Monday, April 02, 2007

Let's get it on like Oprah

Before I go to town, I want to say that yes, I did not post something April Foolishy. On this day, all though I love all of the jokes, I usually put my "politician/car salesman/lawyer" force shield on when encountering anyone or anything on this day. I will admit though, one person...he knows who he is...BRENT!!!... had me for about 5 seconds on Saturday (or was it Friday??? hmmmm), so that doesn't count. Shame on you sir! Shaaaaame.

Now, there is a blog post over at Psychochild that I caught my attention during my morning surfing. Remember, it was posted on April 1st, so I wanna see goggles and force shields people! There is quite a bit of language in the article, but it's still funny as hell. It also got me thinking about if some devs feel that way about people like, well, me. I've commented quite a bit on "innovation" and design issues, brought up suggestions that would maybe make games better. Holy crap! This guy wants me to die!? /sob

Seriously, reading all of the noise out there must get to some devs at some point...it would get to me. Designing a game is hard work and these guys put in a lot of hours to bring us entertainment. Let's face it, the general, the player noise out there usually falls on the negative side of the fence. It's sort of a golden rule...you never hear about it when it goes wrong. It's true, it's a really vocal minority of assha....ummmm, unitards, but man do they make quite a bit of noise when they feel something is wrong with their game. I kind of wonder what goes through a devs head when your "typical" fire erupts on the forums? How do they isolate themselves from all of the negativity that spews at them on a daily basis? I know the blog entry is tongue-in-cheek, but do they have days when they just say, "Screw you guys...I'm going home...".

D out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Heya. As I said in other places, this was mostly an April Fool's post. Mostly. The post was certain attitudes taken to extremes. This is part of what I think April Fool's Day is all about: saying and doing things that you can't say or do other times, with the hopes that someone gets the point.

The biggest issue most devs have is what I say in my post: people who won't take, "We know that won't work," as an answer. Even if we step through our reasoning, there's always some room for wiggling and haggling and anybody with enough tenacity will always have enough ammunition to continue the fight.

Note that this isn't just an issue with people on forums. I've had to nip quite a few arguments in the bud in my current work. The difference is that as a lead designer and someone who influences who gets paid, I have more control over the argument. But, there's a reason why people like Gordon Walton call the design process, "knifing your babies." Sometimes it really sucks to have to dump your super-cool idea. The main difference between a professional and an amateur game designer is the ability to recognize your ideas with no future and being able to abandon them in the cradle.