[game_preservation] Arthur C. Clarke dies, aged 90

[Andrew Armstrong]

Thanks for all the comments, Devin can help write them up it seems. The 
reasons for memorial pages isn't specifically to cater for elite people 
- I am sure we'll have (obviously) several friends of the industry who 
need adding, despite never being credited with a game title directly, 
and we'll discuss them too. Anyone who has been credited, and we catch, 
will be added regardless, just to allow the possibility of comments of them.

Thanks for the clarification Jim - and sorry Billy for getting it wrong 
that Dave isn't specifically on there, but I am sure there are other 
examples, certainly in the area of famous players, consultants, lawyers, 
and other people who influenced the industry but who don't exist in the 
DB. It's a limitation, sure, of scope - so it's difficult to help add 
these entries if they're not allowed :-)

I'm all for helping Mobygames on the credits front, of course. The IGDA 
wiki is unsuitable for having any Wikipedia-like entries in it for the 
other people however, since from a preservation perspective it is not a 
relational database and cannot be easily searched, so that'll be a 
future project to complement Wikipedia, Mobygames, and so on.

I'll also investigate what kind of information can be added to a 
Mobygames person page, to see if it can be suitably used for biography 
and historical work, of those that are in it (for instance, can pictures 
be added, what kind of formatting is allowed, and is it easy to add 
references, links and footnotes - I've got an account, I've never had 
anything to contribute though. I note that 99% of people entries I've 
come across are entirely empty however. I also don't know how useful it 
is to historians who want to use the information - copyright status, 
etc.). I'll start putting up the IGDA memorial biographies/obituaries to 
the people's mobygames pages when I have some time.

Andrew

bcain at criticalmassinteractive.com wrote:

> Thank you Jim for speaking up here.

>

> I would rather have the IGDA help fill out the MobyGames db than create a duplicate piece of work. Seems kind of ridiculous to me. :)

>

> I know one major company years ago that at one point at least had a librarian that was keeping all game credits in a db of their own. If more sharing was going on, the industry would be better for it.

>

> Sincerely,

> Billy Cain

>

> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

>

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

> From: Jim Leonard <trixter at oldskool.org>

>

> Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:54:56 

> To:IGDA Game Preservation SIG <game_preservation at igda.org>

> Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Arthur C. Clarke dies, aged 90

>

>

> Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>   

>> No, what I meant was, does Mobygames list people who did not directly 

>> work on a game? They seem to list some people who are "thanked" but as 

>> Billy said, Dave Arneson isn't in the database, despite being the 

>> co-creator of D&D and a academic highly related to the industry. Gary 

>> Gygax is on there luckily due to some "Thanks" credits - he'd never be 

>> on there usually since he didn't like videogames and wouldn't have 

>> directly worked on one.

>>     

>   >

>   

>> So, does Mobygames accept people who cannot be directly linked to a game 

>> despite being a high influencer, academic or related person? That's what 

>> I don't know. If we ever got to the stage of doing a similar but more 

>> in-depth database, it's be something to look at.

>>     

>

> No, MobyGames currently only documents who worked on a game.  Keeping

> our scope well-defined helps eliminate a lot of logistical nightmares.

>

>   

>> * To recognise the contribution these people made to the industry.

>> * To allow people to comment on the memorial.

>> * To have a centralised area where these are recorded, rather then them 

>> being spread out over the internet and news sites.

>>     

>

> I think a centralized wiki, sponsored by the IGDA, would best serve this

> purpose.  That way, each person's individual contribution can be

> documented without needing to be linked to any particular game.

>   

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