Well said!

The key skill a game designer needs to have is the ability to empathize with the target audience that the video game is being marketed for. Since all designers are players, the designer needs to be able to put aside their biases and proclivities and be able to “walk a mile in the shoes of the player” for the betterment of the game.

But just who is your player? How far do you go to create a game that may appeal to outlier players. Do you try to keep all playstyles happy and water down your content or do you try to keep a few player types happy and focus your content?

Of course every designer has biases that seep through this filter. Without biases and preferences a designer would be devoid of any personality whatsoever and become a drone. Good thing that the very best designers have biases like Will Wright, Peter Molyneux or we’d never have the masterpiece games that they’ve created.

So the designer needs to have his own unique personality as well as being able to empathize with the players.

Another thing a good designer needs to have is the ability to predict and forecast the implications of design decisions. This is critical when it comes to MMOs and virtual worlds because one small feature not properly conceived and implemented can produce disastrous effects. A great designer needs to be able to play mental chess with his ideas and see what they might lead to before implementing them. Every possible ramification should be considered and evaluated before a design idea goes into the costly realm of production.

My comment got too long so here’s a blog post =)

http://mikedarga.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-designer-thinks.html

Mike

Judging which are “right” is the catch though, heh. That and keeping your personal opinion separate from that judgment call. Different games cater to different audiences…