Teams are like marriages. The people in the team have to be able to work well with each other. They have to “connect” and share a common vision and they have to be able to overlook those things that annoy each other. Checking out a new teammate is like going on a first date. Can you work with this person? Are they competent? Do they have skills or the will to acquire them? Do they have the discipline to stick with a project? Lastly, are you attractive to them? So here are some tips using a dating site analogy.
The Don'ts
“I can’t model and I can’t code” – Translates to “I’m ugly and have poor personal hygiene”. This person is useless to have on a project and nobody is going to join a project led by someone like this. If they do join, chances are that either they themselves are “can’t model and can’t code”. Such groups have life spans of one month, tops. In this time, they will produce nothing beyond some pontification.
“I’m an ideas person”/”I’m a manager” (usually coupled with the line above) – Translates to “I have no job and my future prospects are no better”, UNLESS you actually do have project management experience. But even if you are a project management guru in your day job and can fill the producer role, someone still needs to actually get the work done. That someone will need modeling and coding skills and that someone will have ideas of their own. They’ll be about as exited to work on your ideas instead as a they would be about a date with a chronically unemployed loser.
"<Poor grammar and spelling>" – Translates to “if you win in the Special Olympics, you’re still special”. This is an important point for younger designers, because it is currently somewhat fashionable to use the SMS style of writing in long form. It’s fine in 140 character messages. I use it in short messages. I never write “your” when tapping something out on my phone, I always write “ur” and I never bother with capitalization. I know, you write it in long form on forums because it is comfortable to write that way. There are a number of problems you cause for yourself when doing this.
- The first is that it is hard to read and being hard to read makes it annoying. Just as the ageing hippy may be perfectly comfortable in with her unshaved legs in her cutoff shorts and Birkenstocks and would go nude “if society did not have such an unhealthy attitude about nudity”, does not mean you are comfortable having her in your field of view and you probably agree that “having an unhealthy attitude about nudity” is a good thing in this case. How successful a cougar do you think she’ll be?
- The second is that even if they actually do labor through it, they’ll go into “wtf is this person trying to say” mode. Instead of flying over the page and absorbing your idea, they are laboring through it. If they don’t just give up on it, they’ll have low reading comprehension. Do you want this?
- Lastly, ask yourself a question. Given one person giving a clear and lucid design idea and another that bounces around with no real point or thread and rambles; who do you think will be more organized and competent? Which do you think will be better able to get the project to release? Unclear writing with poor grammar is a big red flag when judging competence. When you don’t write clearly, you are sandbagging your competence as judged by others.
The Do's
"Here is my modeling portfolio" – Translates to “I have 6 pack abs and feel my biceps”! The only thing harder to find than a good programmer is a good artist. Projects have trouble attracting (good) artists. Projects started by artists have a much easier time at recruitment. It pays to learn the skills before starting that first project.
"I can code in the following languages…" – Translates to “I have a good job”. This is similar to the point above.
“I have worked on the following worlds...“ – Translates as “I no longer a virgin living in my mom’s basement”. You have experience, be it with Realm Crafter, NWN 1/2 , text MUDs, etc. Experience is a good thing.
"<Proper grammar, spelling and clarity in writing>" – “A poet and a musician”! (for the record, I was once dumped at an SCA Pensic is favor of a minstrel that caught her eye, so poets and musicians go over well)
"Here is my design document" – For those who read it and drink the kool aid, it translates as “look at the size of my inheritance”. Seriously, a project will need a design document, if for no other reason than defining a common vision.
"Here is a prototype" - Will cause her sister to ask if you are cool with polygamy. Seriously, you really do want to be at the end of preproduction when you recruit, no matter how tempting it is to recruit when you just have a kernel of an idea.