[arg_discuss] Giving credit where credit is due (ARGdb credits)

[Brooke Thompson]

I didn't realize that there was such an aversion to people getting  
(and giving) credit for work. Is this a recent trend? When ARGdb was  
first announced way back when, it was announced as "the IMDB of ARGs"  
and most of the feedback was exceptionally positive on the idea of  
credits and having a place for games to list the company & folks that  
worked on them.

To David's concern - if someone doesn't ever tell us their name, don't  
worry, they won't get listed. I'm not out to take away anyone's aura  
of mystery or whatever. And it's not out of the realm of possibility  
that someone would be listed only by an alias - more than a few folks  
are only listed by the unfiction username as that is what was  
submitted or provided on the official credits list.

To Adam & Brian's concerns - ARGdb would not be giving people the  
credit or the title. Those would be submitted and/or ganked from  
places where they were listed officially - for example, I took the  
Eldritch credits from the developers blog. Any title is given by the  
team (or whoever on the team wrote the credits). I was merely  
attempting to put some semblance of order to the groupings and, for  
those that submitted credits to the site, those subheading would exist  
for them to choose from but how they titled and ordered the people  
that they put under those subheadings would be up to them. So, picking  
on Jan since Brian started it... the database wouldn't care if someone  
wanted to list Jan one time or twenty times, it wouldn't care if they  
wanted to call her "creator" or "crazy lady" or both - it would only  
care to put her and her provided title under some subheading.

To Adam's point of credits on work and credits on the job being  
different - that happens frequently, in my experience. I've seen  
people at a company where their company title might be "Mr.  
PoopyPants" but on a game they might be titled "Batman" and on another  
game they might be titled "Spiderman" while their title at work never  
changed - just there degree or type of involvement on the projects.  
They would be credited on the ARGdb game listings by Batman or  
Spiderman or whatever title that they were given for the specific game.

But, wow, I gotta admit that I'm shocked by the "whoa! careful!  
credits = bad" feedback. I'd have thought, especially based on the  
earlier responses, that people would be pleased by this. I will take  
all of your concerns very much into consideration. However, I do feel  
that this is an important thing to do not only for historical records  
sort of purposes, but also to make sure that people can retain credit  
for their work.




On Apr 9, 2009, at 2:40 PM, David Flor wrote:


> I might as well mention, however odd this may seem, but I know of at

> least one PM that doesn't use his real name anywhere (which also

> happens to be a one word name), and is *very* adamant and cautious

> about revealing his/her identity.

>

> And, me personally, in some cases I would prefer to list my company

> credentials than my individual name; I'm trying to run a business

> here, and I'd rather the corporate image gets the cred rather than

> little ol' me.

>

> Tnx & Rgds...

> David Flor

> Darklight Interactive

>

> "Omne ignotum pro magnifico"

>

> On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Brian Clark <bclark at gmdstudios.com>  

> wrote:

>> Do awards come with this? If not, you stepping into a hornets nest  

>> if you're

>> setting the titles of positions: I don't think games are all  

>> staffed alike.

>> I mean, how many times can you put Jan Libby's name in the entry  

>> before it

>> becomes ironically hilarious? Meanwhile, we'll pit the video team  

>> against

>> each other to the death to determine who gets the lone video credit  

>> (so that

>> they don't instead go and murder 2 of the 3 writers credited.)

>>

>> Maybe you want it more freeform, but with a field of set values like

>> created/produced/written etc. to categorize each one?

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org 

>> ] On

>> Behalf Of Brooke Thompson

>> Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 1:57 PM

>> To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG

>> Subject: [arg_discuss] Giving credit where credit is due (ARGdb  

>> credits)

>>

>> One of the great things about ARGdb is that it's a place to list

>> credits for the various games. Now, of course, many are unpublished

>> and may never be published, but it sure is nice to get credit for  

>> your

>> work and this might encourage more campaigns to publish such things

>> or, at least, send them to us. However, as there have been no

>> standards for this stuff, I'm finding it to be quite a challenge (and

>> opportunity!).

>>

>> For practical purposes (ie a tangle of relational databases), we need

>> to have some sort of standardized system and I'm looking for your

>> thoughts and suggestions. My current idea is to group them by a basic

>> type and then let the actual titles be flexible. So, it might look

>> something like this:

>>

>> Created by

>> FirstName LastName --- Creator

>> FirstName LastName --- CCO

>>

>> Produced by

>> FirstName LastName --- Producer

>> FirstName LastName --- Assistant Producer

>> FirstName LastName --- Live Event Coordinator

>> FirstName LastName --- Location Scout

>> FirstName LastName --- Production Assistant

>>

>> Written by

>> FirstName LastName --- Lead Writer

>> FirstName LastName --- Story Writer

>> FirstName LastName --- Copy Writer

>>

>> Game Designed by

>> FirstName LastName --- Lead Designer

>> FirstName LastName --- Puzzle Guru

>> FirstName LastName --- Mind Bender

>>

>> Actor

>> FirstName LastName --- CharacterName (blog)

>> FirstName LastName --- CharacterName (video)

>> FirstName LastName --- CharacterName (live)

>>

>> Internet

>> FirstName LastName --- Technical Lead

>> FirstName LastName --- Design Lead

>> FirstName LastName --- Web Wizard

>> FirstName LastName --- Art Geek

>>

>> Video

>> FirstName LastName --- Videographer

>>

>> Audio

>> FirstName LastName --- Sound guy

>>

>> Other

>> FirstName LastName --- Whatever

>> FirstName LastName --- Whatever else

>>

>> Thanks

>> FirstName LastName --- The dude that didn't really do anything we can

>> list but inspired us all

>>

>>

>> Are there subheadings/groups that are missing? Is this too formal for

>> your wacky independent sensibilities? Does it seem like a good

>> approach? For those of you that deal more directly with the clients,

>> would this setup be flexible enough to allow the necessary blending  

>> of

>> the various teams?

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