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

[Andrea Phillips]

On Mar 31, 2006, at 7:21 PM, krystyn at glitterbook.com wrote:

> Andrea, could you explain a little more what you mean by the  
> currency of prestige, specifically
> how you're applying it to this genre and (I guess) the Unfiction  
> community?
>
> Because if I've been missing out on free chocolate, booze, and  
> women all this time, I'd really
> like to know about it. ;)

Sure :) I think prestige may not have been the best word choice here,  
given the (to me) surprisingly negative reaction to it. I'm not  
saying that grassroots developers are looking to become rock stars or  
accrue hordes of drooling fans, or even get the free chocolate and  
booze and women. :) What I'm thinking of is more: status in the  
community; a degree of respect; the sense of having earned your  
pilot's wings. Maybe even a sense of being a little... cooler... ;)

I think this is a perfectly natural thing for people to want, even to  
go out of their way to get: a higher degree of street cred. In fact,  
to me, it would explain why there *are* so many amateur games that  
flame out. People who don't have the discipline or resources to  
follow through on a game start one anyway to try to earn that greater  
degree of respect.  I find it hard to believe I'm *so* very off-base  
in thinking this is a valid motivation. Heck, I get a kick out of  
having a cool job according to my friends, and few of them don't  
really even know what an ARG *is!*

So to try to get back to what I was trying to say, perhaps badly,  
before: It's my feeling that in general, grassroots developers have  
closer ties to the existing community, and so (I would think  
naturally) the esteem of that group is of greater personal worth;  
isn't it? The question is whether it's true at all that grassroots  
developers feel they DO have those closer ties to the existing  
community... especially as compared to the handful of developers here  
who only found out about the existence of prior ARGs after they'd  
made their first game.

Does this make a little more sense? I swear it makes perfect sense in  
my head. If it still doesn't, I can keep trying tomorrow. :)

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