why do indie game developers refer to themselves as 'we'?

I keep seeing this, "we are working on a new update..." "we are almost finished with X" "please donate money for us to continue working" "our company is looking for more volunteers" when it's obvious that it's only one person doing everything. It's really obvious.
What's wrong with 'I'?

 

Is it obvious? I haven't actually met many indie developers who are genuinely just a single person. They do exist, but most of the time I'm aware of if there's a game in development it's being worked on by more than one person.

 

Oh, sorry, no offense to them, I'm referring to the noob developers who don't know how to program and whatnot

 

The royal we

 

It's called the "Royal We".

Of course, in the case of game developers it's more likely to be "my cat and I". I always just refer to myself in the third person preceded by a "the".

 

You! Beat me by a few seconds. *narrows eyes*

 

that's the term I was looking for!

 

That is for self-deception so that i don't feel i am a lonely hopeless helpless solo developer

 

Yeah same with Asset Store devs. I think somehow people think that it makes them sound more professional.

 

Don't worry, none taken. I was just wondering why you're so sure it is indeed individuals.

 

I'm leaning more toward that thought: 'I' sounds selfish. A sense of pride comes with referring to your company or group as an entity and not just 'me'. I would use 'we' because while it is only me doing anything my wife and kids are my strength and inspiration... and testers

 

Yeah but to me it just seems deceptive - like I'm making people think I have a whole team of developers when it's just me.

 

That's the idea but I wouldn't say maliciously deceptive. If you're in the business of providing a service then you are giving the impression of a full work force and if your 'company' delivers the service as expected then why should the customer think any different about the size of your company.

 

Sure it's not maliciously deceptive, but still, I just say "I", because it's just me.

Another point somebody made is that if you pretend to be a team of devs, people might expect more from you than you can deliver as a solo dev. When an update is coming slowly, people don't understand why because they think you have a dozen people working on it, when really you are alone.

 

It's also not just about size. "I" implies a single, consistent individual, and "individual" doesn't just mean "one", it also implies individuality. Even if a company is staffed by just one person it's quite possible that they'll change over time, especially if the company is a subsidiary business unit of another company, or a franchise, or something like that. "We" might only be one person at a time, but it could be a different person each time, and they're probably acting in accordance with some system or policy rather than as an individual making their own choices.

Though... none of that is likely to be particularly relevant to a one-man "studio" which has never released a game, etc.

 

That's the main reason I use we (wait, we use we?) in stuff like that -- I'm representing my company, Three Ring Ranch, and that's a we. Even when there's only one employee (me) it's a we, because I'm speaking for the company.

On top of that, I don't make decisions and build things in a vacuum -- I may be the sole proprietor of my company, but there are smart people that I regularly brainstorm with so the policies and products I come up with usually have some sort of "we" behind them.

Jay

 

On the other hand. If you say "We are working on an update" people would think more than one person is working on an update.
In other words they'll have big expectations on your update.

 

If that were true we'd expect Unity 5 yesterday, because don't they have hundreds of engineers working on it?

Jay

 

A lot of people do expect Unity Feature X, Unity X, and Unity 5 yesterday... Maybe it's just one individual engineer, using the Royal We, and a few actors.

 

yeah its because it seems to sound better to the player audience ..

but also, when its just one guy people get impressed (if its a good game) like Unturned, some people have said "this game was just by one 16 yr old kid its pretty awesome!"

... I was wondering about this... Iam working on a game alone.. and wondering if Id say we or me...
, when i get to the phase where I will really be producing alot of prop models or, just filling in all the item stats, i have a friend or 2 that are willing to help me.. they arent totally into game making, but they have technical knowledge.. and they know how to 3d model
... so.. i was thinking of we.. but they will do barely anything relatively .. so im not sure... of course, im not even there yet..

 

Hive mind.

 

We may not expect it tomorrow, but we expect it to be awesome!

 

I think you can also put the usage of WE into the same category like when single bedroom coders call themself being the CEO of their game development studio. Guess that makes them feel bigger or more important.

 

Cool, well WE are working on a great game and there's a lot more than one of us. Also, indie doesn't mean individual, it means independent developer. Sometimes, that's over a hundred people

 

This, sadly.

I have an actual company and I don't even call myself CEO. Just founder, because CEO makes me feel like people would think I'm some douchy idea guy.

When I address the community I actually do the opposite. I say *I* because I'm the one updating them on things. I use we when I'm talking about work we do as a team (I have an actual team) but for the most part, I use I.

I connect with the community individually. I'm not some faceless team entity. That's the advantage I have as an independent developer so I try to push it when I can,

 

This is a silly thread. And, I'll take the bait. I'm a pro by day, and when I started Gigi Games, I read dozens of threads about the "CEO" discussion and ended up going with "Founder".

For me, "WE" includes my wife and I and sometimes peers across country. Though, whether we use 'I' or 'we' for an individual app tagline, depends on the emotion "WE'RE" trying to evoke.

Now! WE would like some coffee... "I'll" be right back.

Gigi

 

I'm a one-man developer and I just say 'I'. For starters, it's grammatically correct. It's also accurate. If I were running around saying 'we', psychologists would likely need to be involved in my life more (not that they don't already, just it's not as pressing a need.)

 

Sitting alone in a room and smashing on the keyboard for hours hours and hours and nothing else to eat than junk makes some people become a multiple personality XDDDD

...like: there are 10 voices in my head. 9 are saing that I´m not crazy and 1 is whistling the tetris theme

 

If you're referring to the 'Type B' music, that's actually a Tchaikovsky piece (I think, it's been a while since music history for me.) Actually, I'm pretty sure all of the Tetris music is either by Tchaikovsky, or the other 'Gang of Four' composers.

 

I could have swore I heard it was just some traditional russian folk music. Not that I know much about russian music, so beats me.

 

oooh... not type B ... but type A is:
"The song "Korobeiniki" is based on a poem with the same name by Nikolay Nekrasov, written and printed in the Sovremennik magazine in 1861. Due to its increasing tempo and the dance style associated with it, it quickly became a popular Russian folk song " --copied from wikipedia..

i really like the song..
its a love song, with tragedy

 

I count my cats in the "we".


For a more serious response: In the business world, I tend to always think of companies as "we" no matter how many people are working there. While a developer can talk about what "I" am doing, the company talks about what "we" are doing. I cannot point to a specific rule of grammar or long-standing custom; this is just what has always sounded "correct" to me.

 

this thread has gotten pretty serious; good points made by all.
Personally, I find 'I' more personal and friendly, which is a welcome change in a business environment.

 

If you speak for the company you should say "it", not "we" (or "he/she" if the company is Cyberdine and took a life of its own).

 

We refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it would reveal too much about us.

 

We are Borg.

 

I'm the noob developer.

But by saying "we", WE establish more professional sounding to refer to ourself.
It's some kind of public relationship.
You want your fans to think you're BIG DEAL.

WE are LEGION.


p/s: It may refer to your vision of establishing a REAL TEAM where you can safely call;

WE are LEGION

in the future.

So your press release will be future proof.

 

I always use "I", and despite the narcissism of naming my game "WazHack", which should make it awfully clear it's just me, people still contact me and address "us" as a team. I think it's funny.

Certainly I wouldn't read anything into either way of expressing oneself - it's not deceptive, more just professional (overly professional you might be arguing, in some cases). Using "I" can seem self-important in some sentences, in which case I'll often drop to passive voice: "There will be an update adding ...", not "I will make ...", since it's the update that's important to the customer, not who did it.

 

It's very simple. Which one sounds better?

"I'm working on a large update, stay tuned!"

"We're working on a large update, stay tuned!"

 

Second one, but that's just my opinion, and only in a general case. If its a great game (Banished?), I'm more impressed if I hear an "I" instead of we. And even get more excited that only one person made that.

I started using "we" when I started, because it felt right since I'm speaking for the company/team, but became an actual "we" soon enough when my girlfriend decided to try Blender and see if she can help. xD

 

We are Legion.

We do it because even though we are usually a single person, we makes us sound larger and more important

 

I suppose it is deception in a way. But why should it matter? If you order a chair do you care how many people made it?

Although you can think of it like this: "The staff in our company may increase or decrease, at the moment we have one person in our company. [Me. In fact it's only ever been me! ]. If you have any further questions we will do our best to help! Presently we are working on updates to our game."

It can seem narcissistic to use "I". (We are very humble.)

Sometimes we see this use of "we" in articles: "We will first look at chart A and then we will derive the equation..." But this could me "we" as in the author and the reader together.

Also if you say "This is my game I hope you like it." It's a bit unfriendly because it's not really the developers game, it's the user's game.

For me: If I'm proud of the game I put "I", if not I put "we". "It's so good I put my name on it!" As George Forman might say.

 

Want to know what I think of people who use "we" when they're really alone?

Spoiler

 

Exactly. People, thinking that there's a whole team behind a certain product, are more likely to believe in its value.

So it's purely marketing move.

 

I disagree. First, I never know how many people are a "whole team". 2? 20? Perhaps 1 Dev, 4 marketing guys and 2 lawyers...that would be worse than a one-man-band if you ask me...

Then, it's absolutely unusual (at least in germany) to use "I" on business papers when acting on behalf or speaking in the name of the company. As others stated before, "I" means I'm doing something by myself, "we" means the company is doing something, no matter if I do it by myself or have employees doing the job.

 

Which is why it's deceptive. They are in fact more likely to believe in its value - but wrongly so.

 

Yup that's exactly why I used "we" when I first started alone. I didn't try to deceive anyone, it just felt right.

 

Honest question:
How do you know?

 

it's obviously why

we = me + myself + and i

also @jake L hit on something if someone is using business alias (dba) you never say i you always say we with regards to the dba, its just that way

for example which sounds right and which sounds wrong

i at xyz

we at xyz

also in us legally xyz a business entity is considered a person so with regards to business there is you and the business entity so its always we... just ask the supreme court that not only says a business is a person with full constitutional protection including freedom of religion.