Are most gamedevelopers hardcore gamers?

[Utforska]

One of the problems of having outsiders create games, is that the technology is so specialized and new. As such, outsiders often come up with very conservative ideas, actually. As far as I have seen, the best ideas come from people with experience. I regret this, though. I wish it were different. It will be in the future, I think, when the technology becomes more accessible and our knowledge of the medium has grown.

I'm not sure I agree. I think there are people who have an intrinsic talent for spotting quality, but of course it's extremely hard to find them, and you wont know if you got the right person until the work is finished and you can take a look at the result.

And of course they might still end up grabbing a lot of ideas from what little they know about how computer games are "supposed" to work, but I still think there's a great opportunity for fresh ideas and perspectives if you do something like this. A bit like when people who don't know much about music theory try to write music. They stumble around and come up with all kinds of strange chord progressions that an experienced songwriter might spontaneously think of as a "mistake", but of course they don't know that they're making mistakes, so they build their whole piece around that... the result is often highly original and personal in a very un-contrived way, and often colored by the possibilities of their instrument of choice. They don't know how to imitate anyone elses musical expression, so by definition they will creating something personal.

[Derrick]

I think you're right. Chris Bateman has identified this as the primary reason why videogames are not more diverse. He proposes that developers should stop making games for themselves. But another, and better solution, in my opinion, is that other people than hardcore gamers are enabled and encouraged to make games.

It's understandable that some people who like videogames want to create them. But it's ultimately very stupid. Because you have not much to offer if you already like the field you're entering. All you can contribute is derivative work or at best work that makes minute improvements. which is sort of ridiculous in a medium with some blatant problems.
I propose that only people who hate videogames should make them. That's the surest way to see some radical changes in the medium. Gamers should just remain gamers. And more non-gamers should become developers.

Michael, I think the problem is that developers are NOT making games for themselves... they're making games for a "target audience" with maximized sales potential.

As I have started on my own development journey, I find that I certainly don't want to make something that is meant to "sale" and follows certain marketing schemes... I want to make games as though they were my children, my paintings, my legacy.  Even if they don't reach as many players as the latest WWII shooter epic.

I hope that my future career highlights what you want to see in new developers... I hate videogame culture, I don't like going to developer gatherings, and have really only enjoyed playing games on a very casual level.  I sort of "fell" into game development because I felt compelled to; as though all my various skills converged and pushed me, kicking and screaming, in this direction.  I kind of relate to the author Virginia Wolfe, who claimed it was actually painful for her to write, yet she did anyway.  That is how I feel about making games (or notgames, even), it's like I'm reaching into a chasm trying to pull something out rather than follow a beaten path to drink from the same well everyone else has.

[Michaël Samyn]

I think we feel quite similar about making games as a necessity, a painful duty, rather than an actual choice.

It's an interesting question: do (AAA) game developers make games for themselves and are they just simple "dudes" who like guns or do they make games for an existing market and are they simply not adventurous or ambitious enough to reach out to other markets? I wonder what Chris Bateman thinks about this. He'd probably say it's a fortunate or unfortunate (depending on your own position) lucky coincidence.

[Andrew Tremblay]

Will Wright spoke in the mid-00s about how the famous and recognized game developers of the future won't be "classically trained" game developers or people who only play games, they will be people who have backgrounds in architecture or history, even a dentist could be a great potential reservoir for game ideas. They would still need some access to the creative process and a desire to make them.

I share the sentiment that people who come from more diverse backgrounds will create more diverse gameplay experiences, and thus will satisfy gamers seeking diversity (which I feel are most of the people here).

And as for people who hate videogames making videogames, well we've all felt letdown by videogames at some point. Get letdown by enough videogames and the shape of what is there and unwanted (or what is lacking and wanted) becomes more defined. Eventually that definition can become ideas for games, and you then work towards realizing those ideas with better and better execution. At least that's how it works for me.

[God at play]

Get letdown by enough videogames and the shape of what is there and unwanted (or what is lacking and wanted) becomes more defined. Eventually that definition can become ideas for games, and you then work towards realizing those ideas with better and better execution. At least that's how it works for me.

Nicely put, sir.