Creative Process and Critique

[benlehman]

(Context: A friend of mine and a friend of his have recently been going around telling creative communities that they aren't creating right, that they should follow a different method and different process. Not coincidentally one which those two people have used in the past.)

I think that other people have a right to judge my published work. (for a general value of "my").

If I don't want it judged, by not publishing it, I avoid judgement.

Do other people have a right to judge my creative process, though? (again, for a general value of "my").

I don't think so, off the top of my head. But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Comments

[zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com]

I agree generally. Here's my thing, though:

When I love a game that looks finished and solid, I'll sing its praises. I'll recommend it to people.

When I see a game made by a friend that I think is really unfinished, perhaps even kinda hastily made and crappy, I won't say *anything*. I tend not to involve myself in discussing such game in public. On an RPGNet lovefest thread, when someone decides they're going to buy such a game based on the lovey-dovey feedback they've been getting, I very well might (and have) PM them in private to tell them to think twice, and relate my horrible experiences with the game.

I'm fine with giving my friends feedback. As soon as their unfinished, crappy game is available for purchase proudly, though, I shut the fuck up. I don't want to say anything that will kill their buzz, and yet I will never publicly promote such a game, either. I will keenly give feedback in private via PM and email, usually warning people to wait for an eventual second edition and the like.

I appreciate what Matt is doing, for real. Well, I love Matt and all, but his attitude is a little hostile these days even to his friends. But still, I like what he's doing.

He's trying to create an environment where I don't have to feel guilty about seeing people suckered into buying a crappy game that a friend wrote.

He's also creating an environment where I can feel not guilty, and the author can feel not attacked, if I were to publicly tear into one of these games, showing its faults plainly to potential customers when the game has been released and the author getting revenue from sales.

-Andy

[chgriffen.livejournal.com]

I do exactly the same thing. There's one game on my indie shelf that I'm quite underwhelmed by, but I'm not going to go out and bash it; I just don't talk about it at all.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Huh.

I appreciate what he's trying to do (foster an environment of feedback).

I don't appreciate what he's actually doing (telling other designers the "acceptable" and "unacceptable" ways to get their creative juices going) and where he's doing it (social and play oriented sites, rather than design-oriented sites).

I'm focusing on this little bit right now. It's not to say "rarah shut up" it's because I need to introspect about this for a little bit, decide what amount of moral authority Matt and Paul have over me, and then proceed accordingly.

Are games like Shock: and Agon problems? Yes. Absolutely. This is something we need to address as a community, and we need to do it, largely, not by yelling at sites we look down on because they aren't design sites, but by fixing the culture of design and creating other acceptable release dates than August. Nerdly is a huge, huge step for this.