Not sure how my “play less games” rant at GDC got morphed/bitesized into “read more books”. But, after seeing two comments about reading more books (especially the zinger from Kim), I thought I should clarify.

Admittedly, I didn’t prepare to give a “guest” rant during the Burning Mad panel at GDC. Essentially, EricZ came to me as things were setting up and asked if I wanted to do a guest mini rant as party of a developer “interlude”. Sounded like fun, so I said yes, and scribbled a few notes just before things got underway.

The first comment was on the need to diversify our media consumption (ie, play less games). I didn’t specifically say read more books, only. I said we should do more of everything else! And, not just media, but experience more of life. This was pretty much a direct riff off things that Irrational head Ken Levine said a while ago (and has stuck with me since).

(Ironic side note, the last few games I’ve played (like Dead Rising and Crackdown) have been so consuming that I’ve barely done anything else but play games in my spare time ;)

The other main point I brought across was a riff on earlier comments on the need for leadership, as well as Michael John’s whole freelancer market advocacy. My point was that we need to abandon the old command-and-control approach to leadership and management, and think more in terms of coordinate-and-cultivate.

(Anyway, I suppose needing a bit of clarification is way better than the sh!tstorm that Chris Hecker had to endure :(

To Kim and Ken’s points, I wonder if the majority of developers do indeed have one-dimensional media consumption diets (ie, and sources for inspiration/ideas). Or, if the general conservatism of mainstream industry output just makes it seem that way???