Thread by @MorelloNMST

Let's do something more upbeat tonight; I want to talk about passion in game design a bit.

I tend to spend a lot of time with more buzzkill-style topics (in a bit of an effort to take the glamor out of design), but passion does matter and play a role!

I've mentioned before that your engagement in a title doesn't equate to skill and ability, and that a healthy distance from that can help you have a clearer head. This is true, but (as most things) it's nuanced.

Just as job functions have different roles, so do types of passion.

When building a design team, I think about these aspects - in how they offer different, important perspectives. While my experience is primarily in "enthusiast" type games, I think it's abstract enough to apply anywhere.

Here are 3 buckets of passion (..?) with "stat-sheets!"

Also these are broad generalizations; I've seen a lot of mixes, but generally you want all these perspectives on a team.

It's pretty cool how the backgrounds of people might mismatch their phenotype here - it creates some interesting team dynamics!

* The Enthusiast.

This person is all in. They love the game, its potential, and what it stands for.

These are your die-hard players who have clocked 100s or 1000s of hours into the game or genre, or have read all the wiki lore, or put some of their identity in the game.

The enthusiast is essential for representing this same group of players, and understanding the minute nuances at work. They know what's special, and will work to foster and protect that.

Often, these devs come from player-based backgrounds, like modding, fan-fic or comp play.

ENTHUSAIST PROS:

* Excellent hardcore-player conduit
* Has unique insight into the game's trends (meta, fan favs, etc.)
* Great grasp of player expectations
* Can test the limits of design in internal tests

ENTHUSAIST CONS:

* Weaker at seeing new possibilities beyond how the game is played right this second
* Risk-adverse and incremental
* Can miss opportunities that serves non-hardcore audiences
* More susceptible to hardcore player demands - even if they're not the right thing.

I don't think you want a team without enthusiasts on it, but I think a common misconception is the *whole* team should be. I think that's wrong.

Enthusiasts are your stabilizing force. They help the rest of the team not get too damn crazy or lose the good things in the game.

* The Idealist

Idealists are a weird mix of skeptic and optimist. They see problems rife with the design space, but *if we could only solve those* - this would be awesome!

Like enthusiasts, they are well-versed in the space, but think it could be *so much better* than it is.

Idealists love the potential of it, but tend to be frustrated or tired of current offerings.

Their experience in the space is primarily a laundry list of improvements that all have some degree of risk. After all, if something could be better, we can't be too precious...

IDEALIST PROS:

* Suspicious of genre conventions that could hold things back
* Sees exciting possibilities everywhere
* Can push the space beyond where it's been before
* Good at ignoring "whats" and focusing on the whys behind them

IDEALIST CONS:

* Risks shocking player expectations too much
* Fiddling too much with too many things; sometimes "it's actually fine"
* Jackhammers when you should chisel
* Possibility focus can be exhausting for others

Idealists are critical to make sure your game isn't a rehash; it's true that sometimes what people want isn't defined yet because it's never been done.

They also have the familiarity to see the beauty in the mess - they just don't always realize the mess is part of the beauty.

* The Exhibitor

The exhibitor is fired up about *how cool things are*. They can't wait to see the player interact with something and have a reaction to them. They live for the triumph of the pentakill or the shriek of a perfectly-timed jump scare.

Their passion is in the work

Anyone can be an exhibitor, but often this type is about the interactive moments in games that create powerful reactions.

I've found often this type is less engaged with the core genre, but are master craftspeople. They excel at "feel" - shooting for high quality experiences.

EXHIBITOR PROS:

* See things through the players eye's in the here-and-now
* Advocates for the creative and "cool" stuff that can get washed away in rigor
* Focuses on the smallest details and gets them right
* Deep creative imagination

EXHIBITOR CONS:

* Tends to buck constraints and rules on the player
* Scope nightmares
* Hyper focus on individual moments
* Poorer "squint" - it's harder to see it until it is cool.

Exhibitors are more common in studios that work in console, AAA or action titles - which makes sense as more of the experience is on that there - but they are crucial to any team.

All games need to be "cool" to some degree. Exhibitors won't let you forget that!

Who you are can change by game, too. You might be an exhibitor on one game and an enthusiast on another! Context matters, as does the team you're on.

There are many more types than this, but I thought it'd be fun to share some of the types of passion I've seen in design (and in dev!).

I'd be interested to hear about types you see not shared here, and what type you might be!

I'm an Idealist when I was on LoL and VALORANT.