I left the game industry almost five years ago. My last published work was ORKWORLD, printed and shipped in the year 1999. I even got an Origins Award nomination for it.
There are reasons I left the game industry – far too many to iterate here – but I will bring up one in particular, because it’s still haunting me, even to this day.
trekhead put it best when he told me, “The smaller the stakes, the pettier the politics.” The game industry is a very small place. And the politics are equally petty. Case in point:
Four years ago, someone associated with a company I won’t mention (but who’s initials are AEG) posted on rpg.net that I really didn’t have anything to do with the products the company produced, and I took all the credit for the work. After a four-hour phone call, this person retracted that statement and apologized.
During that four-hour phone call, my (then) wife and I discovered management had told him this. “John turned in other people’s work and claimed it was his own.” Jennifer explained to this person how such a claim was patently absurd. I was supposed to have plagiarized my friend Ray Yand who was doing writing for the Avalon Sourcebook. I asked Ray to do the writing for the Inismore section and worked with him on it. It was to be his first writing assignment for AEG (he wanted to be a part of the writing staff). At the end of the project, when all the writing was done, I turned in all the writing for the project, including Ray’s writing. I did not identify Ray’s writing as his, just turned in all the writing that was assigned to that book – including writing from other authors.
Now, if you look at the credits page for the Avalon sourcebook, Ray’s name is under “additional writing” and you’ll see one of the credits (a “special thanks,” no less) goes to Ray Yand “for his pinch hitting on Inismore.” That was me. I did that. My job was to write the credits page. I was the developer, after all. So, I gave Ray a special tip of the hat because of his good work.
Unfortunately, people at and around AEG think that I stole credit from Ray, trying to turn in his work as my own. I do not understand why they believe this and I do not know who is telling them this or how the rumor got started. All I know is that on two separate occasions since then, I’ve heard the exact same story.
Then, just a little while ago, I heard it again. This time from a friend’s lips. Four friends’ lips, as a matter of fact.
At a Camarilla club game, someone associated with that company told them – not knowing they were friends of mine – that I repeatedly didn’t do any work at all and just put my name on the books.
This from a Camarilla officer, no less, who shall remain nameless, but should know exactly who they are.
So, once and for all, let me illustrate why this rumor is absolutely absurd, okay?
If this is true, why didn’t AEG stop me? I was an employee, the same as everybody else. I could have been fired at any time. Plagiarism is a crime, folks. A serious crime. If AEG knew I was doing this, wouldn’t I have gotten fired? Wouldn’t management have refused to put my name on work I didn’t do?
If other employees were aware of it, why didn’t they complain? And there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be aware of it because the books had my name on them! And not theirs! They’d be able to walk into management’s office, put the book down on the table and say, “John is stealing credit!” This never happened. Not in the five years I worked for AEG. Yes, there were creative differences, arguments, spats, personality clashes, and all that other stuff (most of which because I’m a pompous ass who’s damn hard to work with), but I never – and I mean NEVER – stole credit for anybody else’s work. In fact, the exact opposite is true. I went out of my way to make sure people got credit for their work.
If you have any of the old first edition L5R RPG books, go check ‘em out. Look at the credits pages. I wrote ‘em all. I made sure everybody got credit for everything they did. I made detailed credits lists, showing exactly what people worked on. The reason I did this was simple: they were making shit for pay so they might as well get clear credit.
Most roleplaying game companies try to hide the credits list. They don’t want you associating a name with a product, they want you associating a brand with a company. That’s because most books are written freelance. They don’t want you following an author – they want you following a brand.
You may notice that after I left the company, the credits pages in AEG books got more bland and less specific. That’s because – understandably – AEG was trying to disassociate itself with a single author and make the books more about the company. While I was at the company, I demanded author’s names go on the coves. As Line Developer, that’s what I got. When I left, names started coming off covers. The credits pages got vague. That’s their decision and I understand it. But I want to make this point perfectly clear: while I was there, people got clear credit for their work. That should say something about the “John puts his name on everything” rumor.
Finally, and most importantly, if I was plagiarizing people at AEG… where are the criminal charges? Why aren’t I in jail? Or getting sued? Or anything?!?!?
You wanna know why? Because I never did it. Not once. Not then, not now, not ever.
I put Thomas Denmark’s name in the same font, same size font, same line as my own on ORKWORLD. I laid out the cover. Did I have to do that? Hell no. But, I did. Why? Because credit is important to me. In an industry where people get paid peanuts, people should get clear credit for what they do. And get recognized at cons. And have people shake their hand and say, “I like your work.” Because that’s about the only reward you can ask for in the tiny world of the gaming industry. And it feels good when it happens. And it’d be nice if it happened to more people. So, I gave people clear credit when they deserved it.
And for people to go around saying I stole credit… it just burns my blood.
Finally, here’s one last point.
Ask my buddy Ray Yand if it’s true. Ask him if anybody’s ever come to him saying, “John stole your work.”
He’s never even heard of me plagiarizing his work. In other words, the people who are saying it never bothered to tell him.They told everybody else… just not the guy I did it to.
Funny ol’ world… innit?