Yesterday, we mentioned the fact that game designers often walk a fine line when figuring out how best to dangle a nice, looty carrot in front of their audience; somewhat on the same subject (loot!), Roger Travis goes back to the Iliad and even further to illustrate some ancient roots of the same thing we see in modern MMOs: grinding, loot, and boss battles, oh my! And really, even that squad you're running end game content with harkens back to an older group of 'heroes':

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We posted a little musing on books that should be made into games a while back, which spawned plenty of discussion. Now someone's gone the extra step and added screenshots and more complex mechanic ideas for Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff's Revenge, Huckleberry Finn's Xtreme Rafting, and To Kill a Mockingbird: Furor Excessum:

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Genius Sonority has teamed up with a Japanese publishing company Chukei to release Bunagku Zenshuu, a collection of 100 ebooks you can read on your DS. Once you are done reading said 100 books, you can download more literature via WiFi. The catch that absolutely destroys the concept? The content is abridged.

The (game?) will be released October 18th with new content coming as soon as November. We're not certain that the DS screen is easy enough on the eyes for extended reading sessions, but we do fully realise that the DS can be held like a book—like a freakin' smartypants book! So we're sure it's a great idea.

The DS turned into an e-Book reader [siliconera]

Have you ever dreamed of entering a fantastical world filled with adventure, danger, and furries faeries? I know, only every day, right? Well Sierra Entertainment and Stormfront Studio are looking to make that dream come true, as they announce The Spiderwick Chronicles, the game of the movie of the book series, coming in 2008 for the Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC, and Nintendo DS. Based off of the 2008 film by Nickelodeon Films and Paramount, the game will follow the adventures of twins Jared and Simon and their sister Mallory Grace as they move into the decrepit Spiderwick Estate and discover a field guide to fairies that launches them into an alternate world full of magical creatures such as brownies, elves, and nixies *happy sigh*. It's all based off a series of children's books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, who do a lovely job of creating captivating stories in the vein Narnia author C.S. Lewis. Children young and old can start exploring the Spiderwick Estate next February.

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