泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ A good player is not always a good coach

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
 
A good player is not always a good coach
 
A long time ago, I read an article in which Cho Hun-hyun, the South Korean 9-dan professional Go player, mentioned Lee Chang-ho, the South Korean professional Go player of 9-dan rank. Summarizing the story, I don't exactly remember the specifics, Cho thought that Lee was a fool or a rare genius when he saw the little student.

I meet many video game developers because of my job. As an ex-game developer, the time with them is very enjoyable. But some project managers or team managers used to make me get a wry smile. Because they were sure that they can run an ideal company if they become CEO. It might be a wrong assessment like the first Korean 9 dan player Cho; I don't mean that I'm at the same level as one of the greatest players of all-time. But, in most cases, they say that they would not do such a thing if they were the incumbent CEO pointing out his/her mistakes. The undeniable fact is that a president often makes mistakes. I don't want to say that there are many representative directors who repeat the mistakes. I exactly try to get across that most working-level game developers consider game development equal to game studio management.

You can just think, for simplicity, about a video-game company that it makes and publishes a game and it is the only job to show its ability to make a good game. But this is completely wrong. This would be nothing short of saying, "An excellent film director can be a great head of a film studio." or "An outstanding player can be a great coach and owner." Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to a historic 4th-place finish in 2002 World Cup, was not popular when he was a soccer player. Many great game producers and project managers romanticize the future concentrating all their energy on making good games and some establish their own game studio based on past success at their former workplace, however, not all of them have been successful.

What makes the difference? We need to know the difference between the production system and management system to answer the question. Making a game is a process of controlling "now" as manufacturing a product. It's the process of focusing on managing production schedule, handling "now" continually to achieve goals for each step, and setting a business plan for the current plan to go off well. In addition, it is necessary to control quality and compensate for the defect and enhance step-by-step output. Running a business, on the other hand, is the process of predicting and preparing for the future. A business owner needs to overcome a financial problem in the future with an accurate prediction, predict the future market to provide effective solutions, and share values and vision with all employees to bring them together.

As previously mentioned, I'm ineligible for evaluating the potential ability of competent working-level staff as the next CEO. I simply think that I, as a venture capitalist, won't make an investment in the company in which a president doesn't recognize the difference. A good player can't always be a good coach and an able factory manager can't make a book on success as a good CEO. Likewise, there is no guarantee of success of a great game producer and project manager as a great president. While chatting on, I got to know that many game developers long for running their own business because they want to make a game as they wish or accomplish various personal goals. I don't think that is wrong. I just want them to completely recognize the difference between production and management and thoroughly prepare in advance before establishing a business. I hope to see a lot of good CEOs from talented game developers like Sun Dong-yol, a former excellent baseball player who became a great coach later.

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui


 

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