So, I have a question. And it might start some negative reaction, and while that’s not my intent – I just want to hear what you all to say on the subject: Industry Game Design Bloggers.
We all know that professional video game designers who blog are a freaking dime a dozen on the internet. Often times, game design bloggers are the most prevalent in the industry among fans. They often have a lot of respect in social circles and game development conferences and are the ones you think of when you think of “famous designers”. It seems like a decent amount of people who design games for a living want to blog and share that knowledge with others.
My question is: Do they know what they’re talking about? Are they even good designers?
Why do I ask? Mostly because I know a lot of talented game designers in the industry that most people have never heard of in their life. They don’t read blogs, they don’t read design theory novels, they don’t analyze the psychological reasons why people interact how they do. They simply know how to make good games, and don’t use theories behind it. They’ve never heard of schaedenfreud or fiero, and they might not even know who Richard Bartle even is.
Secondly, because I find myself spending a ton of time reading these giant walls of text about design ideas, and when I analyze my takeaway – some times I wonder if I should even trust the takeaway. Of course, it’s going to vary – there will be knowledgable game designers who are good bloggers and then poor writers who make no sense…but sometimes I wonder what the signal-to-noise ratio actually is. Some people are really really good at sounding like they know what they’re talking about, even when they don’t.
Keep in mind this post is only about professional game design bloggers, who hold a position at a game studio and speak from experience – not game design theory blogs from people who’ve never worked on a game. (The latter are another blog post entirely…)
What do you all think? Keep in mind that I do like to pose questions provocatively to start conversation, and I’m not pointing fingers in any particular direction.
