Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/28/11 at 11:18 PM CT

Critics have always served as curators of culture, passing judgment on what has value and what has none. Yet in the environment of Web 2.0, everyone with a connection to the Internet has suddenly been empowered with this capability that wa...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/21/11 at 04:07 PM CT

Any hobby that has been around as long as videogaming has is bound to accumulate a layer of jargon. Jargon is useful, as it allows the initiated to express complex concepts in few words. However, in my many travels across the vast intellectual wasteland of Internet gaming forums, I have come across several terms that grate on me with their utter l...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/14/11 at 09:08 PM CT

Crafting an ongoing game franchise requires a delicate balance between conforming to the core elements of the first title in the series, incremental gameplay improvements, and subtle innovation. Straying too far from a franchise’s roots can alienate fans and risks losing touch with what made the original game popular in the first place. But being too conservative is fraught with risk as well. So ...

Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/07/11 at 05:16 PM CT

Dear Japan,

We’ve been friends for a long time. Ever since we met back in the 1980s, I was impressed by your quirky sense of humor and ability to come up with strange ideas that ultimately ended up being very entertaining. Sure, you were weird, but your weirdness was what made you unique.

But now, things have changed. I should have suspected it all along, but we were having such good t...