Professionalism or Passion? Which is better for game development?

October 25 2011, 5:06pm

In the Gamasutra series, The Designer’s Notebook, Ernest Adams explores the the idea of game developers balancing the motivation of being either a “professional” or “passionate” employee in the gaming industry. While most game development job postings request employees with great amounts of passion and a effusive love for the gaming industry, Adams argues that what is more valuable than passion is true professionalism within the industry. Adams explains that passion is best reserved for artistic creations and “the game industry doesn’t produce works of art for the most part, and for every visionary who insists on following her own dream regardless of where it leads, the industry needs about 200 worker bees who actually make the products that sell.” The modern game developer is the unsung hero behind the scenes, coding the vision of the upper management. This is where professionalism comes in. Adams defines professionalism in the industry as: “Professionalism is about knowing your job, doing it well, and being proud of it even if you wouldn’t buy the resulting product. As the markets for games expand, fewer and fewer of our customers will have the same demographics, and interests, as game developers. Few of us are old ladies, and fewer still are little girls, but a good many of our customers are, and we owe it to them to do just as good a job for them as we do for Gears of War fans.” How do your opinions align with Adams? Is professionalism more important than passion for gaming? How do these values align with being an indie developer and working independently? Source: Gamasutra.com