The Carnival of Games #8

By Shane | November 2, 2005

Hello and welcome to the Carnival of Games #8 (dings wine glass with a fork, crowd mutters with excitement). I am Shane, your (virtual) host for today and until the next Carnival arrives. You will notice that no two articles are alike in this wonderful iteration of Joystick chatter, thanks to me. Originally, all the articles from all the game blog writers submitted their musings on the same topic. Tsk…That topic was on the violence in Grand Theft Auto…no I kid. Actually, they had all written about their methodology in obtaining a blogging job with Joystiq. So with that, I re-wrote everyone’s article to add some flair. Ok enough with the jokes. In actuality, everyone that submitted had a completely unique article from the next person. They were all very good and I thoroughly enjoyed reading each and everyone of them. If I were the Professor of a game theory class at a University with too much facial hair, I’d give them all A+’s. Good job people.

I posted them in the order to which they were received in case you were wondering: “why that order Shane?” Therefore, if an award existed for “Fastest time submitting a game blog article to the Carnival of Games” existed, then Paul of Game Guides Online would win.

There is a story, or lack of one, behind the picture in the banner I designed. My friend’s keychain has a little plastic Sega Genesis and a controller on the end of it so I had to snap a picture SPECIFICALLY for the Carnival. On that note, shift your eyes off the banner and continue reading:

Paul from Game Guides Online was sent out to write an article about the workforce that is the backbone of the virtual game currency industry, in: Secrets of Massively Multiplayer Farming

Matt from Curmudgeon Gamer whips out the ol’ charts and graphs to show us the progress EA has made now that they have the exclusive NFL contract, in: “EA Slacking on Madden 06?”

George from Top of Cool gives us the low-down on a J. Allard interview and dissects his marketing lingo at the same time, in: “J Allard: Marketing Personified”. George provides us with shocking and extreme J. Allard makeover pics too.

Corvus from Man Bytes Blog explains why all games relay stories; even the games with no story or intent to tell a story. Corvus backs this up with examples from popular narrative games where the audience interprets the stories, in: “The Power of Narrative: Games as Storytellers In Spite of Themselves”.

Ethic from Kill Ten Rats interviews Istvaan Shogaatsu and his Corporation,