Fame in the Game Industry

No one should go into game development to become rich or famous. Sure, we have our geeky celebrities, but we love them for the games they made, not the people they are (though some of them are truly awesome people as well).

It’s not true celebrity, in the way that people used to get excited when Robin Williams or Stephen Spielberg would stop by the E3 booth, or how we used to get a lot of A-listers through the demo room at Magic Leap. I understand that there are Twitch celebrity gamers who are more famous than the people who made the games they stream, but I don’t really understand or participate in that world.

I used to tell people that I never really wanted to be famous, and I used Warren Spector as an example. I would see Warren regularly at GDC, and he would always have a cluster of people around him, orbiting like satellites as he walked from session to session, listening intently, asking questions, hoping to get a moment of his time. It seemed miserable; he never got a moment to himself, so I made it a point not to be part of the cloud, not to intrude.

Not that I don’t want to talk to people or care what they think. Obviously, I love to share my perspectives on the industry or I wouldn’t write articles like this one. But fame can get out of control very quickly in the digital age.

Back when I worked at THQ, I was active in a forum community that was mostly hardcore gamers, with some developers and some press people. I had been pretty vocal about Titan Quest (I was and remain quite proud of it), and when it came out that THQ wasn’t continuing the franchise and Iron Lore was going to shut down, I had a lot to say.

Now, as a publisher (or as a developer), you have to be very careful about what you say publicly. You can’t reveal any proprietary information; you can’t make public any material facts that might influence the stock price; and you always, to some extent, represent the company.

So, I posted this long piece on a Friday morning, and I gave my boss a heads up to make sure I hadn’t crossed any lines, because I was talking about some hot button topics like piracy. He gave me the thumbs up, and I went home for the weekend ready to defend my position to my community, and sure enough, there was some follow up conversation.

Monday morning, I get a call from the head of PR. It turns out, someone had picked up the forum post over the weekend and turned it into a news story. Someone else picked up that story and re-ran it in a game of journalism telephone until the headline became “CEO of THQ Blames Piracy for Iron Lore Closure”. Needless to say, the actual CEO was surprised to learn this.

I got a lot of follow-up inquiries. Once the initial stories were out there, tons of folks were willing to talk more, but you have to be careful what you’re known for. People can generally remember one thing about you. And I didn’t want to be “The Piracy Guy”. I didn’t want to be any kind of guy. I ducked all of them.

It’s a small industry. We make huge games, but there aren’t that many seats at the table. The major publishers all know each other, all keep track of each other. Developers who’ve been around long enough have crossed the various micro-communities. Once you have an identity, it’s hard to shake.

I told Warren the GDC story a while back, and he laughed. I’m sure it’s much stranger than I imagined. The other day we were at a game developer event, and it was kind of amusing to watch him sit quietly in a corner and have the entire party gradually flow past him. Was it Heraclitus who said you never step in the same river twice?

In the game industry, the chances are good that you’re going to run across the same people again. That business development person might be working for a different organization, now, or that designer may be on a different project. I’ve built teams for Tencent, Gameloft, Scopely, and now OtherSide; you can bet I remember everyone I’ve worked with, everyone I’ve interviewed along the way. It’s part of how you build world class teams.

But, there’s no question that I’ve paid a certain price for having a lower profile. I have friends who do a much better job with the branding; they put in the time and the energy; they show up and do the events and they meet with the people. Doors are open for them as a result. They get invitations; they get offers. More power to them. They are enriching our community with their knowledge and their presence.

I couldn’t have been the piracy guy or the action-rpg guy or the working with China guy or the free to play guy or the gamification guy, any more than I could be the Monopoly Go! guy or the web 3 guy or the AI guy or the residuals guy today. I’ve known since my early teenage years that I have no interest in being what people think I am.

And I’m fine with that. I would rather be able to walk in peace through the Moscone center. I’m willing to give up consulting fees, conference invites, bio pieces, whatever benefits come with people knowing who you are. Hell, it still surprises me that I exist at all for other people when I’m not present. A colleague once said something about “I was talking with someone about working with you”, and it blew my mind.

The only fame I care about, at the end of the day, is what the people I worked with think of me. I care if they thought I did a good job. I care if they thought I was an asshole. I assure you, both perspectives exist.

But, if you’re building a career, think deeply about what you want to be known for. If you have a thing, a passion you can brand around, that’s great. If you haven’t got that thing, that’s okay, too. Feel free to try out different things and see if something resonates. Just be very cautious about doubling down. Attention can be a rush; make sure that whatever it is is really what you want to be known for.