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游戏开发者如何实现自我推广

发布时间:2014-01-07 15:12:08 Tags:,,,,

作者:Raph Koster

我是为了Mattie Brice专门写下这篇文章,她被列入了年度Polygon的50位游戏新闻人物名单中。在表达了祝贺后,我们彼此交换了Twitter帐号,她表示自己并不知道可以将其添加到自己的简历上,“我不知道如何进行自我推广。”

需要明确的是,本文并不是关于如何营销你的游戏。而是关于如何营销你自己,更确切地说是在产业中找到你的专业立足点。

为什么要进行自我推广?

实际上,这是一个1)拥挤而又充满干扰元素的世界,2)具有竞争性又充满许多与你做着同样的事的人的世界。获得关注真的是件很困难的事。保持被关注也很困难。也许你非常出色,但是人们可能并不知道,或者很容易便会将你忘记。结果便是,如果缺少了自我推广,你便不能做那些你真正想要做的事。有时候,这个宇宙将把你的梦想和渴望重重地摔在你的脚下。有时候你会发出恳求,不过大多数情况你需要为此而奋斗。

一些观点

自我推广并不意味着推倒某人。实际上,如果有效实施的话,它还能够拉动其他人。这并不代表虚伪;实际上,只有诚恳地进行自我推广才有可能取得更好的效果。这并不代表愚蠢;如果做得好,它便意味着稳定且实事求是。如果这些是你对于自我推广的印象,请果断抛弃它们。它们是一些积极的警告标识提醒着你去看看别人,尽管它们可能很难进行尝试,或者需要一些建议指示你如何最好地进行呈现。

第一步

做好工作。没了这一点,一切都是扯谈。这意味着付出代价,努力专研等等苦差事。但是我希望你能够喜欢这些工作,因为如果不是这样的话你最好选择去做其它事。如果你不能足够重视自己所面对的领域,学习它并了解有关它的一切,尝试着添加一些新知识去理解该领域,你便不可能做到自我推广。

遗憾的是,像“我没有足够的钱去支付游戏/书籍”等理由是不重要的。我希望它们能够发挥功效,但这并不是当前世界发展的方法。所以要努力去寻找学习方法。或者你将发现自己陷入一种尴尬的境况中,即别人相信你会做出一些成就,但是你却说了一些空话。不要如此伤害别人,也不要如此伤害自己。最终推断出的结果是,明确地看清楚自己的弱势是什么。

当你与别人交谈时,想想自己能带给对方怎样的帮助。自我推广从根本上看来是通过让别人支持你。你可以通过帮助别人做到这点,即对方将给予回报。通常情况下这意味着将人们指向一些能够提供比你更大帮助的人那边。最终结果便是人们(游戏邦注:不管是你帮忙指引方向的对象还是箭头那一方)将记住你是个既有帮助,又诚实大方的人。

在做好工作后,你可以使用所学到的内容去帮助其他人。

分享所吸取的经验教训。你不需要拥有一个高级的职业或成为一个专家。实际上,那些拥有许多技能的人所吸取的经验教训对于初学者来说是没有用的,他们可能会迷失在其中的细微差别里。那么要如何进行分享呢?写下来。像博客,Twitter,实践社区等等论坛让你能够于产业中的其他人进行互动,这是突显你的名字的一种重要方式。

你并不需要一个强大或知名的论坛。就像我最初选择的是MUD-Dev,在此之前则是Usenet。关于MUD-Dev,一开始你可能并不了解它,所以我会在适当的机会推广这一论坛。许多MMORPG产业可能从未听过它,所以我要鼓励他们加入这一论坛。这是帮助你们起步的一个高质量论坛。

self-promotion(from marcscottvoiceover)

self-promotion(from marcscottvoiceover)

不要只想着产业。我发现科幻小说世界,法律世界,学术界诶等等领域也具有许多价值。你应该寻找任何于自己的工作相关的内容。

去了解不同人群并找到他们对你的工作的看法是非常有价值的。

分享失败。分享成功很棒。但没有什么建议比路标指示着“小心,洪水冲毁了这条道路”来得有用。你将因为诚实地承认错误而得到尊重。这并不会损害你的身份。任何重要的人也会犯许多错误。你将在写下这些错误时更深刻地认识它们,如此将更好地推动你去完善自己的工作。最后,其他人可能会利用你所犯的错误并做些对你不利的事。

提供工具。不要只是批评,咆哮,挥舞拳头或像哲学家那般思考。你要问自己所说的一切是否对别人有帮助。

这可能是具有挑战并且是有用的。这可能是基于哲理且是有用的。这可能是让人愤怒且是有用的。如果这是无用的,那么可能就只是对你有帮助。这也没事,但却不是大方的表现。而自我推广从根本上看来是关于大方。

友善待人。你可能是爱挑剔但却待人友善。你可能会说出一些糟糕的行为但却待人友善。这是一个较小的产业。我有一个列表是关于许多“我永远不想再与之合作的人”的名单。每个人都有自己的名单,甚至有的人的名单很长。从纯粹的实际角度来看,过河拆桥真的是个糟糕的想法。更糟糕的是,我认为每个人都需要面对这种情况,至少有些你想要传达的不好的内容是错误的,而你只是不了解真正的情况。这是我们所有人都会遇到的。

这并不是意味着不要表态。这意味着尽可能地表现出专业性,并确保你所说的是基于现实,即尽可能客观地阐述观点。

然后你需要获得声誉

这是很多人做不到的一面。

为自己的工作获得适当以及公共信誉。当我最初因为《网络创世纪》而获得信誉时,是基于“创意总监”,而不是“首席设计师”。《网络创世纪》的发行是没有首席设计师这一角色(这是个很长的故事)。但是在简历中创意总监却是个没有多大帮助的头衔。所以当他们邀请我加入《网络创世纪:次世代》时,我特别强调自己的头衔应该是首席设计师。如此我才能在之后以《网络创世纪》的首席设计师自居。

当然了,你绝对不能基于任何方式去伪造自己的身份。这是不诚实的表现,并且有可能彻底摧毁你。

不要变成受气包。(但说实话我的个性注定就让我难以摆脱这样的身份)。我曾经参与过一个技术的创造。我解决了它所面对的许多挑战,可以说如果没有我也就不会有这一技术。但是并非只有我致力于这项工作中。而最终,其他致力于该技术的人的名字都出现在了专利页上,我却没有。不过我并未坚持于这件事。不管你是如何看待软件专利,这都是个问题所在。你必须为自己和努力站起来说话。

这点特别重要,因为你的职业中可能有一半的事物是公众所看不到的。所以做到这点可能比你所预想的更加重要。我有一份很长的列表罗列出了那些花费我大量时间的重要项目,并且它们迄今还未被人们所知晓。它们未出现在简历上。它们只会出现在人们的记忆中。有时候你可以在交谈中提及这些内容,但仅此而已。所以从真正发行的作品中获得声誉是很重要的。

“我们”不是“我”。这总是事实。

通常情况下,我们要足够谦逊。事实是,如果你取得了一个巨大的成功,这是因为你非常好运。

因为你获得了适当的帮助。因为时机是合理的。因为你的父母。这都不是归因于你是天才。

不要否认你在进行自我推广。如果你足够看重它,就不会觉得它可恨了。只有当你做得过火了它才会变得可恨。笑着承认吧,并表示自己要这么做。

你应该做一些特别的事

拥有自己的网站,拥有自己的游戏组合。最理想的情况是,网站的域名是你自己的名字。当然,你也可以使用Medium或Google+。但Medium终有一天会关闭。Slideshare及其小工具将在五十年内被历史给淘汰。所以最有保障的还是将所有内容刊登在自己的网站上。让它成为你自己的剪报。不要签约任何规定你不能刊登一份副本或修订版在其它地方的合同。

不要断断续续地编写。你必须定期做到这点。这就像浇灌植物一样。如果你无心搭理,声誉终会干涸。

让人们可以轻松地找到你。在你的网站上刊登自己的简历或简要总结。很多人认为“自我介绍”那一部分是充填器!但是并非这样。你应该创造一份个人简历,并定期更新它。我的名片背后也有份小简历。毕竟如果我是在与一些不认识我的人会面,那么最有效的方式便是快速告诉他们可以怎样将我带走。

学习使用醒目的引文。这是一种技能,是你应该培养的技能。来看看我所使用过的一些引用:

单人游戏是一种历史的失常。

客户是来自敌人的手中。

乐趣只是学习的转换词。

关于游戏,学习就是良药。

游戏是由游戏所组成的。

叙述并不是一种机制,而是反馈的一种形式。

这也许是关于数学的游戏。我认为这糟糕透了。

为什么没有一款有关品尝新摘的桃子的游戏?

现在,你也许同意,或者反对这些看法。有些内容并非由我第一个提出。它们所具有的共同点是都是基于表态的直接陈述,即简短且基于实践的需求。有时候,我可能真的走太远了,但是我可以向你们保证,我使用这些精简引用所获得的价值真的非常巨大。精简引用将使你的谈话内容成为大手捧场的内容。精简的引用将帮助你上电视或上广播。精简的引用是那些用于学术性论文中的内容。精简的引用是让别人去讨论你的内容——当越多人在讨论你,那么他们对于你和你的作品的认知便会越强大。没有人会去讨论一个无名小卒。作为一个备受争议的人也是件好事。所以适当的引用内容也是一种资产。

顺便说一下,在这里行话可不是个有利元素。

当我最初与一些较为出名的人见面时,我惊讶地发现在进行一些互动后,他们总是会说出一些习惯用语和妙语,或者一些奇闻轶事等。有时候他们会有所疏忽而在不同会议上对于同一个人使用同样的短语两次。问题在于,如果你偶然发现某些表达可行,那就继续使用它。再次使用,并进行优化。反复述说你的故事。这可能看起来有点做作,但在于扮演你想要变成的那种人的自我推广中,这种做法是有意义的。

考虑你的外观。不需要过分讲究。当然,有些人在一些公共场合总是会穿类似的衣服,就像Steve Jobs的黑色高领毛衣。而我的外观就显得“较为凌乱”。是的,有很多人这么描述我。而Warren Spector便显得很“专业”。同样地你也可以利用照片去呈现自己。

这可能是最肤浅的一点了。但有两个原因推动着我们去重视它:首先,外观也是你的标志,你需要重视它。从文化上看,作为人类的我们总是会盛装出席正式场合。你的工作是种仪式,你的工作会议也是一种仪式、所以要认可这一重要性。说实话,如果你在这方面做得适当,你便不会厌烦这一过程。其次,这能让你在别人心中留下深刻印象。就像那些见过穿着衔了砖石的夹克并带着牛仔帽的George Sanger都不会轻易忘记他。

基于一种奇怪的感觉,你会想要成为一个卡通人物。为什么?因为卡通和图标总是会深深留在我们的脑海中。让人印象深刻的卡通人物比一个复杂而又容易被忘记的人类更有价值。这并不意味你一定要成为一个卡通人物。而是意味着你可以在自己身上找到一些标志性事物。例如在我的谈话或博客中添加一些诗歌。

如果可以的话接收媒体训练或公共演说训练。这是学习自己何时引用错误,说一些不适合出现在公共场合的言论的捷径。最快捷的方法是?找到一个当地的英语演讲会俱乐部。当你在进行访谈,在展示自己的作品时,你都需要使用这种方法。

适用于大规模团队中的方法是:学习市场营销。CliffyB,Warren Spector和Will Wright等人所具有的共同点是,他们都具有积极的媒体评价。除此之外,这对于你们的团队也是很有价值的内容。每个团队都需要一个“能歌善舞”之人。能够轻松地应对公共演讲。如果你缺乏幽默感的话就去培养它。并擅于展示作品。清楚地接受访问。自在地面对摄像机镜头。如此你的市场营销部门将开始请教你的帮助,因为开发这些技能是非常有价值的。同时,你最好还需认识来自媒体的人。他们是非常有价值的联系对象。在E3中摆摊是对于掌握这些技能的一种有效训练。

进行会议讲话。我很感谢Rich Vogel和Gordon Walton将我引向这条道路。这能让更多人认识你。我敢保证在《网络创世纪》刚刚问世时艺电根本就不会注意到我。他们并未为了争夺我而竞争,我甚至曾经出现在裁员名单中。但是剩下的产业却视我如珍宝。可以说离开艺电对我的职业起到了很大的帮助,因为出现了有关我的离开的新闻以及我加入SOE的新闻,甚至当我出任该公司的CCO时也出现了相关新闻。我的声誉基础并不是关于工作,而是对于工作的意识。而会议讲话能够让你直接与同事们进行交流。

一开始做这些是否会困难?当然。你将频繁地遭到拒绝。即使是现在我也屡遭拒绝。但是不要担心,也不要以为只有你自己才遇到这种情况。你需要做的只是站起来并再次尝试。

寻找自我的价值

认识对的人。许多自我推广只是朝着正确的的圈子行进。而这一点的一大部分便是属于这些圈子。如果你不能做到这点,你也很快就能发现。但是如果你认为自己属于那里,你就需要尽力进入这些圈子中。不过有时候有些人是不明显的,如一些游戏产业外部的人,就像Eric Zimmerman。他认识许多有权势的人。而他资深也是一个强大的领导者。

不要因为你想要接触某些人,因为觉得自己属于这里,或因为喜欢某些人等等贸然闯入这些圈子中。这是关于找到你自己的“部落”。

如果你发现不存在这样的圈子,那就自己创造一个。之所以会出现GDC就是因为Chris Crawford希望自己周边的部落能够一起谈论游戏。多年来,我们的在线伙伴运行了一个于GDC差不多的会议—-因为我们想要拥有自己的部落。所谓的形式主义中(游戏邦注:我们中的一半人都是这样!)会在身处同一个城市的时候相约共进晚餐。

不要透过自我推广的镜片去看待你的生活。存在许多“秘密的游戏开发者邮件列表”。当我首次受邀时,我的想法是“哇,这听起来很酷。“有价值的联系人”的想法出现在列表中的第五点或第六点。我之所以这么说是因为这听起来太讽刺了。但我可以诚实地说,我会在事后进行自我推广。带有目的前往那里只会让人看起来很虚伪。所以你最好在生活中保持诚实的态度。

结果:你必须分享自己所拥有的内容,慷慨地使用自己的时间,并诚实地创建于别人间的关系。不要向一些你未曾做过的事邀功。与产业相分享,并对相关领域做出贡献。确保人们知道你所做的。这能够帮助你得到尊重,这也是自我推广的关键。

金钱与声誉

我发现许多人,特别是那些在编写游戏的人会认为,除非赚到了足够的钱,否则他们便算失败。

我认识产业中一些只靠游戏编写谋生的自由职业者。但是他们一点都不富裕。

将我在上文中所提到的声誉于财政奖励练习在一起是一种错误的观点。它们不一定要相联系。我所分享的这些做法只是帮助你如何敞开大门,而不是教你怎样财源滚滚。产业中那些最有钱的人通常都未获得广泛的尊重,也很少会留下遗产。所有的这些自我推广都是以给你机会,让你能够更轻松地掌握机遇为目的。许多机遇都是关于有趣的工作以及有意义的个人关系。当然,也会有一些是关于金钱—-适当的推广将推动你的职业发展。这就像是:自我推广有助于你的职业发展,而职业发展的目的则是帮助你获得幸福。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Self-promotion for game developers

by Raph Koster

I’m writing this for Mattie Brice, who was just listed as one of Polygon’s 50 game newsmakers of the year. We had a brief Twitter exchange after I offered congratulations, in which she mentioned that she didn’t know she could put this on a CV, and that she “know[s] nothing of self-promotion.” I have certainly never been accused of that, so this is a rehash of stuff I have written elsewhere and elsewhen.

To be clear, this post is not about marketing your games. It is about marketing yourself, and not even that, but about finding your professional place within the industry.

Why self-promote?

The fact is that the world is a) crowded and full of distractions b) competitive and full of other people who do what you do. Getting noticed is hard. Staying noticed is also hard. You can be utterly amazing and people can simply not know. You can be utterly amazing and people can simply forget. The result, simply put, is that without self-promotion you won’t get to do all the things you want to do. Yes, sometimes the universe does drop your dreams and heartfelt desires in your lap. But usually you have to at least say please, and most of the time you have to fight for them.

Some myths

Self-promotion does not mean pushing others down. In fact, when done most effectively, it is actually done by pulling others up. It does not mean falsity; in fact, it is usually best done by being genuine. It does not mean being crass; when done well, it usually simply means being firm and matter-of-fact. If these things are your impression of what self-promotion is, please discard them. They are good warning signs to see in someone else, though — they may be trying too hard, or might need advice on how to best present themselves.

The first steps

Do good work. Without this, all else is pointless. This means, yes, paying dues, studying up, all that drudgery. Hopefully you love it, because otherwise you should do something else. If you do not take your field seriously enough to study it, and try to know everything about it, and try to add new knowledge and understanding to the field, then you probably shouldn’t be self-promoting.

Sadly, valid reasons like “I don’t have enough money to afford the games/books” won’t matter… I wish they did, but it’s not how the world works right now. So find ways to study and learn by hook or crook. Or you’ll find yourself in situations where others trust you to make something happen and you won’t be able to because you’ll be hollow words. Don’t hurt others that way, and don’t hurt yourself that way. The corollary is, be aware of what you are not good at.

When you talk with someone, think about how you can be helpful to them. Self-promotion fundamentally is done by getting others to give you a leg up. You do this by being helpful to them, so that they reciprocate. Often that will mean pointing people towards someone who isn’t you, because they can help more than you can. The result will be that people (both the ones you pointed away from yourself, and the ones you pointed them to) will remember you as helpful and honest and generous.

After doing work, you use what you learned to help others

Share lessons learned. You don’t need to have a hugely advanced career or be a massive expert. In fact, a lot of lessons learned by people who have lots of skill aren’t that useful to novices, who might be lost in the nuances it provides. How to share? Write. Forums like blogs, Twitter, communities of practice and so on where you can interact with others in the industry are very important for getting your name out there.

It doesn’t need to be a big or famous forum. I got started on MUD-Dev, and before that, on Usenet. In the case of MUD-Dev, it was an obscure forum to start with, so I promoted the forum whenever I got the chance. A lot of the MMORPG industry might well have never heard of it otherwise, so I encouraged them to join it. It helped that it was a high-quality forum to start with.

Don’t think industry only, either. I have found enormous value in contacts from the science fiction world, from the legal world, from academia, and so on. Everything is relevant to your work. Everything.

Getting to know diverse groups of people and finding out what they think of what you do is immensely valuable.

Share failures. Sharing triumphs is always nice. But gosh, there’s almost no advice as good as a signpost that says “watch out, a flood washed out this road.” You will earn respect for being honest enough to admit mistakes. It will not harm your standing at all. Anyone who matters will have made plenty of mistakes of their own. You will learn more about those mistakes from writing about them, and that will make your own work better. Finally, others will be able to seize on your mistakes and do something with them that blows you away.

Provide tools. Don’t just criticize, pontificate, rant, pump your fist, or philosophize. Ask yourself whether what you are saying is something that others will find useful.

It can be challenging and useful. It can be philosophical and useful. It can be angry and useful. If it isn’t useful, it’s probably just useful to you. And that’s fine, but it’s not generous. And self-promotion is fundamentally about generosity.

Be nice. You can be critical and be nice. You can call out bad behavior and be nice. It’s a small industry. I have a list, as many veterans do, of “people I will never work with again.” It is small. But everyone has a list, and some people’s lists are very long. From a purely practical point of view, burning bridges is a bad idea. Worse, and I think everyone needs to confront this, at least some of the nasty stuff you want to say is wrong, and you just don’t know the real situation. It happens to all of us.

This doesn’t mean not taking a stand. It means being professional as you do so, and being sure that what you say is grounded in reality that is as objective as you can make it.

Then you take credit

This is the part that people fall down on.

Get proper and public credit for your work. When I was originally credited on Ultima Online, it was as “creative lead,” not as “lead designer.” UO shipped without a lead designer (long story). But creative lead is not a useful title on a resume. I made a point of asking for and getting the title of lead designer on UO Live (running the service) when they asked me to do UO: Second Age. That way I was able to legitimately refer to myself as lead designer on UO later on.

Needless to say, don’t falsify what you did in any way whatsoever. It is dishonest and it will come out and blow up.

Being a doormat is a good way to lose out. (I am a doormat by nature, btw. This is very hard for me). There was once a piece of technology that I was absolutely critical to inventing. It would not have happened without me, and I solved many of the core challenges with it. I certainly was not the only one who worked on it. As it happens, others who worked on it were the ones who filled out the patent paperwork, and my name wasn’t on it. I didn’t insist. Regardless of how you feel about software patents, that was a mistake. Stand up for yourself and your contributions.

This is especially important because odds are very good that well over half your career will be “dark matter” — stuff that will not be seen by the public. So those parts that are seen matter more than you think. I have a long list of major, significant projects that occupied years of my time… that never saw the light of day and are still confidential. They don’t live on the resume. They don’t live anywhere except in some people’s memories. You can use these in conversation sometimes (depending on legalities) but that’s about it. So getting credit for work that actually shipped is very important.

Say “we” not “I.” Because it’s almost always the truth.

In general, be humble. Fact is, if you had a big success, it’s because you were goddamn lucky.

Because you had the right help. Because the time was right. Because your parents. It is never all attributable to your genius. I say this as someone who actually is a polymathic genius, so I know what I am talking about.

Don’t bother denying that you’re self promoting. If you’ve been honorable about it, it won’t be resented. It only gets obnoxious when you overdo it.  Admit it with a grin, and point out “I gotta eat.”

Some very specific things you should be doing

Have your own website, and have a portfolio of some sort on it. Ideally, the website’s domain is your name. Yes, it’s wonderful and all to write on Medium or Google+. Medium is going to get shut down someday. Slideshare and its widgets will be the detritus of history in fifteen years. Post/host copies of everything you can on your own site. Make it your clipping book. Don’t sign speaking contracts that say you can’t post up a copy or a reworked version somewhere.

Don’t write intermittently. You have to do it regularly. It is a chore like watering a plant. Reputations dry up and wither away.

Make it easy to find out about you. Post up a CV and a more digestible summary on your site. Too many people think the About Me section is filler. It’s not! Develop a bio you can give people, and update it periodically. The back of my business card actually has a short resume on it. After all, if I am meeting someone who doesn’t know me, what better way is there to let them know quickly, in a way they can take away with them? (I debated on this one, because it’s definitely somewhat obnoxious, but ended up deciding to stand on my record).

Learn to give good pull quotes. This is a skill, and it’s one you can and should build. Let me give you a tour of some quotes associated with me:

Single-player is a historical aberration.

The client is in the hands of the enemy.

Fun is just another word for learning.

With games, learning is the drug.

Games are made out of games.

Narrative is not a mechanic. It’s a form of feedback.

It may be that games are all about math. And I think that sucks.

Why is there no game about the taste of a freshly picked peach?

Now, you may agree with these or not. Some of them, I wasn’t the first one to say! What they have in common, though, is that they are direct statements that take a stand, are brief, and practically demand follow-on exposition. Sometimes I have gone too far with these — no question! — but I can tell you that the value I have gotten from being able to supply pithy quotes is immense. Pithy quotes are what make it into the write-up of your talks. Pithy quotes are what gets you on TV or radio. Pithy quotes are what get cited in academic papers. Pithy quotes are what gets someone to debate you — and the more you are debated, the more awareness others have of you and your work. Nobody bothers to debate a nobody. Being a bit controversial is a good thing. Being highly quotable is an asset.

By the way, jargon is the enemy here.

In fact, have a stock phrase library. When I first started meeting relatively famous people socially, I was shocked to discover that after a few interactions with them, I noticed that they had a set of stock phrases and witticisms, a go-to set of anecdotes, and so on. Sometimes they slipped up and used the same phrase twice on the same person in different meetings. Oops. The thing is, if you hit on a way of saying something that works, don’t stop using it. Use it again, Polish it. Retell your stories. This may seem theatrical, but there is a very real sense in which self-promotion is putting on a performance of the person you want to be.

Think about your appearance. It doesn’t have to be good. Oh sure, some folks make a point of always having a suit in a public appearance, Steve Jobs liked his black turtlenecks. In my case, my look is “rumpled.” Yes, I have had multiple other people describe me to myself that way. It’s a consistent rumpled, is my point. Warren Spector’s is “professorial,” I mean, have you seen his sweaters? Have photos that show who you are, too.

This may seem like the shallowest thing ever. But there’s two big reasons to do it: one, it’s a signal to yourself that you are taking this seriously. Culturally, we as humans dress up for ritual and ceremonial moments. Your work is a ritual, your work gathering is a ceremony. Grant it that importance. Honestly, if you do it right, it’ll be the clothes you like to wear. Two, it makes you memorable. No one who has met George “The Fat Man” Sanger, in rhinestone jacket and cowboy hat, forgets it.

In a weird sense, you want to be a bit of a cartoon. Why? Because cartoons, icons, are what we reduce things to in our heads. (You remember those parts of Theory of Fun, right?) A memorable cartoon is more valuable than a complex forgotten person, in this case. This doesn’t mean being cartoon-y. It means having some signature stuff that you get associated with. Having poetry in my talks or my blog is one of those signatures, in my case.

If you can, get media training and/or public speaking training. It’s a shortcut to learning a whole lot of stuff you will otherwise learn the painful hard way when you get misquoted, say something you shouldn’t have in public, and so on. The quick and easy way? Find a local Toastmasters club or something. You will need this for when you do an interview. You will need this when you demo. I could write a whole very long post just on public speaking techniques, but this is already long.

A corollary applicable especially to those on large teams: Learn marketing. One thing that CliffyB and Warren Spector and Will Wright and many others have in common is that they give good press. Besides, this is just a valuable thing to have on your team anyway. Every team needs a good song and dance person. Get comfortable with public speaking. Develop a sense of humor if you haven’t got one. Be very good at demoing. Be articulate in interviews. Get comfy on camera. Your marketing dept will start asking for you because devs with these skills are rare and valuable. As part of this, get to know folks in the press. They are also valuable contacts. Being the lowest-ranked booth monkey at E3 is remarkably good training for this.

Do conference talks. I owe Rich Vogel and Gordon Walton an enormous debt for starting me on this path. It leads to a lot of recognition. It gets your name out there. It’s worth pointing out that I am pretty sure that EA did not value me significantly if at all after UO came out. They didn’t fight to keep me, and at one point I was on a firing list (I hear). But the rest of the industry saw me as valuable. Leaving EA helped my career quite a lot in that sense, because there was press about my departure, and there was a press release when I joined SOE, and there was a press release when I was made CCO. The foundation of the reputation I have is not the work, it’s awareness of the work. Conference talks directly target your peers.

Is it hard to get started doing this? Yes. You’ll get rejected a lot. I still get rejected now. Don’t worry about it, don’t take it personally. Just get up and submit again.

Finding yourself

Get to know the right people. Much of self-promotion is merely moving in the right circles. A large part of this is actually credibly belonging in those circles. If you don’t, you’ll quickly find out. But try to get to those circles if you think you belong there. Sometimes they are not obvious — few folks outside the industry would pick, say, Eric Zimmerman, as a key figure. But he has a very very good Rolodex (or modern equivalent). He is connected to a lot of movers and shakers. He is a thought leader himself.

Don’t break into circles because you want the contacts. Break in because you think you belong there, because you want to be there, because you like the people there. It is about finding your “tribe.” (Odds are good, by the way, that your tribe isn’t actually the biggest names out there today. But you know what? They are actually very approachable, by and large. So don’t rule it out!)

If no such circle exists, create it. GDC started because Chris Crawford wanted his tribe around him to talk games. For years, us online folks ran a parallel conference next to GDC because we wanted our tribe. The so-called formalists — all half dozen of us! — get together for dinner now whenever we are in the same city.

Don’t view your life through the lens of self-promotion, that way lies fakery. There are a lot of “secret game developer mailing lists” and the like. When I was first invited into one, my first thought was “oh, this sounds COOL.” The “valuable contacts” thoughts came about fifth or sixth on the list. I say this because it might be that all this probably sounds too cynical. But I can honestly say that I tend to think of the self-promotion angle after the fact. Going in there with that intent will just make you seem fake, I think. Be honest in your life, I guess is all I am saying.

Bottom line: Give back. Don’t be a dick. Seriously. Share what you can, be generous with your time, build relationships honestly. Don’t claim credit for things you didn’t do. Anything else is unethical and a longterm disaster anyway. Share with the industry, contribute to the field. And make sure that people know you did. It earns respect, and that’s the core of self-promotion.

A crass monetary note

I see a lot of folks who think that unless money is rolling in, they are failing. This especially seems to be a feeling among people who write about games.

I know exactly one person in the entire industry who makes a living freelance just writing about games. They are not rich.

It is a mistake to associate the kind of reputation I am talking about in this article with financial reward. It does not necessarily correlate. What this stuff does is open doors, not cause money to rain down on you. The people with the most money in the industry are often not widely respected, not leaving a legacy behind… All this self-promotion is for the purpose of giving you opportunities, and making it easier for you to take those opportunities. Many of those opportunities will be about exciting work and meaningful personal relationships. Some will be about money too — proper self-promotion helps the career. It goes like this: the self-promotion helps the career, but the career is supposed to help the happiness.(source:gamasutra)


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