Last Online: 12/13/07
Allen Varney
I'm a game designer and writer for The Escapist; designer of the large-scale multiplayer business ethics simulation Executive Challenge, and of the 2004 edition of the tabletop roleplaying game PARANOIA.
After a temporary relocation to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- yes, really -- I have returned to my longtime home in Austin, Texas, where I have started work on a browser-based boutique passive game of my own design.
After a temporary relocation to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- yes, really -- I have returned to my longtime home in Austin, Texas, where I have started work on a browser-based boutique passive game of my own design.
Think globally, act virtually
My Escapist articles
I'm the most prolific non-staff contributor to The Escapist ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com ). Since this weekly online gaming magazine launched in July 2005, I have appeared in about half the issues. Here are the stories I wrote, with links to the text versions of the articles:
#2: "Greg Gorden"
The longtime paper-game designer is now putting Elder Scrolls games on cellphones.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/2/12
#3: "Gamer Nation"
An entire country that makes your Counter-Strike clan look like wimps: South Korea.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/3/2
#4: "Player-Prompted PARANOIA"
Crowdsourcing helped me make this roleplaying game lots better.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/4/18
#5: "Lifegame 2020"
If life is just a game, in 2020 we'll be playing 24/7.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/5/26
#6: "Licensing: Live With It"
Warren Spector says we can thrive through adaptation.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/6/3
#7: ">READ GAME"
Heirs of Infocom, fans of interactive fiction still choose their own adventures.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/7/12
#8: "Casual Fortunes"
Getting rich slowly with casual games.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/8/14
#9: "Our Games Are Built on Paper"
It all started with pencils and dice.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/9/18
#13: "The Buzz is Gone"
Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space went to the Moon -- and then to oblivion.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/13/3
#14: "The Conquest of Origin"
Origin created worlds. EA shipped games. EA won.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/14/4
#16: "Serious Cro"
Shooter genre blown open by Croteam (who?) in Croatia (where?).
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/16/3
#18: "The Asian Weird"
Actual (no! yes!) unspeakably strange games Americans never saw.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/18/10
#19: "Real World Grief"
Historical antecedents of the guy who ganked you in UO.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/19/33
#20: "When Gamers Breed"
Gaming is an extraordinarily effective parenting tool.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/20/3
#21: "Game Design in the Transfigured World"
In the next two centuries, roleplaying ideas will transform society. Game designers can help.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/21/3
#22: "Les Grognards"
"Gameboxes" let them e-mail moves, but wargamers remain joyously low-tech.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/22/4
#34: "Attack of the Parasites"
Casual portals all look alike -- and soon, so will their games.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/34/3
#35: "I Will Survive"
When game design is outlawed, only outlaws will design games.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/35/2
#36: "My Eyes Glaze Over"
Roleplaying theory for short attention spans.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/36/17
#39: "Metroid Primed"
Nintendo's second-string franchise is poised to jump higher.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/39/11
("[Miyamoto] would rant at us in Japanese for a minute and a half, and then the translator would just say, 'He's upset.'" -- Former Retro Studios employee)
#40: "Wal-Mart Rules"
One giant company controls your games -- but how much longer?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/40/11
#49: "Red Blindness"
China will soon be the #1 gaming market, and the US has no clue how or why.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/49/11
#52: "Speed Thrills"
Speedrunners test the limits of games and game design.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/52/14
#53: "Lifegame 2.0"
The ubiquitous always-on game of the future -- MySpace?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/53/15
#54: "Wing Leader"
Fans of Origin's Wing Commander keep the ships flying.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/54/4
#55: "Raph Koster on Fire"
Ultima Online/Star Wars Galaxies designer immolates himself for your pleasure.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/55/9
#57: "Immersion Unexplained"
Why do we lose ourselves in games? Don't ask a humanities professor.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/57/19
#58: "Ubisourcing"
Ubisoft pushes game production into a larger world.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/58/10
#61: "The Wideload Way"
Wideload Games makes outsourcing fun.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/61/9
#62: "Feelies"
Those trinkets, gimcracks, and doodads that used to be included with games -- whatever happened to them?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/62/11
#65: "Trading Web Cards"
Since the earliest Magic: The Gathering days, trading card games have been moving online.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/65/4
#66: "My Hindu Shooter"
Making a non-violent first-person shooter turned out to be a bad idea.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/66/8
#68: "Red vs. Blue Makes Green"
Rooster Teeth's machinima hit draws imitators -- including (eventually) Hollywood.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/68/15
#72: "StarForce Must Die"
The gaming community is deleting the world's most hated copy protection -- but what about the attitude behind it?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/72/4
#74: "Un-laming Phone Games"
An interview with mobile phone games consultant Eric Goldberg.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/74/6
#75: "Boutique MMOGs"
Under the radar, but bigger than EverQuest.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/75/15
(See also this blog post, "Your own MMOG?": http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/66881-Your-own-MMOG)
#78: "Offbeat Sports Games"
Don't toss that dwarf, hand me the box kite.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/78/13
#79: "In 3-D"
Will computer games ever truly breach the third dimension?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/79/11
#80: "Fat Music"
Computer gaming virtuoso The Fat Man promotes brave and beautiful sound.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/80/12
#81: "Uwe Boll and the German Tax Code"
Why people keep giving him money to make movies.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/81/4
#82: "Buzz Games"
In prediction markets, you're not just the player, you're the product.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/82/16
#84: "Dunbar's Number"
The number of players you hang out with is all in your mind.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/84/23
#87: "The Indie Guru"
Steve Pavlina helps indie game developers wake up.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/87/19
#88: "The French Democracy"
A machinima smash raises questions about art -- and copyright.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/88/12
#90: "The PlayStation 3 Deadpool"
Death toll from console release unlikely to rise, writer says.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/90/12
#93: "Captain of the Burning Sea"
And Pirates of the Burning Sea producer John Tynes is a right good captain too.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/93/16
#94: "Video Vegas"
Slot machine or videogame? It's getting hard to tell.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/94/15
#96: "Street Fighting USA"
After 19 years, Capcom's classic fighter demands a warrior's discipline.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/96/4
#97: "LEGO Games"
More ways to stack bricks than you can easily imagine.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/97/8
#99: "Biz Sims"
When companies play games with themselves, it's all business.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/99/9
#101: "Blowing Up Galaxies"
For Star Wars Galaxies players, Sony Online's SWG NGE was DOA.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/101/15
(See also this Escapist blog post, "Crying Freeman," about how blame for the entire "New Game Enhancements" fell on one hapless underling: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/8.42942.)
#102: "Cthulhu: Why so difficult?"
Why Lovecraftian computer games fare so poorly.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/102/10
#103: "The Korean Invasion"
Asian MMOGs find the West is hard to win.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/103/8
#105: "Richard Garfield: The Magic man today"
The creator of Magic: The Gathering has become a role model.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_105/784-Richard-Garfield
#107: "Murder Parties"
Down these mean streets a dinner guest must go.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_107/1304-Murder-Parties
#108: "Pinball Revived"
The web helps an old favorite ricochet back.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_108/1317-Pinball-Revived
#109: "London in Oblivion"
Game engines for architects? Architecture for gamers? Why not?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_109/1331-London-in-Oblivion
#112: "World of New Darkness"
White Wolf's antagonists grow up.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_112/1374-World-of-New-Darkness
#2: "Greg Gorden"
The longtime paper-game designer is now putting Elder Scrolls games on cellphones.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/2/12
#3: "Gamer Nation"
An entire country that makes your Counter-Strike clan look like wimps: South Korea.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/3/2
#4: "Player-Prompted PARANOIA"
Crowdsourcing helped me make this roleplaying game lots better.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/4/18
#5: "Lifegame 2020"
If life is just a game, in 2020 we'll be playing 24/7.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/5/26
#6: "Licensing: Live With It"
Warren Spector says we can thrive through adaptation.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/6/3
#7: ">READ GAME"
Heirs of Infocom, fans of interactive fiction still choose their own adventures.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/7/12
#8: "Casual Fortunes"
Getting rich slowly with casual games.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/8/14
#9: "Our Games Are Built on Paper"
It all started with pencils and dice.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/9/18
#13: "The Buzz is Gone"
Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space went to the Moon -- and then to oblivion.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/13/3
#14: "The Conquest of Origin"
Origin created worlds. EA shipped games. EA won.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/14/4
#16: "Serious Cro"
Shooter genre blown open by Croteam (who?) in Croatia (where?).
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/16/3
#18: "The Asian Weird"
Actual (no! yes!) unspeakably strange games Americans never saw.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/18/10
#19: "Real World Grief"
Historical antecedents of the guy who ganked you in UO.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/19/33
#20: "When Gamers Breed"
Gaming is an extraordinarily effective parenting tool.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/20/3
#21: "Game Design in the Transfigured World"
In the next two centuries, roleplaying ideas will transform society. Game designers can help.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/21/3
#22: "Les Grognards"
"Gameboxes" let them e-mail moves, but wargamers remain joyously low-tech.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/22/4
#34: "Attack of the Parasites"
Casual portals all look alike -- and soon, so will their games.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/34/3
#35: "I Will Survive"
When game design is outlawed, only outlaws will design games.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/35/2
#36: "My Eyes Glaze Over"
Roleplaying theory for short attention spans.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/36/17
#39: "Metroid Primed"
Nintendo's second-string franchise is poised to jump higher.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/39/11
("[Miyamoto] would rant at us in Japanese for a minute and a half, and then the translator would just say, 'He's upset.'" -- Former Retro Studios employee)
#40: "Wal-Mart Rules"
One giant company controls your games -- but how much longer?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/40/11
#49: "Red Blindness"
China will soon be the #1 gaming market, and the US has no clue how or why.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/49/11
#52: "Speed Thrills"
Speedrunners test the limits of games and game design.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/52/14
#53: "Lifegame 2.0"
The ubiquitous always-on game of the future -- MySpace?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/53/15
#54: "Wing Leader"
Fans of Origin's Wing Commander keep the ships flying.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/54/4
#55: "Raph Koster on Fire"
Ultima Online/Star Wars Galaxies designer immolates himself for your pleasure.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/55/9
#57: "Immersion Unexplained"
Why do we lose ourselves in games? Don't ask a humanities professor.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/57/19
#58: "Ubisourcing"
Ubisoft pushes game production into a larger world.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/58/10
#61: "The Wideload Way"
Wideload Games makes outsourcing fun.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/61/9
#62: "Feelies"
Those trinkets, gimcracks, and doodads that used to be included with games -- whatever happened to them?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/62/11
#65: "Trading Web Cards"
Since the earliest Magic: The Gathering days, trading card games have been moving online.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/65/4
#66: "My Hindu Shooter"
Making a non-violent first-person shooter turned out to be a bad idea.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/66/8
#68: "Red vs. Blue Makes Green"
Rooster Teeth's machinima hit draws imitators -- including (eventually) Hollywood.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/68/15
#72: "StarForce Must Die"
The gaming community is deleting the world's most hated copy protection -- but what about the attitude behind it?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/72/4
#74: "Un-laming Phone Games"
An interview with mobile phone games consultant Eric Goldberg.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/74/6
#75: "Boutique MMOGs"
Under the radar, but bigger than EverQuest.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/75/15
(See also this blog post, "Your own MMOG?": http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/66881-Your-own-MMOG)
#78: "Offbeat Sports Games"
Don't toss that dwarf, hand me the box kite.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/78/13
#79: "In 3-D"
Will computer games ever truly breach the third dimension?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/79/11
#80: "Fat Music"
Computer gaming virtuoso The Fat Man promotes brave and beautiful sound.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/80/12
#81: "Uwe Boll and the German Tax Code"
Why people keep giving him money to make movies.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/81/4
#82: "Buzz Games"
In prediction markets, you're not just the player, you're the product.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/82/16
#84: "Dunbar's Number"
The number of players you hang out with is all in your mind.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/84/23
#87: "The Indie Guru"
Steve Pavlina helps indie game developers wake up.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/87/19
#88: "The French Democracy"
A machinima smash raises questions about art -- and copyright.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/88/12
#90: "The PlayStation 3 Deadpool"
Death toll from console release unlikely to rise, writer says.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/90/12
#93: "Captain of the Burning Sea"
And Pirates of the Burning Sea producer John Tynes is a right good captain too.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/93/16
#94: "Video Vegas"
Slot machine or videogame? It's getting hard to tell.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/94/15
#96: "Street Fighting USA"
After 19 years, Capcom's classic fighter demands a warrior's discipline.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/96/4
#97: "LEGO Games"
More ways to stack bricks than you can easily imagine.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/97/8
#99: "Biz Sims"
When companies play games with themselves, it's all business.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/99/9
#101: "Blowing Up Galaxies"
For Star Wars Galaxies players, Sony Online's SWG NGE was DOA.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/101/15
(See also this Escapist blog post, "Crying Freeman," about how blame for the entire "New Game Enhancements" fell on one hapless underling: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/8.42942.)
#102: "Cthulhu: Why so difficult?"
Why Lovecraftian computer games fare so poorly.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/102/10
#103: "The Korean Invasion"
Asian MMOGs find the West is hard to win.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/103/8
#105: "Richard Garfield: The Magic man today"
The creator of Magic: The Gathering has become a role model.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_105/784-Richard-Garfield
#107: "Murder Parties"
Down these mean streets a dinner guest must go.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_107/1304-Murder-Parties
#108: "Pinball Revived"
The web helps an old favorite ricochet back.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_108/1317-Pinball-Revived
#109: "London in Oblivion"
Game engines for architects? Architecture for gamers? Why not?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_109/1331-London-in-Oblivion
#112: "World of New Darkness"
White Wolf's antagonists grow up.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_112/1374-World-of-New-Darkness








