I'm the cat behind No Time To Play, a game development blog that ran from 2010 to 2023. It's now in maintenance mode, but still alive. This is an experimental mirror of the pages that are still updated, made because reasons.

Things videogames taught me

In SimCity 2000, if you cut the maintenance budget your infrastructure begins to crumble. You end up running around all the time fixing breakage, and spending more in the long run than if you hadn't cheapened out.

In Warcraft, you learn very quickly why battle lines were so important in the Middle Ages and Early Modern era: when you can't shoot a projectile very far and reloading is slow, you need as many weapons brought to bear on the enemy at the same time as you can. In practice that means fighters arrayed shoulder to shoulder.

In Master of Orion, the trick is to make trade deals with nations on your level or smaller. Why? Trade deals give both parties money in proportion to their own size. So if you sign with the biggest guy in the room, you get pocket money while they get rich – at your expense. And then they crush you with your own money that you foolishly handed over.

No wonder "traditional" educators don't like kids being influenced by games.