作者：Alan Emrich

游戏设计者可以说是一个“理想的职业”，因为人们总是会跟你说你的职业有多棒多好等等。当然了，任何事都有两面性，所以游戏设计者也有其“阴暗”的一面。但是这种阴暗面显然不同于“毒枭”，也并非指较低的经济报酬。尽管如此，作为一名游戏设计者，其本身便具有很多内在的优点，我将在这篇我文章中以列表的形式进行陈述。以下是我认为的游戏设计者可收获的十大“好处”（或者说是“问题”）：

video-game-designer(from baltimoregamer.com)

1.尽情享受别人对“你的宝贝”（游戏）的激烈评论。身处于“媒体”（他们能让你见识到如何在一篇文章中“巧妙”地扭曲许多事实）和网络（在这里人人都毫无畏惧，可以因为任何微小的错误而打压你的游戏）的评论之间，你的自尊，耐性以及任何公平感都难逃一劫。阅读别人关于你的游戏的评价就像是一种“精神强奸”，将会对你的心灵带来各种冲击，即使评论者喜欢你的游戏。如果你选择成为一名游戏设计者，那么就必须多次进行“士气检测”以及“补偿措施”，但是不管怎样，比起阅读别人关于“你的宝贝”的评述，这些工作都轻松多了。

2.翻看手册中的第132页，“什么？你不是Sid Meier，Brian Reynolds或者Will Wright？好吧，那么你便是个不知名的人，而这也是我们如何对待无名小卒的方式……”是谁设计了《Myst》或者《Minesweeper》？我们都不是很清楚。这便是问题的关键，只有当你成为一名热门的游戏设计者，人们才会真正关注到你的名声。没有人会想帮助你“成为明星”，也没有人会因为帮助你或获得“成功”。因为如果你的身份越隐秘，那么你的身份就越低，这也是为何每个人都想要给游戏设计者带上“蘑菇头套”的原因（游戏邦注：即让你待在“黑暗中”而不轻易露面）。

3.作为一名游戏设计者，并不是说你将成为阔佬而享受着高级餐厅的顶级服务，与花姿招展的模特们约会或者去国外最豪华的酒店里度假。虽然如此，你也可以在一些贸易展览会上看到许多漂亮的“展台宝贝”（吸引异性消费者），但是这时候你的老板将会不时地约束你的言行。那些展台宝贝自然会注意到你，但是很快地她们眼中的“兴趣”也会随之一闪而过，所以你也不要对她们报以太大的幻想。要牢记你可是一名游戏设计者。你的老板赚的钱比你多得多，自然能够吸引到展台宝贝们更多的注意，并且更有能力在周末享受各种奢侈的生活。

4.你可以名正言顺地整天吃垃圾食品并喝可乐。你会发现，作为一名游戏设计者每天的饮食中所包含的几乎是：脂肪，淀粉，糖和咖啡因。几乎所有游戏设计者都大量摄取了含有这些成分的食物。相反的，像运动，美容，沐浴等各种有利于社交且需要投入时间的活动也是众多游戏设计者未能接触的。

5.你可以穿任何衣服去上班（或者什么都不穿）。对于所有游戏设计者来说，着装要求都非常低。美工们总是通过自己的服装向大众传达他们的品味，工程师为了获得尊重而身着一些“专业”的服装，管理者经常会通过衣着以凸显自己的成就等等，但是却没有人会去注意游戏设计者应该穿些什么。他们可以衣衫褴褛，毫无修饰，甚至没有洗澡就去公司上班，而办公室里的员工看到了也只会耸耸肩道：“哦，没关系，因为他们是游戏设计者”。

6.必须比其他人多付出一分努力才有可能成为团队中的“专业人士”并得到其他成员的尊重。作为一名游戏设计者，如果你的游戏设计能够不“为难”团队中的其他成员，那么你的游戏制作过程将会更加顺畅。但是，你交给美工人员进行描绘的设计概念，吩咐市场营销人员突出主要功能的序号标识，或者拜托编程人员将所有设计结合在一起的每一个公式，都是不受欢迎的。毕竟，他们都是各个领域的“专业人员”，而你的所有努力都会被认为是多余的。当然了，他们也会告诉你需要在设计中多添加哪些功能，以及如何做出相应的改变等等。这么看来他们也是在“暗示”你谁才是真正的“专业人士”，并且他们有权利指示你并传播他们自己的游戏设计理念。作为一名游戏设计者，你不得不接受这个现实，因为只有这样你才能设计出更加优秀的游戏。

7.你不需要交太高的税收，这可能就与你所买的书籍，电影，动画或者游戏的开销相近。这是件多么棒的事！但是如果A）你能够赚很多钱，并足以支付高额的税收（就像第8点提到的那样，你并非如此），B）你做事非常有条理能够适当地管理各种税收，那么你便需要重新思考这一问题了。

8.当你拥有大量的财富和资产时，你需要学会消除各种由钱引起的焦虑。在游戏产业一直存在着“打破贫穷的诅咒”，这是游戏发行者们信誓旦旦而立下的誓言。如果你想要赚钱，那么就在娱乐行业中找到一份真正的工作，或者成为一名成功的游戏开发者或发行商。当别人在勾勒着市场营销或管理进程时，如果你还一直待在游戏设计领域，忙碌地规划着游戏的生产计划，绞尽脑子思考着游戏设计灵感，那么你将永远不可能赚到大笔的金钱。

9.你的工作能够吸引青少年的注意。事实上，我很惊讶很多所谓的“成年人”也会被游戏所吸引。以前的游戏设计者的地位与不雅文学相当（他们的地位并不被社会所认可）。虽然今天的游戏设计师们已经被“正名”，但仍有许多设计者会发现自己的工作处在这一行食物链的最底端。如果他们自己没有意识到这一点，游戏制作人也会适时在必要场合提醒他们正视这一事实。

10.更容易向别人解释为何你总是在“玩游戏”而不是在“工作”。对于很多游戏设计者而言，比起曾经接受过的各种建议，这么做更有价值。并不是说这种“取巧的解释”能够阻止那些你爱的人或者粉丝们质疑你的选择，而是这么做能让你更加完美地处理这种麻烦。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Top 10 Reasons to Become a Game Designer

By Alan Emrich

Being a game designer is a “dream job.” You’ll know this because people will tell you all the time what a dream job you have. Of course, the trouble with having any job is an intimate acquaintance with its darker side – and, yes, there is a “darker side” to being a game designer. While not as “dark” as being a Drug Lord, perhaps, it’s not as financially rewarding either. However, there are some inherent advantages to being a game designer, and I thought I would share some of them with you in the form of a listing. Here, then, are my Top 10 Reasons to Become a Game Designer:

1. For the joy of basking in the glowing reviews about “your baby.” Between the “press” (who will amaze you at how many facts they can get wrong in a single article) and the internet (who have no fear of damning you to the Seventh Seal for the tiniest perceived fault), your ego, patience, and sense of justice in the universe are all doomed. Reading reviews and comments about your game will leave you feeling mentally raped, beaten, and crucified. And that’s if they like your game! Your sanity will have to make a lot of “morale checks” and “saving rolls” if you choose to be a game designer, but none will be harder to pass than those after reading what has been written about “your baby.”

2. Seeing your name in 6-point type on page 132 of a 132-page manual. “What? Your name is not Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds, or Will Wright? Well, then you’re a nobody and here’s how we treat nobodies…” Who designed Myst? Who designed Minesweeper? You don’t know, do you? That’s the point and the sort of fame that almost certainly awaits you as a hit game designer. No one wants to “make you a star,” kid; no one “wins” by helping you. That’s because you’re cheaper to employ the more obscure you remain, thus everyone is motivated to give you the “mushroom treatment” (i.e., keep you in the dark and feed you bull_ _ _ _).

3. Babes, babes, babes! Not that you’ll ever lead a jet-setting life of fine dining, dating gorgeous models, and staying at the fanciest hotels in exotic lands. Granted, you will probably see a few “booth babes” (attractive members of the opposite sex) at the Trade Shows where your owners (excuse me, “bosses”) will enslave you from time to time. Of course, said babes will take one look at you and their “Geek Detectors” will go off, so don’t get any delusions. You’re a game designer, remember? The custodian makes more money than you do, is probably perceived as smelling better, and gets to enjoy life on the weekends.

4. Having a good reason to eat junk food and drink cola all day. You’ll soon discover that what fuels game design is the steady, daily consumption of a balanced diet consisting of the four food groups: fats, starches, sugars, and caffeine. Load up on those and you too can become a game designer! The inverse corollary, of course, is that things like exercise, grooming, bathing, and other societal “wastes of time” are to be eschewed.

5. So that you can go to work wearing anything (or nothing at all). The dress code is lowest of all for game designers. Artists will try to convey some sense of style in their attire, engineers will go for the occasional “professional” look in their desperate search for respect, management often pretends that they’re dressing for success, but no one gives a fairy’s fart about game designers. They can dress in rags, never groom, and smell like yesterday’s privy wipings and the others in the office will just shrug it off with, “Oh yes, well, there’s a game designer for you.”

6. To be allowed to go the extra mile for “the professionals” on your team and garnering their respect. As a game designer, your game will do better the easier you make everyone else’s life on the team. But every sketch with stick-people you give an Artist to illustrate a design concept, every bullet-point your write for a Marketing Person to emphasize a key feature, every formula you work out for an Engineer to make the design all hang together won’t be appreciated. After all, they’re “the professionals” and your extra efforts will at best be considered “quaint.” Of course, they’ll have no problem telling you (at length) about what features you should include / changes that should be made to your design. Thus, they’re implying that you’re not a “real” professional (like they are) and that they have every right to climb in your pulpit and start preaching their game design philosophy. As a game designer, that’s your cross to bear, and the longer you can bear it the more cross you might become.

7. So you can deduct from your taxes all of the books, movies, comics, and games that you would have bought anyway. Ahh, bliss! But this assumes that A) you make enough to pay a signigicant amount of taxes (which you probably won’t, see #8 above), and B) you’re organized enough to keep satisfactory tax records, which is another problem in its own right.

8. To eliminate any anxiety caused by owning vast wealth and possessions. There’s a long-standing “vow of poverty” that comes with working in the game business; a vow rigidly enforced by the owners of the game publishing and distribution centers. If you want to make money, get a real job in show business or become an owner of a successful game developer or publisher. You’ll never get rich slaving away on the oars of game design to the pounding drumbeat of a production schedule, sweating over a game design’s ‘vision’ while charting a course that was set by someone in marketing or management.

9. To be able to impress twelve-year old boys with your important job. Actually, I’m amazed how many so-called “adults” are also impressed. Once upon a time, game designers were not unlike pornography (e.g., having “no redeeming social importance,” in the immortal words of the US Supreme Court). Today, there’s a certain (albeit limited) “star quality” to the job. However, any game designer worth their salt can demonstrate enough introspection to realize how low on the career food chain they actually are. If they can’t, their Producers will pointedly remind them of this fact on every conceivable occasion.

10. It explains to others why you’re always “playing a game” instead of “working.” And to most game designers, this is worth more than the best tip on the horses or the biggest pot in poker that you’ll ever receive. Not that this ‘convenient excuse’ will prevent your loved ones from harboring an increasing disrespect for your choice in careers or for the unsavory ‘fans’ of your work, but that’s a different problem that you won’t enjoy dealing with when the time comes.（source:alanemrich）