The Relationship Between the Gamer and Developer

Making games for ‘customers’ as opposed to yourselves is getting some people to think that customers have a say in design decisions or level design and all. This actually is not the case. And it greatly offends the developers when this is done.

The relationship between the gamer and developer is the relationship between the diner and the cook. The diner consumes the food the chef makes. The purpose is for the diner to have a pleasant eating experience. If the food tastes funny or tastes badly, what the chef says doesn’t matter. It is the consumer’s taste buds that matter, not the chef’s. I’ve noticed in life that a chef’s taste in food is very different from the average consumer. Their taste is far more elaborate. The diner may not desire all the ‘special spices’ and ‘secret sauce’.

Not everyone likes the same type of food. Some people love fish. Others hate fish. Some people love Mexican food. Others hate Mexican food. As with gaming, there is a taste with some people liking RPG games, other people liking FPS games. Neither is *wrong*. They are just different tastes. But even despite tastes, even if you hate fish, you can tell when a fish meal was prepared well or not. If you hate Mexican food, you can tell when the dish was properly made or not. Taste doesn’t equal quality of the product.

Let us say the chef says, “I have imagined a new dish that uses truffles. This customer ordered a pizza. A pizza is a casual meal. I prefer a real meal. And I prefer to use my artistic skills as a chef. Therefore, instead of making the stupid pizza, I will make my truffle souffle!”

When the waiter brings the meal out to the diner, the diner is shocked. “Where’s my pizza?” “This is a truffle souffle.” “What the hell is that?” The diner tries the truffles and spits them out. “This is abominable! I demand the pizza I ordered!” And then the chef, standing at the door, watches all this. The chef charges up to the diner and says, “What! You do not like my truffles? This is because you have no taste! I will force my taste on you!” And then the chef opens the diner’s mouth and begins cramming his truffle souffle down his throat. “Behold my artistic vision!” laughs the chef as the customer chokes.

As ridiculous as that it, it is equally ridiculous for the customer to barge into the kitchen to tell the chef how to cook the pizza. “It is my pizza. Therefore, I insist the chef use that pan instead of that pan, to have the oven on at 400 degrees instead of 350 degrees, and to use that dough over there.” This is greatly offensive to the chef as that is the chef’s profession and the customer is a rank amateur. The customer is, of course, pushed out of the kitchen. The customer’s role is to eat the food, not to cook it. Likewise, the chef’s role is to cook the food, not to eat it.

“Hamburgers are too casual a meal. I insist we cook only gourmet meals.” Any chef who says that would not have his restaurant be in business for long. Who cares whether or not the game is something the developers want to play. What matters is if the market wants to play it. If kids come in, does the chef say, “I don’t make kiddie meals”? Everywhere I go, I find that kids are given food that they will eat.

However, imagine this scenario. Imagine if you are dining at a restaurant and, all of a sudden, you heard donkey sounds come from the kitchen. “Eehh Ohhrr Eeeehhh Ohhrr!” The customer would be thinking, “What the hell?” and the customer would likely stand up, walk over to the kitchen, and poke his head in and say, “What is going on in there?”

In the same way, when games are coming from studios that are resembling a movie instead of a game, or games that keep raising the price or demand DLC, the customer is, rightfully, going to poke his head into the kitchen and go, “What the hell is going on in there?”

When the gamer is being hit by ever increasing prices, games that are not games, invasive DRM, and downloadable content the customer doesn’t want, the gamer is going to poke his head into the developer studios and say, “What the hell is going on in there?”