[game_preservation] Memorial Wiki 'white paper' draft

[Captain Commando]

All,

Below I have attached what I have written so far regarding the nature of the
Game Developers Memorial Wiki and some key questions that have been raised.
Please feel free to comment or add to this document. I think it's a good
start to formalizing everything. This also includes highlights from the
Arhtur C. Clarke discussion that I think are relevant to the rest of the
document.

-Devin Monnens

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*Game Developers Memorial Wiki – Game Developers Memorial SIG*


 This project is designed to recognize and remember the lives and work of
deceased game developers, allowing people to comment on and contribute to
each memorial, and concentrated in a centralized area for ease of access.


 Currently the games industry does not have a memorial system to honor
members who have passed on. In the past, deceased game developers were
honored at the Game Developers Choice Awards, as is done in film awards
ceremonies such as the Oscars, but we have since ceased this practice.


 By publicly honoring the life and work of deceased game developers we will
demonstrate our seriousness as an industry and an art form that cares about
its individuals and their contribution to the medium, recognizing the game
development community as a continuous line of individuals, stretching from
the past and into the future rather than existing solely in the present as
the latest game titles on the wall. In addition, we believe such a project
will help bring together the international game developers community by
recognizing the life and work of game developers from all over the world and
informing the international game development community about the passing of
people they may have known while celebrating their life's work. As such, the
wiki will allow individuals to post comments and eulogies about the game
developers remembered.


 Such a memorial will not focus merely on the most well-known of the
industry or those who contributed the most but also of the soldiers in the
trenches, the everyday developers who help make each game a reality. It will
also contain eulogies for well-known individuals who, while not strictly
game developers, were instrumental in influencing and inspiring the
development of the medium.




 *Categories*


 This section outlines several professions one can have within or related to
the industry. The International Game Developers Association includes
individuals who are not part of game development proper, and there are also
some individuals influential to game development are not part of the IGDA to
begin with or were deceased before it was established.



 *Makers ('Core' Game Development)*


 Artist

Audio (music, SFX, voice recording)

Director

Producer

Programmer

Writer


 This first category is usually what we think of when we think 'game
developer.' The game developer is someone who physically worked on a game,
who wrote the code, designed the play structure, wrote the script, composed
the music, or made the art. These are the categories we honor at the Game
Developers Choice Awards and are perhaps the easiest to identify.



 *'Auxillary' Game Development*


 Q/A Testers

Actors (voice and video)

Publishing

Marketing


 This list below contains individuals we normally ignore when we talk about
game development, or at least don't award at the Game Developers Choice
Awards. For instance, there is no award for 'best Q/A testing' or 'best
voice actor' or 'best game ad.' While essential to getting the game from the
studio to the player's hands, the more individuals we add to the process,
the more complex things become, suggesting that we include only the most
influential of this group in regards to game development.



 *'Influencers' (Individuals who had an impact on games)*


 Academics

Journalists

Lawyers (I.e. Howard Lincoln, not Jack Thompson)

Famous Players

Artists


 The Game Developers Choice Awards also awards individuals who don't make
games but have been influential to the community and the medium.
'Influencers' best describes this category. These individuals are important
to games even though they may not actually make them. Influencers
demonstrates the scope of the game development community and the importance
an individual can be to that community without being considered what we
normally call a 'game developer' as suggested above.




 *Key Questions to address:*


 *How much work in games does an individual need to be considered part of
the wik*i?

Example: Michael Crichton wrote the complete script for an old computer
game, *Amazon*. His work on *Timeline *aside (which he directed and
designed), would this be enough to put him into the memorials wiki? (This
was a problem associated with Arthur C. Clarke's work with *Rama*). There
are many people out there who may have worked on only one published game in
a core development position and then quit the industry. Should these
individuals be considered 'game developers' ('honorary' or otherwise) even
though they think of themselves first and foremost as something else?



 *How deep*l*y should we be involved with memorials for developers of
paper-based games such as card games and board game*s?

It seems to me that the International Game Developers Association is about
games of all kinds, not simply videogames. We tend to privilege the digital
over the physical through medium capabilities, industry buzz, cultural
impact, and market value while ignoring the contributions of paper-based
games to digital games and to the medium of games as a whole. I have always
felt that the IGDA should embrace paper-based games. We are the IGDA not the
IVDA and we need to demonstrate that paper-based games have a place and
importance in our community and that the IGDA is not just about digital
games.



 *Influencers: Should they be included in a case-by-case basis or are there
guidelines or systems we can develop for better deciding what memorials are
relevant*?

Obviously early precedent will influence future decisions. As such, I find
it important that we consider if there are certain criteria we can identify
to determine the influence of an individual on the games industry who was
not a game developer. Including influencers seems to me a very important
part of the wiki as it helps us expand the community and say 'individuals
important to game development are not just the people who make the things'.
If a guideline or system to help identify influential individuals can be
developed, this would more formalize the process.




 *From the discussion of Arthur C. Clarke:*


 The following are highlights from the discussion on Arthur C. Clarke, which
raised some questions regarding who to include in the wiki.


 Billy Cain reminded us that videogame credits only tell us a part of who
made the game and often leave out for one reason or other the work of
individuals or studios.


 MobyGames, while being a large and useful database, is by no means a
complete database, even for games that are listed.


 Devin Monnens suggested that the quality of work produced should not be a
factor in deciding who belongs on the wiki, that his or her presence should
not depend on how highly a game is rated but rather that the individual
helped make a game. He also suggested that we should not limit ourselves to
videogames but include paper-based games as well like board and card games.


 Andrew Armstrong brought up a list of other groups to consider beyond game
developers (those who make the games). This includes publishers (those who
pay people to make the games), journalists (those who write about, critique,
and chronicle the history of games), industry-related and well-known figures
and 'influencers' outside the direct production industry. This list also
includes:


 Lawyers (such as Howard Lincoln rather than Jack Thompson)

Consultants

Players (very famous players like Bobby Fischer)

Academics (Jesper Juul, for instance)

Artists (added by me – here I'm thinking of people like John Klima and Eddo
Stern)

Actors (added by me – voice actors and video actors)

Q/A Testers (added by me)


 These categories should all be up for consideration.



 Stuard Feldham commented on Clarke's contribution to *Rama*:


 As Wikipedia states:



"The game comes on two CD-ROMs <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-ROM>, 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 Arthur C.
Clarke <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke> and Gentry
Lee<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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)."



 Andrew Armstrong also underscored the three main points of our wiki:


 -To recognize the contribution these people made to the industry.

-To allow people to comment on the memorial

-To have a centralized area where these are recorded, rather than having
them spread out over the internet and news sites.


-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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