May 28, 2020
Pipelines, chokepoints, and what the heck are we doing?
There has been some recent discussion within the community about how to move people from “not a game designer/controller” to “professional (paid) game designer/controller” in an effective, efficient, and inclusive way. As someone who once upon a time had the ability to hire, mentor, and promote game designers (and analysts) I thought I’d weigh in a bit on this issue. Since I now run classes on wargame design for the Military Operations Research Society I still have some stake in the problem.
I’d like to talk about two questions: how do people transition from “not game designer/controller” to “professional game designer/controller?” Why is it so darn hard to make the transition? What would I say to someone looking to become the next Peter Perla? (Other than “Oh, my!”) I’d also like to talk about and “what, exactly, are we doing with all this education on wargaming?” And are our classes building the next cadre of game designers, or are they building better consumers of games? Or a little of the first and a lot of the second?
Read the full article in PAXsims.
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