I've written a bit in the past about the industry's dearth of "stars," and echoed Cliff Bleszinski's widely-noted comment that the industry lacks visionaries -- not that we haven't got a healthy population of gifted people doing great things, it's that either the culture of our industry or the nature of our business doesn't recognize them.
I note a high incidence of our "household names" being pedigreed veterans who come out to events and speak regularly, despite the fact that they haven't made a game in sometimes as much as a decade. And that's absolutely not to imply that contributions of our past (and because games are young, 10 years is a very recent past) should not continue to be recognized -- but how about some stars for today?
Obviously, the way we recognize and promote talent in the industry is an enormously complex issue tied up in things like business strategy, cultural environment, audience attitude and tons of other factors, and to engender any kind of significant shift across these areas is too large a feat for one person to undertake, not to mention the amount of time it takes to see evolution.
But I had a fun-slash-crazy idea. What if I started a separate sister site to SVGL -- a "Sexy Developerland," if you will, and encouraged industry folk in all areas to submit photos of themselves with a few fun or funny facts? Each day, or whenever I got a submission, we could feature a pic and blurb on a different person, their role, and a short blurb explaining why that person should be a star.
Of course, this would be more tongue-in-cheek funny than serious -- I don't expect anyone's going to legitimately write themselves glowing promotions, firstly, and some people have work policies in place prohibiting them from publicizing themselves alongside their employer's name or the project they're on.
But even a fun pic and a blurb on, say, what someone had for breakfast, or their hyperbolic version of why they are the industry's proper cultural hero ("I am really talented with frozen foods") would be cute, I think. And I could definitely see colleagues friendly-pranking one another by sending in a pic and bio on their coworkers -- like, with the story of how they got their nickname, or something (hopefully they know one another well enough to do something like that, and I'd pull any postings that make people upset).
The end result would hopefully be a blog that people can visit to scroll through faces and names of the people who make the games they love. It won't legitimately make anyone famous, but I think that so often many people forget that there are human beings behind the games -- especially when they're ranting and raving about this or that stylistic change, design decision and whatnot. And hopefully everyone has a lot of fun with it, and it promotes the overall message that our industry is full of possible stars.
Of course, this wouldn't work unless there was a real interest in the development community in contributing to and enjoying such a site -- and for all I know, most industry folk are too terrified of their employers to send even innocuous semi-professional info to someone like me (perhaps rightly, as I do run stories like this). Maybe everyone reading this thinks this is stupid!
But, tell you what -- if you're an industry person and you're reading this and you think this would be fun, write leighalexander1 at gmail dot com, send me a photo, your job title and funny blurb about yourself or about a friend (with permission or appropriate trust)! If you'd like to leave out your specific company or project, just say so. If I get a certain number of submissions, I'll start the new site. And if I don't, I'll just dispose of whatever you sent me and won't show it to anyone.
Either way, visionaries! Yeah!
(Note: I also had the "brilliant" idea to eat an entire decorative gingerbread house -- and nothing but the gingerbread house -- in one week over the holidays, and blog it daily, to try and raise money for children's charities. Then I realized my hind end is getting big enough already. I donated to Child's Play instead, and so should you!)
[UPDATE: I have already received a few submissions, so those of you afraid to be either the first or the only needn't fear!]
[UPDATE 2: I defined guidelines a little better.]
Home »
» My Latest Crazy Idea: Sexy Developerland
