The core of his argument centers around that compared to the other disciplines, it's harder to find a "good" game designer than it is to find a "good" programme

The core of his argument centers around that compared to the other disciplines, it's harder to find a "good" game designer than it is to find a "good" programmer/artist etc. But that makes sense- as he says, it's hard to go to school for it. It is a non-linear discipline. You need to be knowledgeable of all the other disciplines (how the game is technically built to understand scope of design), you have to be able to work from a systems scale all the way down to individual variables, you have to be able to talk the language of engineers, artists, and producers/business/marketing. What I find offensive is that Garriot is saying "If you don't hit all those points, you really just suck as a designer." Well thanks for the input, Lord British. Your flamebait has really elevated the state of the industry.