“All the pieces matter”

I’ve never really played a Sports Game during the active season, but stuff like the weekly roster updates in Madden make it pretty tempting. You’re playing with the real teams, with stats and rankings changing constantly to reflect what’s going on in the NFL.

The sophistication is increased with features like Madden Moments (where you are challenged to recreate events like the Jags' 59-yard game winning field goal last week), or NBA2K’s Jordan Mode (a playable recreation of 10 of his most memorable games).

Like flight sims, it must be increasingly difficult for the developers to maintain the balance between casual gamers and hard core simulation fans. Though apparently that’s something Madden 11 specifically addresses. Anyone for a game of footy?

New Gap logo controversy, yawn. But read this classic corporate spin from Gap President Marka Hansen on the (99% negative) feedback they’ve been getting:

Now, given the passionate outpouring from customers that followed, we’ve decided to engage in the dialogue, take their feedback on board and work together as we move ahead and evolve to the next phase of Gap.

I count no less than 10 inane cliches in one sentence. As Daring Fireball so aptly put it, “What a pile of say-nothing corporate horseshit”.

Who would’ve thought watching people play Dungeons & Dragons - albeit established funny guys PA, Wil Wheaton, Scott Kurtz, and celebrity DM Chris Perkins - could be so funny. I love it when Perkins warns the audience full of rules lawyers that “our game of d&d might not be like your game - we kind of make it up as we go along”. Sounds like every game I’ve played. Start with Part 5 if you want to skip to the dice rolling action.

Mapping Stereotypes.

A quick introduction to the wonderful world of typography (unfortunately on a site rife with font-overload-disasters). Every font has a story which should inform how & when it is used:

In one of the most important modern books on type, The Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst briefly discusses on the life of Jean Jannon, the so-called “greatest type designer of the French Baroque.” He describes Jannon as a Protestant that was Religiously persecuted for the majority of his life, and that his experiences caused him to create typefaces that were “elegant but nonconformist.” Jannon’s fonts are often lumped together with Garamond, even to this day. This is the sort of history to be found behind every major typeface…

Incredible.

Tweetage Wasteland on social media & revolution:

As our minds evolve along with these new technologies, the key connection between social media and revolutions will likely be a matter of focus. You will know about a lot more causes in the world. And you’ll have a more efficient medium through which to share information about those causes. But it will become increasingly difficult to focus intensely on one or two issues while blocking out the rest of the noise.

Google does Latin.