Compiti per il weekend - 09/03/2019

In questa rubrica vi segnaliamo articoli e video che abbiamo trovato interessanti, sfiziosi, gustosi o, insomma, degni di essere menzionati, e che sono più o meno legati ai temi che ci piace trattare su Outcast. Gli articoli e i video non sono necessariamente in italiano, anzi, è tristemente probabile che non lo siano. La periodicità dell’appuntamento potrebbe essere settimanale, ma vai a sapere.

Consumare la nostalgia (leggi l’articolo su il Tascabile)
Quelli, gli Ottanta, erano anche anni in cui il videogioco era ancora una faccenda piuttosto piccola (la maggior parte dei titoli erano sviluppati in effetti da una sola persona, per cui lo spunto narrativo di “Bandersnatch” non è campato per aria: l’idea di “industria videoludica”, di un team di sviluppo o di campagne marketing stavano appena nascendo), ma soprattutto nazionale, nel senso che esistevano ancora degli stili nazionali, era possibile distinguere un gioco inglese (come quelli Psygnosis ad esempio, o quelli della Tuckersoft…) da uno francese, americano e, ovviamente, giapponese.

Making games for a living means being in constant fear of losing your job (leggi l’articolo su Polygon)
He might have been concerned, but I was relieved. I told him nothing would make me happier than to work at the developer for as long as I could. I wanted stability and commitment as much as they did. I signed the offer immediately. My start had been rocky, but surely this job — my next job — would be a good “forever home.”

Che cinema la battaglia tra streaming e box office (leggi l’articolo su La voce)
La concorrenza delle pellicole straniere non è l’unico problema del cinema italiano. Sempre nella stessa indagine Istat, sono riportati dati che riguardano le preferenze delle persone che decidono di non andare al cinema. Ne emerge con chiarezza una tendenza verso il piccolo schermo, a discapito di quello grande. Tra i principali motivi di disinteresse per le sale cinematografiche, c’è il favore verso altri canali di distribuzione dei film.

Tearing down the lone developer myth (leggi l’articolo su Gamasutra)
"It's an unpopular thing to say, but I think gamers are being too pandered to," Sandberg said. "As somebody who likes to create and express, I want gamers to be more receptive to artistic expression than 'Please me and make me feel good.' I want them to just want to experience what other people might have to say and maybe even learn something from it instead of just being fed through a theoretically eternal game with a few videos here and there for lore.

Amy Hennig interview — Surviving the trauma of making a video game and inspiring newcomers (leggi l’articolo su VentureBeat)
I’ve anecdotally heard — not just about God of War, but about other games as well — even the last Uncharted game, there are places where they say, “Let’s pad that out. Let’s open that up and give them some choice, some alternate missions.” That’s where people check out. The promise of some of these games is propulsion and pace. It’s not just saying, “Give me story in these little nuggets, in an endless stream.”

Why Do the Oscars Keep Falling for Racial Reconciliation Fantasies? (leggi l’articolo su The New York Times)
These pay-for-playmate transactions are a modern pastime, different from an entire history of popular culture that simply required black actors to serve white stars without even the illusion of friendship. It was really only possible in a post-integration America, possible after Sidney Poitier made black stardom loosely feasible for the white studios, possible after the moral and legal adjustments won during the civil rights movements, possible after the political recriminations of the black power and blaxploitation eras let black people regularly frolic among themselves for the first time since the invention of the Hollywood movie.

I don’t wanna do my video game chores (leggi l’articolo su The Outline)
It’s possible that this is just a problem inherent with the medium. It’s hard to tell an enthralling story in which millions of players have near total individual directorial control, choosing to look at or explore whatever they want, even if it’s just pixelated soda machines. But there are plenty of other games that manage to do it well.