[game_preservation] Writing Biographies

[Devin Monnens]

I try not to leave things too fluffy, but I soften the blow from time to
time. Biographies are supposed to be accurate, give an accurate
representation of the character. However, sometimes the interviewees say
things just to pump themselves up: read The Ultimate History of Video Games
for instance, where Nolan Bushnell's interviews are clearly not 100%
truthful. You learn more by how he spins it than by what he's actually
saying. Unfortunately, that's going to be the case with a lot of these top
people who just want to pad themselves.

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 11:18 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:


> Anyone here written biographies before? I don’t necessarily mean game

> developers or whatever, just generally.

>

> I’m just thinking with the memorials project and whatever else we get up to

> it might be useful to know of any resources (good books, online stuff,

> courses) on writing them.

>

> The main reason I ask is that, certainly in the entertainment businesses,

> the top dogs can be, let’s be honest, really dickish. I mean, I don’t want

> to sound annoyed, it’s just true, they come out with some real crap,

> certainly in the current events and future predictions areas.

>

> What brought this to mind was Bill Harris’ commentary on John Riccitiello’s

> interview:

>

> http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/ea-returning-to-form.html

>

> I mean, if we did a biography for him, would we mention he came out with

> this stuff? :/ Such a crass guy. I’m not sure I’d like to work under him,

> sounds rather mean.

>

> I’m sure it’s not a struggle for some biography writers, who write about

> people either long dead (so no one can complain or sue or who you have a lot

> more facts and opinions on) or who write the angle that it’ll have to sell,

> so they make the person out as nice as possible (omitting things like that).

> You know there are plenty of shadow writers for autobiographies for

> instance.

>

> But anyway, the historians who do try and put the facts and opinions

> together, what to do? This can also apply to companies, products and

> anything else of course, but people get less uppity and it’s generally

> considered more fact-like to say something like “The failure rate of product

> X was in the 50% or higher mark contributing to people being wary about

> buying them” etc. – basically, the problems, I guess, with libel and

> misrepresentation.

>

> If there are no historians like this on the list we need to find some ;)

> Input from that area of written, typed or documented history is as important

> as the preservation of the physical items.

>

> Andrew

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-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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