Blog Herding: Community Edition 08/22/13

Today is the  two-year anniversary of Blog Herding since it made its triumphant return and was handed over to a member of the community. Thanks to the devoted community’s tireless efforts, it’s been running strong ever since.

Blog Herding Stats:

Period Reviewed: August 12 – August 18, 2013
Number of User Blogs: 86
Number of User Bloggers: 51
Number of User Blogs Herded: 12

Community Events:

Extra Life 2013 – Team GIO Update #2
With less than 90 days until the Extra Life charity event, Zachary Pligge provides an updated status on the number of contributors and the amount of donations that have been pledged so far.

Community Blogs:

Why You Should Be Playing Dragon's Dogma
Dragon’s Dogma received mostly positive marks from many reviewers. Thegodofwine7 seems to agree, in a blog that praises the game while mentioning some of its finer qualities.

Why One Of The World's Oldest Stereotypes Needs To Die
Marco Polo tackles the interesting topic of gamer ages and the stereotypes often associated with young and old gamers in this blog where he draws the conclusion age really means nothing.

The Evolution Of Character
No doubt one of the benefits of a franchise spanning a number of sequels is the opportunity to grow and develop the characters, which is what John Wrek talks about in this blog focused on Sam Fisher.

Why Do Art Games Cost So Much?
Skybreaker34 makes a curious observation regarding the pricing of independent titles while wondering why some art games seem to cost more than other styles of games.

Grand Theft Auto Online Reveal
There are plenty of excited gamers anxiously waiting for the release of Grand Theft Auto, like community member Rich, who summarizes the latest announcement nicely.

What A Licensed Superhero Game Needs To Work
Video games based on comic-book heroes are about as hit or miss as movies based on comic-book heroes. Rhotaphota has a few thoughts on what it takes to make the combination work.

Could There Ever Be Another Crash...?
A tad long but very informative and one of the week’s most popular blogs, RezidentHazard (rides again) questions whether the video game industry could ever suffer another crash like it did in the '80s.

Top Ten Things In RPGs That Are Totally Bogus
The Destroyer reveals something that deep down all of us know but sometimes refuse to acknowledge when we’re playing a game – they’re not real. And not only that, sometimes they’re far-fetched.

Top 5 Hardest Puzzles In Zelda
With a handful of blogs focusing on various elements from The Legend of Zelda series, this particular piece from VANNAHFØX THE TRIFØRCE WIELDER focuses on puzzle difficulty.

My Pitches For EA's Future Star Wars Games
With the future of the Star Wars franchise uncertain, Tim Gruver considers a couple of different possibilities to bring balance to the Force. Move forward cautiously we must.

Are Artsy Games Simply Bedtime Stories For Adults?
The Rolling Gamer shares an interesting perspective on the rise of independent games centered around their artistic design and why gamers seem naturally attracted to these types of games.

XCOM GIO 1: HISTory Kills
Noobtubin8er returns after an extended leave of absence and picks up where he left off with his X-COM saga based largely on his playthrough of the game featuring characters based on several community personalities.

Community Reviews:

Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons Review
Buddy Acker reviews Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons, the recently released downloadable action-adventure game from Starbreeze Studios.

Infinitely Awesome
The fanfare for Bioshock Infinite might’ve died down a bit, but plenty of gamers are still playing it while others, like BRAV0 F1VE, take it a step further and publish a review of their experience.

Community Podcasts:

The JIM Show Season 2 Episode 15 With Special Guest Nathan Meunier
True to their word, the fine folks of the Jacked Up Indie and Mojo show return again this week with an episode featuring Nathan Meunier, a freelance video game journalist and published author.

Don’t forget to send your feedback, recommendations, and community events in to my personal Game Informer account located here to ensure this feature continues to provide the content you’re eager to read.

Happy Blogging!

Your friendly neighborhood blogging community (08/12/13 – 08/18/13):
Alex; Angry Adam; AshaMan3000; bombstopper; born4this; Boss Kowbel (2); cerpintaxman; Chandler Tate (5); Chelsea Pruitt (7); Chris Mrkvicka; codforlife (7); Cpu Xl (2); drawesomemd; Eric Watson (2); Hawke, Apparently the Angry Joe of Obscure Games; Jack Gardner; jackson stone (2); Joe Fathead; John Wrek (2); LetMeGetToACheckpoint; Luis E. Morales Falcon; Marco Polo; Mega Afreindofurs; Mirage001; NO MAN; Noobtubin8er; O'Dell Harmon; Oni no Tenshi; Paradigmthefallen (5); Prince of Snark Euphoric Ennui I (2); RadiantChaos; Redguard Assassin; reidloS doG; RezidentHazard (rides again); rhotaphota (4); Rich (2); roadrashdeath; Saturday Morning Replay; sinkheadhxc; Skybreaker34; StonedMagician (2); The Destroyer; The Enemy Gate is Down; The Rolling Gamer; thegodofwine7; Tim Gruver (3); Timothy Repasky; TOGNick; VANNAHFØX THE TRIFØRCE WIELDER (3); xking595x; and xl9.

Video Game Archives – Quote of the Week:
“At the end of the day, the only thing the gamer cares about is that games are fun to play.” – Julie Uhrman