Thursday, September 22, 2005

After basketball at Archstone last night, it struck me during my way home how we easily often forget and dismiss the fundamentals. I had choked during my first game; put all my efforts into it, and failed miserably. The reason was not because I was slow, didn't have the skills, tired, or not in shape like I had originally thought. It was because I had forgotten about teamwork. I've been playing basketball for 11+ years, yet I dismissed the fundamental notion of teamwork. Instead of trusting your team members to share responsibility and maximize abilities, I tried to take it all upon myself. It really struck me how it took less grunt effort to win the next 7 games in a row because I had trusted their abilities. Gifts differing. I wonder how often I forget the other fundamentals in my life.

Whats with all the ad/spam/yuck comments on my blog?

~~~ Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American ~~~ Staple band. Nuff said.

Working at a video game company has really gotten me to think about how creative work is accomplished in the real business world. Especially since video game development is steering towards the US$10-20 million production budgets. On one hand, we want the logistics to keep the people and work being done by them under control, yet on the other, we want to encourage creativity. Finding that balance between freedom for creativity and bureaucracy is not easy at all.
In addition to having to search for the right balance between freedom for creativity and bureaucracy, being able to maintain it is just as much of a challenge. The development team are not robots, they are human. Humans with emotions, needs, ego, and baggage. They don't act upon your commands (even if you are paying them). I'm not sure I have an answer to the problems at hand, but I will say people need be dealt with on an ad-hoc basis. There is no consistent solution.
Oh, and of course, creativity (even at its best) doesn't necessarily equate to financial reward.
This is probably why I'm attracted to game production.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great blog! Come visit us too - we are sharing our online experience in engagement rings - and engagement rings too!

Anonymous said...

Heres the Blog

"I've been playing basketball for more than half of my life time (11+ years), yet I dismissed the notion of teamwork."

Heres the comment
"Great blog!"

Nuff said I think

GT

PS - oh yea, Mr advertising guy. Your sentence doesnt make sense. "we are sharing our online experience in engagement rings and engagement rings too!"
What the hell, engagement rings and engagement rings? online experience?
wtfwthomg?!