Mr Daschle has held his fractious caucus together by relying on quiet dialogue rather than Bush-style intimidation.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

Essentially, the results of a player's in-game choices are used to populate a post-game comic book-style story -- progress, character info, settings, dialogue, achievements and screenshots are all pumped into an algorithm alongside the results of said variables, metrics from your playthrough, and your performance therein.

ENGADGET: Apple patent outs system for turning video game choices into comic books, is all about Mass Effect

All are written in the social-realist style, and all are marked by Mr Wilson's gift for dialogue, his feeling for language and his capacity to evoke unsentimental emotion.

ECONOMIST: August Wilson