Mythic: Warhammer Online contributors to go uncredited
Filed under: New titles, Warhammer Online, News items
Mythic's version of Warhammer Online has been in development for around three years now and many people have worked on it over that period of time. The random nature of life has meant that there have been individuals who actually worked on the title for some time, but are no longer with Mythic Entertainment. Recently, Mythic made the statement that those people will not be accredited for their work on the game.Mark Jacobs told Shacknews, "Accreditation in Warhammer Online recognizes the incredible team that has poured their heart and soul into making WAR an amazing MMORPG experience." The problem is that apparently -- once again, according to Shacknews -- there are many developers who've put in countless days-worth of menial work to help make Warhammer Online a reality. They're not getting credited. This isn't a localized problem with Electronic Arts either, it's happened before, and is common in the games industry.
An excuse given says that hundreds of people have worked on the game over the years. That's no excuse, if you ask us. Something as trivial as having "hundreds of people" doesn't stop movie credits from listing everyone involved in the creation process.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cliff said on 3:43PM 8-20-2008
In the case of extras, this is actually true for movie credits as well. Look to the credits of movies with "Casts of Thousands," or look to older films where many people were not credited. They never used to credit craft services for instance.
I think it would be lovely if they would credit everyone who had a hand in the making of WAR, but I wouldn't try to hold the film industry, or any other creative industry up as a shining example of absolutely everyone should get a mention in the credits, deserved or not.
Now if the game industry starts getting unionized like the film industry did, then you will start to see all sorts of credit requirements... among other things.
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Calarius said on 4:11PM 8-20-2008
Except these are not "nameless faces in a crowd". These are people who gave of their time, their lives, and their minds to make this game a reality. EA has no justifiable excuse for this, other than to retain further control of their content. Really, if I worked on this game for any length of time, only to hear I wasn't getting credit because I wasn't working for EA at the time of release, I'd be furious. Games like this are major on a resume, and EA is taking that away from people who earned it.
SomeDude said on 5:23PM 8-20-2008
Those folks got credit via a pay check. This "nameless dude" that wants credit could well have been a problem to begin with. We don't know.
This ain't the movies, it's a game and long as they got paid they got their credit.
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Josh said on 6:09PM 8-20-2008
I have to agree with Cliff and SomeDude above... Unless there is a industry-wide push to establish some credit requirements, it is odd to demand that EA Mythic give credit to everyone that contributed to the game.
Yes, it would be a nice and honorable thing to do. And they'd deserve plenty of praise for doing so. But as it is, they're not doing anything unusual.
Also, there are many reasons why EA Mythic would be unable to credit everyone involved. When you're working on something as complex as an MMORPG, it's incredibly easy to lose track of who made what changes over the [i]years[/i] of development. It could be a simple case of not keeping as close an eye on the contributions as they should have. Or, more likely, their development environment is more casual and group-oriented than a standard business, where each idea or contribution originates from a single source. A simple thing like an armor piece in the game could have had dozens of people involved in its creation over the length of this game's development. Not to mention that when something is completed, it's never really "done". It can be tweaked and revised (indeed, everyone expects EA Mythic to tweak and patch) ad infinitum.
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recursive said on 6:35PM 8-20-2008
Kind of depends on what the people involved were doing I guess, but if we're talking developers who've been there for a stretch that sucks for them, it's hard to pour something of yourself in there and then just get snubbed.
Whoever's doing it isn't really the issue, I don't see why it should be different from the movies. Both kinds of project require more than just a mechanical commitment to be any good and that should be recognized.
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MeowCat said on 8:42PM 8-20-2008
Everyone should get credit. Period. It is important to acknowledge the people who work on any project. Of course there are exceptions and mistakes happen. However, as a policy, everyone should get credit. We probably don't have enough details about the Mythic situation but so far it looks like poor form.
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Squee said on 11:10AM 8-21-2008
Tough luck you fucking cry baby, You have been paid for what you did, that is your recognition! If you wanted fame & glory you should have gone to Hollywood & become an actor.
Nobody gives a flying fuck about your gaming credentials except for your little hermetic game developer world & your next employer, just right it down on your Curriculum Vitae. and its gonna be a breeze for him to check out the info with your former employer. Other than that is only for bragging rights...how old are you?
Talk about major power & ego trip here, There are many people out their that are 1000000 time more deserving for fame recognition that actually make a real difference in the real world...Doctors, nurse that work 100000 time more hard than you will ever have to...do you hear them crying for recognition because they saves dozens of lives every day.
Sorry for the harsh language but I just lose it when I read or hear shit like this.
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