The Inevitable

...and so it begins, the long march of ideas from those around me. I think that in my naivete I allowed myself to believe that it wouldn't happen. The truth, however, is that like others who 'get' to make things that others enjoy using and have as hobbies, I'll have the burden of someone forever coming to me and saying "I had a great thought- you should make THIS game!" Thanks for the sentiment. Thanks for thinking of me, and believing the I'd do your idea justice. Now please bugger off. The truth is that- shocker- I'm thinking of ideas, too. Chances are that the time I've put in on my ideas, and/or the schooling I'm putting myself through insures that I'll like my ideas better or that mine are better formed or more workable. Chances are more likely that I'll politely (as politely as I can muster, anyway) listen to your idea and put it at the bottom of a considerable list of ideas I have that are all waiting to be made into games.
Here's an idea- go on and develop that idea yourself. You have something more than a passing interest in the matter, why not have some fun exploring that? Case in point: my brother has now approached me with two pirate-ideas for video games. As it happens, I sort of like pirate games and have had my eye open for a good one. There's a glut of them on the market right now. There's a surge of piratey interest in our one-eyed, peg legged friends and it's shown up in board games, movies, videos games, card games, role-playing games, you name it. We don't need another pirate game. I wonder how my brother doesn't realize this. But I'm getting off the current subject- developing the idea himself. The fact is that my brother is a math guy, he loves math, and math is a big part of balancing games when you're making them. I'd argue that he could balance a game better than I could if we were both given the same amount of time to do so.
And get this, he's also made one or two board games in his day. He knows how to make a game. I've been toying with the notion of sending him off to talk to board game publishers to see if they'll bite on his game. So why the heck doesn't he work some on this game idea himself? Why doesn't take a little time to research it before pestering me?
Bah. I say 'bah' to the idea that he's doing it to help me. He's like many- he wants in, but only wants to do the fun and creative concept part. How do I know? I pestered a friend of mine to do a comic with me. I had great ideas. Wonderful ideas. He said hat he'd go along with it, as long as I drew the sucker. "Where's the fun in that?", thought I. I had approached him so that I could do the fun writing concept stuff, and HE could do the crappy old drawing. See? That's how I know what's going on. I've pulled the same stunt. I lost interest in making a comic once I had to put in more than a minimal amount of work. My brother, and I assuming many future others are going to lose interest in making games as son as I tell them to break out their calculators and crunch some numbers, or draw up a level, or any of the other arduous tasks that go along with real design.
So, as politely as I can manage- leave me alone unless you've done enough groundwork to wow me with your idea. Do NOT hand me a concept so that I can 'run with it'. No thanks. I've got plenty of those on my plate already.