Comments on: Demographic Advocates http://www.edery.org/2007/06/demographic-advocates/ For those interested in the business of making great video games. Entrepreneurial spirit a must. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:07:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Patrick http://www.edery.org/2007/06/demographic-advocates/comment-page-1/#comment-73169 Patrick Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:35:34 +0000 http://www.edery.org/2007/06/demographic-advocates/#comment-73169 Viva heterogenaidad! Viva heterogenaidad!

]]> By: Danc http://www.edery.org/2007/06/demographic-advocates/comment-page-1/#comment-72714 Danc Sat, 16 Jun 2007 17:36:14 +0000 http://www.edery.org/2007/06/demographic-advocates/#comment-72714 Regarding Pokemon (which I must say I\'ve been pouring most of my meaningful hours into), there is a toggle in the options menu where you can turn off the super long animations. Which means you only have to sit through the interminable dialogs. For the first 20 hours, it annoyed me immensely. Then I became numb to the rhythm of it all. The demographic advocate is a very solid idea. On a smaller scale, we have the \'customer on the team\' concept and it works out surprisingly well. In software development you have a lot of portfolio type problems: Limited resources, diverse audience, well balanced set of features that serves that audience. The \'official\' judge often ends up playing either a procedural role in order to balance all the needs or they fall back on their biases and end up championing only one point of view to the detriment of others. By have a \'pure\' champion, there is often a breath of fresh perspective the puts the team back on track. One interesting side effect: customers on the team become polluted after about 6 to 8 months. They figure out the politics of the team and start adopting the viewpoints of others. Still, despite this, you want someone who is far more than just Kleenex testers. They need to be team members who can speak as equals with the other folks on the team. It is a balancing act, but quite feasible. take care Danc. Regarding Pokemon (which I must say I\’ve been pouring most of my meaningful hours into), there is a toggle in the options menu where you can turn off the super long animations. Which means you only have to sit through the interminable dialogs. For the first 20 hours, it annoyed me immensely. Then I became numb to the rhythm of it all.

The demographic advocate is a very solid idea. On a smaller scale, we have the \’customer on the team\’ concept and it works out surprisingly well. In software development you have a lot of portfolio type problems: Limited resources, diverse audience, well balanced set of features that serves that audience. The \’official\’ judge often ends up playing either a procedural role in order to balance all the needs or they fall back on their biases and end up championing only one point of view to the detriment of others. By have a \’pure\’ champion, there is often a breath of fresh perspective the puts the team back on track.

One interesting side effect: customers on the team become polluted after about 6 to 8 months. They figure out the politics of the team and start adopting the viewpoints of others.

Still, despite this, you want someone who is far more than just Kleenex testers. They need to be team members who can speak as equals with the other folks on the team. It is a balancing act, but quite feasible.

take care
Danc.

]]>