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My theory behind useless devs: They are in love with the final product they see in their heads, not the work. A useful, productive dev loves doing the work, and could not see themselves doing anything else.

Also, I have noticed that some of the useless devs almost have this attitude that they want to play the game they make. This should be a red flag when recruiting, because that person will basically want you to make the game for them, so they can play it. Anyone considering that they want to play the game they make, believe me, you won't. You will want to "experience it from a player's perspective", but believe me that you will not be wanting to progress a character, raid, etc. in your game if you designed it. Why would you want to? You watched the game grow from its early, ugly, unappealing stages and you know all of the game's secrets. Wonder, exploration and discovery are what push new players to become immersed in MMORPGs, and as a lead designer, you will experience none of these.

It is a completely different experience, developing a game such as an MMORPG. The joy comes from sitting at the sidelines as a mentor to the game, not unlike watching your own children grow up and succeed. You were there when they were pooping in their pants and drooling spaghetti down their chin in the beginning, and you feel an entirely different feeling when your child is going off to college, or starting their first steps in their career. You feel as though you succeeded through their success, but you are not drawn to be an active member of your child's life. The experience of the developer is through watching the players become actively engaged in your game, not being there as a peer to them, playing your own creation.

Yeah that I think that is pretty much right on. I have seen many such as this in my time with multiple indie groups, a lot of them in my time with FS hehe, Halls knows all about that.

Jackolantern wrote:My theory behind useless devs: They are in love with the final product they see in their heads, not the work. A useful, productive dev loves doing the work, and could not see themselves doing anything else.

Also, I have noticed that some of the useless devs almost have this attitude that they want to play the game they make.

I jackolantern this pretty much sums it up. The designer instinct is quite distinct from the player instinct. The player may be curious about the man behind the curtain, but fundamentally sees himself with Dorthy andf her cohorts. The designer IS the man behind the curtain.

Noctrine wrote:Well, there is one more blog I need to subscribe to.

Thanks