Lanoirecredits.com is a website dedicated to giving credit to all of the men and women who put enough time into L.A. Noire’s development to meet the IGDA’s (International Game Developers Association) guidelines for proper crediting. The website claims that over 100 men/women were not given credit for their work on L.A. Noire, most of whom put in enough time to receive full credit.  

According to the IGDA, whose guidelines are not standardized, developers who contribute at least 30 days to a project should receive “Additional” credit, while developers who contribute at least 8 months of their time should be given “Full” credit. Lanoirecredits.com claims that, on top of the 100 missing developers, some developers–eligible for actual credit–were listed under the “Special Thanks” category. In a well connected industry, why snub over 100 developers?

 
I got the chance to speak with the developers behind LaNoireCredits.com. While they would, understandably, like to remain anonymous, my questions were passed around to multiple developers with information on the subject.

 
When asked about the possible reasons for excluding the developers, I was given an answer that won’t exactly reinforce anyone’s optimism. According to the devs., this may be an issue of leverage.

 
With regards to future employment, credit on a title is a major issue. As the developers note, this is the perfect “carrot on a string.”

 “By mandating that credits are only assigned to those who remain at the studio by project’s end, this gives management the perfect carrot to dangle at the end of the stick, that they use to ensure developers stick to gruelling schedules and extended crunches.”

The LaNoireCredits website mentions that some of the uncredited developers didn’t leave by choice. Certain positions were made redundant towards the end of the game’s development cycle. Just how many of these excluded devs. had put in enough time to receive “full” credit by the IGDA’s standards? As of the time of this writing, 106.  
 
“By using the IGDA’s definition of full credit (ie. 8 months or more in the role working on the project) we have, at this point, 106 developers given full credit that weren’t recognised in the game or manual credits. The other 30+ developers on our list are given an ‘Additional Programming/Design/Art etc.’ credit for having worked on the project for over 30 days.”  

This isn’t the first time Rockstar has been accused of excluding developers. In 2007, former Rockstar development lead, Jurie Horneman, attempted to amend the Manhunt 2 credits. According to Horneman, 55 developers were excluded from the game’s credits. Horneman says that, aside from some employees who moved to Rockstar London, no one from Rockstar Vienna was credited.

“I am disappointed and outraged that Rockstar Games tries to pretend that Rockstar Vienna and the work we did on Manhunt 2 never happened – the work of over 50 people, who put years of their lives into the project, trying to make the best game they could. I am proud to have been a part of that team.”

Some may use L.A. Noire’s long development cycle (around 7 years) as an excuse for the exclusions. The developers I spoke with don’t believe that’s a viable excuse. In fact, they use a game with an even longer development cycle as an example for the right way to handle what could possibly be a confusing crediting process. 

“To give a balancing point of view, it would be amiss to not point out Gearbox Software’s initiative, prior to their release of Duke Nukem Forever, of their efforts to get all the developers that were involved in the game’s 13 year development (across 2 studios, 1 shuttered down no less) credited in the final release. They had a website set up to receive submissions (http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/dnf-credits/) - now closed, of course, as the game ships next week.”     

On top of that, the people at LaNoireCredits have managed to obtain information on the developers’ work history and have fact checked said information.      
 
Multiple accusations have been pointed in Rockstar’s direction, but this can’t be an issue exclusive to the company. While it’s difficult to say just how widespread the issue is, crediting scuffles have taken place at Capcom over the Wii version of Okami and at Mythic over Warhammer Online.
 

Without a standardized system, crediting developers is always going to be a messy process full of inaccuracies. With teams expanding daily, it’s a problem that’s only going to get worse. But LaNoireCredits isn’t looking for retroactive atonement. They want this to serve as a lesson to companies. Developers won’t sit by idly as their work goes uncredited.

“We’re not so much an organization, more a bunch of developers getting together to put something up, trying to do what is right for our peers. Of course, we welcome any statement from Rockstar or Team Bondi on the matter – but we understand that the horse has already bolted – we aren’t trying to shut the barn door. From the very beginning, our goal was not to seek some kind of recompense, but to raise awareness amongst the development and gaming community of what has happened, in the hopes that this will not occur again to other developers in the future.”

 You can “like” LaNoireCredits by visiting their Facebook page. Rockstar was contacted but, as of this writing, has not responded.

It's not often that I have the pleasure of introducing a title many are calling the next Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. I'll be sure to cherish this sure to be forgotten moment. Enter Gioventù Ribelle.  
 
Gioventù Ribelle (Rebel Youth) is a first-person shooter--created using Unreal Engine 3--which depicts il Risorgimento (the Italian Unification) of the mid-19th century.  
 
The title was developed by a group of students to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italy. Below is Italian President Giorgio Napolitano viewing the game in action.   
 

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the domain suffix .xxx. While this alone may come as a surprise, it's nothing compared to what the ICANN will meet on in mid-June. 
 
On June 20th, the ICANN will meet to discuss "opening up all possible domain name suffixes to registration." Should the requested suffix meet the yet to be determined guidelines, it will be approved and authorized to go live. What this means for domain names will, of course, be determined by how strict the ICANN's guidelines are.  A celebratory party is scheduled for two days after the ICANN's meeting. The odds of this not passing are slim.  
 
This would be a huge step toward the ATX Group's goal of registering .car domains. These domains would ostensibly be tailored for in car use.   
 
Let's hear it Giant Bomb. What are some fantastic domain suffixes you can come up with? 
 
[Engadget]

I was incapable of describing my surprise when news started circulating that Ubisoft was working on a guitar-based rhythm game. Add on the fact that the game is being called "Rocksmith" and I was ready to call this a full-blown hoax. But, this isn't a hoax. In 2011, the year Guitar Hero died--at least for a little while--Ubisoft is releasing a guitar-based rhythm title known as Rocksmith.  
 
Once I managed to pick my jaw up off of the floor, my initial reaction was "this could be the worst idea I've heard in a long time." But, is that fair?  
 
Ubisoft's Rocksmith will attempt to teach users how to play guitar, or improve their skills, by allowing them to plug in a real guitar and learn visually through a format that is familiar to most rhythm game fans. The hasty bastard that dwells deep inside me thought "great idea Ubisoft. Didn't you see how this went for Power Gig?" That hasty bastard was incapable of recognizing that Ubisoft isn't Seven45 Studios. This isn't the sister company of cheap guitar manufacturer First Act. This is Ubisoft, an established publishing/development power house. That alone should ensure that this title turns out better than Power Gig did, right? But, this uphill battle Ubisoft faces isn't one that can be won on software alone. The industry has proven that it isn't ready to invest in more rhythm games.  
 
2008 saw the peak of the dance and music genres of video games with the titles bringing in $2 billion. The following year saw a 46% decrease in the genre. 2010? A 34% decrease. With the music/rhythm genres of video games in shambles, is releasing a guitar-based rhythm title in 2011 a smart move? Can strong, competent software and the ability to play with any guitar propel Ubisoft's endeavor at the rhythm genre towards success?   
 
There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea, but is the industry ready for another rhythm game?

Let's not debate the title of this blog post or discuss the term "journalism."  
 
Joystiq's Justin McElroy posted a news post yesterday where he attempted to file down a 3DS cartridge and put it into a Nintendo DS. The result? Nothing. Not surprising, really.   
 
Like all things posted on video game websites, GameJournos.com decided to chastise Justin for posting "filler" material. Once the GameJournos post was criticized for calling Justin out for using humor, GameJournos clarified saying "The problem I have is with filler material that serves zero purpose. The “discovery” that a Nintendo 3DS game cannot and will not work in a Nintendo DSi is, I think, not particularly earth-shattering. It’s expected. Attempting to mask the intrinsic low value of this news post by applying a coat of humour to it doesn’t change the fact that this isn’t newsworthy and is, in fact, a complete waste of time."  
 
Gamejournos also criticizes Justin for following the statement "we've got a detailed walkthrough of exactly what happened after the break." with "Nothing." 
 
In your opinion, is this sort of post acceptable? Was this filler material or purely Justin attempting to put his good humor to work? Should Joystiq have ran this story? Does it bother you that you may have clicked on the article expecting some sort of revelation when, in all actuality, you were greeted by something you could have simply inferred? 

Scorephoria did it's first live podcast. It went extremely well. Rough around the edges but a good time for all.  
 
Podcast!

Hey GB, 
 
I thought I would start posting the podcast I do for my website Scorephoria.com. I'm posting this in my blog section so I'm not spamming the forums with more "I WRITE FOR A SITE GO LOOK!" nonsense. Just a fun, vulgar, podcast. This week's podcast was mostly a tech podcast though we are a video game website. We discuss the Verizon iPhone among other things. Please feel free to let me know what you think.   
 
Here it is. 

The original costume David Prowse wore in The Empire Strikes Back is up for auction now! You yourself can wear the authentic Dark Vader costume. You'll only need to shell out between $250,000 and $365,000. Or you could purchase one at Walmart that comes with a sweet plastic mask for $15. Either way.   
  
 

I have a passionate love for GOOD music. I become and elitist asshole critic any time music is brought up in a conversation. I feel so strongly about music that I am willing to settle an argument about music with an old fashioned western gun fight. The way I look at it is there are two kinds of people in this world; those who like The Beatles and those who like The Monkees. Should you pick the latter I would like you to go ahead and find a way to remove yourself from my friends list so I don't have to do it myself.

I am getting a little off topic here. O.k. so I have this passionate love for music and I love hearing what critics such as Stephen Thomas Erlewhine think about music I love. I realized the other day that I like movies a lot too but I don't put too much thought into what critics think about movies. This lack of thought came into play last night when my friend and I were deciding which movie to rent off of Time Warner On Demand. We had narrowed it down to 3 movies; Dirty Harry, Blazing Saddles and Dog Day Afternoon. We had never seen these movies all the way through but we knew they were classics.

So, now on to how to settle this. Well we decided to check what the reviewers had to say. We looked on allmovie.com and noticed that all three movies recieved 5 stars, no help their. So, we decided to check rogerebert.com. He is the man to turn to. Mr. Ebert gave Dirty Harry 3/4, he gave Dog Day 3 1/2 /4 and he gave Blazing Saddles 4/4. So, it seemed an obvious choice. We watched Blazing Saddles. FREAKING TERRIBLE. It was not a good movie at all, mainly because every movie that came out after it ripped off everything this movie had to offer. This was a cotastrophie.

I decided later to look at some of Eberts other reviews. He apparently believes the first four Harry Potter movies are better than Dirty Harry; a classic. Now I love these movies and I think they are all 4/4 stars, but I didn't think Roger Ebert would feel the same. IDK, what do you think about that decision? What movie out of those initial three would you have watched? Thanks for reading!