Reading 1: In the beginning, There is the Designer

I know it's late, a couple of weeks late to be blogging this, but, better late than never, right? Anyway, the first reading we had to do was a text called "In the beginning, There is the Designer" by Jesse Schell. I had to read the article and then make notes about what it was telling me. From what I got from it, it was talking about self belief.

• I do agree with it a lot, I always think that self-belief is the first step to doing anything, success, pitching ideas, anything, if you don't have faith in yourself, then who else can believe in you?

• He also said a quote in the text that I thought was quite interesting: "If you aren't failing, you aren't trying hard enough, and you aren't really a games designer". My reason for that is because, if you try something and it doesn't go as planned, you can learn from your mistakes, it is what helps you go further in anything.
  
• In the article, he listed a few skills that are considered important, but he said that listening is the most important. He then gave five major categories for when it comes to listening: Client, Team, Game, Audience and Self.
  
  Client: the ones funding your project, failing to deliver means they'll take their business elsewhere.
  
  Team: the people who will help design your game, the skills each possess come together.
  
  Game: getting to know the game inside and out, knowing the genre and what exactly goes on in it.
  
  Audience: the people who play the finish product. Actually have an example: the developers of THQ with the upcoming WWE '12, they listened to what people had to say about it (most didn't react too well to the grappling system of the Smackdown vs Raw series.) and have changed it to something that makes it easier.
  
  Self: making decisions

Personally, I thought the article was a good read and enjoyed it. I'm not sure what you thought of it, so, tell me what you all thought. Till the next time.