I came across these two video game theory sites today while browsing for some other information, and, after searching the forums without finding reference to the links, thought that other game developers might find them interesting:

BuzzCut.com (http://www.buzzcut.com)

GameStudies.org (http://www.gamestudies.org)

I'll admit that some of the articles seem logorrheic, sesquipedalian, grandiloquent, prolix and pleonastic ;), but there are definitely some interesting topics discussed, several of them worth a look, in my opinion.

Googling for "video game theory" brought up many links, but none of the first dozen or so looked that interesting to me.

Please feel free to post any other interesting links on this subject.

Video Game Theory (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0415965799/qid=1068081480//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/104-9198738-0379902?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is a book recently published on the subject. As you've already mentioned, many of the articles seem excessively verbose. Some interesting points made, though, and it's not that pricey.

http://www.sirlin.net/ is a cool site about game design in general. It's not really academic, but it's interesting.

Cool links. Here's a few that I like:

Games * Design * Art * Culture (http://costik.com/weblog/)

As Of (http://www.prairiearts.com/Asof/as_of.htm)

Extraordinary League of Game Developers (http://gamedevleague.blogspot.com/)

Grand Text Auto (http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/)

Hey, the first thing I saw on chasing that link was an interview with Tim Schafer; now that alone was worth the effort. Some interesting other stuff there too.

The Silent Hill/Planetscape Torment essay is totally worthless though.

The Silent Hill/Planetscape Torment essay is totally worthless though.

I agree. I read through about half of it waiting for the author to actually say something, then got bored and clicked over to a different essay. Interesting topic, though... just no real substance.

Originally posted by Jeff Greenberg
I agree. I read through about half of it waiting for the author to actually say something, then got bored and clicked over to a different essay. Interesting topic, though... just no real substance.
Unfortunately, that seems to be the norm among so-called "Videogame Theory" websites... I know a particular one which if you take the absolutely biased and non-subtle political messages, self promotion, and ocasional links to other blogs, you are left with... nothing.

It just seemed like your typical C-average undergraduate essay, from a student who didn't really want to write an essay. Videogames can be interesting area for academic discourse, I think - but when writing something, it certainly helps if you have a point.