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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9289209" data-attributes="member: 29398">The bolded bits are where financial success can (if allowed) not only enter the process, but completely upend it.You're perhaps only looking at success of a designed rule at the theory-playtest level.&nbsp; I'm looking at it in terms of the overall system before, during, and after release; in which financial success can very much be a concern if the designers have been told to design with it as a top-of-mind priority.Rule-set 1: really well designed, hard to use.&nbsp; Doesn't sell well due to difficulty of use.Rule-set 2: good-enough design but not great.&nbsp; Easy to use.&nbsp; Sells like hotcakes because anyone can use it.Success (here measured by sales) is very much tied to the rules.Well, not necessarily.&nbsp; Even in this analogy the designers could have been told to design the turbine with construction cost-cutting as a top-of-mind priority, and that's inevitably going to affect what the end design turns out to be (or, more likely, how reliable the turbine will be in the long run).&nbsp; A design goal of cheap-to-build has been imposed on the designers; and thus the success of their design is ultimately measured not only by whether it works when first fired up (this would, one thinks, almost be a given) but by how little it cost to construct.Same is true in corporate-based RPG design.&nbsp; A design goal of financial success may have been imposed on the designers by their bosses, and if this is the case that goal has to be considered first and foremost during the design process if those designers wish to remain employed.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 9289209, member: 29398"] The bolded bits are where financial success can (if allowed) not only enter the process, but completely upend it. You're perhaps only looking at success of a designed rule at the theory-playtest level. I'm looking at it in terms of the overall system before, during, and after release; in which financial success can very much be a concern if the designers have been told to design with it as a top-of-mind priority. Rule-set 1: really well designed, hard to use. Doesn't sell well due to difficulty of use. Rule-set 2: good-enough design but not great. Easy to use. Sells like hotcakes because anyone can use it. Success (here measured by sales) is very much tied to the rules. Well, not necessarily. Even in this analogy the designers could have been told to design the turbine with construction cost-cutting as a top-of-mind priority, and that's inevitably going to affect what the end design turns out to be (or, more likely, how reliable the turbine will be in the long run). A design goal of cheap-to-build has been imposed on the designers; and thus the success of their design is ultimately measured not only by whether it works when first fired up (this would, one thinks, almost be a given) but by how little it cost to construct. Same is true in corporate-based RPG design. A design goal of financial success may have been imposed on the designers by their bosses, and if this is the case that goal has to be considered first and foremost during the design process if those designers wish to remain employed. [/QUOTE]

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