fun in a game.

Just a site poking a little fun at life in Germany from an American perspective.

By the way, we love Germany. It is pretty awesome. Except for the weather.

Amy Jo Kim is a game/social/web designer known for bridging the divide between game and web design. She has designed software UIs, games, online communities, and wrote the seminal book Community Building for the Web way back in 2000. I have long admired her work, and I am grateful that she recently sat down for an interview on the basics of game mechanics and how they can be used in interaction design.