[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

Time to fire up some more GameSetLinks, and this set is headed by Ian Bogost and friends' intriguing blog on using gaming to cover or discuss news, this time looking at where that distinctly under-exploited concept could actually go in the future.

Also hanging out in here - Matthew Wasteland on developer screenshot issues, the Intuition Games guys on using pay-to-download items in their game or.. going bust, and some very readable MMO trends for 2009 from the ICO Partners folks.

Go go go:

Newsgames in the Pipe - News Games: Georgia Tech Journalism & Games Project
'Every once in awhile, I struggle with the idea of the breaking newsgame. How could a newspaper, or an independent game developer, possibly make a game on the fly that was both "worth playing" and directly relevant to the news of the day?'

Summons of the Ideal: Really? » Murderblog 3D
This is rambling and a little beautiful.

Capturing A (Fake) Moment in Time (Magical Wasteland)
Game Developer magazine humor columnist Matthew Wasteland on a fascinating developer-side quandary: 'At what point does a screenshot become a lie? Is there something distasteful about the way developers will gather everyone into a local multiplayer game and purposely choreograph the action?'

Swallowing Our Pride and Selling Our Soul: A How-To Guide at Intuition Games
Fascinating, wrenching discussion on Intuition's free-to-play Kongregate-hosted title DinoWaurs, and why they have to add pay-to-download items that make the player more powerful - or else they'll go bust. Game design vs. eating, as they say.

ICO Partners » Blog Archive » 9 online games/MMO trends for 2009 - part 2
Some excellent trends outlined here - useful stuff.

Hit Self-Destruct: Rosetta
A nice piece on his blog by the GSW columnist: 'This post is a spoiler-heavy discussion of Gravity Bone, a thoroughly worthwhile -- and also free -- indie game.'