en-US Sun, 05 Jan 2025 08:37:46 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7176344807 Sun, 05 Jan 2025 08:37:46 -0800 /review/show/7176344807 Andrej gave 5 stars to The World of Warcraft Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development (Kindle Edition) by John Staats
Behind the scenes look at the making of one of the greatest games ever, that continues to thrive to this day 20 years later (with many people including myself preferring to play the very original 2004 "classic" release over today's "retail" version). Core team of 50 people, 5 years, no bs focus mode in a dingy environment, a lot of crunch time. At the end, the entire team burnt out but gaming history mode. Lots of fun anecdotes if you've played the game, e.g. why the Human starting areas are so much more detailed, why the ship in the Deadmines is in a cave, how there is a dungeon in Blasted Lands noone has visited, Assmaster lore, and why Molten Core is so simple and barren (it was sprinted in 1 week by John at the very end, haha!). I think we're lucky that John has captured the development of this masterpiece so nicely in this book as a matter of historical record.

Recommending if you've played WoW or if you're interested in companies and environments that are able to create high quality, lasting, genre-defining games instead of plenty of similar mmorpg slop that was made around the same time. ]]> Review5638112061 Thu, 22 Jun 2023 12:23:21 -0700 /review/show/5638112061 Andrej gave 2 stars to The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Paperback) by Neal Stephenson
bookshelves: did-not-finish
]]> ReadStatus6664882195 Sat, 03 Jun 2023 10:48:38 -0700 /review/show/5593444851 Andrej wants to read The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig
]]> ReadStatus6664866436 Sat, 03 Jun 2023 10:42:36 -0700 /review/show/5593433469 Andrej wants to read Amok and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig
]]> Review5593428799 Sat, 03 Jun 2023 10:40:33 -0700 /review/show/5593428799 Andrej gave 4 stars to Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon (Hardcover) by Kim Zetter
]]>