Seven Strange But Oddly Entertaining Internet Games is exactly what it sounds like. Every game on this list is relatively entertaining, and some are even pretty odd. My two favorites were Cursor* 10 and Double Wires. Cursor* 10 is really best on the first play through though. Once you get it, there isn’t much to it. It’s all about learning the trick. It is a really cool idea though. Double Wires places you as a stick figure Spiderman wannabe, using two wires to swing from ceilings and walls to get as much distance as you can before falling to your doom.

How Sega Can Bring Sonic Back To Its Glory is another take on the article I wrote on The Revival of Sonc the Hedgehog. I agree with some of his views, but not others. For instance, I still think Sonic can be done right in 3d, and that the Sonic levels of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 prove it, as do the Tails levels of Sonic Adventure. That said, I’d still be interested to see how a new 2d Sonic on a next gen console turned out. With Sonic Unleashed, we might get that chance. Just no werewolves please. Aside from that, I can say I really don’t mind the characters talking, but I certainly don’t mind if they don’t. The voices aren’t that annoying, and it will likely get better with time. Other than that, I think it’s safe to say I agree with just about everything else he wrote.

Want my *** off the 360? Listen! (edit: broken link removed) is similar in theme to my post How to Get Me to Buy (or Not Buy) a Computer Game. It is, however, written in a much angrier, blunt, and harsh tone. From the flood of MMORPGs on the market, to terrible copy protection schemes, performance, bugs, and demos, he covers a sizable portion of what’s currently wrong with PC gaming today in entertaining style.

Next up is How not to deal with irritating players. The article goes over a lot of common punishments some GMs use to get back at irritating players, then goes on to explain how this simply doesn’t address the problem, and might even make it worse. I tend to agree. If you have a problem player in a game, you need to talk to that player outside the game and try to work something out. Hopefully, you can both come to an agreement or part ways with no ill will. Punishing a player by killing their character or lowering their stats won’t help matters though, and might make things worse.

Finally, we have an article on Breaking Out of Scientific Magic Systems. This is an interesting take on magic in roleplaying games, and how it’s more scientific than magical. Personally, I like the use of “scientific magic” in most systems, but I would certainly be interested in seeing some games that do non-scientific magic well. So far, White Wolf’s Mage seems to be the closest to hitting the idea of magic that isn’t scientific, but even Mage explicitly lays out mechanics so people know what needs to be done. It is a very fun system for magic though. Honestly, I think most people want to know the rules and their capabilities when playing an rpg. I know I do. Having nonscientific magic while allowing players to know the rules and their capabilities might be a difficult line to walk, or even impossible.

Hopefully, you found something of interest in the articles above. I enjoyed all of them for one reason or another, whether it was saying something that needed to be said, pointing me to some games to pass the time, or making me think about assumptions we make while gaming.