The Scandinavian Question

[nimzy]

I'm from Sweden, and I don't think "national character" or the like is ever a useful explanatory factor; just another name for unhelpful stereotypes and sweeping generalizations. To take just an obvious example, Mojang's approach to game design has very little in common with something like the modern-day DICE; and if Swedish dev teams happen to produce a higher proportion of noteworthy games than would seem statistically likely given our country's tiny population that can surely be easily explained simply by pointing to our great IT infrastructure and an above-average education system. The rest, as everwhere else in the world, is merely a case of specific individuals being pathetically nerdy, in a good way.

I have to apologize, I didn't intend to make this thread to determine if there are any generalizations or anything to be made. I was just wondering out loud what kind of conditions exist out there that resulted in this quality of game developers. I mean, look at Paradox, those guys are just throwing money at people with good ideas. Hell they made Magna Mundi a full-fledged game and brought Seatribe on to do a F2P MMO out of the blue.

[Wulf]

This thread is giving me a headache.

Yep.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[psyk]

The thread amused me I liked the english brush it sounds about right. The thread also cured me of my headache.

[Duckee]

I think it has to do with embedded cultural facets within these cultures. For instance, you will find that in Scandinavia organisations, looking at empirical evidence from cultural scholars such as Hofstede and Trompenaar, there tends to be a low power distance and there is what is referred to as a feminine culture.

Power Distance relates to how an organisation is structured and how responsibility and empowerment is setup. So in countries like America, and to some extent Britain and other parts of Europe, you will have large hierarchies with middle managers and rigid roles where all information and decisions travel upwards. In Scandinavian countries however, there is a flat structure and there is often not too much red tape and bureaucracy required to get things done and to do decisions. In other words, in Scandinavia there is a larger amount of empowerment amongst everyone in an organisation, which might make it easier to develop new ideas.

As for what is meant by feminine culture, it does not mean that everyone in Scandinavia are female. No, it means that people are more family oriented and inclusive. This is related to Power Distance as well, but people in Scandinavian organisations tend to stress that they care about their co-workers and the idea of the workplace being a nurturing environment which includes everyone is important. So in other words, people might be more supportive and open to new and perhaps odd ideas and ways of thinking and perhaps discuss this in a meaningful manner where everyone can voice their opinion.

I think these two factors, combined with factors such as infrastructure and recreational habits can help explain why Scandinavia has a vibrant video game scene.

Hofstede source: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/
I do not have a readily available Trompenaar source :(

*ps. Funcom was not mentioned as a dev in previous posts*