Warhammer Online Sparks Credits Debate

It appears that the soon to be launched Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will only credit those contributors that are now employed by developer Mythic Entertainment.

Mark Jacobs, who is the vice president of Mythic and the general manager in charge of the game, stated that "Over the years, we've had hundreds of people work on the game, and we thank everyone who helped us bring our Warhammer passion to life, but only current employees that have continued until the end will be credited in the final game".

An unnamed former employee of the company also confirmed the move on Mythic's part, saying that "I was told they made sure not to include anyone in the list who was not at the office the day of the credit list creation".

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is not the only game which generates controversy among the people it credits for its creation. Okami, from Capcom, was controversial for its credits policy, just as Manhunt 2, created by Rockstar. Developers say that with projects which are in development for quite long periods of time, as the most important projects usually are, there are just too many people involved and the companies really have no way of clearly charting everybody's contribution to the game.

It seems that The International Game Developers Association, which does not include all the game developers and publishers in the world, is now working on a code that details how people should be credited for their contribution. The credits issue is not very relevant because of public recognition, but because of the fact that if an artist or programmer is not clearly credited, he has little proof of his contribution to a game. As you can imagine, getting referenced in a game like Warhammer Online can be a significant boost for someone working in the videogame industry.