What's a Davenport Q&A redflag? (Like, what does that mean, and what are the flags?)
Dan Davenport runs Q&A interviews on his Discord server, to let creative types promote their crowdfunding campaigns or upcoming products or whatever. They're an incredibly valuable opportunity for a creator who has their ducks in a row, but some of the questions asked by the host, the regulars, or the audience can be tough and they can reveal that a creator isn't ready for the spotlight.
I used to try to help coach interviewees to help present their products in the best possible light, but Discord's harder for me to keep track of than IRC.
Anyway,
massive red flags are claiming that your game is the first to do
practically anything, because it's rarely ever true and it shows a lack of awareness of the RPG field on the part of the author. It's a warning sign that the mechanics are going to be stale and janky, and almost always lacking in
intentionality, because the author simply isn't aware of anything else they
could have done. It's also one of the major signs of an author who doesn't know what their game is good for, second only to claiming it's
good for everything.
Slagging other peoples' work-- which, to be fair, I didn't see him do myself-- isn't just "a bad look" or
unprofessional, it's a very specific sign of a lack of creative vision in your own work. If you're excited about your work and what it does, you
want to talk about your work, not the crap that convinced you that you could do better. People who've
done better want to stay on that message.
I was probably exaggerating when I said he was throwing "every" red flag, but these are the two biggest.
Less severe... but also a warning, is boasting that you've been working on a project for a number of years. Authors think they're displaying passion and commitment, but it speaks to a lack of direction and implies the finished product will be disorganized and internally contradictory. People with passion and commitment
get it done, and the longer development cycle usually speaks to multiple changes of direction and partial overhauls in the intervening years.
My own primary work-in-progress, my
life's work,
Shroompunk is something I've
wanted to do for almost twelve years now, but I haven't been working on it for twelve years.
I stink of this pitfall myself. I keep telling myself that I'm going to start serious work on it
any day now, but when I do... I'm going to tell people I was
inspired a decade ago and started work recently. And... frankly... there is no way now for me to make it not look bad.
I mention that because... one, I don't want to seem unsympathetic to a
genuine legend, and two, to establish that I know this particular failstate intimately because I've seen it
from the inside. Also because I'm utterly shameless about self-promotion.
And... finally... boasting about the massive multimedia empire you're going to build before you've got the first cornerstone laid, the first
minimum viable product... well, speaking of incredibly ambitious failstarters, that's
Far West. That's
Mighty No 9. Not only are these the biggest crowdfunding failures of all time, I've never heard a single success story that starts that way.
I wish I could say that I don't understand what anyone at TSR is thinking, but I understand it perfectly. I know every play in this game plan-- though even I'm surprised they're pulling
all of them-- and I've seen how it ends a lot of times. I
really want them to succeed here, and I want them to straighten up and fly right, but they're not going to succeed here
unless they straighten up and fly right.
