[TerrifiedMouse]

> My impression was that he cares a lot more about financial success and his personal image than he does making great work.

Well, that's not the way he sees himself, from the article,

> People have appreciated the work my teams and I have done and have expressed it loudly and affectionately. I may or may not deserve accolades, but I've been lucky enough to receive them and I'm grateful for all the kind words and well-wishes I've received. Maybe it's just my ego, but what I consider to be my successes have nothing to do with reviews, sales or revenue. Success for me is connection with players (and not in the data-collecting way some of you may be thinking). I've had people send me handmade plush toys based on characters in my games. I've had people send me artwork they were inspired to create. I've had people tell me a game I worked on helped get them through chemotherapy. Autism. Cerebral palsy. I ran into a young woman at Disneyland dressed as Ortensia, in a homemade costume, before the character was a star in the Disney firmament. “I started my company because of your game,” I’ve been told. And “I changed the way I thought about design because of a game you worked on.” Now those are success criteria that have kept me going, even when things got tough.

What he seems to care about the most is that his work has an impact on the players in some way - which I think is the goal of many artists.

[josephg]

Even reading that I stand by my impression of him. In that passage I hear about how much he loves the impact his games have had on others. (Cynically through the lens of all the compliments he’s gotten on his work). But nothing about what his work means to him.

Forget his fans. Does he like his games? Does he play them? It’s hard to tell from that passage, just as it was hard to tell from the talk of his I saw all those years ago. I don’t know if that’s something he really cares about. In contrast, I don’t think Jonathan blow or Hayao Miyazaki really think about their fans much at all when they look back on their work. They both seem much more focused on their own direct relationship to what they’re making.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But personally I find artists who make art for themselves, according to their own aesthetic to be more fascinating people to follow. I loved Deus Ex. But games like The Witness or even Stardew Valley somehow feel like they have more soul in them. It’s an oblique criticism though. I have made neither kind of game.

[TerrifiedMouse]

He just told you what his work means to him. The part that he enjoys the most, the part that makes it worth it, is that his work in some way leaves an impression on other.

As you said, he is a creator that makes games for his audience rather than himself. As he himself has stated multiple times that his games are to let players tell their own personal stories hence his emphasis on player freedom and letting players have unique (as possible) paths through the game - as opposed to to the “players must experience everything we created” philosophy.

That doesn’t mean his work has no “soul”, frankly it has multiple souls in them as they are the collaborative work of an entire team.