[game_preservation] Game developers memorial page?

[Captain Commando]

Andrew,

I remember when Eric's death was mentioned at one of the Colorado Game
Developers meetings, but that was a long time ago and I don't think I ever
met him (I'd only started going to meetings in late 2003). I should think
that when someone from a community dies, they will announce it, which is why
I think contacting the individual chapters is so important. I'm sure I can
find out who runs the memorial page. It's cross-links to pages like this
that can help.

I've written a memorial for the 10th anniversary of Gunpei Yokoi's death (
http://mdb.classicgaming.gamespy.com/?p=newsarch2k7 - sorry, you'll have to
scroll to the 10-04-07 entry) and should be putting up a memorial news
article for Mark Haigh-Hutchinson on this same website sometime this week.
So far, that's the extent of the experience I have.

In terms of cross-referencing other wiki's, I should hope that basic pages
like game credits don't change much over time so you could probably
cross-link to an individual page. I guess that would have to be manually
done for each entry, and just hope that the links don't change over time.

I think for starters we'd need a basic wiki that can fit a list of all the
things we'd want to add, and then start adding information on a few people
to see how it looks. Having a comments box would also help so people can add
their own messages about their friends, though to simplify things you'd
probably have to be a member of the wiki to do so. I think that's how most
pages do it anyhow. Hopefully that won't require any kind of moderation or
QC.

-Devin

On Jan 21, 2008 4:38 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org> wrote:


>  Hey,

>

> Sounds good to me :-) I've only seen the odd few memorial webpages, such

> as Eric Dybsand's page: http://www.bergs.com/InMemoryOfEricDybsand.htm -

> although I don't really know many people in the industry at all, I

> specifically knew of this from GameAI.com

>

> It'd be good to have a page dedicated to this, the wiki would be apt and

> would allow people to add memorial notes if they so wanted. If the future

> IGDA site has the facility, it'd be better to have it on pages with a

> comments field since the main eulogy likely won't be altered over time.

>

> I can whip up a basic wiki page setup (such as page names, location); do

> layout (picture place, headings); but it'll take me a few weeks to start

> since I'm in the start of university semester exams. I can probably get it

> done after Feburary 5th or so, I have some spare days there. The only

> problem: I can do *nothing *about the data, since I know no obituary

> database or existing source of information, perhaps except for some limited

> stuff on Wikipedia. If it was to be of any use, either putting it up as and

> when, or asking me to do it via. email would be the likely avenues of

> getting it usable.

>

> I'll use Erik's page as a "base", at least if I get permission.

>

> Oh, and on the credits/preservation crossover - it's more then this SIG

> can handle, since I'm having trouble writing some basics for the Digital

> Game Canon pages - only 10 games worth of stuff! I think this is manageable

> with contributions since, unlike games, we don't have hundreds of thousands

> of people and games to add at once :-)

>

> It is certainly also data which is more apt for a database (thus my

> earlier comment on "eulogy's don't change much") - Mobygames has it

> partially right (although misses a ton of things like arcade games for

> starters, and see my PS below), since a wiki is *really hard* to add

> relationships in. IE: There is no way but to *manually* cross reference

> things, a big pain!

>

> I also don't see why promenent related people to the industry (card games,

> board games, puzzle games, any related research such as AI or game theory,

> etc.) couldn't be added, since for many, I am sure there is a crossover on

> design/work/ideas/ideals.

>

> Andrew

>

> PS: Mobygames is annoyingly rubbish for developer information, and

> contains nothing about the persons living/dead status, birth date or

> anything else, and only contains people credited with a game - some people

> do research who are never mentioned on Mobygames or work in organisations

> (or contracting organisations) rather then produce them directly, which is a

> pain!

>

> I wonder if it is worth asking them to improve it, but I don't even know

> how it all runs - it's not entirely "free" and so forth.

>

> Captain Commando wrote:

>

> Henry,

>

> I can see what I can do about the wiki, though I think I'd need some help

> from Andrew Armstrong on getting the thing going (this and I really need to

> finish my Masters in one month!).

>

> A memorial wiki would also likely have connections with a game credits

> wiki - if we are remembering game developers, we should have a list of all

> the games they worked on. Right now, I usually just get all my credits

> information from Mobygames, but they're not very complete, so I usually have

> to dig up information from places like Wikipedia, Mamend, Gamend, and the

> like. Of course, we shouldn't be concerned about listing EVERYTHING somebody

> has done; a few major works will do and then link to his entry on the

> credits wiki. Now that I think of it, it could also be cross-linked with the

> preservation wiki for things like interviews.

>

> I'm thinking a large part of building this wiki will come from community

> support. There's a lot of guys out there who know a lot more people than I

> do. Once the page starts going, we can encourage other developers to

> contribute what they know. One good way of coordinating all of this would be

> to contact the individual IGDA chapters, as they funnel a lot of local

> information. We've also got contacts in Japan who should be able to provide

> information on that side of the world. If we get this wiki brought up at

> monthly meetings, then we can have people discussing it and contributing

> names and information.

>

> Other than this, I think basic information like name, year of birth,

> (birthday?), year of death, some games they worked with (and what they did,

> even if it's something basic like 'programmer'). Then we can provide

> appropriate cross-links to other information, like bios, information on the

> games, interviews, etc. and maybe include a short blurb in the wiki entry

> itself.

>

> Personally, I think if you helped work on a game then you should be

> eligible for the list. I don't know if we want to keep this with videogames,

> but I also think it wouldn't hurt to add board and card game developers, as

> well as guys like Ron Knerr. Of course, we could also continue to expand

> this to include game theorists (Huizinga, Callois), though at a certain

> point things could start to get unwieldy so it's going to come to a question

> of what's feasible and what really fits. I mean, you don't have to be a game

> developer to have done something beneficial for games.

>

> -Devin

>

> On Jan 21, 2008 4:00 PM, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:

>

> > Devin,

> >

> > This is a superb idea.  I doubt anyone will have anything negative to

> > say about the idea; the only issue is really how we implement it?  Any

> > thoughts on that?  Devin, would you be willing to take the lead?  Andrew

> > Armstrong is the wiki editor for the SIG, and I'm sure he would be willing

> > to provide guidance.   Also, the group should probably agree on a rough

> > format or perhaps a procedure for getting appropriate names on the page.

> >

> > Henry

> >

>

>

> --

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

> "Until next time..."

> Captain Commando

>

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-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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