Bill Roper: Making MMOs Work Again 21
by Christian Nutt [02.14.11]
In this extensive interview conducted at GDC China, Bill Roper, former design director of Cryptic Studios, discusses what he sees as the broken model of MMO development in the West, and explores the negative reaction gamers had to Cryptic's Star Trek Online and Champions Online.
Business/Marketing, Design, Programming, Production, Interview, Social/Online

---

Gaming The New Era Of Facebook 14
by Paul Hyman [02.09.11]
Can new developers find success in the post-notifications era of Facebook? We've got three resounding affirmatives from two developers and a consultant, and we explore their paths in this Gamasutra feature.
Business/Marketing, Design, Social/Online

---

Bill Roper: Reflections on Hellgate 27
by Christian Nutt [02.07.11]
In this extensive interview conducted at GDC China, Bill Roper, former developer of Hellgate: London, sifts through the aftermath of that doomed project and reflects on mistakes made, community reaction, and how decisions get made in games.
Business/Marketing, Design, Production, Interview, Social/Online

---

A Philosophy That Extends Eastward: Social Games Zynga-Style 19
by Christian Nutt [02.04.11]
In this extensive interview, the general manager of Zynga Beijing expands on the company's creative philosophy - rely on metrics, not on what game designers think is "cool" or creative, and always serve the users.
Design, Interview, Social/Online

---

Going Games: From Web Development To Game Studio In One Project 8
by Tim Cooper [02.02.11]
Flash developer Tim Cooper explains how he transitioned from building web content for clients into a full-fledged game development studio, revealing hard data and hard truths about the change from working in one environment to striking out with his own games.
Business/Marketing, Design, Production, Art, Indie, Social/Online

---

The Era Of Behaving Playfully 18
by Michael Thomsen [01.19.11]
How can incorporating real-world behavior change the fundamental play of games? The developers behind games that delve into this question, such as The Sims 3, SpyParty, and Facade, answer this question.
Design, Interview, Social/Online

---

Adobe Vs. Unity: The Future Of 3D Web Games 40
by Paul Hyman [01.12.11]
As Adobe marches towards a Q2 launch for its Molehill, the 3D version of Flash, developers must decide whether to aim for that, Unity 3D, or an in-house solution -- Gamasutra investigates.
Business/Marketing, Design, Programming, Interview, Social/Online

---

The Genre Blender: Experiments In Social Gameplay 10
by Stephen Dewhurst [01.04.11]
A team at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center launched a project to determine how to get multiple game genres -- racing, first person shooter, and puzzle -- to blend into one socially competitive experience, and here present the results of that experiment.
Design, Student/Education, Social/Online

---

CityVille Explained, Part 2 15
by Tadhg Kelly [12.29.10]
Concluding his much-linked article series on the success of Zynga's 70 million user CityVille, following Part 1, design veteran Tadhg Kelly draws further from his What Games Are blog to examine the social features, channels and takeaways from the game's success.
Design, Social/Online

---

CityVille Explained, Part 1 4
by Tadhg Kelly [12.28.10]
In the first of a two-part series, design veteran Tadhg Kelly draws from his What Games Are blog to explain the rise to power of Zynga's massively successful social game CityVille.
Design, Social/Online

---