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Gamasutra has the 7th edition of Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! up at last, and it's a good 'un. The onset has the most concise explanation of repetitive game design mistakes I've ever read:
Enthusiastic young people join the business; the hours and working conditions burn them out; they leave to find a more sane occupation, and a new crop shows up all ready for the flames. Apart from the waste of life and talent this represents, it means that game companies have no institutional memory, and that's partly why we keep making design errors.
Ah ha! I have never thought of it that way, but that makes a hell of a lot of sense. Why, at this very moment, from where I sit in a cafe in Seattle, I see a tring of battered Microsoft employees filing into their storage crates for the night, the old and lame being picked off by men in Andromeda Strain suits with handguns. As they disperse, sprightly young Digipen graduates take their places in line.
The feature covers a litany of game design sins; everything from hard-to-see crosshairs to crappy voice acting. I hope someone is paying attention.
Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! [Gamasutra]
