[game_preservation] Arthur C. Clarke dies, aged 90

[Stuart Feldhamer]

I will not comment on whether or not Clarke deserves to be in the Wiki.
However, I want to point out for the record that he appears to have been
quite involved in the making of the game "Rama", published by Sierra (not
"Rendezvous with Rama" by Trillium/Telarium), and it wasn't just that his
book happened to be adapted and he was oblivious. "Rama" is the game for
which he is credited as an actor on Mobygames, and he actually did the green
screen bit to appear in the game. As Wikipedia states:
 
"The game comes on two  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-ROM> CD-ROMs, with
a third reserved for videos. The first part of the videos show the prologue,
concerning the reaction on Earth when Rama was discovered in a form of a
journalist show, and hosts interviews of the characters that will be seen
later in the game. The other features a brief interview with
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke> Arthur C. Clarke and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentry_Lee> Gentry Lee. 

Clarke himself appears in some scenes of the game, like when the player
dies, and in the epilogue, gives advice to the player. He is implemented
into the scenery and humorously interacts with it (like when he provokes a
Biot in a fight)."

Stuart

 
  _____  

From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Captain Commando
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:15 PM
To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Arthur C. Clarke dies, aged 90





While Arthur C Clark is referenced in a few videogames and some of his books
have been made into games, he's not really been part of the credits of them:


Quality of the games aside (and I honestly don't think it should be an
issue), I honestly don't think Clark did any writing for them other than the
original story on which they were based. Should we add an obituary for Stan
Lee because Spiderman appeared in a few videogames? I don't think so,
despite the fact that his work has been very influential in many different
fields other than comic books. Or Beethoven and Tchaikovsky for their music
that appeared in early videogames? I really think that's stretching things a
bit. It's like saying Steven Spielberg should be considered a game developer
because E.T. was licensed as a videogame.

Orson Scott Card, on the other hand, did writing for LucasArts (Monkey
Island) and consulting for Advent Rising. And then we have Michael Crichton,
who wrote an early text adventure game, Amazon
(http://www.mobygames.com/game/amazon). While I can't say whether or not
Crichton's work has been influential or not, and he's really a novelist, is
the fact he wrote a videogame script enough? I think the more we try to
split hairs on this, the more confused we'll get. Is erring on the side of
caution really the best route, and if so how much?

I also agree that MobyGames is not the be-all, end-all of accredition, but I
also don't think that just because someone is listed on MobyGames means that
they actually worked on the game. Again, this gets into that ugly territory
of deciding who did what and what credit is necessary to say 'this guy
was/is a game developer.' Is lifting only one hypothetical grain of sand
from one corner of the room to the other enough? Does the guy need to be
credited in a commercial title and own a paid IGDA membership? Do game
journalists and academics count as well even if they never made a game?
Tough questions that we never outlined in previous conversations.

Gary Gygax, while not a videogame developer, DID made GAMES. This is
something that I have been trying to bring up a lot, that the IGDA, while it
says GAMES and just GAMES, it seems we really just want it to mean
VIDEOGAMES. And I don't think that's a good idea considering that a
videogame is really not that far removed from board games or card games,
especially when we start talking things like online CCGs or TCGs. How far
(or even if) the toy industry falls in the same category, I dunno, but I
believe Richard Knerr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Knerr) should go
on the wiki for his work at Wham-O and he was one of the original names I
produced in the proposal.

I honestly don't want to disrespect the guy or start a big argument over
this, but I don't believe Arthur C. Clark is a game developer and therefore
he doesn't belong on the wiki. I don't know how anyone can say they weren't
influenced by his work in some fashion, but none of his focuses seem to have
really been on games beyond licensing. If somebody can show me some game
work he did, or provide a stronger argument (and I've been trying to keep up
with the messages that have been going past as I write this), then I will
aggree wholeheartedly. Again, I really enjoy and appreciate Clark's work,
but I don't see how he was a game developer. Unless, of course, we want to
make him an honorary one (which seems to me a bit arbitrary as I bring it
up, even considering he was also knighted).

-DM









-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando 
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