Let’s face it, would any of us really want to be a game developer – or even worse, an MMO developer? Sure, it’s a cool job, but would the pressure, the long hours, and the intense amount of hatred directed at you by the Internet for almost any decision really be worth it?
A lot of us are aware that the blogosphere tends to be more hard work than fulfilling praise for the people who craft our games, but not a lot of us do anything about that. Enter Scary of Scary Worlds, who this week has been holding his Third Annual Developer Appreciation Week -
“I know once and a while I would love for somebody to tell me I’m doing a great job just for doing my job. It’s nice to know someone appreciates me and my hard work. Developers are no different. Spending 1 week to say a few minor thanks does not compare to how great I think these people are. I wish more people felt the same, but I can’t force other people to appreciate anything. ”
In addition to his own great posts, he’s assembled a pretty impressive list of other bloggers to join the cause this year. Here’s the full list:
- Scary himself wrote a piece on the nature of appreciation, a piece about pioneer Derek Smart, and a piece about Dominus developers Pitch Black Games.
- MMOQuests expressed their thanks to all developers equally.
- Blue Kae thanked developers struggling with pleasing all the people all the time, the team at Trion, and several of the big names in Star Trek Online.
- MMO Gamer Chick gave a big hug to all Community Mangers everywhere.
- Cortical Scrub shared the love with Bungie, makers of Halo.
- Stropp at Stropp’s World praised indie game developers for their dedication without resources.
- Moxie at The Wild Boar Inn praised Blizzard’s music team and the developers of indie MMO Wurm Online.
- High Latency Life praised Relic Entertainment for the many hours of pleasure they have given him.
- To Worlds Unknown appreciated InXile Entertainment, who have recently Kickstarted Wasteland 2.
- And Yeebo Fernbottom praised Bioware for what he sees as advancing the MMO genre as a whole.
- Spinks at Spinksville wrote in praise of adventure game designer Jane Jensen.
- And finally, Rowan at I Have Touched The Sky extends appreciation to all the storytellers in all MMOs.
On which subject, I guess it only remains for me to thank Scary, for what is one of the coolest and, well, nicest recurring events in the blogosphere. I’ve enjoyed it for two years now – it brings a bit of warmth to the blogosphere. He’s saying that it won’t return next year – but I hope it will.
What developer would you like to give thanks to?
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Thank you for the link love and the kind words. As I said in the wrap up post, the best thing about DAW is bringing the community together. It’s nice to learn what brings joy into others’ lives. Those bloggers on that list sat down and remembered having fun playing their favorite games. Most of them couldn’t narrow it down they loved games so much. It is taking that extra little time out of their busy day to recognize they people that help them get through their day.
Developers are no different than anybody else, their day shines when they know someone appreciates them. It feels good to make people smile no matter how long that smile lasts.
Thank you again for sharing these links with your readers. I appreciate it.
PS. look for BLOGGERPALOOZA all next week. Where I interview over 15 bloggers. Yeah I even made an appreciation week for them