Teradome.

I often feel like open criticism in Design is perceived by most people like peer review in Science is: professionals know how it is used within The Process, but people outside the field see it as a binary battle and think “I was right, these guys don’t know what they’re doing.”

Criticism is never bad, but perhaps too much of it today is unsolicited and widely published to people who really don’t need to see any of it.

“This is an exiting day for our teams… and it’s all about the games,” says Xbox boss Don Mattrick.

Let’s be perfectly honest here: of course there will be games. You can’t be a triple-A developer and not be multi-platform. If Microsoft expects a wave of announces of game titles and features to satisfy E3 this year, they’ll be sorely disappointed.

It’s actually about the players and developers, and given all of the news that came out ahead of this event, I’m not confident that Microsoft will announce anything truly worthy of players and developers’ attention.

The zaggers, he said, followed Zynga’s strategy of making games for a low-monetizing mass audience, as opposed to Kixeye’s niche of combat/strategy gamers, who spend a lot more on in-game purchases.

Call me crazy, but this sounds like a precursor to the results of Xbox One’s focus on the mass audience, as opposed to the PS4’s niche of hardcore/console gamers, who oh never mind you get it

My thoughts on the Pebble smartwatch.

[It’s] like a gentle tap on your shoulder, versus someone shouting your name from a distance.

A great little story from one of my favorite local blogs, Vanishing New York:

Jake says, “I just couldn’t imagine it becoming a condo, or having someone else running it. I could not handle that. So it was an easy decision. If I wasn’t here, this place would disappear.”

What a mensch.