Psychochild had a post up at the end of last month talking about the value of being in the credits for a game. More than just a ‘Hey mom look what I did’ trophy on the wall, credits prove to future employers that Kilroy was really there. Jason Booth, over on his site, talks about the crappy way Turbine handled Dungeons and Dragons Online’s credits. If you weren’t there at retail launch, no credit for you. Even if you wrote like half the code or were responsible for most of the design.

Sometimes, given the creative nature required to make good games, it’s disconnecting to hear stories like this. There are some people I’ve met who don’t follow gaming news that seem to be under the impression making games is like a big party all the time. Designers are these really creative people who get to sit around all day just thinking stuff up while looking at the ceiling, and programmers get to play with really cool technology and stuff. I will even admit; Within the last five years the thought of going into game design was appealing.

Thankfully over a year of reporting on the industry has cracked that nut but good. I’ll take my little corner of the universe, full of story-stealing blogs and prima donna reporters, over the soul-crush of game creation.

As a final DDO-related note, I intended to have a review up on Friday for the game but decided to push it back. I’m really wrestling with what I think of the final product. There’s good and bad there, to be sure, but overall it’s just not what I want in a game. I think I can get that across well enough, but I have to also think of what others might like about it. Bah, writing.