Developers as a whole aren't getting enough recognition throughout the gaming scene - both monetarily and literally. This seems a perfect metaphor for the Publishers' shitting all over the system.

Very lame, if they put in the time at any stage of development, they should get credited. At least it's not as bad as the Atari days. Back then your only hope of getting credit for your work was by slipping an easter egg into the game.

They really need to make credit mandatory. Legally.

In school, if you flub the credit, they have the option of ruining your life. To think that there isn't even a penalty for it in the real world turns my stomach.

Way to have ZERO class Mythic.

Wtf? So if someone worked 23 hours a day, slept in the office, worked till their fingers bled, but the part you were working on was completed 10 days before launch and you leave, you don't get any credit? The fuck kind of bullshit is that?! Meanwhile some jackass who gets hired 2 days before launch gets the credit of "recognizing the incredible team that has poured their heart and soul into making WAR an amazing MMORPG experience". Wow, what a load of fucking horse cock.

On a similar note, why would Mythic care who gets credited at the end?

As any financial bonus preventing accreditation, that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

You leave my Warhammerz alone!

@donkeykong: well if it's an industry-wide problem,job interview won't be a problem. the guy that does the interview already knows about that bullshit and probably has a few of those in his resume anyway.

@DonkeyKong just what I was thinking

How much work does it take to add a couple dozen more names to the credits? This is just stupid.

Since when do MMOs have credits?

I hate companies with such practices. And trust me EA is not the only one. I used to work for Nintendo of Europe, for almost two years, and was never, ever credited in their games.

I worked my ass off on Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy and other projects, and was really proud on working on them, but technically, I have no proof I was working on them at all!

Their policy was: if you do not have a permanent contract (aka you have been working for them for at least 3 years), you are not worthy of being mentioned in the credits! This sickens me deeply, as most of my colleagues, as I, deserved to be mentioned in the credits after the hard work we put into it. It’s just f***ing text for crying out loud!

Just for the joke, if you have a European copy of Metroid Prime 3, check the Localization Testing Team Credits. Out of 30 testers, only one name shows up since he was the only one with a permanent contract. So basically Nintendo says “only one German dude tested this game in all 5 languages.”

Today I work in another company in a much higher position, and I am the one who compiles the Credits. I make sure to leave no one out, even the interns. If you had any role in making a game, as insignificant as it may be, you should be credited, it doesn't cost anything and it will make people happy.

Yashaana's scenario is VERY different than this. A cuttoff point of your employment duration is a fairly legitimate requirement to get on credits. Basically, they said that anyone who was working for them for any significant period of time will be credited. EA/Mythic is saying that anyone who is currently not employed by them won't be in the credits.

Work in any other programming industry. I worked for Cisco for 2 years (plus my internship). Not only am I not credited for any work I did there, but not a single project I worked on even saw the light of day. That's the nature of the industry. If you are a valued employee, you will easily last 3 years. If you are nothing more than a contractor on a yearly renewable contract... well... perhaps you should be searching for a bit more job security rather than complain about credits. If I was hired to work on a project that was lasting longer than a year, yet was only contracted for a year of it, I just wouldn't take the job. What would be the point?

@Yshaana The issue with EA is more important, because for example if you have the concept artist (or any other designer position) that gets kicked out or goes away from the company and does not get credited after that, other people will get credited for his design work. This is like a head of research laboratory putting his name on the research papers of his students/employees and reaping all the benefits!

I just wanted to comment to Sol above:
"Wayyy to much company hoppin goin on in the industry."
If you ever worked in the industry then you would know WHY there is a lot of company hopping. You get worked to death on a project and after a while you just need to get away from that place, even though you go to another place with similar conditions, you feel recharged because of the new surroundings.
There are a lot of small companies in the game industry and they hire and fire people based on their needs for the current projects. At the end of a project, it's a lot less painful to find a new job before you get let go from your current one.
Loyalty and money are the biggies. Companies don't have any loyalty anymore so you can't blame employees for jumping ship whenever they see a better opportunity. "Use and Lose" is the the mantra of corporate America.
Money. It's a fact that you get the biggest salary increase by going to a new employer and employers will always try to keep you at the lowest salary they can for the longest time that they can. I worked at a great, fun place once but after five years I was working all the time and had a lot more responsibilities and had only small raises in the last two of those years. I asked for more money but was told that they couldn't give me one until the current project was done. One of the new programmers working under me told me how much he was making and I was shocked to find out that my 'underling' was earning 20% more than I was! I immediately contacted a recruiter and within two weeks was working elsewhere for twice the money. I hate that kind of two-faced disrespect.