re: Why are game designers wrong 80% of the time?

[droqen]

Regarding Daniel Cook's
"Why are game designers wrong 80% of the time?"

* linked from Alivegames and Deadgames

[droqen]

(from sep 19 while i was reading Deadgames and Alivegames; other thoughts from that day start here)

I only really have one thought, but I think it's a very interesting twitter thread to revisit and examine for tools as well as holes, so I may return to it.

[..] An expert game designer is 20x more effective than a newbie. They are correct 20% of the time instead of 1%. [..]

[..] An expert painter does not produce a completely broken picture 80% of the time. Why is this so hard? [..]

3. Game developers often are corrupted playtesters. Many games involve mastery and knowledge. The designer, due to knowing what they know, becomes blind to issues new players will face. Empathy only goes so far, even when designers roleplay the 'new player'.

link

All art forms involve mastery and knowledge.

All artists become blind to issues new appreciators will face.

The issue is with the context in which games audiences appreciate games, not inherent to the form of games.