[arg_discuss] [pm] Commercial vs. Grassroots, Player or PM?

[Andrea Phillips]

This isn't in any way the post I planned on making, but it just kind  
of fell out of my fingertips and I feel compelled to do something  
with it now.

Some of us here have only been players, and some of us have only been  
PMs. But for those of us who have been in both pairs of shoes, I  
think we largely identify with one group or the other. In my case, I  
identify a lot more strongly with the PM side of the curtain, and I'm  
forming a theory that grassroots PMs tend to identify more strongly  
with players.

When you're making a game, you're making it for a reason. I'm going  
to go out on a limb here and say that if you're a commercial  
designer, you want to convince the players to do something pertaining  
to a goal of yours. This comes back to that contentious relationship.  
A commercial ARG wants to ultimately convince you to buy puzzle  
cards, or see a movie, or buy a car, or a video game, or....  
something. It's selling an idea that sells a product. And... players  
*know* this, and have their ears perked up looking for a sign that  
they're being taken advantage of (this goes back to that adversarial  
player-pm dynamic I want to talk about but don't here :). It's your  
job as a good designer to deliver a game that conveys your message  
and is *still fun,* because nobody's going to stick around for a six- 
week infomercial.

That's not to say that commercial designers aren't also trying to  
make great art, compelling stories, or fabulous and interesting group  
experiences, because that's clearly also the case. And there's a lot  
of overlap on these grounds, because grassroots teams make games for  
those reasons, too.

But grassroots teams also, I think, make games to earn prestige in  
the eyes of the ARG community, and that's the bit that makes for the  
interesting divide. I speculate that a grassroots team identifies  
more strongly with players, even when they have a game on, because of  
this currency of reputation to be earned. There's a stronger tie to  
the community, a bigger stake in its overall health and well-being.  
I'd love to hear from some of you grassroots PMs, though, because  
this is admittedly guesswork on my part and I've never been there.  
I'd also be interested in hearing from people who were deeply  
involved with the Unfiction community and later became a part of a  
commercial team (Adrian?)

For my part, again, I know I don't identify as a player anymore,  
though I used to. And maybe that's a mistake. Maybe if I still  
considered myself a player, I'd come up with more interesting,  
creative ideas. :)

--
Andrea Phillips
http://www.perplexcity.com
http://www.deusexmachinatio.com