Tracey Valliere-Evans: Facebook post: "'I think most game designers really just suck'

Ian Sturrock, care... via Facebook.

The title grabbed my interest....& I read the article with a valid interest!
I saw a Glyndwr lecturer, Ian Sturrock, comment under this status on Facebeook, on a feature on Gamasutra.com in response to a statement by Richard Garriott. I followed the link, read the first quote, & kept reading; I am learning about this industry & obviously this generated an interest to know more......

"I've met virtually no one in our industry who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am. I'm not saying that because I think I'm so brilliant. What I'm saying is, I think most game designers really just suck."

- Richard "Lord British" Garriott, industry veteran and Portalarium founder, believes that the video game industry is dramatically underskilled.

(March 20, 2013 | By Mike Rose)

My comments were replied to, & really informative/helpful to me in gaining more insight in the games industry/designer roles. I am a creative, yet still have passion for digital & to understand tech......

Peter Darby via Justin Achilli

2 hours ago ·

Ian Sturrock, care to field this one?

'I think most game designers really just suck' - Richard Garriott
www.gamasutra.com

"I've met virtually no one in our industry who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am. I'm not saying that because I think I'm so brilliant. What I'm saying is, I think most game designers really just suck." - Richard "Lord British" Garriott, industry veteran and Portalarium founder, be...
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Ian Sturrock likes this.

Ian Sturrock I think he makes some very valid points.

about an hour ago · Like

Sasha Octopedius It's the same outside of game software, where Product Owners are the new black, and it's the hardest job in the company but is often done by people who failed at programming, marketing or sales. When they are good though, they are a force to be reckoned with.

about an hour ago · Like

Peter Darby I think most people in the position of game designers in large development companies cannot do a good design job because of industrial constraints. Big studios do NOT want breathtaking new designs that rebuild everything from the ground up.

about an hour ago · Like

Ian Sturrock There's some truth in that too. But there's an awful lot of people learning game dev or "game design" at university who have no ambition to do anything beyond a Call of Duty or Medal of Honour clone, and who ended up doing 'game design' rather than cod...See More

about an hour ago · Like

Peter Darby Also, what is taught,defined and even employed as "game design" is more properly "game direction" or "game production": good, valuable skills, yes, but essentially jobs of project management.

about an hour ago · Like

Ian Sturrock Often, yes -- hence the quotes around "game design".

about an hour ago · Like

Frocked de la Vallière Helpful insight; how would you teach game design? Is this not down to creativity of mind, that is then translated to code or art? I am a newbie....& looking to learn more

about an hour ago · Like

Ian Sturrock Frocked de la Vallière, although it's a controversial opinion among some, it's my belief that one can teach creativity, for starters.  But game design is much more than that. You can teach (off the top of my head) game design patterns, the psychology of gaming, metrics for game design & testing, playtesting, statistics for game design, probability for game design, balance for game design (symmetric multiplayer, asymmetric multiplayer, and niche protection multiplayer co-op), difficulty for game design (setting and/or adapting the difficulty of single-player games), chance vs strategy vs twitch skill, game theory for game design, core activities & core dynamics... And then you can have the students put it all into practice.

23 minutes ago · Unlike · 1

Ian Sturrock Game design as a discipline has the potential to be just as technical as art or programming does.

23 minutes ago · Unlike · 1

Peter Darby Dammit, I feel a blog post coming on.

22 minutes ago · Like · 1

Frocked de la Vallière Wow! Thnx Ian - a lot to digest but a lot to learn & so so helpful  That all sounds quite theory-based...but yes I think we can all be creative if shown how, just some are far better than others; & others are far better at other things, whilst some don't want to know or are not prepared to discover....I think passion comes into it. Thankfully we do not all like/appreciate the same style/designs/art; what is gorgeous to one is utter crap to another  & obviously, some of it is! Thnx T

about an hour ago · Like

Ian Sturrock Passion is crucial, since without passion, we're not motivated to put in the practice that makes us "far better than others" -- in my opinion.

You can find loads more detail on most of the above on Moodle now BTW.

about an hour ago · Unlike · 1