A Green Mushroom

It looks like we've come full circle.  Apple is now advertising games that are "Pay Once and Play." It's so weird that we have to come up with a term to talk about games you buy once and then play forever.  Every game used to be that way, but in this world of crazy amounts of DLC and in-app purchases it is no longer the norm. I'm actually happy to see this.  It's finally a backlash against the predatory in-app purchase model that so many games seem to take.  Not all in-app purchase models are bad, I don't hate them categorically.  But some of the games out there might as well be slot machines.  They're the ones giving gaming a bad name right now. When DLC or in-app purchases are done correctly, they can be great.  But when they're done poorly they can just be there to take peoples' money. I hope Apple keeps promoting games like this.  Maybe it will help draw some attention away from the "games" that are only there to take...

When Syl first mentioned writing about community and games for the Bloggy XMAS Calendar I really wanted to participate but I had nothing to write about.  I don't have time for MMOs these days and I don't play a single online game consistently enough to be part of it's community.  How would I write about games and community? But then I had a meeting with an old friend.  We hadn't seen each other in a couple years and we were meeting about a potential business project that we could work on together.  Surprisingly, we jumped right back into our old habits of discussing gaming. I mean, yes, we did talk about business stuff later, but first we talked about the Gamecube hooked up to his TV.  He just moved into a new apartment and it's the only console hooked up so far.  And then, while playing Smash Bros Melee on said Gamecube, we talked about how he's been playing classic EverQuest on a private EQ server.  I mentioned my trials and tribulations wi...