The Craft of Game Design Cannot Be Measured By Any Metric

Over on ihobo.com today, a tirade about analytic metrics, game design as a craft, and 21st Century Game Design being about to go out of print. Here’s a quote:

We made one crucial error in 21st Century Game Design. My assumption had been that modelling player behaviour entailed understanding how to satisfy play needs, which is to say, having a positive, inclusive, moral and practical relationship with players. But the dominant forms of player modelling right now have absolutely no need to understand how to satisfy players in any form, because the principle form of model we are using are analytic metrics – and these metrics are blind to any aspect of the mental states of the player whatsoever. If our image of game design in the 21st century was that the industry was going to be making money by creating games that deeply satisfied their players, what we are actually facing now is an industry that makes the majority of its money by simply analysing where the leaks are in their player community, and acting as digital predators to suck spare change out of their digital wallets.

You can read the entirety of The Craft of Game Design Cannot Be Measured By Any Metric over on ihobo.com.