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Designing Videogames For The Wage Slave
Thanks to Ron Gilbert's weblog for pointing out a GameDev.net article discussing the topic of "Designing Games for the Wage Slave" . The author explains: "We balance on the knife's edge between our glorious time-squandered youth, and the commitments of inevitable middle age... If games can adapt to the needs of the working gamer, they can find a lucrative niche." He goes on suggest practical tips for game developers, including 'Don't Waste My Time' ("Make every moment count. I don't play games to punish myself. I play them to be entertained, rewarded, and challenged"), 'Curiosity Killed The Cat...' ("Constant death was a necessity in the days of video arcades... Now, in the comfort of our lounges or offices, what reason is there to keep dumping us out of the game we bought with our hard earned cash?"), and 'I Need Help' ("Make any necessary information available from within the game.")
Nothing is more fun than crushing the kids in a video game.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
This game looks promising.
This may exist already, not sure, but what I'd like is an auto-pause - so I can just get up and walk away from a game, and it will figure out that since I'm not moving the controls any more, I'm probably not playing any more either.
Nethack does this. If you don't press any keys, the game pauses.
You could use a sort of time dilation effect - game time starts to slow as the time since last control movement increases.
Nethack does this too! The faster you press the keys, the faster time in the game passes.