The Escapist Issue #40 Now Available

The fortieth issue of Escapist Magazine contains four new articles, including a fourth installment to Warren Spector's "Gaming at the Margins" feature and an editorial that focuses on virtual property sales in MMORPGs. A snip from Warren's article:
Lots of people claim to see The Future - it's online, it's convergence, it's console, it's whatever.

It's nonsense.

Figuring out what to do to reach the grand and glorious future we deserve is part business, part personal and, I think (despite the fact that I just spent many thousands of words writing about the future), largely foolishness.

No one knows what they're doing, let alone how to lead us to the Promised Land. And scary as that may be to contemplate, it gives me hope, too. In some bizarre, through-the-looking-glass way, we may be approaching a time when expertise and experience count for less than they ever have, rather than more. Doors may be about to open for people with genuinely new ways of thinking about or doing things.

The traditional 800 pound gorillas of this business may have all the money and they may seem to have all the clout, but they don't know how to address the problems of our changing world any better than anyone else. Little guys - whether independent or working inside the big development and publishing organizations - can really make a difference in a world where innovation is going to be critical to success.