Surfing the Waves of Chaos

Something on my mind recently has been the importance of balancing out Order and Chaos. Mostly for Notorious Studios, Inc. , but I think its actually a concept that is super important for game design as well.

I'm a personally very chaotic person. I don't like rules, conventions, best practices or deadlines. Most creatives are like this, which is why we're bad at turning art into a sustainable business ("the starving artist"). On the upside, we can see a vision for the future that most can't see, which is critical for creating great art or just moving society forward.

Much of society is built around suppressing new ideas and keeping order, and for well meaning reasons. Too much change shocks the system. We see that today with how social media, the internet, etc have drastically shifted the human experience so quickly that we can't keep up. Biologically speaking Humans haven't even changed very much at all in the last 10,000 years but the way we live has changed drastically even in the last 10.

When I first started at Blizzard I would say the team was far on the spectrum of Chaos. I remember looking at the backlog of bugs for WoW when I started in 2007 and it was probably 40 pages long, just on class design. When I raised that concern to others they just shrugged and said "its fine." The game was always a bit buggy and imbalanced. Many specs and classes just weren't even viable for many parts of the game. Some weren't even useful for any parts (Resto Druid anyone? Which was also my main... hmm..).

Furthermore, there was no design documentation. It was all tribal knowledge. If you wanted to know something, you had to get up out of your desk and find that person who made it. There was a lot of crunch, missed deadlines, features overhauled or not making the deadline. Chaotic.

But despite all the bugs and problems, the game was fun and very successful. That same game today (WoW Classic/Hardcore etc) are once again successful.

I would say over the past 15 years, the studio transitioned to be a lot more on the Order side. In the beginning, this was a relief. Designers who could actually fix a lua bug? Wow. Actual leads and producers for everyone? 2 year plans? Damage meters showing razor thin balance in raids? This is great.

But I noticed a shift in culture where Chaos wasn't leading anymore, Order was now in control. And with that I felt the creativity was lacking, the fun became harder to grasp.

This is very typical of any corporation. There is a saying "liberals (chaos) start companies, conservatives (order) run them" to explain this phenomenon. It starts off as super creative and innovative, then becomes structured, orderly and dull over time. Steve Jobs famously talks about this idea with Apple after he was forced out.

For art and game studios, I think Chaos needs to lead. This is the idea behind a "design-driven" studio like Blizzard, Riot, Nintendo etc. But I also think it cannot be completely chaotic. It needs to be tempered with Order, and more importantly you need both the chaotic and orderly people at the studio to know which type they are, and respect each other. Because by default, they will want the organization to just be those who they understand by default, which is people just like them.

If we think about the recent trends in AAA, I would say the industry by and large has shifted by being lead by Order. This is why indie games are again and again taking over. Games made by 2-3 folks are outselling games made by thousands. I even see many gaming startups index on Order, mirroring a lot of the same traits as a AAA org (top heavy execs, expensive marketing budgets, same ratio of production/management etc.).

Something I wonder a lot is if it is correctable. Can an organization really go back to embracing Chaos, or are they all doomed to crystalize and fade away, with new orgs in their place. Certainly that has been the story so far. I think about if Notorious Studios, Inc. is successful -- how do we stop that from happening?

So far all I can do is be self-aware. To make sure we have a blend of Chaos and Order, and for us to respect and value each others roles. I like to say that in a startup you "Surf the Waves of Chaos" -- you can't paddle on your stomach and not take a risk otherwise you'll never catch a wave, but get too greedy and you'll wipeout. Its a balance.

But like life in general, maybe its okay if the waves stop at some point, the sun sets, you make it to shore and let someone else catch that next wave.