With Xmas Day rapidly approaching, I hope GameSetWatch readers have worked out if they're naughty or nice in time for the presents to arrived (or not, as the case may be!)

Luckily, here's some link-based presents to help you out, including some good Id and Quake history posts, a Persona 4 critique, inside LittleBigPlanet, too much game design documentation, the awesomeness of Chore Wars, and more.

In the hangar:

Daniel Primed:: Gaming Analysis, Critique and Culture » Quake and the Feeling of Nightmare
An excellent design analysis of Quake, also teamed up with an early history of id that's well worth reading.

Crispy Gamer - Feature: A Kiss on the Blips
Another excellent write-up of the New York chiptune scene's mega-fest.

The Brainy Gamer: You're not the boss of me
Some nifty Michael Abbott writing on Persona 4: 'If you're willing to accept the game on its own terms and allow it to define itself in its own way, you are in for a rich and stimulating RPG experience that will dispel the bad taste that some recent JRPGs may have left in your mouth.'

chewing pixels » UGC: Restoring our Sense of Wonder?
Simon Parkin on LittleBigPlanet: 'Now we’re a few weeks post the game’s release, I thought I’d survey the most popular UGC levels, not in terms of in-game downloads, but rather in terms of viral interest on the internet, to see if there are any common characteristics that have driven their popularity.'

Avant Game: I am on a ninja quest (to clean my apartment)
Jane McGonigal recommends Chore Wars, which appears to be a website where you gain XP by doing real-life chores - conceptually adorable.

My Uncle’s Box Of Pirated Games: Pandora, Floor 13, Conflict | brilli.am/writes
Fun time capsule-like reviews of overlooked Commodore Amiga games: 'Let me be bold for a moment: Pandora deserves to be incredibly important. It delivers what might be the best version of a mystery narrative within a game I’ve ever seen. In a nutshell, the game drops you inside a sentient, evil starship bent on destroying Earth.'

gameslol » Blog Archive » Game Design 101 Rant: Over-Reliance On Documentation
'You can’t design something just by writing 100+ pages about it. Game design isn’t about precisely predefining everything in a set of blueprints like an architect and then building it to spec. It’s a highly dynamic process.' As a (thankfully) ex-designer, I agree completely.

Broken Toys » In Eve, Even The Dupes Are Massive
Fascinating EVE Online exploit - as a commenter points out: 'The exploit basicly makes it so that the starbases that make the components don’t need any resources at all.'