Originally shared by Rob Donoghue
People sometimes ask me why such over the top steps need to be taken to declare that everyone is welcome as a game designer. After all, we all agree that this is true, right?
And yes, we do largely agree. Almost no one actually says that people shouldn't be game designers or that they shouldn't make things. I mean, yes, some people, but they a very small group of known assholes, and they have problems well beyond this. By and large, as a community (or as a collection of communities) we agree that anyone can design games.
So given that, isn't it silly and pointless to dwell on the fact that anyone can be a game designer?
Sure seems it, if you think that's the extent of the conversation. The problem is - it is not. I do not wave the flag of game design because people say you can't do it, I wave it because once you actually do it, then people are going to come out of the woodwork to tell you that the thing you made is crap. Utter crap. Pointless and wasteful.
Many of these, I should note, are people who have supported the nominal idea that everyone can design games - they are merely revealing an unspoken but.(1).
And that is the point when it is easiest to think "I'm not a game designer. My thing is crap. I should stop.". And that is the moment when I want to be there with my stupid, corny card or my dumbass panel or other belief that no, godammit, you can make the thing, and I am SO GLAD YOU DID.
Because I am. Your thing is awesome. It need not be perfect. It need not even work. But it's the application of your mind and heart to a medium that I love, and that means it's going to carve new shapes that I have never seen before. Maybe I won't like those shapes. Maybe they're not shapes I will use. But the only way we ever find out is because someone makes the shapes, and I will never stop celebrating that.
So keep it up. Please.
(1) - and often an explicitly spoken ass.
If the mere thought that you are a game designer makes you think you're doing a good job (and if the mere fact you're not makes you think you can't do a good job) you're already not thinking straight.
RépondreSupprimerI think the subtext here is "I have a lot of friends and fans who are both bad at game design and moan about impostor syndrome and I want to make them feel better about themselves because it makes me feel like I'm doing something to help them at no personal cost to me in real time effort or consideration"
OR dropping one needless and undiscriminating entry barrier so people can try their hand at it and be judged on their work.
RépondreSupprimerWhat happens when they are judged on their work and they are judged wanting?
RépondreSupprimerMy guess is that Rob's friends spin this as "Telling me I'm not a game designer" (rather than "evaluating you like everyone else and failing to preference-match) so they can spin criticism as a political issue.