Warhammer Workers Not Credited

[Logan Frederick]

Warhammer Workers Not Credited

Ex-Mythic members will not be listed in the game's credits for their development contributions.

Already pressured by its publishers to cut features [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84960] from the final product, Mythic Entertainment confirmed to Shacknews [http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54263] that it will also be slashing names from the game's credits. Those who won't be listed are those who were once on the development team but didn't stay on for the entire project.

"Over the years, we've had hundreds of people work on the game, and we thank everyone who helped us bring our Warhammer passion to life, but only current employees that have continued until the end will be credited in the final game," said Mythic Vice President Mark Jacobs. "Accreditation in Warhammer Online recognizes the incredible team that has poured their heart and soul into making WAR an amazing MMORPG experience."

One upset ex-employee calls Mythic's actions "dogging out many, many developers."

Mythic's incident is not isolated; Capcom ran into the same trouble earlier this year when it removed worker names [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/83567] from Okami's Wii version.

"This has been an ongoing problem in this industry for many years. I spent three years on WAR and I, including many other people who spent just as much if not close to the same amount of time, will NOT be credited in the game," continued the anonymous source.

Standards set by the International Game Developers Association state that "any person...who has contributed to the production of the game for at least 30 days of a 12-month or greater project...[or] any person who has contributed during 10% of the project's total time in development [for projects shorter than 12 months]."

The lack of accreditation for anyone who has contributed to a project is one of the many issues [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/insidejob] that industry employees are starting to take seriously.

"The actual people who do the menial tasks and long hard hours deserve their credit," stated the source. "If our work is to be 'shown' in a game and 'shipped' on a released game then that developer should be credited...I wish to get all former employees of EA Mythic / Mythic Entertainment together to discuss this and possibly take legal action against EA."

Permalink

 

[Slycne]

EA Mythic needs to do the right thing and put their names in the credits. Having shipped titles on your resume is a big deal and who is going to care how many Assistant Art Level Directors are in the credits. What are they saving too? Maybe a few hundred dollars for the ink to print the extra names in the back of the instruction manual.

 

[Aeranlaes]

I don't understand what motives Mythic/EA could possibly have that could cause them not to cite the people who worked on the game. There's really nothing to gain from the action, except infamy.

 

[Echolocating]

I don't understand what motives Mythic/EA could possibly have that could cause them not to cite the people who worked on the game. There's really nothing to gain from the action, except infamy.

Childish vindictiveness?

 

[Arbre]

A most puzzling logic. Unless they completely resetted the game when a part of the staff left, their contribution still remains and, as such, they deserve to have their name in there.

What a rather weird logic there. I suppose musicians shouldn't get their names there either as they often integrate a project for a limited time, often more towards the end.

 

[Panayjon]

This is really sad. Its doubly upsetting because its one of the local game companies for me and their game is one that I've been highly anticipating. Not that this will stop me from playing or anything, but its made my opinion of them drop like a rock.

It also doesn't look like we'll be able to just blame it on EA either.

 

[Bretty]

There is no loyalty in the games industry. Employees come and go freely and will take a better offer as soon as it is made.

For those people who decided not to leave for better offers dont they deserve a little more credit?

If these people had been let go after they completed their assignments, then fine. But like Jacobs said "hundreds of people have worked on this project".

So grats to all those that stuck with this project. I look forward to the release!

 

[HobbesMkii]

Besides which, if the game's good, there's no concrete evidence that these people worked on the game, unless their name is accredited. You could always go "well, I worked at Mythic when they were building the game," but that sounds coincidental, not like you contributed to the project, but just that you were an employee there.

 

[Arbre]

If the issue is the lenght of time spent on the game, then break a few crediting conventions and point out those who remained for the whole development period.
Put stars next to their names, or sort them out with "long term staff" I don't know but do it maturely and smartly.

 

[D_987]

Thats ridiculous - having your name in the credits of a game is one of the few ways they have solid proff they actually worked on that title - how is editing credits going to make the game siginificantly shorter...?

 

[Archon]

There is no loyalty in the games industry. Employees come and go freely and will take a better offer as soon as it is made.

Fair enough. But part of the reason there's no loyaly by the employees is that the publishers themselves are all-too-quick to terminate entire teams when projects end. If a developer knows that project completion means unemployment for not just himself but all his peers (who will suddenly become competitors for scarce jobs) it makes sense to go looking before the project is complete. Of course that only furthers the churn.

The end result is a Hollywood model where all of the "technicians" on the project are freelance. But Hollywood has a guild system that ensures the film crews make good wages and have other protections. I'm not advocating a guild or union, but the current model is definitely hard on game development employees.

 

[ZakuII]

Well, i hope they're successfully sued.

I could understand if it was a team of janitors that wern't credited for working on the game , despite having 'watched a developers pc for them while they went to the toliet'. It certainly seems more like people that had significant contributions (in time or content) are just getting shafted, and for no real reason. I know i'd be pissed off if i worked my job for even a year and then had all record of my activity removed.

 

[Shabubu]

This has been a big issue for a long time. The majority of the testers in games are not credited, mainly because they're contracted in for weeks-9 months. It really is a giant 'screw you' to these people, their numbers can compare to the total amount in the development staff, as well as hours put into the final project. If a game is one programmer short, someone else does it, if a tester is the only one that sees a legal issue, or hardlock - that is in the final product. Now, I'm not saying one is more important than the other, just that the product, before and after, because of each job is different.

For the record, I've worked on over 30 games - I'm credited with participating on 2. Yes, bitter with my coffee, please.

It's standard etiquette to put in coders/sound/art people years after they left. Several of the studios I've worked at had large email chains of people trying to gather data on who all worked on the projects...high turn-over industry - hell peoples' dogs get a special thanks in the "Special Thanks" section on credits, get the rest of the people in there, too.

Oh, back to my short rant - if you do make it in the credits as a tester or as another temp employee, the publishers or development houses go out of their way to make sure the world knows you aren't an employee THERE, oh no... You're a contractor, we can't have people thinking you are important enough to actually hire (*'s, squares, triangles, different color font, all ways to single out the extra help). Put people, no matter their job, in the credits in the section they fit in...tester, automation, dev, buildmaster, sound dude, etc - don't single them out any further.

 

[Shabubu]

There is no loyalty in the games industry. Employees come and go freely and will take a better offer as soon as it is made.

There is a surprisingly high amount of loyalty in the games industry.
Developers tend to get paid less than developers in other software fields, but they work more hours, herculean deadlines, all-around stupid crap the industry relentlessly throws...why does anyone have loyalty in that industry? When there is a solid chance that their family life is suffering, their health is going down the toilet, etc - end that with the post-release question of, "are we all getting laid off if this doesn't do as well as the publisher wants?" (Yes, you are.) A 9-5 programming gig that pays at least 20g's more starts to sound amazing at some point.

For those people who decided not to leave for better offers dont they deserve a little more credit?

If an employee comes in to the project expecting to be on the credits for ANY amount of work they've done - they should get credit.

And no, people that stayed on a project deserve no-more and no-less credit for making the final product, than people that worked on it the first year out of 4.

If these people had been let go after they completed their assignments, then fine. But like Jacobs said "hundreds of people have worked on this project".

You realize, to credit 'hundreds of people' you change a document, add in those names, and push another build. Some studios make credits into movies, which is ludicrous in the end. This whole thing sounds like the studio/publisher forgot those names and locked down the credits, only later saying, "woops!"

So grats to all those that stuck with this project. I look forward to the release!

You forgot hundreds of people to say "grats" to. That release you're, hopefully, going to enjoy was made by them, too.