thread: 2008-02-14 : Oh you should too publish
On 2008-02-18, NinJ wrote:
Ralph, I think seriously not publishing is perfectly acceptable, too. It might even be the best way to have fun.
Let's say that you've got a thing you do on Thursdays with your friends. Let's say that it's all built so that you and your friends work in it. It addresses particular social concerns you have with your particular friends. People do this all the time ??? "We need special rules so Jim's ninja characters have something to do." "We need a money system because Susan thinks about possessions in terms of money, not points." Whatever. It might work really well for the five of you. If someone else joins the group, you might change things again to address their concerns.
That doesn't mean that you'll enjoy rebuilding this system so it will work for anyone. You might not even want to subject it to the limitations of prose.
It's still an awesome game design you did, given its specifications (and given that it works). That doesn't mean that publication is something that will bring you greater satisfaction.
If what you *want* is to have your work in the public light, to have the recognition and criticism that comes with that, to find out if other people will have similar experiences to yours, then awesome. But that local design that's gone on for so long is a wonderful (if private) way of designing that we shouldn't assume is lesser because of its non-publication. That's the soil that heartbreakers grow in, and while you might enjoy growing one in your own garden, subjecting it to natural selection outside of your own creative garden may make it gnarl and wither.
