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[lansing]

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_value_of_ideas/

[Derek]

Okay, so you play this plumber, right?  He's Italian.  And he has to save the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom from an evil turtle named King Koopa.  Now, hear me out!  There are these evil mushrooms called goombas and to kill them you have to stomp on their heads...

[droqen]

There is no execution without ideas, and "a Dilbert movie" may be an idea but that doesn't mean that the only thing defined as an "idea" is a ridiculous single sentence that explains nothing.
"a comic strip that is literally a bunch of stick figures? It will be called XKCD and have no discernable characters" does not take into account so much regarding XKCD that it's not even funny.

I agree that the value of a single sentence that says nothing at all is rather low, but disagree that one should draw such a black-and-white conclusion comparing ideas and execution.

DROQEN IS FINISHED WITH THE SRS BUSINESS NOW

edit ::

I don't think "Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything." is the takeaway here. I think it's more like "You can describe anything in a way that makes it sound great or terrible, no matter whether it's actually great or terrible in real life."

yayy this is what I was thinking about except articulated way better

[baconman]

  I think we just read the entire movie.

EDIT: And, so much for the execution, huh?

[SirNiko]

I agree with Droquen, sort of. A great idea can fail with bad execution, but great execution is unlikely unless you have a good idea at the start to succeed.

One thing I dealt with in business school was the problem with things that people say are good ideas that actually aren't. You think of a product, and people will jump out and say "That's a great idea! Lots of people would buy that!" but when the question is whether YOU will buy it, the answer's no. Lots of people think someone else would buy it, but none of them actually will be a buyer.

Pretty much, I agree with Scott Adams. The execution is the most important thing. The ideas aren't totally worthless, just of far, far less value than the execution.

-SirNiko

[Core Xii]

Ideas are potential value. Execution realizes that value and can add to or deduct from it, but execution alone without an idea is also worthless.

[reetva]

Except that most of the time people describe the execution when they describe an idea.  Nobody seriously trying to explain, say, 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' says, "It's a movie about cowboys looking for buried treasure."  They say, "It's a fun, smart action movie about cowboys looking for buried treasure."  Unless, of course, one or more of those things have already been implied or explained.

[Derakon]

Everyone has ideas. Thus there's a massive oversupply, and basic economics will then tell us the value of an individual idea is quite low. Of course, ideas aren't fungible -- every idea is subtly different -- but it's so difficult to judge the value of a specific idea that they're all generally considered to be nigh-worthless.

A good idea is only good in hindsight, once you've seen that it actually works in execution. Until then, it's just a potentially good idea.

EDIT: fixed a typo (different != difficult)

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think generally ideas are worthless, and execution everything, but there are some ideas that you probably can't turn into a successful game no matter how good the execution is

like how about a game where you're an ice cream truck driver and start driving over kids for fun, and get points for every kid you drive over, while the ice cream truck music plays (over and over, as the only music in the game), and then you gather up the kids and turn them to ice cream with the mouse by spinning them around in a grinder

the game would probably be hated no matter how good the execution of it is

[Zaratustra]

The problem is to make someone else as excited about your idea as you are, so that he may help you. People are hella jaded.

[deemen]

i think generally ideas are worthless, and execution everything, but there are some ideas that you probably can't turn into a successful game no matter how good the execution is

like how about a game where you're an ice cream truck driver and start driving over kids for fun, and get points for every kid you drive over, while the ice cream truck music plays (over and over, as the only music in the game), and then you gather up the kids and turn them to ice cream with the mouse by spinning them around in a grinder

the game would probably be hated no matter how good the execution of it is

Somebody will probably make a game about that now. See what you've started?

In all seriousness, I tend to agree with the original post. Ideas are nothing. Everyone has ideas. The ability to take an idea and turn it into a reality (and doing it well) is where the money is. The bright side of this is even the zaniest ideas can be made into good products given the right execution, and I think that drives innovation.

[Cevo70]

Ideas are especially worthless if you consider an idea to be 1-2 phrases.  That's what I would call a summary of an idea. 

Ideas can be flushed out, and turned into grand schemes (game design doc - or something resembling one).   In the right hands, this collection of ideas (which may even include ideas on how to execute > woh brain explosion) starts to hold some value.

[Ego_Shiner]

like how about a game where you're an ice cream truck driver and start driving over kids for fun, and get points for every kid you drive over, while the ice cream truck music plays (over and over, as the only music in the game), and then you gather up the kids and turn them to ice cream with the mouse by spinning them around in a grinder

ehm...

pretty damn close

[William Broom]

i think generally ideas are worthless, and execution everything, but there are some ideas that you probably can't turn into a successful game no matter how good the execution is

like how about a game where you're an ice cream truck driver and start driving over kids for fun, and get points for every kid you drive over, while the ice cream truck music plays (over and over, as the only music in the game), and then you gather up the kids and turn them to ice cream with the mouse by spinning them around in a grinder

the game would probably be hated no matter how good the execution of it is

There's kind of a blurry line between idea and execution here, though. Surely having annoying and repetitive background music, or an awkward control scheme, should fall under 'execution' rather than 'idea'.

[laserghost]

Scott Adams has an interesting point, but humans will always have their opinions. I don't know how society could even work if we never evaluated concepts before putting them into action.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

empirically

[Oddball]

I think his statement that making a film about the Titanic is a bad idea, and was only saved by good execution, is just plain wrong. The Titanic has always been a popular subject, even before the James Cameron film, and TV shows, books, and films about it have nearly always been successful whether the execution has been good or bad. I'd have to say that all his article shows is that Scott Adams is unable to identify whether an idea is good or bad.

[Christian Knudsen]

This is a strange discussion. How can you say that ideas in general are worthless? Bad ideas are worthless. Good ideas aren't. Everything starts with an idea. Just because an idea is an intangible thing doesn't make it worthless per default.

[Derakon]

It's often very difficult to tell the difference between a bad idea and a good idea until you see a good implementation of both. Given the difficulty of making this comparison, and the fact that there are so many more bad ideas than good ideas, functionally all ideas are considered to have next to no value until proven otherwise.

If this weren't the case, then startup companies wouldn't fail so often and venture capitalism wouldn't be anywhere near as risky.

[Christian Knudsen]

It's interesting that people are saying in this thread that ideas are worthless and it's all a matter of execution, but at the same time complaining about mainstream game companies making the same games over and over. If execution is king, then why make new games with new ideas instead of just remaking old ideas with changes in execution?

And I disagree that an idea always has to be executed before it can be judged. I've often seen movies that weren't very good, but I still liked the basic idea. I think we can all react positively or negatively when presented with a (game) idea. The fact that that idea can then afterwards be executed badly doesn't detract from the original idea. Just recently, I came upon the "Bodyless" game dev thread. I don't know how that game will turn out. It may turn out boring and frustrating to play. But I find the idea absolutely brilliant and will continue to do so regardless of the execution.