The Sunday Papers

Sundays are inexplicable jet-lag, luxuriating in the glow of a 7-1 Blood Bowl victory and compiling a list of the finest (mostly) games-related writing from across the week in a handy list format, while trying to not include a link to some manner of pop music or another.

• Interview of the week, and no mistake. Sarinee "Home of the Underdogs Founder" Achavanuntakul breaks her silence and gives Rob Cummins her first extended interview in years. Extensive coverage of every issue around the Premier Abandonware site and community the Internet has ever seen - what developers said to her, what the industry did and the whole diaspora of sites that have emerged in her wake. Great stuff.
• Jordan Garski on the death of Matrix Online this week. What went wrong? Well, he says, I jacked out pretty quickly. For old time's sake, here's my on-release review. Also, this piece on the Escapist which has stuck in my mind years after reading it, about how its playerbase differed from the standard Fantasy MMO. And it sounds as if the end was pretty. It's kind of a theme this year, isn't it? The turning off of those games who failed in the 3rd wave of MMOs.
• It's enough to make John Walker cry. Jason Denzel continues reviews maps which came with games in the distant past. These are wonderful things. You should have seen Alec and my face light up at Develop when Larington delivered a copy of Legend of Valour's map. Seriously, Alec - whatchadoingwithit? Can I have it?
• More J Nash hailing. For God's sake, go listen to Sexton Blake already.
• Movie-exec claiming that it's a silly idea that you should own the media you buy in perpetuity. Cory Doctrow, of course, gives it a proper kicking.
• Mark Richmond pointed me at The Blue Casket. A site devoted to player journals of games. Lots and lots and lots of them. In the sidebar: Charles Dickens, Football Manager. That's kinda irresistible, yeah?
• Troy Goodfellow - WHO I WOULD DESTROY IN BLOOD BOWL, I'M SURE - pointed me at this piece by Lara Crigger about not having played a game recently, and feeling like an Ex-pat. Which suddenly reminds me both of the Russian Ex-pat communities I was reading about recently post-Revolution, and my usual ideas of videogames being places. If you can emigrate to an MMO, if you leave this land, you are an ex-pat, yeah?
• Daniel Lipscombe over at Resolution writes about why he games.
• Away from games, but this piece on canon and Doctor Who - being a rant against the bean-counters of the soul who obsess over continuity - caught my eye. Linked within is an older piece by Dr Who Writer Paul Cornell - whose splendid Captain Britain and M-13 Marvel series finished recently, and is well worth picking up for fans of high-velocity, fun superheroics - also talking about canon. To steal a line: This Is An Imaginary Story. But aren't they all?
• Rumble Strips - Not The Only Person. Splendidly Not shit!

Failed.