Valerie Putman: Defining Moments

In Developmental Psychology, the start of adolescence is clearly defined as the onset of puberty.  The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood, on the other hand, is a lot fuzzier.  For example, it may start with marriage or parenthood or financial independence or the right to vote. When I poll my Psychology 100 class, many of them can’t decide if they are adults or not.  In academia, there is a clear defining moment when a professor has achieved their rightful place in the ivory tower—tenure.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!  Snoopy dances everyone!  I am the bomb diggity because I have tenure.  What does this really mean?  Basically, my colleagues have decided that I have demonstrated success as a professor (defined in different ways at different institutions).  Before tenure, my job was an annually renewed contract and they could decide at any time that they could do better and search for my replacement.  Tenure grants me a continuous contract and it is the University’s way of saying, “ok, we’ll keep you.” While tenure certainly means job security (since I would have been let go if I hadn’t gotten tenure), I can certainly still be fired if I don’t do my job or if the school decides not to have a Psychology department any more.  So sadly, this doesn’t mean that I’ll be skipping school to attend any and every game convention I can find.  But I am planning on going to Essen this year, for sure.

What, then, is the defining moment in boardgaming when a designer knows that he or she has “made it”?  Like adulthood, I think we have many possibilities but no clear answer.

Quitting your day job Most game designers publish one or two games and continue to work full time in their “real” job.  But a few become so successful that published games can support their lifestyle and allow them to design games full time.  To me, these are clear examples of designers who have successfully nabbed the brass ring.

Having a game in the BGG top 100 Perhaps, though, one doesn’t have to make a living designing boardgames to have arrived.  If one is merely seeking fame, not fortune, then success may be defined as designing a game that will forever be remembered in the boardgaming industry.  This could be defined using the top rated games at Boardgamegeek.com or having a Wikipedia entry or getting recognized by the Grand Poobah of gaming, Greg Schloesser, at Essen.

Winning a major game award We might decide that fame needs to be more narrowly defined.  We could define success as the achievement of any boardgame award (which might include the Origins, Mensa, or Games Magazine awards) or more narrowly still by specifying a small list of awards or even just the top prize, the Spiel des Jahres.

Winning Larry’s Designer of the Year Of course, if you want to make the definition of success as elite as possible, this is the only viable option.  Tee hee.

Just getting published Finally, if I were a board game designer….  Actually, I have designed something.  After two rejection letters from game publishers I decided that I didn’t have thick enough skin.  I have to give my hats off to anyone who has published anything.  To me, you have all reached bomb diggity status.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

© 2008 Valerie Putman

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"Actually, I have designed something.  After two rejection letters from game publishers I decided that I didn’t have thick enough skin.” Does this mean we’ll never get to play Weasel’s Plunder?  Curses. Posted by Eric Clark on Mar 16, 2008 at 10:09 AM | #

Congrats, Valerie! Posted by Jeffrey D Myers on Mar 16, 2008 at 10:15 AM | #

"Winning Larry’s Designer of the Year” Hmph!  It’s about time someone figured that out!  :-) Thanks for the plug, Valerie.  I thought I’d provide some detail on one of the other, lesser forms of Designer Arrival you mentioned--getting a game in the Geek 100--but there’s less repetition there than you’d expect:  a total of 75 designers, too many to list.  The top 25 is even worse, with exactly 25 designers included.  There are some joint designs, of course, but only Kramer & Ulrich (the only desigers with two Top 10s), Jason Matthews, Richard Borg, Knizia, Martin Wallace, and Glenn Drover have more than one game in the top 25. Posted by Larry Levy on Mar 16, 2008 at 12:19 PM | #

I’ve been craving Weasel’s Plunder for some time now.  I really must do something about that.... Posted by Nathan Morse on Mar 16, 2008 at 12:28 PM | #

Wooot!  Grats. Posted by Eric Brosius on Mar 16, 2008 at 01:09 PM | #

Selling your company to Hasbro for millions of dollars?  Even if most of your games are bleh… Posted by Rob Cannon on Mar 16, 2008 at 01:59 PM | #

<<Having a game in the BGG top 100>> Better yet, having your game rated a “1” by somebody for no sane reason. Posted by Peter Stein on Mar 16, 2008 at 03:06 PM | #

Grats Valerie! Posted by Klaus Knechtskern on Mar 16, 2008 at 03:54 PM | #

Congratulations, Valerie! My department is finishing up a department head search and two tenure decisions this year - I know how harrowing waiting for the decisions can be. I’m glad to hear that your future is assured (as assured as anyone’s can be!). I look forward to seeing you at BGG.Con again this year. Posted by David Reed on Mar 16, 2008 at 09:14 PM | #

Wow, tenure.  Congrats!  I thought you were pretty safe from being fired unless you actually nix a student.  (Ah, tenure… an archaic leftover from back when mandatory retirement was legal.  Now it is a somewhat broken system as so few professors ever feel like retiring.) Is Greg Schloesser still the Grand Poohbah of boardgaming?  I haven’t read much of his stuff online in awhile, but then I guess I don’t read too much more than BGN and isolated links… Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Mar 17, 2008 at 02:00 PM | #

Congratulations on entering adulthood--in academia, that is. As far as game design goes, I’d be happy with any of the above, and hopefully at least one on your list will be fulfilled this year.  Until then, though, I’m still the game designer’s equivalent of a pimple-faced teenager… Posted by Jeff Allers on Mar 17, 2008 at 04:39 PM | #

Congratulations, Valerie! Posted by Bruce Spears on Mar 17, 2008 at 07:58 PM | #

Yes, but are you an adult yet? ;-) Congratulations! Posted by Tom Lehmann on Mar 19, 2008 at 08:16 PM | #

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