It’s been a crazy week, and the craziness shows no sign of letting up, so I don’t have time for an in-depth discussion of, say, ghost-punching as a political metaphor, or the role of awkward 1980s teen comedies in today’s transmedia world-building. All the same, after a great playtesting session last night, I do want to take a moment to give a shout-out to everyone who’s helped playtest my tabletop games over the years.
It’s a strange feeling to put a game in front of players for the first time. The game is new, raw, and vulnerable. I feel kind of new, raw, and vulnerable myself. It’s a weird mix of flattering and terrifying: “They’re here to judge MY game” but also “They’re here to JUDGE my game.” And no matter which way I look at it, I don’t want the game (and by extension, ME) to let them down… but know it probably will.
That’s the thing. Playtesting shows how the game can be better, which leads to changes, which need playtesting, which shows how the game can be better… You get the idea. It’s a virtuous circle, spiraling the quality upward with each iteration. Improvements can be incremental, and sometimes aren’t improvements at all (“Wow. That change fixed the problem, but caused the rest of the game to catch fire. Sorry about your eyebrows, folks”). Playtesting the same game over and over requires patience, dedication, and an endless supply of snacks.
So here’s to you, playtesters! Without you, our games would stink! And there would be far fewer of them to play!
