Why Things Fail

[Legion]

No, I'm not going to bore you with some pseudo-philosophical tirade about why some things in these earthly lives of ours never succeed in spite of our best efforts. It's just, I've seen many posts in the "Campaign that never was" thread, and looking at my own failures, I thought it'd be nice to try and discern why there are so many undeveloped concepts compared to the number of finished products. I'm going to give you my thoughts -- but feel free to attack, comment on or add to them.

1. Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
I think this is a classic mistake because it's very, VERY common. For some reason, when we've decided we want to create a campaign or a mod, the first thing that we think of is how awesome it's going to be. That's a good place to start, but more often than not, we want it to be better than what's already out there ("or else, why bother?" seems to be the reasoning). It's as if we're working with a check list. Custom EXE? Yes! Extended terrain? Yes! Voices? Yes! And if that weren't enough pressure, we want the story to be original and enticing, and the characters to be stronger than Zeratul. It's as if we've completely envisioned this gigantic successful beast of a product and all that needs to be done now... is the actual work. Be reminded that even though you've got this big "awesome" list of things you want your project to feature, you haven't set any actual goals.

2. Unforeseen Situations
Unforeseen situations occur all the time. They're what stands between us and what we're trying to complete. A lot of times, however, unforeseen events *could have been* foreseen if the creator/designer had taken the time to assess his capabilities and the resources required to do the hard work properly. I'm leaning towards a tagline along the lines of "unforeseen means unprepared" but that may be a little too forward and even hard to say in some cases. However, if after weeks/months of work, a campaign or mod author suddenly realizes that he's going to need other / more people to do his work with him, I'm inclined to believe he's not had a realistic goal from the start -- and no real direction. Of course, sickness and changes in personal lives are a whole different story, but I truly believe that preparation can easily prevent most of the "unforeseen" events from occurring.

3. Lack of Motivation
Probably the most striking and serious drawback. Nobody can stay interested in the same thing forever. If your project takes forever to finish, you'll probably quit it because you don't have "forever" and you want to move on with whatever has taken the place of your project. If you never set any goals, chances are you'll never know when to stop or where to go from a certain point. Not knowing what to do is the biggest motivation killer. If you've got something on your mind, you'll wanna go on. If you haven't, that's when you'd best stop before it drags on too long and takes more time.

Alright, this is not all I wanted to say about this subject, but I'm interested to hear what you guys think.

After all, why not?

[bajadulce]

Good insight and spot on.

There's one other category I'd like to add that many fall victim to and that is being too critical.  Myself, I have been modding "things" my entire life.  Things such as cars, houses, electronic devices, gadgets and just about anything else I get the urge to tear apart.  In my younger days I would abandon perfectly acceptable projects because I felt they didn't meet what I had set out to achieve.  It always could be BETTER!  And so projects got tore down and constantly rebuilt.  I still suffer from this with my Starcraft mods, but have learned to recognize and accept that things can't always be perfect ! 

With that said, I am going to try and get my project released before Starcraft2 comes out!  ...  Beta of course!

[Legion]

Good insight and spot on.

There's one other category I'd like to add that many fall victim to and that is being too critical.  Myself, I have been modding "things" my entire life.  Things such as cars, houses, electronic devices, gadgets and just about anything else I get the urge to tear apart.  In my younger days I would abandon perfectly acceptable projects because I felt they didn't meet what I had set out to achieve.  It always could be BETTER!  And so projects got tore down and constantly rebuilt.   I still suffer from this with my Starcraft mods, but have learned to recognize and accept that things can't always be perfect !   

With that said, I am going to try and get my project released before Starcraft2 comes out!   ...  Beta of course!

Ah, yes. Very good addition. Being overly critical is a project-killer. It's perhaps the most graceful way to kill a project, if there is such a thing.

[thebrowncloud]

This is on a slightly different note, but I notice that a lot of things for me get postponed until after StarCraft 2 comes out so that I can use the new editor for all of my ideas. I'd even get pretty close to finishing something and tell myself "Nah, this would be way better if I just wait and start over." I dunno if other people have experienced this as well, but I've postponed three personal projects of mine because of it and the community workshop (unless someone decides to pick that up).

So, to sum it up, ideas are often set aside to wait for the proper tools to create them. It's like James Cameron's "Avatar".

[Pr0nogo]

Things don't fail.  People fail.

Just won the thread.

[Legion]

This is on a slightly different note, but I notice that a lot of things for me get postponed until after StarCraft 2 comes out so that I can use the new editor for all of my ideas. I'd even get pretty close to finishing something and tell myself "Nah, this would be way better if I just wait and start over." I dunno if other people have experienced this as well, but I've postponed three personal projects of mine because of it and the community workshop (unless someone decides to pick that up).

So, to sum it up, ideas are often set aside to wait for the proper tools to create them. It's like James Cameron's "Avatar".

Very true. Although I don't think this has always been the case for the SC community, it is now. I myself have been tempted a lot of times to push my projects to Starcraft 2, but then, if Starcraft 2 ever sees the light of day (and if it does while I'm still interested), I'll probably be spending months trying to understand the editor, so that wouldn't be a good idea either.

Edit:

Things don't fail.  People fail.

Just won the thread.

Really? Thought it was cute, but it doesn't change or add anything. Thanks for your contributions, though.

[Pr0nogo]

Things don't fail.  People fail.

Just won the thread.

Really? Thought it was cute, but it doesn't change or add anything. Thanks for your contributions, though.

You apparently don't understand humor. Although I wouldn't expect any less from someone who actually has a life and doesn't devote most of his time to computer-related items.

Moreso, you obviously don't understand that all of these things can easily be dealt with if people were to be less lazy, spend more working time on their projects and get help with stuff when they need it.

The fact that people are lazy and don't feel like spending enough time on their stuff (Is time a problem? Sure as hell is, but that doesn't mean you say "oh this is gonna take to long with the limited time per day I have, I'm gonna quit."). Meaning, people fail.

[trondor]

'Lazy' is just another word for 'not motivated', which was covered in the first post.

[Legion]

Things don't fail.  People fail.

Just won the thread.

Really? Thought it was cute, but it doesn't change or add anything. Thanks for your contributions, though.

You apparently don't understand humor. Although I wouldn't expect any less from someone who actually has a life and doesn't devote most of his time to computer-related items.

Moreso, you obviously don't understand that all of these things can easily be dealt with if people were to be less lazy, spend more working time on their projects and get help with stuff when they need it.

The fact that people are lazy and don't feel like spending enough time on their stuff (Is time a problem? Sure as hell is, but that doesn't mean you say "oh this is gonna take to long with the limited time per day I have, I'm gonna quit."). Meaning, people fail.

I was merely saying that people fail / things fail in this case means the same to me. I don't make that distinction. And stop patronizing me.

Also, I didn't get this:

Things don't fail.  People fail.

Just won the thread.

Really? Thought it was cute, but it doesn't change or add anything. Thanks for your contributions, though.

You apparently don't understand humor. Although I wouldn't expect any less from someone who actually has a life and doesn't devote most of his time to computer-related items.

Other than this being a very bold and, dare I say, rude statement -- are you saying that if I were to devote most of my time to computer-related items, I would understand humor? That's silly.

If you were addressing the fact that we may have a different sense of humor, then yes, I agree wholeheartedly.

Thanks for ruining my thread.

[Pr0nogo]

Other than this being a very bold and, dare I say, rude statement -- are you saying that if I were to devote most of my time to computer-related items, I would understand humor? That's silly.

I'm saying that you'd understand web-based humor a lot more. Often called "lulz."

If you were addressing the fact that we may have a different sense of humor, then yes, I agree wholeheartedly.

I'm glad you can see that much through your blinders.

Thanks for ruining my thread.

Sure. Next time, though, thank the person who did it.

[Legion]

Other than this being a very bold and, dare I say, rude statement -- are you saying that if I were to devote most of my time to computer-related items, I would understand humor? That's silly.

I'm saying that you'd understand web-based humor a lot more. Often called "lulz."

If that's true, then let's call it poor wording on your part.

If you were addressing the fact that we may have a different sense of humor, then yes, I agree wholeheartedly.

I'm glad you can see that much through your blinders.

Again, poor choice of words if that's truly what you were trying to say.

Thanks for ruining my thread.

Sure. Next time, though, thank the person who did it.

Oh no, sir. I got the right guy.

But you're right about one thing, though. This "lulz" concept you apparently keep referring to is not my style. If this was all part of an elaborate intelligent internet joke, then I stand corrected. I just don't think it's funny that you came in here and starting saying things about my inability to understand whatever it is that was funny. Krazy said something, I reacted about it making no difference to the purpose of this thread and even now I can't quite figure out what you were doing there all of a sudden, other than say patronizing stuff about me. If that was a joke, explain it. If it makes you go away, I'll laugh.

[thebrowncloud]

Peacekeeper to the rescue!

In the case of this thread, people and their projects are synonymous in that people are their projects and the projects, in turn, are extensions of their creator. If you watch the way a project progresses and don't even pay attention to a the creator's behavior, you can usually make an educated guess as to whether or not the update trends show that this project will continue. If the new content per update is getting smaller and smaller or is just generally far more minimal than the early ones, the project has a high chance of getting dropped. The reverse in the same (watching a person's dedication to the project but not the content).

As for Krazy's thread, like any shorter post that makes a single point, you can interpret it in a couple ways. You can either take it seriously and acknowledge the message as a legitimate contribution to the thread or you can take it as sarcasm with a some intent to advance the thread/change the direction some. The internet wasn't made for silly communication because it lacks the fundamental element of tone. Web humor isn't an easy thing to recognize all the time because of this; especially in a more serious environment such as CC or more specifically a thread like this. It's important to keep an open mind so that conflict can be avoided.

[Hercanic]

This is on a slightly different note, but I notice that a lot of things for me get postponed until after StarCraft 2 comes out so that I can use the new editor for all of my ideas. I'd even get pretty close to finishing something and tell myself "Nah, this would be way better if I just wait and start over." I dunno if other people have experienced this as well, but I've postponed three personal projects of mine because of it and the community workshop (unless someone decides to pick that up).

So, to sum it up, ideas are often set aside to wait for the proper tools to create them. It's like James Cameron's "Avatar".

Prototyping. You can wait for SC2, but are those ideas you have really all that fun in practice? You could take the waiting time as an opportunity to prototype your gameplay ideas, improving and polishing them with every iteration.

When SC2 comes out, you can spend more time learning the editor, because once you know how to make it sit, stay, fetch, and roll over, your actual project can be developed much faster due to all the preparatory work.

[thebrowncloud]

This is on a slightly different note, but I notice that a lot of things for me get postponed until after StarCraft 2 comes out so that I can use the new editor for all of my ideas. I'd even get pretty close to finishing something and tell myself "Nah, this would be way better if I just wait and start over." I dunno if other people have experienced this as well, but I've postponed three personal projects of mine because of it and the community workshop (unless someone decides to pick that up).

So, to sum it up, ideas are often set aside to wait for the proper tools to create them. It's like James Cameron's "Avatar".

Prototyping. You can wait for SC2, but are those ideas you have really all that fun in practice? You could take the waiting time as an opportunity to prototype your gameplay ideas, improving and polishing them with every iteration.

When SC2 comes out, you can spend more time learning the editor, because once you know how to make it sit, stay, fetch, and roll over, your actual project can be developed much faster due to all the preparatory work.

Oh, absolutely! I intend on learning the editor extensively before I start to make any of my old projects. One of them I actually concluded that it would be a lot more fitting if it was like the tps that they showed at BlizzCon, so that isn't something I can really prepare for at the moment... 

[Maglok]

Experience really does matter a lot when doing stuff like this. Experience in anything will help you stick with something. Have you written a book to it's end? Then you got a bit of determination. It is one example. I know that since the SC1 years I have grown a lot better at finishing things myself.

Experience and a bit of stubbornness!