Maya syndrome is a mental condition primarily (although not exclusively) developed by people who attend
college or university for game design.
People with
Maya syndrome tend to believe that just because they are using an "industry standard" software, their products are inherently flawless and
superior to anything else, regardless of their level of experience. They often dismiss criticism from more experienced people who use a different software, especially who use open-source applications.
After a person develops this condition, they become difficult to
work with in teams using diverse tools. The person will often work on a 3D modelling project, and refuse to do revisions after the first pass on the asset, resulting in a practically unusable product. Sadly there is no known way to cure
Maya syndrome. At present, the only options are to keep these people isolated from healthy developers and hope that
time and more experience heals them, or to
play onto their mental state, and
work with them in an echo chamber in order to try and pry usable products out of them. (Sadly the latter option has the danger of not only not improving the condition of the affected individual, but even making it worse.)
The name of the condition comes from Autodesk
Maya, a 3D computer graphics production software, which is the most common cause for the development of the symptoms described above.
Similar versions of this syndrome can be described for a number of other professions as
well.
I think
Cody has a severe case of
Maya syndrome. Ever since he started
college, I can never get him to do revisions on his model, even when they are utterly unusable garbage.
