Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Game of Giving

I've been commenting away on The Escapist forums for over a year. I was hooked the moment I found out they were based in Raleigh, NC. I have to listen to jabbering about the West Coast or New York constantly, so having a company that was based a few hours from me somehow made them more tangible. I'm not sure I actually contribute much to the culture there, I can be an asshole in the basic forums but I try to say something sharp on their articles. The folks that designed that website know how to create a well-oiled online machine full of feedback and community development tools. Honestly, if you've never interacted with the site before, it's fascinating to watch it suck you in like an MMORPG does. They have freaking badges for forum posting!

Anywho, I saw that they were publishing an issue about Christmas and I decided to google a good Christmas game and write about it. To my surprise, there is no such thing. I think there was a game where you kill aliens trying to stop Christmas as Santa, but that's about it. The article then became a discussion of why that's the case.

A bit of brainstorming, some e-mails bounced off Jason Rohrer (who was incredibly nice and willing to help brainstorm out the ideas), and I sent this in.

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