Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #384 - Group Creation

Episode Date: November 18, 2016

Mark talks about how to create in a group setting.

I'm pulling my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today, one of the things I don't talk tons about, I mean, I mentioned that I'm on teams and I lead a lot of design teams and such, and I'm on teams I don't lead. But one of the things I don't really talk too much about is, one of the neat things about making magic is, it's something that's not an individual project. It's a group thing. And not just one group, many groups. You know, hopefully if you listen to my podcast, you realize how many different people have their hands on any one product that we made. So, for example, at the time I'm recording this, Kaladesh, the Kaladesh pre-release was this last weekend when I recorded this. So, the number of people who had their hands on Kaladesh is huge. You know, most of the people in the company that have anything to do with magic,

at some point or another, had something to do with making Kaladesh. You know, I talk a lot about the R&D end of the thing, but it's just, it's a group thing. And so today I want to talk about making a group creation. How that's different than an individual creation. Because my background, obviously, is writing. I definitely grew up, you know, a lot of my artistic endeavors were solo-based. I also did a lot of theater stuff, so I've done plenty of projects that were group-based. But I want to sort of talk about the difference of group-based versus individual-based, and what it takes to be good at making group projects.

How exactly, what are the skills that are required to thrive in an environment where a group is making something? And so that is the topic of today, is talk about creation through groups as opposed to individuals. And I'll contrast a little today. Like I said, I have some past experience with doing individual stuff. So I'm going to sort of talk about the difference between individual and group. And one of the things, by the way, is it is very fulfilling creating something in a group.

It is just a different animal. And you need to get your expectations in the right place to understand sort of how best to function in a group. It is just a different animal. And you have to understand, you need to get your expectations in the right place to understand sort of how best to function in a group. And I'm very proud of the stuff we do, but be aware that when we talk about something like Kaladesh, I was one contributor of a large group that made it. And so, anyway, that is what we're going to talk about today. So first and foremost, one of the things to remember when you're doing anything in which a group is being made is that there's a difference. So when you make a project yourself, you get to be the center of the project. You get to make all decisions about the product. The product is a result of what you've decided to do. Now, it's true in an individual project. Sometimes, I mean, you let the work speak for itself

and your characters can write themselves. I mean, there's a certain amount of creating something and seeing where the work itself takes you. But in the end, you know, if I'm writing a script or something, like, I have control over the script. I can choose what to do and what not to do. I have a lot of individual say. And part of a group project is that you don't have, you know,

it is not about you making individual choices all the time. It is about you making choices to the larger group and understanding that sort of the group will have a direction. And your input will influence the group direction. You know, the thing that's tough about it is, after coming from an individual thing, is it's very easy when you're used to doing individual creation to really want to have a major say on the direction of everything,

on the choices being made. And one of the things about being in a group, for example, is you have to discuss things. You have to sell things, you know. One of the things about being part of the group is you are trying to convince the group of what you feel because the decisions aren't going to be individual decisions. The decisions are going to be group decisions. Sometimes what's going to happen is different parts are going to be done by different people.

Sometimes you're not even involved in certain parts of it. I do the design of a set. I'm not particularly involved in the development. I poke my head in. However, the lead developer at the time will talk to me a little bit. And, you know, setting vision, I have some influence in that process. But I'm not, by no means, you know, I'm not determining what development is doing. You know, at best, I'm giving some guidance to help them.

But, you know, so one of the things is the, you, I think when you create something personally, there's a lot of connections you have to the thing because you are making sort of, you're directly making all the decisions. That when I'm, you know, when I was writing a script, okay, in the end, I get to make the final call. If I'm not sure whether something's supposed to happen, I can think about it. But in the end, I will decide what I want to do. In a group project, I'm not going to decide.

In fact, there's times in which what I want to do is not what happens. And that's something you need to sort of come to grips with, is that one of the hardest things I've found moving, you know, from doing solo projects to doing group projects is there is a loss of control. things I've found moving, you know, from doing solo projects to doing group projects is there is a loss of control. There's an issue of you have an influence. And one of the things you want to understand is the neat thing about a group project is that a group will function in a way different than an individual. And groups also have the ability to do things that no individual can do.

I mean, that's the other thing that's kind of cool is if I try to make a magic set, let's say, okay, I'm going to make it from top to bottom. I'm going to design it. I'm going to develop it. I'm going to edit it. I'm going to do everything. I'm going to solely make a magic product. Would I make a better magic product than the group would make? No way. No, no way. Absolutely no way. product than the group would make? No way. No, no way. Absolutely no way. And the idea is one of the neat things about how a group functions is you've all these people that are experts in different

things being able to come together. So the first thing is understand that the group is capable of doing things that the individual might not be able to see at all. One of the cool things about the neat things about watching how magic evolves is that it's neat to see sort of where consensus takes things. I mean, the people working on magic are a smart, smart group of people that really all care about the game.

One of the common bonds I find in working in R&D especially is it's a group of very smart, dedicated people that very much care about magic and the future of the game. And we are duking things out because not everyone shares the same concerns or has the same focus. But the neat thing about it is because we have, like, in some ways every aspect gets to have some care because somebody cares about it.

You know, that when you're doing a solo project, certain aspects can fall by the wayside. Oh, because there's only so many things you can care about personally. But in a group, different people can take up that. Like, for example, one of the gauntlets I've taken up, and I've actually had a whole bunch of people share me. If you've heard about the Council of Colors, maybe I'll do a podcast on the Council of Colors one day. I wrote an article about it. But anyway, I definitely have long been a champion of the color pie.

We need to be careful about the color pie. There are other people in the process that's not their focus. It's not something they particularly think about. But as someone who's championed that and who obviously has gotten other people to champion that, we get that focus. There gets to be a voice saying,

hey, hey, hey, this is important. And then there's other aspects that equally other people care about and it might not be something I care about but there's something caring about it. So one of the neat things about having the group is you have people from all different vantage points and different ideas coming together

and what you get to see is, okay, given these things, what group consensus do you get out of things? And while it is frustrating, I think, coming from an individual contributor to a group contributor of some of a loss of control, I get that. I mean, I felt it, is the idea that you're able to do something greater, you know, larger than you're capable by yourself. That if I was making magic by myself, there were just things I could never figure out. Would the design have a cool vision? Yeah, that part I could do. Would it be not broken in tournament play? I have no idea. You know, would it be templated in a way that people understand what mechanics do would the rules

be coherent would it work in digital would it work in organized play all these things I don't know I'm not sure you know what I'm saying

those aren't things I'm normally used to sort of focusing on and the fact that there's a group the fact that I don't have to focus on those things

the fact like one of the other things is when you make something by yourself you're kind of forced to be a jack of all trades because you kind of have to worry about as many things as you can. But the neat thing in a group is I don't have to be a jack of all trades.

I actually can focus on what I do best and be really good at what I do, knowing that there's other people that would be really good at that. And the neat part of it is we all come together is all the voices get heard and thought about. And I don't have to be an expert in certain... In fact, I can not care about certain areas knowing there's other people that will care about those areas. And that's one of the neat things about coming together as a group is you have that shared voice.

But, like I said, this is important, is one of the things you have to learn to do is trust the group. And it's easier to trust yourself. I know that. It's easier to be like, well, I'm going to make decisions. And, well, I trust my decisions. And one of the frustrating things when you first come to a group setting is there are times in which I really cared about something.

And I really thought it was important. And I lost. And, you know, one of the things is sometimes that because there's a different vantage point in the group, they're seeing things you're not seeing. You know, and it is like when I look back and I look at something like Cowardice, which I'm really proud of, did all my individual contributions matter? Yes, I think they did. I see my fingerprints on the final set.

But is it all my work or even my team's work? No. Yes, I see the influence of myself. I see the influence of my team. But I see a lot of other people's influences. And together they've created something that I don't think us, like I don't think my design group could have made the finished product as good as the group made it. And so one of the things is, you know, you need to sort of let go of some of the control

that you have if you're used to individual control for a group. But the trade-off is that you get something that is just richer and deeper than you could have done as an individual. Like another good factor is, let's just take the creative. There's a lot of cool creative things going on in Kaladesh, for example. There's a lot of neat aspects to it that I get to learn about, the things I don't even know. Like, one of the

fun things about getting to actually play with a magic set, and it's a treat for me just for you guys to understand, that most of my magic playing I have stickered cards. I actually get real cards with art and flavor text and names, and that's a treat for me. I don't actually get that. The majority of my magic playing is not cards with pictures on them text and names. And that's a treat for me. I don't actually get that. The majority of my magic playing is not cards with pictures on them.

And one of the things that's really interesting to see is I get a chance when I actually interact to find and notice things. I'm discovering things that I didn't know because there were very dedicated teams that spent a lot of time and energy doing other aspects. Like, it's really neat to see some sort of small flavor thing that I just wasn't aware of. You know, a lot of times, for example, I will, part of the process is

as things come in, as art comes in, I'll take a peek at that. But I don't always see everything. And I don't see it all together. Like, one of the things that makes Magic such a special game is there's a holisticness to it. That the cards work on so many different levels and that my team is responsible for one of

those levels, but there's other teams doing other levels. And that all comes together. I mean, you guys get appreciated as a singular whole because to you, the work is the work and that's what it is. I mean, that's another, I've talked about this, that one of the differences between how I look at the game and my coworkers look at the game and how you look at the game is, to me, it's a malleable thing that I'm constantly working on. And to you guys, it's established. It is what it is.

It's not changing. You know, that when I look at something like, oh, do I want to change this? What can I change? And when you look at it, like, that is what it is. Decisions have been made. And that it is neat when you sort of see the finalized where things end up.

Like I remember sitting through the slideshow for Kaladesh and I was really impressed. I was really happy. I got to discover things. And the reason is is because the group extends beyond me and that they made decisions

and did choices and made things that I could sit back and go, wow, you know, I can see traces of the work I did, but see it amplified by everybody else. So anyway, the first big point I'm trying to make is that you have to sort of learn to let go and accept the group. And it's hard at times. Trust me, there are issues that I really, really cared about and I really fought hard for them and I did not convince the group. And so things I wanted didn't happen.

And that's part of the process. But I think that's focusing on the positive part of the process is sort of the flip side of me sitting in the slideshow and seeing things and going, oh my God, that's amazing. And seeing things that I didn't do but somebody else did. And that being able to arrive on a talented team in which there's a lot of trust. I guess that's maybe my point here. You have to trust your team. You have to really believe that everybody's working toward the same goal and that you have to trust

people to do the thing that they excel at. And one of the things, like I said, that is special about group projects is you get to be a specialist. You get to focus on things. The advantage of a group thing is you don't need to worry about everything. The other thing that happens in a group is you just get to do things on a larger scale. Because there's so many different people caring about it,

you're able to accomplish a lot more. There's only so much one person can do. But 20 people, 40 people, 100 people, 200 people, 500 people, they can accomplish a lot more. And that's the other neat thing is, like, for example, I will make a set. R&D will make a set. And then once we're done with it, just watching what brand does with it, how it's marketed, how it's sold,

all the different aspects beyond the game itself and just the interaction of it or what digital is able to do with it or what organized play is able to do with it. Take different parts of our company and watch what they can do with the work we've done and then extend it and do extra things onto it. It was really neat, for example,

to watch PAX come together, and that, yeah, I contributed and I was part of that, but the show of PAX was so much greater than any one contribution. And that's kind of the thing that you get. That's the big plus of working in a group, is that you get to create something larger than what you can do. The other neat thing, so the next thing is, part of working in a team is understanding that you have others to rely on.

I think when you're used to working solo, it's kind of like, okay, I got to solve this. But the neat thing about a group is you don't always have to solve that. Sometimes you can recognize a problem, and you can go to others and go, okay, I can't solve this. I need your help. Or even, I have solutions, but I don't like my solutions. Can you guys come up with better solutions? One of the neat things about working in a group is

you have other people to bounce ideas off of. And one of the reasons, for example, so the pit is where R&D sits. The pit has low walls. There's no high walls. A lot of times in cubicles, like, you have your own little private space, and, you know, no one can see you. But in the pit, it's all out of the open. And one of the reasons for that is

we want to create a lot of interaction. We want to have conversations. We want to, like, it's positive to us that we can discuss things. And we will discuss all sorts of things. In fact, there's some minutia that we discuss that we spend a lot of time and energy on that I think the average person isn't even aware.

You don't even think about, oh, is that a thing that I need to worry about? But we'll sweat the details. And one of the nice things about having a group is you have someone to sweat the details with, that you have someone to bounce ideas off of. You have someone to sort of sit there and say, okay, stress test my idea. Is this a good

idea? Like one of the neat things about having so many people involved is that, you know, it's, when you make something, you have a personal bias to it. It's the nature of creation. And there are ways if you make something to, and, you know, get distance from it so you can sort of judge it. But in a group project, you don't have to get the distance from it. In some ways, it's nice because you can sort of care about the things you care about, but you still get other people in. Now, another thing you have to realize is one of the things about working in a group is you need a little bit of a thicker skin. One of the things that comes from working in a group is criticism. That people will give you hopefully constructive criticism, but a criticism that if you make something that other people don't like, they'll tell you.

Like if you're working on a solo project, you might make something you don't like, but it's very different when you tell yourself you don't like it. Because you're not offending yourself. You're like, oh, I don't like that. Okay, I don't like it. It's harder in a group because somebody else worked hard on it. And if you have issues with something, you know, I'll make something and people will look at it and go, I don't like that mechanic.

That mechanic sucks. And I might have spent a lot of time on that mechanic, you know? And so another thing in the group project is, I mean, part of it is in learning how to work with others, you need to keep in mind that this, the thing you're working on might be, you know, you need to figure out how to sort of be constructive in a way that is positive and not negative. But at the same time, you need to have a thick enough skin. The best idea of a group is going to go through iterations and is going to have a lot of feedback.

It's one of the strengths of a group project is you get feedback. You know, in individuals, you seek out feedback. One of the hardest things about working on a project by yourself is you need to get feedback and you have to seek out the feedback.

In a group project, you're going to get the feedback. The deal in a group project is figuring out how best to get the feedback and how to make use of the feedback. You know, I want other people to tell me things. If a mechanic isn't fun, I want to know it isn't fun. You know, if something seems off, I want to know it's off. But I want to understand why. And the thing about a group project to be aware of is you will have opinions. And once again, your opinion might not be the correct opinion. You might believe something and you go in and voice your opinion, but it's maybe not always true. Like, one of the things is I talk about sort of getting feedback.

like, one of the things is, I talk about sort of getting feedback. One of the things that you need to figure out in a group setting is making use of the group for feedback and figuring how to parse the feedback. Because just because somebody else doesn't like something, you know, I've done things, you know, for example, the double-faced cards of Innistrad or the split cards of Invasion or, you know, Hybrid Mana. There's a lot of things I've done that have been a little out of the box.

And when I first introduced them, not everybody was on board. Not everybody looked at the double-faced cards of Innistrad and said, that is amazing, you should do that. Some people did, but some other people were like, no, you're crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. And so one of the things that you have to sort of balance as well is that you have to sort of listen to others and sometimes really good ideas come from others. And that part of being good in a project is knowing when to listen and using constructive criticism.

But another part also is sticking by your guns and understand when you're doing something you think is important and trying to sort of, you know, be the voice for something. One of the things about a group project is salesmanship matters. You know, at some point, you need to sell your ideas to other people. You need to convince other people that your idea is a good idea. And so one of the aspects that comes up in a group project, it doesn't necessarily come up as much in a singular project, at least not in the creative aspect of it, is you need to sort of sell your ideas to other people.

It is not enough to just say, well, I like it. One of the things I learned early on is how I feel about things is not, I mean, one of the neat things about a group project is it makes you get a much better understanding of how and why you feel about things. In an individual project, a lot of times you can go by your gut. Like, I like it. I'm making the calls. Okay, I'm doing it. But in a group project, I might really like something, but other people are going to say, okay, why are we doing this?

And I can't just go, well, I like it. You know, that's not going to fly. That I need to figure out why I like it. I need to figure out what it is doing. So another thing that group projects do is they kind of force you to be a little more introspective and understand better what you're doing. And that introspection is really valuable.

It really, you know, one of the things, for example, is I've been working in magic for, by the time you hear this, 21 years. Okay? So how exactly have I improved over the time? And the answer is I've improved because, you know, Malcolm Gladwell, I quote this a lot, that you need 10,000 hours with constant feedback to get really good at something. Well, that constant feedback, people always talk

about the 10,000 hours and they gloss over the constant feedback. One of the things I think that has made me very good at my job is working in R&D and being challenged every step of the way. That no one's just saying, okay, do whatever you want. They're like, why this? Why that? Explain this. Define that.

You know, defend that. And that I really learned, you know, and there are days where it's tiring. There's days where I'm like, I just don't want to defend this anymore. Can't people just accept it's good? But in general, it makes me a better designer. It makes me a better worker and probably a better person that I have to sort of interact with other people and learn how to defend my things, you know.

Like one of the big lessons is when I first got R&D, I would try to sell things off the value of the idea, you know. And what I quickly found was that I'm, part of why I'm a designer is I'm good at potential. I'm good at seeing potential in things. But that's not something, it's not a skill that everybody has. And so what I learned eventually was I had to stop selling the idea of something and I had to start selling the actual thing. Like instead of talking about cards, I would actually make cards. I would actually play with people with the cards.

Because it's one thing to hypothetically talk about what it could be. It's not to say, okay, I made them. We were playing a game of magic. Now give me your opinion while playing this game of magic.

It's no longer this theoretical thing where people have to sort of look forward. I made it concrete. And I think being part of a team and having to do that and having to sort of figure out how to defend my ideas and sell my ideas has made me a better designer. And I think that there's a lot of skills that get formed in working in a group.

You know, because not only does a group have your back, but the group also sort of is there to push against and test against. And I think that's another important value is part of being a group is understanding that you have to communicate with the group in a way the group can understand. It is not okay, something that you do in an individual project is just go, you know, I'm going with my gut. I just feel this is right. Why? Eh, who knows.

You can't do that in a group. In a group, you have to figure out why. Okay, my gut says do this. And you've got to go, okay, well, why does my gut say that? What about it? You know, you really have to be a little more introspective in why decisions get made. And I think in the act of doing that, in the act of sort of defending why you're doing things, you start to understand your process a little more. You start, you know, that group projects require you being a little more cognizant of, cognizant sorry, of what, of what exactly you're up to.

Why are you doing that? What is the thing you're trying to do? And then a lot of my growth as a designer has been me going, oh, I see what I'm doing and kind of understand what I'm doing and see the bigger picture of what it is. Okay. Another big part of being part of a group is knowing when to fight and knowing when to let go.

Like I said, there's times when you need to defend your ideas and you need to say, no, I really think this is the right thing to do. And there's times when you have to go, I mean, first off, part of being in a group is you need to recognize the best idea, not your idea, the best idea. And this is another good thing about groups is learning to sort of disconnect yourself with the best idea. It's very easy when you're doing stuff by yourself to go, well, I always have the best idea. And what you'll find in a group project is that the best idea, I mean, you'll have some ideas and

some, occasionally you do have the best idea, but a lot of times you don't. And that one of learning how to design in a group is learning to respect the idea is you're not looking after the best thing you can do. You're looking at the best idea overall. What is the best idea? And in doing so, this is another thing that's important, it's a good growth thing, it's a good life thing, is understanding that

things are better if you can disconnect the best thing that there is versus the best thing that you have done. And that you have to find pride in your participation in the group and not always have to say, well, it's important that this is my thing, that my fingerprints are visible all the time. I mean, definitely you want to make a stamp on what you do,

but, and as I said, this took a while to sort of come to grips with, but now that I do, it just makes me a better designer, which is I try to find the best idea. Not my best idea, the best idea. And if that idea is from somebody else, I embrace it and move forward. That when I'm in a design team and I'm trying to create something, I want to find the best idea. And it is easy, it is so easy to prioritize your own ideas. Humans are kind of built that way. But part of working in a group is kind of figuring out when is your idea not the best idea? When does somebody else have a better idea? And

how do you discover that? Like learning how to find what the best idea is, is a valuable skill. And it is very easy when you're involved in the creative process of just wanting to go, well, I like this. But that doesn't necessarily make it a better product. The other thing that happens in a group project, which is very interesting, is that we have a lot of different representatives of our player base. Like one of the neat things about Magic is there's no singular player. There's different ways to play Magic. There's different formats.

There's different, you know, styles of play, different archetypes of decks. Magic's a lot of things to a lot of people. Well, how do we match that? How do we make sure that every set is for every player? Another advantage of the group project is that you get people that represent more of your audience, that people can sort of step up. You know, And one of the things that we do in R&D, because we understand

this dilemma that magic is many things to many people, is people learn to stand up for certain aspects of the audience. That each members of R&D kind of learn about, oh, well, here's an audience that I really have a good understanding of that I don't know if R&D as a whole does, but I do. And so when we're going to make a card, if there's a way to make this card better for the group that I'm thinking about, I'll chime in. And we have people that care about different formats, that care about different, you know, second graphics, that care about different play styles. You know, we have people that jump in and go, hey, hey, hey.

Like, a perfect example is like multiplayer play. That, you know, just having somebody that says, hey, hey, let's think about multiplayer play. Oh, we're templating this? Could we just, instead of saying target opponent, could we say all opponents? Will that work? You know, and trying to figure out

where they could make little changes that goes, oh, this will work a little bit better in multiplayer play if we made this little tiny tweak. And the people that are making the project, you know, might not be thinking about multiplayer play, but if someone voices their opinion, they go, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, that doesn't hurt two-player play at all. And if you think that would make better for multiplayer play, let's do that.

And so that's another big aspect is, because you have a lot of different representatives, you can sort of get a better sort of sense of caring about different aspects of the audience. You know, in some ways, I think that what the group does well is because you have so many more brains on it, so many more people thinking about it, that you can have more specialty and focus. And that to me is a big saving, like a big, one of the great things about magic as a group endeavor is there's so many things we have to think about. I don't think one person could think about all of the things.

But the fact that the group as a whole can think about them, you know. The other thing that's very interesting is sometimes you'll go to a meeting, and the meeting won't be about a topic that interests you at all. Like, we have a meeting called card crafting that's about a minutia of making cards, real technical stuff. Now, a lot of meetings are very much in my wheelhouse. We're talking color pie, or we're talking some vision thing, something okay, very involved in. But sometimes, you know, we're having meetings about a templating change, or a rules change, or something that impacts me a little, not nearly

as much as impacts somebody else. And the neat thing about being in those meetings is I get to sit and listen. And by the way, an important role of being good at teams is knowing how to listen. You can only talk so much at the time. And the reality is being a good team member is a lot more about listening than it's about talking. Not saying you shouldn't speak up, not saying you shouldn't have a viewpoint, not saying you shouldn't communicate your viewpoint, but what you want to do also is learn other people's viewpoints, understand what other people are doing. And it's really neat to sit in a meeting about a topic that I really know nothing about and listen to people talk about it. It's fascinating to me to understand like, here's a templating change. Here's why we made the templating change. Here's the reasons behind it.

And to sort of sit and listen. And it's one of the ways that I really grow to respect my coworkers quite a bit. It's watching them where they shine. Watching them in a meeting where it's their issue. You know? And, you know, it's very neat to listen to somebody talk about the things that they care about, that they think about. And I'm like, wow, I've never thought about that. Or that's not something I spend a lot of energy on.

And, you know, that's something that clearly they spent hours and hours and hours on. They're very crisp and clear about that. And that's very enlightening to me. And so one of the things that I think about being in a team is not only just about listening, but it's also about understanding who is good at what. You know, that's another important part is part of getting trust and respect, well, I talked about trust.

Now that you need trust, you need respect. And part of getting respect is understanding where each person's specialty lies. Why is this person part of the team? What do they do? What are they good at? What are they, you know, where are they knowledgeable?

And part of that A is, right, it builds trust and respect when you understand where people come from and it also teaches you where to go when you need

certain knowledge because part of being a good team member is knowing when you run into a trouble where is the person that can help you get out of trouble.

You know, and one of the things I want to understand is, okay, I'm having issues with a mechanic. Is that a rules issue? Should I go talk to the rules manager? Is it a template issue? Should I want to understand is, okay, I'm having issues with a mechanic. Is that a rules issue? Should I go talk to the rules manager?

Is it a template issue? Should I talk to editing? Is it an organized play issue? Is it a development issue? Is it an online issue, a digital issue? Wherein lies the issue that I need to deal with, and who can I talk to? And one of the neat things about it is it's really neat to work someplace where I just, I'm surrounded by experts in different fields. And that my, the thing I'm working on requires a lot of expertise from a lot of different people.

And meanwhile, I'm an expert in my field. So, you know, one of the things that happens a lot is people come to me and they want my opinion. They're like, we're going to do something, but we really want your opinion. You know, a lot of times, for example, I'm setting the vision for something. So they're like, okay. As the vision holder, okay, we want to make a decision. How do you see it? From your standpoint, do one of the decisions make more sense to you?

And they'll come and talk to me. And that's a lot of the give and take of a group setting is having people aware of each other's strengths and using each other as a tool. Like, I think one of the neat things about a group project is you're just capable of doing things that an individual could never do. I don't think an individual could make a magic set nowadays anywhere close to the level of what we do because it requires so many people doing so much work at so many different levels and all interconnecting and working together.

And that's the other big thing, hopefully, one of my takeaways from today is if people can have some respect for how much that one of magic's, one of the great things about magic, the reason that I think it is the game it is, is because so many dedicated

people, so many smart, dedicated people who spend a huge amount of time, you know, this is our job spend a huge amount of time, you know, this is our job. This is what we do. You know, we spend just as much time making magic as you guys spend playing magic and maybe even more because this is what we do day in and day out. And we sweat the details and we sweat the small stuff and we work really hard on all

the nuanced things because we want to make the best thing we can. And the joy of having it with a team is I can rely on other people. I can use other people as a resource. I can use them as a sounding board. You know, that I have all these people out there that are each in their own way contributing, and that when you come together, it is a very different experience making a group project. Like I said, it is disorienting when you're used to making individual projects, solo projects, but it is very rewarding. It's rewarding in a slightly different way.

I think when you make something by yourself, I mean, be aware, when you're part of a team and you make something, you still have lots of pride. You still were a part of that process. It's a little bit different than the solo project, but you still, I mean, it's not, look, watch me do an interview about any project that I've worked on. I care, and it means something to me, and it's personal to me, and that, you know, being part of a group does not change that. But one of the neat things is that I get to share. Like, it is fun.

Like, right now, for example, I'm driving in. The pre-release was this weekend. It's a Monday. I get to go in. The people love the pre-release. I got so much positive feedback. And I get to go in and I get to share that with my group. We get to go in and talk about it.

And I get all these compliments, you know, as the person who interacts with the public the most. I get a lot of feedback and it's really, really positive and I get to go share that with my team and that is an awesome thing. That is a fun part of being part of the team is A, you have somebody there and in the hard times,

you have people there to help you and support you and the good times, you have people to share the joy with and that's a fun thing. A lot of times we'll do things, you know, we'll have celebratory cakes, or every once in a while we'll have parties and things. And it's fun to celebrate as a group and look at something and say, we did this, all of us together did this.

And that's very fulfilling and it feels really good. And so a lot of what I'm trying to talk about today is it's a different animal. Designing in a group is not the same as designing as an individual. And in some ways, the first time you ever do it, there's some frustrations. There's some things you kind of are used to doing that you don't get to do. You don't get to make every call. But the tradeoff for not making every call is that you have a team helping you. You have a whole group that are aiding in what you do. That you have resources and you're

able to do things so much greater than you can do as an individual. And that I think it's so easy when you first start doing a group project sometimes to if you're very used to doing solo projects, to sort of look at where the differences are and go, oh, I like making decisions all the time.

But that one of the neat things about doing the group is there is a cool camaraderie that you get. There is an interaction you get. There is a neat aspect that's a very different one of a solo creation. I'm not saying solo creation is not a cool thing unto itself. It is. I like doing solo creations. But doing group creation is just a different animal in that it really, it is fun and it's rewarding.

You know, you get to learn from those you work with. You get to interact with those. It's a lot of fun. I laugh a lot at my job. That a lot of why making magic is fun for me is I get to work with people that it's just, it's fun to work with. And remember that when you get into a group project

that while there are some trade-offs from the individual project, there's a lot of benefits that come with it. And it really can be a really rich and rewarding experience. And that, my friends, is what I have to say about community creative building. But anyway, I'm now at my daughter's school. So we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work.

So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So I'll see you guys next time. Ciao.