The Escapist Issue #39 Now Available

The thirty-ninth issue of Escapist Magazine contains four new articles, including a third installment to Warren Spector’s “Gaming at the Margins” feature and a trio of interesting write-ups about Nintendo. More Spector goodness:

As if powerful new consoles and PC’s weren’t enough, they’re only part of the near-future picture. We also face another set of hardware challenges.

• Used to be, there were computer games.
• Then, there were computer games and videogames.
• Now there are computer games, videogames, PDA games, handheld games
• Heck, my cell phone is more powerful than the computers on which we developed the old Ultima and Wing Commander games!

Now, in one sense, more platforms are a good thing – platforms that don’t require crazy graphics or support the depth of gameplay that drives costs up offer small developers new options. That’s all to the good.

The interesting thing is what happens when players start expecting to be able to access their games wherever they are and via whatever hardware they happen to have handy. That day’s coming, sooner than most of us expect. And we better be ready for it.