I want to talk about public broadcasting for a moment. My desire to address this topic arises from the hullabaloo stemming from a comment during the recent presidential debate. In short, candidate Romney made plain his intention to eliminate the PBS subsidy as part of a broader plan to cut wasteful expenditure. His comment was cavalier and the reasoning was questionable. Given the state of political discourse, I wouldn’t expect much more, but this was a bit much even for me.

Let’s start with a basic proposition: public education is not an extravagance.

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It’s been a big year. I’ve got a minion on the way and I made the transition from a pure business type into a blended creative role. After a number of long conversations and a pep talk from my CEO, I moved in to the lead role for PlayMesh’s frontline game, Valor. The role is varied and challenging – it sits at the cross-section of game design, producing, community, marketing, and creatives.

I normally shied away from creative pursuits professionally. Not sure why. Probably a mix of insecurity and a desire to buy a house one day. But here I am, working on a major evolution to Valor. An enormous component of that effort has been game design related, a task that has occupied night and day for the better part of the last few months. One thing I’ve noticed during the journey: game design is all about consequences.

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Oh SoMoFos, how I’ve missed thee. I think Jamil did a pretty accurate job of summing up the shenanigans that have gone down in the interim. I’ll layer a bit more on top of it. Things are a-changin’ on my side and the industry is getting more interesting by the minute. Let’s do a quick update.

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Man oh man. This question has been coming up with incredible frequency over the last year. I’ve probably had the debate 8-9 times since GDC, and I still haven’t fully formed my opinion on the subject. There’s certainly some indications that gamers love mobile, and some pretty depressing indications that people aren’t buying as many traditional games as they used to, but does correlation equal causation?

Is mobile another platform or THE platform for hardcore gaming?

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Devotees of this blog (thanks mom!) will know of my suspicions regarding the inevitability of the zombie apocalypse. Naturally, I’m drawn to games that might provide me with the competitive edge when it comes to the dark times ahead. But I’ve been disappointed in the offerings on tap – they’re just too forgiving. I mean, it’s great that Fallout is comfortable with the idea that people are chilling and trading bottlecaps to each other after the nuclear war, but I’m thinking it’s more likely that people will just spend most of their time slaughtering everything that moves. I need to be prepared. But where to look?

DayZ. That’s where.

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The noble denizens of PlayMesh have recently been overcome with a surge of Magic fever. It’s a pestilence, besetting the poor folk with a thirst for collectible cards that may only be sated through reckless expenditure of funds. I’ve seen terrible things. Unspeakable acts undertaken at the behest of the dark creators of this mysterious product, the so-called Wizards of the Coast.

I personally have fallen prey to this malady before. The first was 15 years ago. The last bout was 4 years ago. I cannot help but wonder, why am I not rid of the beast? Why do some games endure?

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Recently Ari Emanuel stopped by the Valley to drop some knowledge upon us hapless clowns. For those unfamiliar, Ari is a bit of a bad ass down in LA (Ari from Entourage is modeled after him) and he’s shown a lot of entrepreneurial spirit in a town that typically doesn’t reward that sort of initiative. One of the main points of his talk was the relationship between Silicon Valley (ye olde big pipes of technology) and Hollywood (provider of all things content). Ari’s point was simple: pipes aren’t very valuable if there isn’t anything to fill them with. Ergo, Hollywood is a deeply important piece of Silicon Valley’s success.

Eh…I’m gonna disagree here. Hollywood has the option to be integral to Silicon Valley’s success, but it’s not a required relationship.

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As I’ve spent more time thinking about game design, I’ve noticed a particularly annoying problem. Essentially, it’s the failure to adequately capture, organize, and assess ideas. Many startups will have a certain aggregation of people who are constantly spinning off ideas, but I’m surprised at how often those ideas get lost in the process.

I’d honestly appreciate a bit of input from you dear readers on this one, because I’ve found myself creating things that had already been considered months earlier. Seems like a huge loss in efficiency and momentum.

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“There’s sadness to it.” The words tumbled out, breathed more than spoken. It was a small kindness that none bore witness to this particular tragedy.  There were no eyes to watch the mottled hands fumble at the small vial, to see the haphazard line of powder dribble unto the table. The huddled figure leaned forward and deeply inhaled, trying to coax every grain of powder from the accumulated grime. Again the man spoke. “But also joy.”

A flash of light and then…nothing.

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