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Writer and Design Credits
editHere is my understanding of the historical situation:
Alexis Kennedy originally developed and wrote the game. Nigel Evans, Chris Gardiner and possibly Yasmeen Khan wrote additional content before its commercial release in 2010. Nigel Evans was the only one employed full time, though.
Kennedy, Gardiner and Cash De Cuir have all been credited as lead writer at various times.
A very large number of writers, including people noteworthy in their own right such as Meg Jayanth and Emily Short, have written for the game since then. I think this should be reflected but there are literally dozens of them. Perhaps a paragraph that says 'around forty, including....'?
Gardiner, Chew and Wood, according to this page, are currently employed by Failbetter, and are developing additional content for the game. Neither Chew nor Wood we involved in the game's original launch. I agree it would be nice to reflect their involvement somewhere, but old writers aren't removed from game credits when new ones join the team to write DLC. http://www.failbettergames.com/about/
I got a message that says: 'If you're cutting writers, then the lead designers were Alexis and Chris. Anyone else involved has been a writer-narrative designer, and not a designer of the game itself.' My understanding is that Gardiner is probably the most significant contributor after Kennedy, and he's a lead there now, but that although original design was Kennedy - the game content and logic are intertwined so all writers have contributed.
I can see two approaches:
1. Credit the people involved in writing and designing the game before its commercial release. 2. Credit the people with the most significant role in writing and designing the game over the years.
This sounds like Kennedy and Gardiner, and possibly De Cuir and Evans. Any objections?
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A whole host of writers have been employed by the company over its ten years, even more on a freelance basis. Crediting them all would be entertaining, but, perhaps, ridiculous. It would probably need input from the company to track them all.
1 and 2 might actually be the same choice, looking at the way back machine of the company team page, here: https://web.archive.org/web/20170810021056/http://www.failbettergames.com/about Cash de Cuir and James Chew had the same role (Writer) (there is no lead writer role) - so either all 'just writers' or none should be included. If design is the criterion - then the writers should not be listed as designers for the game, since the basic design was set by the original team (as you said). Unlike Chris Gardiner, neither de Cuir or Chew were head writer or narrative director, nor have they been around for the majority of the game's creation. Unfortunately I can't find anything on the website about Nigel Evans at all. Considering that, it's Kennedy, Gardiner and Evans - although I've not been able to find much on what he did, or for how long.
Echo Bazaar
editI do not see where The Echo Bazaar is a game by itself. It is a part of Fallen London. Why is there an article for the bazaar, but not the actual game? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.178.24.51 (talk)
- I may be wrong, but I think the original name of the game was "Echo Bazaar," though I may be mistaken.--Scyldscefing (talk) 03:30, 20 March 2013 (UTC)
- Yep, it got renamed.114.77.41.5 (talk) 05:24, 22 September 2013 (UTC)
Gameplay section?
editI don't see any sort of description of the gameplay, other than that it's "built using a text-based-game creation toolbox called StoryNexus." This may not be necessary for the article itself, but it would give the viewer more understanding on what kind of game this is. The trick is going to be citing... -gameon123 03:27, 21 November 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gameon123 (talk • contribs)