You probably have heard of a saying “Fake it till you make it”. This saying is about something called Imposter Syndrome.
Here is a wiki link for a quick reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
I also remember this expression sticking with me after a certain TED talk, so go check it out too, if you haven’t seen it:
https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are
If you are too lazy to deal with any of this, then here is the bottom line – when you deliver what is expected of you, yet you consider yourself to be an imposter or someone who gets things done via dumb luck or other circumstantial reasons, rather than skill.
As a body of students, we are thrown into the development of games in our first year. It would silly not think that a lot of people here are facing Imposter Syndrome. Hell, I myself only recently started to feel like not a complete designer imposter. I know that I have given miniature lectures to groups of 30 people for 5 terms at Stockholm University, yet I never considered myself to be a proficient instructor. While legit and experienced university lecturers told me that I was great – I still doubted it.
The differentiating between the people who feel like a fraud and the actual frauds is crucial here. Otherwise, this can result in a witch hunt and the Spanish Inquisition. What am I talking about? I am talking not about those people who doubt their skills, but those who lack most of the vital skills to be game developers and/or an expert in their field of speciality. To put it roughly – if you have no hands, then the chances of you becoming a piano player are ever so slim.
Now, before I cross the line of no return, yes, some people might try to develop the needed skills and be open about their efforts. Again, these aren’t the people in question, as there are strong and weak players on this journey. If all the cards are on the table, it is a fair game.
However, imagine the situation where you have a certain confidence that the person has some skills (which is a naïve point of view, that I have now erased from my mind completely). And this person appears to deliver things, yet the quality isn’t as good as you thought it should be. Now, subterfuge is a part of the “Fake it till you make it” and if someone manages to fake it all the way to success, then kudos to them. But if a fake can be identified in the work process (through unexpectedly low quality, empty promises, etc.) then this person should be expelled from the group without any further discussion. When they are revealed as a fraud, they have violated the trust that was put into them. In the environment of tight schedules and constant deadlines, these people are leeching off the effort of others. It’s no wonder that unfortunate team members feel like working for two and not moving forward. The reason for that is the fact that the effort of the team is being calculated for an X amount of people, while the equation should be X-1. If you were a shop, you would have been taking losses in your finances without a good explanation.
I am a firm believer that all of us (MOST for sure) have some sort of value inside. But the transparency and the mutual understanding of a thing like a low personal skill are a requirement for this to work. If you are pretending to be something that you are most certainly aren’t, then don’t be surprised when the banhammer smashes your face.
So, is there no redemption? Is this bloodlust unnecessary? Aren’t we all here to learn?
A teacher gets paid to teach us, the outcome is secondary to this. I know that if I were to get paid, my patience would increase until almost infinity because such is the nature of the contract. But as a student, I am not bound to teach someone. I can help, but I will not subject myself to working as a teacher while I’m also making a game. My contract with my team members is to do my work and be open about it. If I’m being crippled by someone riding on my back with an argument that we are supposed to teach each other, I will get mad. If my trust and my contract are violated, there will be righteous smiting at hand. But such is my personality. Others may choose to simply move on and that is fine too. And yes, we are here to learn. Both parties will get a unique lesson to learn from this. While you, my reader, might have never experienced this, trust me in this: identifying and unmasking an imposter will bring some strong emotions and most likely strong desire for justice.
So, in the conclusion, now that my angry rant is over, please remember that this is about the identification of true imposters. While we suffer little in the study projects, people like that are a mortal danger for a real workplace. Mostly, they are great at causing an obscure dissonance that I explained in part 2.2.
lostingame.design 