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I was once told, “If you don’t have a suggested solution, don’t say anything.” Sit back, let that sink in. What happened? Well, the smoke billowed and fire grew, but everyone turned away from its lapping flames -- they didn’t have an immediate solution, didn’t even want to brainstorm one. Rather, they chose to ignore it until it was a conflagration that consumed the product in its totality.
We are constantly told as children to “behave ourselves.” Indeed, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it,” is a common utterance. Parents are embarrassed when their children act fundamentally like children.
What about an employee? What is the role of the employee? Should she strike up a drum in warning as soon as a problem is identified?
To do so adds visibility and, hopefully, allows enough brainpower to focus on the imminent and potential threats as to solve them before they can become serious. A problem found in software can cost hundreds of times more when identified post launch than in planning or pre-production. The longer we wait to solve an issue, the more expensive it becomes. Depending on the type of malfunction or miss-step, it may become pervasive and hard to extricate from the working tissue of process, machinery, or software.
In the work place, having individuals that say, “Hey, this is broken, stop this!” is vital. Toyota has the andon cord to flag a problem and, if need be, halt production before the problem can disseminate itself and become larger.
Allowing a problem to fester may also have a human impact, causing morale to flounder as the issue persists. The more visible the issue, the larger the potential fallout.
What systems do you have in place where you work to notify everyone involved of an issue? What actions are taken? How are the whistle blowers treated?
About the Author
Andrew Andreas Grapsas is a game programmer at Arkadium, Inc. developing casual and social games. Previously, he was a gameplay and animations programmer at Kaos Studios|THQ, and intern systems programmer on Medal of Honor.
Andrew is actively writing and programming for various projects. You can read more at his blog aagrapsas.com. He promises to update it soon.
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This issue isn't helped by the temp status of many testers. I am sure other departments/people keep their mouth shut because they too feel expendable.
When it comes to creative production, be it Games, Music or Movies, Nothng is more likely to take the blame than Ego when stuff goes wrong.
The game development process, on my opinion, shouldn't involve diminishing nor exalting individual components of the team: Everyone is necessary; no one is capable of taking a whole project by itself¹.
Lead designers and Devs should -really- listen to their crew. Sometimes we are so biased by or own ideas, that the most obvious malfunctions can easly slip from or our view.
Keeping the mind open and being both critical and considerative when new ideas come is an art.
¹With a few exceptions for indies.
If you are talking about game design, that is a different story. Communication is key, but even the main arc of any game needs a monarch to control the path while others can simply influence the steps that are taken to stay on that path. Without the monarch, you have a collection of disjoint experiences that lead to nowhere.
In game production, new procedures and tools often cost a lot of money. You can purchase off-the-shelf productivity software or build in-house solutions, but both will incur a large cost. The moment you start to use words like, "large cost" is when your superiors start to get that nervous twitch in their eye. Even showing pretty pie charts and graphs may not always be enough to prove that the cost will be less overall, especially when there is always the chance that the new approach may fail completely and force you to revert to the old way. Some developers are more open to this than others, but in the end the general consensus is, "if this fails we still ship, so make it up on your own time."
I'm not trying to be the jerk who just pissed on your campfire, but just be cautiously optimistic when approaching your boss about a concept that may drastically alter the way things have always "worked" for the company. Your ideas may likely be interpreted as the young pup who knows too little about the business world to understand why it won't work.
If you're referring in general to how these ideas may be taken by any presenter, sure! The point isn't to go to your manager and say, "Hey, this is an idea, let's do it!" Rather, it's to get *you* thinking about them. You are the future of the industry. We all are. How we handle the torch once it's handed to us is immensely important.
To quote Rollo May, "To cling to a tradition, with the defensive plea that if we lose something that worked well in the past we will have lost all, neither shows the spirit of freedom nor makes for the future growth of freedom."
The chains of living corporate history weigh heavy on the silent slaves of industry.