作者：Brenda Brathwaite

游戏通常是个极为个人的参与过程，虽然可能涉及100个人员。你不会连续1天处理艺术内容，却未同他人建立任何联系。

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这种联系源于工作强度，这又会导致成员因某事而感到不安。有时，这会导致团队出现分歧。这是我记忆中的若干情形：

—美术设计团队暴动。他们连续几天未进行工作。

—团队罢工。整个团队离开办公室，拒绝工作直至危机时刻结束。

—某主管将自己的工作全压到下属身上，这将致使团队出现一群愤怒的程序员。

—两个执行制作人联手解雇一个无能副总裁。

当然这些都是极端例子。通常这些都是藏在口袋里的不满，但这些暗藏的不满情绪无疑会伤害生产力，令内容开发者不快，促使成员讨厌某项目，或讨厌参与某项目，或者表现出漠不关心。

就那些传播坏话的人而言，此行为将以如下潜在方式环绕其职业生涯：

—分歧团队无法制作出伟大作品。团队或许仍旧制作出不错作品，但若团队和睦，项目将更加杰出。作品会出现在你的个人简历中。它会在mobygames.com上与你长久相伴。永远被gamerankings.com视作糟糕作品。

—建立糟糕关系。糟糕关系在游戏行业会维持很久。这让你无法获得工作。他们会把你拒之门外。

—成为既定模式，历史将持续重演。

但显然人人都无法永远保持愉快。所以你必须寻找应对方式。我担任领导者非常多年，这是种你或许从未有过的情景训练。你需在工作中应对。若你现在是个“纽带”，若你同他人和睦相处，若你即便在不同场景也能够看到前进方向，应该心怀感恩。你将在职业生涯中运用此关系多次。

有关这些问题，我常遵循下述系列原则：

不要“怀疑”

接受未来会有问题出现，在问题出现前设计出应对方案。鼓励大家谈论领导，鼓励领导倾听，不要批评或立即180度转变。有时大家需要发泄。

大胆发言，鼓励团队成员大胆诉说心声

若你存在某矛盾，同领导沟通。不要在周围同事中传播。给予大家调整的机会，包括你的观点。我最近刚同某个意图跳巢的成员交流，源于其老板未向其坦白某个即将达成的合约。“我只是想知道我们是否要制作这款游戏。”我觉得他的老板应该是真的不知道。只有资金汇到银行帐户，交易才算达成。

若你对某人，其工作或工作方式有意见，在可能情况下直接同其沟通。有时这不过是个误会，或者只消澄清事实便能解决。

若这无法实现或若有个公司问题令你抓狂，直接同直属上司沟通（游戏邦注：除非这个人是你的直属上司）。同时记住这通常只有你想象严重程度的50%，但只有时间能够让你明白这点。

需记住你的部分感受不过种反应，而非现实。若你是某人的上司，不要成为“戏剧修饰器”，而是静静聆听，让他们尽情发泄，不要打断。发泄是开发过程中有效而重要的部分，优秀领导会学习如何接受和有效处理。

那么为何要强调大声诉说？若你和某人存在矛盾，且你同旁边和下属人员诉说，那么你其实是在说整个团队的坏话，扼杀整个项目。我亲眼见证上诉情形发生多次。

整个团队的领导系统顿时丧失效力，而且无法修复，因为没有人进行修复。成员继续抱怨团队领导，而领导却浑然不觉，始终保持原状。此时，团队分崩离析，士气一落千丈，生产力大跌，工作质量急剧下滑。最终你的项目惨遭失败，若这是个职业项目，将跟随你好几年。

所以不要同下属讲领导的坏话。不要同其他领导讲述同伴领导的坏话。若你同某人有矛盾，直接同他们沟通，或同上司沟通，内部解决，不要大动干戈。

这基本关乎原则，和性格毫无关系。若你被某人惹怒，先问自己是由于他们的工作还是他们本人。这是游戏开发，不是真实电视秀。你无需喜欢某人。你无需在周末玩《摇滚乐队》。你只需同他们和睦相处，完善项目。设定专业原则，这将对你大有帮助。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Opinion: Key Principles For Coping With Game Team Meltdown

by Brenda Brathwaite

[In a new Gamasutra opinion piece, Wizardry and Jagged Alliance veteran and game design professor Brenda Brathwaite analyzes how you can stop the rot by "talking up" when game development teams have relationship or management problems.]

Games are intensely personal processes, even if they involve a hundred people. You can’t spend eight hours a day with a work of art and not get connected to it.

That connection is born of intensity, and that intensity can lead to people getting upset with one thing or another. Sometimes, it can lead to team meltdown. Here’s a couple moments from my memory:

- An art team mutinied — they didn’t show up for work for a few days (it may have been longer, but it definitely wasn’t shorter).

- A team walked out — the whole team left the office and refused to work until the crunch hours were addressed.

- A lead dished all his issues with the company to those on his team effectively creating a group of angry programmers.

- Two executive producers worked to sack an incompetent VP.

These are extreme examples, of course. Usually, it’s pockets of discontent, but these pockets can completely wreck productivity and make unhappy people out of otherwise content developers. It makes people hate a project, hate their part in the project or, at best, feel indifferent.

For those involved in the trash talking — and maybe unbeknownst to them — it follows them throughout their career in several potential ways:

- Teams suffering meltdown don’t make great projects. If they somehow manage to get a good one out, the project is not as good as it would have been if the team had been working well. That game stays on your resume. It lives with you through mobygames.com. Eternity is gamerankings.com and a bad game.

- Bad relationships are built, and bad relationships have a long, long shelf life in the game industry. They stop you from getting jobs. They keep closed doors.

- Patterns are made and history tends to repeat itself.

Clearly, everyone’s not always going to be happy, though. So, you have to figure out a way to deal with it. I was a lead for a long time, and this is the kind of situational training you never get. You pick it up on the job. If you’re a “bridge builder” now, if you get along with everyone, if you can genuinely see a way forward in even difficult situations, be grateful. You will use it dozens of times in your career.

On these issues, a couple things have worked for me:

Do not “disbelieve.”

Acknowledge that problems will exist in the future, and develop a plan to deal with these things before they strike. Encourage people to talk with their leads, and encourage leads to listen and not criticize or immediately fix it to death. Sometimes people need to vent.

Talk up, and tell people on your team to do it.

If you have an issue with something, take it to your lead. Don’t trash the waters around you. Give people a chance to adjust things, including your perspective. I recently talked with someone who thought he was getting the run around because his boss wouldn’t level with him about an upcoming contract. “I just want to know if we’re going to make the game or not.” My feeling was that his boss genuinely didn’t know. No deal is done until the money’s in your bank account.

If you have a problem with someone, their work or the way they work, talk to them directly, if that seems at all possible to do. Sometimes, it’s a matter of misunderstanding or needing to clear the air.

If that’s not possible or if there’s a company issue that’s driving you insane, talk to the the person immediately above you (unless it is the person immediately above you). Also, remember that it’s probably about 50 percent less dramatic than you feel it might be, but only time will give you that perspective.

At the time, though, just accept that some part of how you’re feeling is reaction, not reality. If you are the person above another person, remember the “drama modifier,” but listen and let them vent it all out without interruption. Venting is a valid and important part of the development process, and a good lead learns how to receive it and handle it well.

So why this emphasis on talking up? If you have a problem with someone and talk laterally or down, you are literally trash talking your own team and killing your own project. I’ve seen it happen one too many times as noted above.

The team quickly loses respect for the chain of command and nothing ever gets fixed since no one in a position to fix it was ever actually contacted. People continue to complain about the lead above them, but the lead – blissfully unaware of anything – keeps right on going. Meanwhile, the team falls apart, morale plummets, productivity drops and the quality of work suffers dramatically. Ultimately, your project sucks, and if it’s a professional project, it’ll follow you around for years.

So, don’t trash your lead to the people below you. Don’t trash fellow leads to other leads. If you have an issue with someone, take it to them directly or take it to the person above you, and do it professionally and without drama.

Ultimately, this is about principles, not personalities. When irritated by someone, ask yourself if it’s their work or them. This is game development, not a reality television show. You don’t have to like everyone. You don’t need to play Rock Band on the weekends. You merely need to work with them well and for the betterment of the project. Develop professional discipline to do this now, and it will go a long way for you.

[Brenda Brathwaite is a contract game designer and professor of game design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has been in the game industry since 1981 and has shipped 22 commercial titles. An an avid player of games, she currently spends an absurd amount of time studying them.]（Source：gamasutra）