Welcome to our weekly feature, “Question Of The Week.” As you can tell from that entirely original title each week we pose a question to our panel and they chime in with their opinions. No one sees one another’s responses until the story is posted, so each contributors thoughts are their own. Responses are posted in no particular order.
And remember, as with all editorials, the views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Cliqist.com.
The question of the week for the week of 8/24/14 is :
Should a Game Developers Personal Life Change How We View Their Games?
[divider]Marcus Estrada
It’s really up to each person if they want to let a creator’s life/choices/etc impact how they view their games. For me, I try my best to ignore TMZ-style news stories in relation to games because it’s not really my business what all goes on. Sometimes this gets tested when a person’s beliefs are add odd with the person producing games. An example of this was when Armikrog hit Kickstarter. As cool as anew game by the people behind The Neverhood would be, it was hard to personally giving money to someone who was outwardly anti-LGBT. Obviously, the campaign would have been successful regardless, but every so often things like that get me to exercise my spending power and avoid a game.
To read more of Marcus’ work click here. To learn more about them check out our About Us page.
[divider]David Lins
Games, as with any form of media, should be able to stand on their own merit. Honestly, a developer’s personal affairs should never come up at all when deciding to play a video game. Some developers are terrible people, sure, I get that — and it is absolutely something that we can talk about. But that shouldn’t affect how you view their games, and whether or not you play those games. Even “terrible people” can still produce amazing works of art from time to time.
To read more of Davids’ work click here. To learn more about them check out our About Us page.
[divider]Julie Morley
I’m a firm believer in professionalism. These people are passionate about gaming and want to deliver a product to people. They’re running businesses, juggling people’s livelihood – it’s imperative to maintain professionalism at all costs. Why? Because whether they gather this concept or not, whatever is going on in your personal life says a lot about your character. That being said, your character determines if people want to do business with you. Dishonest. Manipulative. Aggressive. Why would you want to work with someone that is untrustworthy? Exactly – you don’t. What goes on in anyone’s personal life isn’t really our business – they don’t OWE us that information – but once you present yourself out there as someone of the people; when you are a public figure for your career path – it’s all out there for the world to see and judge. And as I said, your personal character determines your professional character.
Don’t be a jerk. Plain and simple.
To read more of Julies’ work click here. To learn more about them check out our About Us page.
[divider]Martin Toney
Should it change how you view the game? Absolutely not.
It should however, change your mind on whether or not you purchase the game.
The actions of developers and what they do in their private lives are exactly that. Private.
But when you take to a public forum like twitter and start to insult the people that made you famous, the people that gave you your riches and effectively changed your life, then you need to tread lightly.
Would I have bought Fez had I known what Phil was like beforehand? No way in hell. Fame should be balanced with humility, riches with charity and admiration with respect. Phil manages to piss all overly that mindset and instead insists that he’s special and worthy of our adoration whilst he trods on our fingers and spits in our eyes.
There are few things I genuinely hate about the gaming industry and the practices within, but people like Phil are the central pillar upon which I build my domain of loathing. He shan’t be seeing a penny of my hard earned cash any time soon.
To read more of Martins’ work click here. To learn more about them check out our About Us page.
[divider]Greg Micek
I used to be 100% on board with the whole ‘cult of personality’ thing with developers, especially indie developers. However, as time has passed I’ve grown to detest it; I want to play games not read about the people making the games. Some of them are interesting people, but too often those people are like me: humans that make mistakes and are at times very unlikable. There are plenty of developers that I’ve met and couldn’t stand, and unfortunately that colored my opinion of their game and I’m sure I’ve missed out on what could have been an enjoyable experience.
I stopped watching music videos about 10 years ago, and have enjoyed a far wider range of music because I don’t have to put up with annoying fashion and camera mugging. Same goes with games, once I stepped away from my previous site I completely ignored the developers out there and just played games again. I’m far happier because of it.
To read more of Gregs’ work click here. To learn more about them check out our About Us page.
[divider]Have a question you’d like our panel to answer? Post it below, or email greg@cliqist.com with your toughest crowdfunding questions! If you’d like to check out some of our previous Questions Of The Week., then go right ahead!
[facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ]
