What’s wrong with the game industry (this hour)
Happy 4th of July! Let me take this opportunity to do something truly American: complain about my work.
Sanya has a post about "best practices" talks at conferences. She mentions that she has a sense of deja vu: saying the same thing to the same people taking the same notes as before. She then laments that conferences never really seem to be educational, just excuses to get together and network.
It's the same thing I was feeling several years ago and why, although I love making games, I really fucking hate the game industry.
The first problem, that people don't seem to learn, becomes really obvious once you start consulting on projects. Often you're asked to come in and give feedback on the process. The problem is that 9 times out of 10, the people hiring you just want you to confirm their own ideas. If you say something that contradicts them, they'll probably ignore you. Of course, if you confirm their ideas and they fail, well, they have someone to blame for not telling them otherwise! These experiences have been repeated between a lot of other game industry consultants I've talked to.
But, there's aother big problem, and the main reason why conferences are about "networking" instead of "classes": the culture of secrecy in the game industry. And, frankly, it's stupid.
Here's a situation I've run into quite a few times now.
Someone says, "I'm working on something I want to license to other developers!"
Psychochild says, "Oh, cool. Tell me about it, I might be able to get people interested."
Someone says, "I need you to sign an NDA."
Psychochild says, "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of me trying to get others interested?"
Someone says, "Er... let me get back to you...."
(Months pass....)
Or, how about
Someone says, "I may or may not be working on something cool!"
Psychochild says, "Hey, perhaps we can work together?"
Someone says, "Well, I can't tell you what I'm doing because it's a SEEEEEKRIT!!!!!"
Psychochild says, "Oooookay, then."
The truly ironic part here is that after the conference you can buy drinks for people and they'll spill almost any beans you want to hear. But, when it would benefit them? LIPS ARE SEALED!
This is especially stupid for smaller scale indie developers, because all it means is that we potentially duplicate efforts on things like technology or infrastructure. Yeah, you have a great idea for "Transformers meet Pokémon with a Hindu religion twist!" I have no interest in "stealing" your idea, I have plenty of my own and not enough hours in the day to implement them. Especially if you already have a design doc and work done on the idea, it's unlikely that I would be able to do better than you even if I wanted to "steal your idea."
Now, this doesn't mean there are not very good reasons for keeping some things secret. If you signed an NDA, then you are obligated to keep some things quiet. Trying to close a sensitive deal? Posting about it on your blog may not be a good idea. Part of what you have to consider is if sharing information is likely to bring greater rewards than the risks you're taking in revealing it. But, it's just hypocritical ti dismiss the "game designs" of wannabes as "worthless ideas" and claim "it's all in the implementation" then turn around and pretend every nugget falling from your design orifice is pure gold to be hidden away from prying eyes.
Finally, we have to look at the fact that people often don't understand why things succeed or fail. We can ignore attempts to mislead others ("We had almost no marketing!" "What about the two-page spreads in all the magazines every month for 3 months before launch." "...I like pie!"), or egos ("This project succeeded because I'm such an awesome leader!" "Everyone hates you." "I SAID AWESOME, BITCH!"), or even blatant idiocy ("That company came out of NOWHERE with a successful game!" "What about the years of history of developing games and IPs?" "Look, Elvis!"). Sometimes it's hard to really understand the dozens of different factors that went into it. And, frankly, sometimes it's just pure, dumb luck; you can do everything right and fail, just as you can do everything wrong and people struggle to enjoy the game despite it all.
Lately, I've been looking at most conferences as an inefficient use of my time. I'm not much of a night owl if I have to get up before noon, so I sometimes miss the really late night gab sessions. I am already in contact with a lot of people online so I don't need to meet them in person. I have a pretty good reputation, so I don't need to get in front of an audience to "prove" myself. I don't play the stupid political games, so some conferences seem to specially reject my proposals. On top of rising travel costs and the extreme hassle of flying anywhere, there are a lot of considerations that make conferences simply not as useful to me at this point. The only benefit is if I get to buy people like Richard Bartle dinner as a way of thanks for his generous nature over the years.
So, there's another in my endless series of rants about how the game industry sucks. What are your experiences?
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*laughs*
Pending that I get in the industry in a few months, I'll let you know.
Take a look at http://www.glassdoor.com. I'm sure you could find some good reasons why particular areas of the game industry sucks.
I'm actually pretty surprised that there are several industry bloggers that really don't enjoy conferences. There has got to be things there that interest you that isn't related to your field (removing the "I know it all" aspect)? And if you're at a company that is willing to pay you, why not go? And who couldn't use a new network connection? I do agree that the travel is a huge pain in the ass... My trip to the GDC this year was far from a smooth ride. I'm still debating on hitting up the Austin GDC (luckily, I live a lot closer and can drive).
Happy 4th.
Comment by David McGraw — 4 July, 2008 @ 6:07 PM
Personally , I've been looking for a wiki that covers the topic of MMO design. Sure, there are many mighty fine wikis dedicated to specific games, but apparently not one for the game industry itself.
I think I can understand why though: the explosion of the former is due to there being tens of millions of participants at that level (ie. players) combined with tangible knowledge (ie. things exist within those worlds), while a MMO design knowledge wiki would (a) have a much smaller audience, and (b) have less definitive nodes and points of knowledge (eg. opinion and such). Add to that the secretive nature of the industry you've described and I'm about set to give up looking now.
FWIW, in my own industry (web design, specifically information architecture) we've been stumbling along the same path for some time too. There are signs of change though.
Comment by Garumoo — 4 July, 2008 @ 10:19 PM
Lawyers and marketers have their place, but they should not be the alpha and omega of public communication. Openness in business, like openness in casual life, requires some measure of vulnerability. The sharing of ideas is as likely to result in new and enhanced ideas as concept theft. Review-enhanced ideas and community involvement are as good advertisements as last-minute feature revelations. And descriptions of experiences fall very short of actuality, so no more is being shared that a rough sketch of actual game elements. Vulnerability, the risk of abuse, is a fair price for the benefits of community engagement.
A company, like an individual, should repeatedly ask how its service to self and service to community can be made one action. The problem you're describing is that businessmen often think of themselves as parts of a company assembly line and forget that they're people. Either a company produces works to make money or it makes money to produce works. The latter is human; the former is animal.
Developers are listening to their advisers too much and their common sense too little.
Comment by Aaron — 4 July, 2008 @ 11:00 PM
It was a really good dinner, too!
Of course, the conversation was what made it.
Richard
Comment by Richard Bartle — 5 July, 2008 @ 4:44 AM
I wrote about this a while back, too. I'm with ya on all counts.
Comment by Darius K. — 5 July, 2008 @ 2:01 PM
#2 - check out the Nerfbat forums. Some interesting design-related talks go on in there.
Comment by Tim — 5 July, 2008 @ 11:53 PM
link love 07-08-08
[...] What’s wrong with the game industry (this hour). Brian Green rants a bit about the ridiculous level of secrecy pervasive in the game industry. I agree with him. [...]
Pingback by words — 8 July, 2008 @ 11:20 AM
You've just described every industry conference ever. Industries are slow to evolve. Conferences are always just an excuse to get together and network, whether you're an MMO designer, a plumber, or a porn star.
Comment by Axecleaver — 8 July, 2008 @ 11:48 AM
One thing to consider is that while you may be somewhat known around the MMO circles, speaking still can get you in front of an audience that can greatly expand the circle of people who 'know' you. For instance, I know for a fact that one of the reasons I was able to raise VC money was because some of them had seen me speak and subsequently approached me about investing. I'd never have been on their radar otherwise. Now, you might not be interested in being on their radar, but that's just one group of people (others might include media, foreign employers who aren't part of the US "circle", etc).
Along those lines in fact, I often find it more useful to speak at conferences that aren't focused on the same old games crowd in order to expose yourself to a new crowd. For instance, I enjoyed speaking at the Social Gaming Summit (http://www.socialgamingsummit.com) last month specifically because the panelists were not from the AAA retail industry and neither was the audience.
I do agree that the biggest benefit from conferences certainly comes from networking or from speaking (vs listening to someone speak), unless you're new to the field in which case I think hitting a couple conferences is really helpful (I know the first time I attended GDC it was revelatory for me).
Not sure what you mean about the political games. All I've ever done when speaking is submit an application or accept an invitation. No games at all surrounding speaking at conferences that I've seen, though I'll certainly grant that I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.
Comment by Matt Mihaly — 9 July, 2008 @ 3:29 PM