The Politics of Innovation

If your creative idea survives the attack of your Tyrannosaurus, it must face an even more terrifying monster: Executivasaurus! This is actually an entire genus of related species: Executivasaurus Marketensis, Executivasaurus Financialis, and, biggest of all, Executivasaurus Presidentens. Each has its own stalking methods, and each is a remorseless, highly efficient predator.

E. Marketensis seizes your hapless idea with one clawed hand and demands that the game be "just like last year's big hit…" then grabs it with the other and rips it apart, crying "…only different!"

E. Financialis pins your idea down to the ground under its huge foot, saying, "It must not cost more than this…" and then seizes your idea in its jaws and tears its head off, saying, "…but it must have state-of-the-art technology!"

E. Presidentens has the most insidious predatory technique. It implants its egg under the skin of its victim, then waits and watches for the egg to suck away all the life force of its unfortunate host. If the egg is successful, it takes over the body of the host; if not, E. Presidentens devours the failed host.

Shepherding a truly creative idea through an organization is much more difficult than germinating, nurturing, and developing the idea. Indeed, I consider it impossible for a creative person to push an idea through an organization; the skills required for creativity conflict with the skills required for politicking; such skills never fit inside one mind without eventually driving that mind into madness. The creative individual's best option is to team up with another person graced with the political skills to survive in the domain of Executivasaurus. The alternative is to leave the organization and start up a new company if you can get the funding. Either way, it's a long shot. It's probably best to keep your head down and work on a sequel.



Chris Crawford on Game Design
Chris Crawford on Game Design
ISBN: 0131460994
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 248

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