On Attribution

It puzzles me that listing playtesters is generally accepted as a practice in an industry where writers, developers, editors, etc often don't receive credit for their work. I think we think that because playtesters generally aren't paid, their payment is credit in the rulebook. But because developers, writers, etc were paid, they don't also need credit. I believe every rulebook should have a credits section, even if that section is in fine print. It is especially important to credit people who were paid for creative work. If that work was valuable enough to receive payment, it should be valuable enough to receive credit. 

I have no problem with people who choose to do creative work under pseudonyms, provided that the pseudonym covers a specific person or persons. If you want to use a studio pseudonym, the best practice would be to also credit your creative team by name in a credit section. 

Why is credit important? Obviously, designers who are uncredited can still list games on their resume in order to procure future work. Is credit just street cred or an ego boost? 

No, crediting creatives is important for documenting, studying, and criticizing bodies of creative work. Currently, only a few board game developers have a reputation outside of being known to certain publishers for being good at what they do. And the current system of becoming more well known is word of mouth. In addition to recognition, crediting developers consistently across all the games they work on allows critics greater insight into the creative process. Designers and artists are often not the only creatives who work on a project. Give credit to the ones who make good games great. Board game historians will thank you. 

Providing full credits also conveys to the consumer the reality of making a game. This is never a one person project. (Unless you're hand crafting your own components. I only know one person that applies to.) Games take way more work than most people expect. The timeline to get a book published is around half that of a game. Listing everyone who worked on a game conveys the amount of work and money that went into creating it. This is very similar to why movies have credits. 

Lastly, people really do deserve recognition. Especially people who belong to marginalized groups and people just starting out in the industry. Creative output is the unique work of individual imaginations. That is irreplaceable. The reality is that the pay is never going to be enough when margins are as tight as they are. So, the least you could do is also provide proper attribution. 

If you are reading this and have failed to fully credit creatives in the past, I urge you to go add as many names as you can to the expanded credits section on BGG. It's never too late to recognize people's work. 

ShippBoard Games is a board game design blog that updates most Mondays.