Are There Any Games That Are Actually Designed By Their Players?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Feb. 2, 2021, 8:33 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
As a long-time player of Magic: the Gathering, I severely dislike how the players of that game have very little direct input into its design; yes, we can choose to purchase or not purchase certain products, but that is not the same as actually designing the cards.
It is not only MtG that has this problem, but many other games, whether they are card games, board games, or video games; the designers and the players are completely disconnected from each other, and the process of designing the games is a monolithic and closed process that has very little input from the players or other outside sources, which I severely dislike.
I wish for greater transparency in the process of designing games, and greater direct input from the people who play those games, so I hope that there are at least some games where the players are the people who design them.
What does everyone else say about this? Are there any games that are actually designed by their players? Will the current situation ever change?
Omniscience_is_life says... #3
“Let’s print 47 Aetherborn lords so that tribe can get some support! And make all of them put extra lands into play and draw cards so games are fun and exciting! And replace the common slots in packs with signed full-art Tarmagoyfs!”
February 2, 2021 9:34 p.m.
Magic has a huge deal of transparency in its game design. In the early days of a set's release, we get various articles showing the worldbuilding process. As we approach the set's release and get into spoiler season, we see articles showing early versions of cards and how the development process arrived at the final version of cards. We see the update and errata notes, often with explanations for why any changes or decisions were made. After the set is released, there are post-set surveys open to the players, which Wizards clearly reviews and utilizes in making their decisions. Finally, after the set has had time to be experienced for a while, we get an article explaining each mechanic of the set, how players reacted to the set, and how Wizards might use the set going forward.
And that does not even take into account any of the other design articles that get published on a fairly regular basis.
Overall, Wizards does a great job with keeping players informed and has a mechanism for players to provide feedback, which Wizards clearly considers and incorporates into future set design.
Also, I suppose it is worth mentioning that the most popular current format is controlled by a group of independent players, not Wizards.
February 2, 2021 9:46 p.m.
Video games are almost always designed by players of video games. And games have betas/demos to smooth things out. If a game developer would look to the public for each thing they do in a game the game would just be a mess of everyone's ideas
February 2, 2021 9:47 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
plakjekaas, Omniscience_is_life, most players understand the concept of balance, and those who do not shall hopefully have the concept explained to them by those who do.
Caerwyn, that may be true, but I personally would like it if You Make the Card contests would be a regular (or, at least, semi-regular) event for MtG, as it has been years since the last one was held.
shadow63, yes, I forgot about beta testing, but that is still not what I had in mind; I was thinking of something akin to Linux, where there are countless versions made by different people, because it is a free and open source operating system.
February 2, 2021 10:27 p.m.
The issue with doing open source for paid software is it becomes extremely easy to pirate the game. And I'm not sure how open source would work on consoles. Plus most games are already modable
February 2, 2021 10:51 p.m.
Daveslab2022 says... #8
DemonDragonJ Just because you explain the concept of balance to somebody, does not mean they understand how to implement balance. The average mtg player couldn’t tell you the reason that Lightning Bolt is really good and Healing Salve is absolute garbage.
February 3, 2021 1:14 a.m.
DemonDragonJ, try going on Kickstarter. There are lots of board- and videogames that are directly influenced by comments and especially the Backers. It may be just small things like a name for a thing or art for the box/character out of a selection up to entirely crafted characters, factions, playstyles or whatever it is depending how open the designers are for it (aaaand the amout of money a backer pays but , eh, that´s just part of it).
plakjekaas says... #2
You only need to visit the "Custom cards" forum once to realize most players are terrible at balancing cards for magic, and the cards they generally want are cards that will end the game in their favor, fast.
To quote Albus Dumbledore: “As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”
Designing cards for a good card game is a profession and a skill and I for one am very glad that it's left to the professionals instead of crowdsourced to the entire player base.
February 2, 2021 9:28 p.m.