The Observatory

The Observatory is for references to essays, books, and articles from other people.

Reading list

A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming (Finch, 2008)
Describes and explains the fundamental differences between the style of play encouraged by the rules system of original Dungeons and Dragons (circa 1974), and the style of play encouraged by the rules systems of modern Dungeons and Dragons (third edition and above).
From The Shadows: Users as Designers, Producers, Marketers, Distributers, and Technical Support (Lindsay, 2003)
Investigates the changing roles of the user of a particular technology over the lifetime of that technology, tracing the lifetime from initial concept, to marketing, to release, and finally to obselescence. The technology used for the case study in this essay is the TRS-80 personal computer.
Patterns of Software (Gabriel, 1996)
Explores the work of architect Christopher Alexander on pattern langauges, and attempts to apply his theories to the field of software development.

RPG Zine: A How-To Zine About Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design (Paoletta, 2019)
Describes and demonstrates a structured and holistic approach to designing a tabletop roleplaying game.

Software and Anarchy (Lulamoon & Patton, 2021)
Advocates for an anarchistic approach to developing software, from the perspective of programming environment design, developer empowerment and organisation, and taking a liberatory approach to program design.