I decided to do one final post about Glitch Con where I examined the various things I learned and realized over the course of the weekend. I already touched on a few things in my other two posts, but I didn't want to go into too many details in those posts because I had already rambled way too much.
The first lesson I learned was that if you hang around cool, wonderful people all weekend you can totally mooch food. Haha, just kidding. But seriously I barely had to spend any money for food the whole time I was at the con because some very generous people bought large amounts of it and shared. I don't know who exactly was responsible for it all, I know Mike bought pizza one night, but I do know that the next time I see some folks (like Mike, John, Ro, Art, Rob) I owe them some food on me or at least some booze.
Secondly, I feel like the weekend in general and the interactions I had completely validated my idea that I love nerdom and gaming, it is my passion, and I am going to pursue making a contribution to it. Basically I feel okay with the idea of saying that I want to design games. I have spent the last seven years since graduating college pretty much being aimless. I have tried to pursue various paths and choices at times, but have never followed through because they just didn't appeal to me on a deep and passionate level. The only things that have ever really excited me and brought me real joy as far as something that I do have been learning, playing, sharing, and designing games. Well that and storytelling, but that is kind of tangentially wrapped up in the first to a large degree.
I've already addressed how John's statement about why he does game design inspired me. I also feel that I have gotten a lot of great support and feedback on both my blogging and my first forays into game design from the people I play with and the various others I interact with through NWARPG. On top of that, I have realized that while I have no real desire to do any sort of 3D animation stuff using my degree; the general creative and design skills I gained while getting it, as well as the various creative people I'm now friend with because of my four years in a creative degree program, really gives me a good foundation for helping me make both fun and well designed games.
The third lesson I learned was the importance of emotional investment. Emotional investment is a very powerful tool and a very difficult task. Think about what you're trying to do here. You have to convince a group of people, most likely smart and opinionated people, to care about, feel for, and invest in something that doesn't exist and that they blatantly know is not real.
Intimidated yet?
I know I am. I see myself as an emotionally stunted person on some levels. I can find it very difficult to feel empathy, and regularly doubt my actual capability to experience the full gamut of human emotions. So ya, a very scary prospect to think about having to create emotional investment in others. Luckily there is tons of help.
For starters, thing about all the books, movies, TV shows, games, etc that have really drawn you in. Think about specific characters you have become invested in. Use what you see there. Analyze why these stories and characters engaged you and mine the hell out of that for great methods and ideas. Look at your own emotions and see why you feel certain ones in connection to certain things, if you feel self aware enough to do so. Why did I immediately gravitate towards House Fox in Houses of the Blooded? Because they are all about passion and romance and beauty, things that I long for and do not get in my life. My real life emotional needs created the connection to the game.
There were also a few other specific points that I learned over the weekend concerning this.
1. Give people the freedom to take the risk of becoming invested. Why do we guard our emotions? Because risking them often leads to being hurt. Therefore if people feel safe to take risks and try being vulnerable in your game, they'll be more willing to invest the emotions needed to do so. If they don't feel safe they'll clam up.
2. Dropping out of character/looking at your character sheet kills emotional investment. This is probably subjective to each individual, but it is definitely true in my case. The most emotional investment I've experienced in games has been when I'm barely acknowledging the mechanics and I haven't looked at the character sheet in ages. Having to shift my mind over from the fluff to the crunch really kills this. So in general you want to have less crunch if you want more character.
3. Be willing to draw help and inspiration from some unlikely sources. John made a joke at the beginning of one of his panels that is was about how pro wrestling relates to role playing games. He then turned it into a serious point. He posited that there were no finer examples of getting people to passionately invst in something that they know is fake than pro wrestling and soap operas. Now honestly, would you ever have thought to look for game design help in either of those? Or what about the tricks used by magicians, con-artists, and grifters? I bet you could mine their skill sets for tons of ways to get people to think and feel what you want. After all, "game design is mind control". (Another Wick/Sorenson quote)
4. Reward the hell out of the emotional investment. Everyone loves positive reinforcement, so give it to them.
Another lesson learned can be awkwardly put like this: "You have to do it to claim it, but if you do it you CAN claim it." This was something I took from one of the writing panels, but it applies to game design as well.
Basically it means that if you want to call yourself a writer/game designer/whatever, you've got to write/design games/whatever. Not talk about writing, not plan to write, not always start and stop unfinished projects; but really truly WRITE. Churn out the prose. Finish what you start. Get your stuff out there. Write, write, write, and write some more.
It is hard work, but if you want to claim the title you have to do it. But guess what? If you do it, you CAN claim the title. You don't have to be a NY Times bestseller. You don't have to have a 10 book deal. You don't have to win awards or be internationally recognized. None of that is needed to be a writer. All you need to do is write! The same can be said of game design and being called a game designer.
Finally I learned that nothing quite equals the community and camaraderie that springs up around shared passions and loves. Get your mind out of the gutter! :p
I spend a lot of time with the people I work with. I talk to them a lot, we share the same day to day experiences, we have some common interest, etc etc. But at the end of the day I felt closer to the random folks I encountered at Glitch Con than to the familiar faces of my co-workers. Why? My co-workers aren't nerds.
They aren't geeks or gamers. Maybe they can understand and appreciate my love of nerdy things, but they don't share it. While it may be presumptive to think so, I believe everyone I saw at Glitch Con shared my deep and abiding love for nerdy things. We might not love the exact same stuff, but we are in the same ballpark, and we sure are both passionate about these things.
Nerds are a heartfelt and passionate people, and that creates a wonderful bond between us. I truly feel at home when I'm surrounded by my fellow nerds, and in the pursuit of my nerdly obsessions. It is a feeling that I don't get anywhere else, with any other type of people. Which makes it extremely special when I can experience it, and very sad when I can not.
I love being a nerd.
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