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Game Design - Getting Criticism

Discussion in 'EverQuest II General Discussion' started by Dizzy, Jan 11, 2018.

  1. Dizzy

    Dizzy Active Member

    I though that others maybe interested in this old post about getting criticism care of Raph Koster. It's pitched at game designers in my opinion.

    On getting criticism
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
    • Appreciation Appreciation x 1
  2. Mizgamer62

    Mizgamer62 Active Member

    Thank you for sharing this with us. It is definitely directed at game designers and appears to be written by a game designer. I particularly appreciated these pearls of wisdom:

    Everyone who dislikes your work is right.

    This is the hardest pill to swallow. I’ve never gotten a piece of feedback that was wrong. You see, you can’t deny a player their unique experience. Whatever they felt, was true. For them. And something in your work triggered it.

    It is useless, and worse, actually self-defeating, to attempt to deny the critique. Sure, there are sometimes reviews that seem spiteful, unfair, and the rest. But the vast majority of the time, people are giving their honest reaction.

    And the bottom line is, you put the game out there in order to get reactions. If it were not for reactions, you could have just kept the game in your drawer and gotten everything you needed out of it.


    People who tell you you’re awesome are useless. No, dangerous.

    They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is. Especially watch out for the ones who tell you that nobody understands your genius.
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2018
    • Agree Agree x 3
  3. Tekka

    Tekka That Village Idiot

    I think this is where the EQ2 Team is at, and has been for a while. For various reasons, a lack of meaningful communication and poor, unprofessional Team attitudes being the most prominent outside of a marked lack of quality in the past couple of years, has lead to a distinct disconnect of the players from the game - apathy and indifference.

    The Team has forgotten that folks also criticize because they care, and they value the thing they're criticizing. The fact that folks have now stopped criticizing is far, far more important than the cheerleaders that dropped their pompoms.




    If you agree with the criticism, say “thank you.” If you disagree, say “fair enough,” and “thank you.”

    Complaining about a critique, or about a bad review, is utterly pointless. You can’t deny the subjective experience of the reviewer. You also have to be thankful that they paid enough attention to actually say anything at all. The fact is that indifference is the enemy, not engagement, even if that engagement doesn’t get the results you want.

    You’re going to face way more indifference in your career than anything else. There are a lot of people out there working really hard, and they all want the audience attention that you do. Always be grateful for the attention. Someone takes the time to let you know what they thought? That’s already one in a thousand. They cared.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Appreciation Appreciation x 1
    • Winner Winner x 1

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