I’m not sure what to say about this, because I feel like I may fundamentally disagree on many of the things you are saying here. My personal feeling is that nobody has the right to produce art or other stuff without being willing to accept criticism and objections from people who feel hurt by that art. I think part of our responsibility as artists and human beings is to be accountable for our actions. The criticism that’s completely unfounded hopefully doesn’t hurt too much because it’s just people jawing at you. But if the criticism does hurt, it might be because there’s some kernel of truth in it: something you should have handled better, some place where you stepped on someone else, some place where you punched down instead of punching up, some point (in some cases) at which you might have decided to drop the project entirely. And none of us are perfect: we’re all gonna make mistakes, and hopefully we learn from them. But I feel like game designers, like anyone else, have to be prepared to accept potentially valid criticism. I don’t think we can ask to be excused from this just because we have the best intentions.

There are definitely times when I’ve looked at a project and thought very clearly I’m not personally qualified to make this game right now, and there are times when I may never be qualified to make certain games. To me: that’s okay! It would be weird, actually, if I felt that I was an expert in everything and was qualified to say whatever I wanted about whatever I like. Sometimes I feel like people fret about not being able to make certain games and I wonder if maybe they’re just coming to recognize their own limits. But I don’t have the right to decide what anyone else’s limits are. At the end of the day, I feel like we all have to stand by the work that we produce and take the hits that we deserve, shrugging off the hits that we don’t deserve (though it’s not always crystal clear which is which). If you look at your project and are prepared to do that, then by all means put it out there. Or maybe put it out there many times along the way, so you can take your hits and make amends before you spend a bunch of money on a print run.

Personally, I honestly don’t worry about being criticized for the stuff that I produce – even weird and potentially controversial stuff like my old game about the Angolan Bush War – because I feel like I’m prepared to say, “Yeah, you’re totally right, that part of the game is total bullshit appropriation” or “Yeah, I probably should have handled that better” or “I really appreciate your feedback; are there things that I can do to be clearer about that?” And in my experience, that’s all you have to do: you don’t have to get it right all the time; you just have to (1) give it your best shot, trying to overcome your failings in knowledge and authority, (2) be open to criticism, without making excuses or blaming your critics, and (3) try to make it right or do better the next time. Even with really dumb 101-level crap like the portrayal of Native Americans in The Strange, I haven’t really heard anybody complaining too loudly about it since they tried to make amends.

But I don’t think anybody gets to avoid facing criticism, and honestly I wouldn’t want anybody to. That’s how we get better at this stuff!