Sundays are for sorting the tangle of busted pipes under my sink out so I don’t have to change my socks twice a day after forgetting to wear my designated Kitchen Crocs. Before I remember this time and instantly become a style icon, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game-related things!)
The History Of How We Play wrote about ‘How We Learnt To Play With Our Fingers’, tracing the evolution of game controllers from early cabinets to PlayStation pads. I’d have loved to see this charted alongside actual design priorities – the piece does look into this briefly – since I reckon the two are interlinked in some interesting ways, but it’s a cool piece nontheless.
“Zooming in on the transition of input devices from military to gameplay applications is an interesting exercise to look at the influence of video games through. It shows both the diverse influences and the many paths that were tried and rejected on the way to modern design. The chaotic nature, dead-ends, and parallel evolutions of digital technology puts into sharp focus why the things that won ultimately did. Was it inevitability or just the best thing that we settled on? How early is anything that catches on evident to those who are paying attention?”