thatgamecompany’s New Title and How Development of Journey Bankrupted The Studio
Monday, 11th February 2013Posted in Industry
Tags: chen, game, games, Journey, make, said, success, thatgamecompany
Written by: Craig Hunter
Journey achieved both critical and commercial success, last year, received critical praise and multiple game of the year nods. The game also drove developers thatgamecompany into bankruptcy.
In an interview with Polygon, thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen said:
“I wouldn’t say that the development of Journey was a successful example of game development. We bankrupted the company.”
Ask Jace: Keys to Success Tip# 1 – TALKBACK
Thursday, 22nd April 2010Posted in Ask Jace, Blog Archive
Tags: entitlement, Jace Hall, motivation, self-esteem, success, winning
Written by: Jace Hall
The other day I posted an article answering a site visitors questions and basically fell into a diatribe about how a person should always try their best at things and build their self-worth around that core personal measurement. I said that the act of attaining a goal isn’t as important as what you do to get there. Etc. Etc.
In any case, this article spawned some great discussion around the net – but there was a response that someone made in the comment thread about my article that I feel I need to address and clarify – so below is the comment and my answer to it!
New comment on your post #1160 “Ask Jace: How I do it – Keys to Success Tip #1
Jace article quote:
>”you must NEVER measure yourself by whether or not you accomplish the goals
> you set.”
Matt says:
This “everyone who tries is a winner” idea does not help. It just promotes the
entitlement delusion. Sure, you can feel good knowing your did your best but
you are still a loser if you did not succeed.
Dear Matt,
I am glad you brought this up. That way, I can clarify – because you are misinterpreting my message (although I can see why)..
First off. Entitlement is generally a bad thing. I don’t believe in it really. I think that regardless of a person’s achievements and record, one should always feel thankful and honored to receive anything – not feel entitled to things.
The idea that everyone who ‘tries’ is a winner is not what I am attempting to communicate.
The act of trying is NOTHING if it is not your absolute best.
Making an effort versus making your BEST effort are two different things. You always know when you did your absolute best. When you truly have done that, you always feel good about yourself and your attempt. That feeling, is not about feeling like a “winner” – its different than that.
If a person truly understands and applies what I’m saying, then the feeling of being a “winner” will become unimportant to them, because being a “winner” requires an external acknowledgment and the focus should be on the personal internal acknowledgment and feelings of self-worth. It’s about truly liking yourself, respecting yourself. Keeping your own score on yourself, and pushing yourself harder and harder – which in turn makes you like and respect yourself more.
The act of simply participating in something is worthless unless you are giving it your all.
And THAT is the disconnect I have with your interpretation of what I am saying…
Your quote “everyone who tries is a winner” seems to imply that the mere act of participating at something should make you feel like a winner, like you are doing something…. No, it shouldn’t.
We know that we can participate in something and put a half assed effort in. We should never feel good about that – EVEN IF WE WON AND ATTAINED THE GOAL.
“WINNING” is irrelevant if it did not require your best effort to achieve it.
The philosophy and practice that I am talking about in my article is focused on slowly building a feeling that is incapable of generating entitlement issues – because the better you feel about who you are as a person, the less interested you become in receiving external validation.
Entitlement is a form of external validation that is the result of core insecurity.
I agree with you that telling someone they should feel like a winner just because participate is #FAIL – but I wasn’t trying to say that. I apologize to everyone for not being more clear.
I hope that helps clarify… or maybe I just confused you and others even more!
-Jace
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