Comments on: I Are Game Design Blogger http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/ Game design, development, and industry commentary by MMO Game Designer Ryan Shwayder. Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:20:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Digital Lemonade Studios » Information Overload! http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-92021 Digital Lemonade Studios » Information Overload! Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:35:55 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-92021 [...] a professional designer (outside of my head), but a couple people have and I must say I much prefer Shwayder’s response over Moorguard’s. Why? Shwayder seems to take the “everything is worth reading to pick [...]

[...] a professional designer (outside of my head), but a couple people have and I must say I much prefer Shwayder’s response over Moorguard’s. Why? Shwayder seems to take the “everything is worth reading to pick [...]

]]> By: Ryan Shwayder http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84314 Ryan Shwayder Tue, 05 May 2009 15:39:07 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84314 It's okay, Bryan. I realize you can't recognize good ideas. It’s okay, Bryan. I realize you can’t recognize good ideas.

]]> By: Bryan http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84313 Bryan Tue, 05 May 2009 15:31:39 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84313 I'd fall into cuppycake's #2 category if I had a blog, but I sort of want one anyway. My motivation is neither sharing things I learn nor drawing attention to myself - it's simply that thinking things through out loud with an audience (even if its a small, not terribly interested audience) is an effective way of working through difficult problems. This points to the main reason not to get a blog, of course, which is that I'm not sure I could get what I want out of it without spilling borderline confidential information every other post... no thanks. P.s. "Vahlouran is just trying to take credit for all of my good ideas. " What good ideas? OH SNAP I’d fall into cuppycake’s #2 category if I had a blog, but I sort of want one anyway. My motivation is neither sharing things I learn nor drawing attention to myself – it’s simply that thinking things through out loud with an audience (even if its a small, not terribly interested audience) is an effective way of working through difficult problems. This points to the main reason not to get a blog, of course, which is that I’m not sure I could get what I want out of it without spilling borderline confidential information every other post… no thanks.

P.s. “Vahlouran is just trying to take credit for all of my good ideas. ” What good ideas?

OH SNAP

]]> By: Defect9 http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84263 Defect9 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:16:47 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84263 my thoughts, if they can be considered relevant, is that anyone who blogs (game design or otherwise), does so either out of the love of sharing things they've learned, or to draw attention to themselves in a "Hey, look what I know!" sort of way. In some ways, it's like a forum, only in a blog, the blogger gets to take center stage for every single post. my thoughts, if they can be considered relevant, is that anyone who blogs (game design or otherwise), does so either out of the love of sharing things they’ve learned, or to draw attention to themselves in a “Hey, look what I know!” sort of way. In some ways, it’s like a forum, only in a blog, the blogger gets to take center stage for every single post.

]]> By: Buuncha http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84262 Buuncha Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:25:14 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84262 I have to disagree with cuppycake's take on the "2) The game design bloggers who’ve never shipped a game or designed something fun, but like to talk about design anyway" not providing any value. I personally don't have a blog like this, nor am I a game developer but... I have been involved in many large projects worth millions of dollars from all aspects: the end user and the project manager role. There is one thing that will always sink your ship in terms of project deliverables and that is understanding the end users needs. Part of this is knowing what their assumptions are and how they come to those assumptions. In regards to the "armchair design blogger" these are typically people with a big passion for games. These types tend to have fairly diverse circles of friends who they interact with on a daily basis in the settings of these games and are constantly exposed to *on the fly* feedback about the specific game or games in general. If that person has the ability to filter that information into useful, tangible information that they put forward into blogs; it provides an avenue for real designers to get that much more insight into how the mind of the end user is reacting to their gaming experiences. The ability to have that feedback translated and filtered into intelligent articles provides a lot more value then a person would initially suspect. Of course this might not apply at all to game design (Not my realm of expertise by any stretch of the imagination) but in the rest of the real world, the more information you have on the needs and assumptions of your end users, the more successful your ability to deliver is going to be. I have to disagree with cuppycake’s take on the “2) The game design bloggers who’ve never shipped a game or designed something fun, but like to talk about design anyway” not providing any value. I personally don’t have a blog like this, nor am I a game developer but… I have been involved in many large projects worth millions of dollars from all aspects: the end user and the project manager role.

There is one thing that will always sink your ship in terms of project deliverables and that is understanding the end users needs. Part of this is knowing what their assumptions are and how they come to those assumptions. In regards to the “armchair design blogger” these are typically people with a big passion for games. These types tend to have fairly diverse circles of friends who they interact with on a daily basis in the settings of these games and are constantly exposed to *on the fly* feedback about the specific game or games in general. If that person has the ability to filter that information into useful, tangible information that they put forward into blogs; it provides an avenue for real designers to get that much more insight into how the mind of the end user is reacting to their gaming experiences.

The ability to have that feedback translated and filtered into intelligent articles provides a lot more value then a person would initially suspect.

Of course this might not apply at all to game design (Not my realm of expertise by any stretch of the imagination) but in the rest of the real world, the more information you have on the needs and assumptions of your end users, the more successful your ability to deliver is going to be.

]]> By: Psychochild’s Blog » Why do you waste your time here? http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84238 Psychochild’s Blog » Why do you waste your time here? Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:10:31 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84238 [...] we allow a community manager write about game design. Unfortunately, we didn't learn our lesson the first time around. (*grin*) But, this shows some of the benefit of reading game design blogs, even as a non-game [...]

[...] we allow a community manager write about game design. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn our lesson the first time around. (*grin*) But, this shows some of the benefit of reading game design blogs, even as a non-game [...]

]]> By: Ryan Shwayder http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84231 Ryan Shwayder Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:30:57 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84231 Vahlouran is just trying to take credit for all of my good ideas. Okay, he deserves credit, or at least shared credit, for some of them. Vahlouran is just trying to take credit for all of my good ideas. Okay, he deserves credit, or at least shared credit, for some of them.

]]> By: Vahlouran http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84227 Vahlouran Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:10:31 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84227 Please...your best ideas have come from sitting around with other people that think like you and nothing like you. Please…your best ideas have come from sitting around with other people that think like you and nothing like you.

]]> By: Broken Toys » Helpful Lum Is Helpful: Design Blogs And You http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84225 Broken Toys » Helpful Lum Is Helpful: Design Blogs And You Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:05:02 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84225 [...] OK. Just belittle a PvP game, that usually works for me.) It’s already created a fiesta of trackbacks, and instead of saying yet another “yeah, what they said”, I’ll chip in with my [...]

[...] OK. Just belittle a PvP game, that usually works for me.) It’s already created a fiesta of trackbacks, and instead of saying yet another “yeah, what they said”, I’ll chip in with my [...]

]]> By: Information Overload! http://www.nerfbat.com/2009/04/23/i-are-game-design-blogger/comment-page-1/#comment-84224 Information Overload! Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:07:54 +0000 http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=1029#comment-84224 [...] a professional designer (outside of my head), but a couple people have and I must say I much prefer Shwayder’s response over Moorguard’s. Why? Shwayder seems to take the “everything is worth reading to pick [...]

[...] a professional designer (outside of my head), but a couple people have and I must say I much prefer Shwayder’s response over Moorguard’s. Why? Shwayder seems to take the “everything is worth reading to pick [...]

]]>