Crediting an author you've stolen hugely from?

Authoring General Design Discussions
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Hey All–

Working on an Ectocomp game which is-- shocker-- based on a poem which is in the public domain. Not only is the story stolen from the poem, but I’ve also lifted large chunks of text directly from it and others by the this poet, and an enormous amount of text is altered slightly from many poems. You can barely move or speak in this game without encountering words by this poet. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this game is co-authored by the poet, but it seems a little pompous to say it’s by Amanda Walker and Famous Poet. Also, that gives away something that I think tickles poetry lovers to recognize on their own. Anyone with any knowledge of this poet (which should be nearly everyone, at least in the US) will tweak at some point in the game, and that’s always fun.

How should I go about crediting this appropriately? Can I just note this at the end? Or should I do it at the beginning due to the level of theft?

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I’d say “based on the works of poet”

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Sounds to me like it’d be more fun to put it at the end.

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One cute way to handle this would be to subtitle it as variations on a theme, so: Extraordinary Ectocomp Entry: Variations on a Theme by Poet by Amanda Walker.

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that sounds really good to me, imo!
This what Dorian Passer had done with his games (though the IFDB have been changed since).

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I’m not much help, but I’d say either put as like the last line of the blurb (“Inspired directly by xxx.”) and/or (probably and) then put a more detailed explanation of the poems used in the ABOUT/CREDITS section of the game.

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No worries-- this is absolutely going to be there no matter what. I’d never NOT credit the poet. I’m just worried about stealing the aha! moment from the player.

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Can we start a pool on who the poet is? My money’s on Vanilla Ice.

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Y’know, I obviously wanted to do this, but there’s that vexatious public domain issue. I did have to pick works that I could legally copy.

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I’m hoping it’s Renascence by Edna St Vincent Millay, that would be an awesome interactive fiction game.

It’s not too weird to list the poet or author as the co-author; that’s what Graham Nelson and Chandler Groover did:

I didn’t do it with Sherlock Indomitable but maybe I should. But I support whatever crediting decision you choose!

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Agreed! I hereby assign this to you as an Ectocomp game. You have two months, so I suggest you get to work.

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I would say put the credit at the end. I really like figuring out “auxiliary puzzles” like that.

But isn’t it strange that the letters for “Vanilla Ice” are in “Edna St Vincent Millay”?

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And they say there are no second acts in American letters!

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I think it’s ok just to say so in the “about.” Maybe a little nudge in the story headline if we’re talking Inform 7, but I wouldn’t feel obligated to be too loud about it. It’s enough to put things where curious people will find them IMO

Though I do have something like this in a WIP

This work transposes five lines from Sylvia Plath's 'Fever 103°.'
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I am anxious to play this game. That poem is rad.

You can also spell TASTE CYANIDE (with a few letters left over). Perhaps that’s what sent Edna on that weird kick in the poem. It might also explain Vanilla Ice.

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With how common covers of songs that are still under copyright are and there being famous singers who are so known for parody you might assume one of their originals are parodying a song you haven’t heard, I have to wonder what is actually the legal situation with copying song lyrics(also, covers and parodies often copy the melody of the original and sampling of existing songs is everywhere, so music is a weird one for copyright in general).

Anyways, since it sounds like the identity of the poet is meant to be a spoiler, the obvious thing is to either:

a. Only include the poet’s name in end credits.

b. if the credits are available to be viewed at any time, include a spoiler warning and require an extra command from the player to view the spoilered credits.

Though honestly, public domain poet that the average American would recognize sounds like the empty set to me. Maybe Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe, but I wouldn’t expect the average American to recognize Shakespeare’s verse beyond the famous bits of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet or to recognize any Poe poem other than the Raven.

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You’d be surprised at exactly how literary the IF crowd is. I wrote a game based on a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, and nearly every reviewer was intimately acquainted with the poet and the poem and discussed it in their reviews. It was a pleasant surprise. Since then I haven’t worried about the audience not being conversant with poetry.

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The distance between “average American” and “average player of IF” is probably significant in this case, I’m guessing. But I suspect the set is a little broader than that anyway - some snatches of Blake, Frost, Whitman…

(I’ve tested Drew’s new game, and I do think it’s pretty rad!)

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For Alice Aforethought I put “by Hanon Ondricek” “based on and including words and writing by Lewis Carroll”

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We’re just a super Manley crowd here.

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