Crediting Michael Bywater at ifdb and ifwiki pages for Bureaucracy

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Continuing the discussion from Michael Bywater passed away last year:

It is widely agreed that Michael Bywater is responsible for most of the content in Infocom’s Bureaucracy, but he isn’t credited in the packaging or documentation. It’s been recently suggested that he should receive some form of credit at IFDB. I likewise think he might be credited at ifwiki.

I know these are community resources; I could do it right now! But in case there might be discussion first, I thought I’d make a thread. The front of the released commercial box for Bureaucracy simply reads “DOUGLAS ADAMS AND THE STAFF OF INFOCOM.” The inside credits are more elaborate, crediting

Original Implementer W. E. B. “Fred” Morgan was dragged out of an early retirement (spent devel oping new strains of Scotch) to collaborate on Bureaucracy. A prolific hacker, Fred worked on ZIL, the implementation language for Infocom games; Muddle, the implementation language for ZIL; and Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Enchanter, Deadline, Wishbringer, Ballyhoo, Trinity, Cutthroats, and the sampler. Fred also helped develop Infocom’s database manager, Cornerstone. After Bureaucracy, Fred plans to re-retire, and begin work on a hooked rug, roughly the size of Delaware, representing the Great Underground Empire.

This is a good joke: a way of saying that nearly everybody on staff worked on Bureaucracy at one time or another. However, we know now that the game is almost entirely Bywater’s. Why the omission? He may not have wanted to be credited, for all we know.

By coïncidence, the next game up at Gold Machine is Bureaucracy, so I have already been preparing for that. If nobody else has thoughts or preferences regarding ifwiki, I can do an update sometime soon.

Anyway, I didn’t want to crowd out discussion about Bywater’s life, so I welcome comments regarding IFDB and IFwiki entries for Bureaucracy.

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I didn’t actually know this! It’s a great game, cruel and nonsensical as it may be, and I agree with you that he should be credited.

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I think this would be a great change, though I do think that since the game was attributed to Adams as published, the acknowledgement should make clear that it’s supplemental, rather than being a replacement. Defer to those who roll deeper on IFDB style on what exactly that should look like – could be something like “Michael Bywater [attributed to Douglas Adams]” or “Douglas Adams [primary author Michael Bywater]”, maybe?

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I don’t think it is debatable that most people at Infocom worked on the game, and Adams’ contribution (small as it may be) is well-documented, so at least your first suggestion might be a bit misleading. I’d rather add him as a third author, possibly between Adams and the Infocommies.

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You could just add him as a second author. The infobox would then automatically link to Michael Bywater - IFWiki. You could also link to this forum topic and/or explain his role, on the game’s wiki page. There is some relevant discussion at Talk:Michael Bywater - IFWiki.

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So far as attribution goes, the best answer might be to insert Bywater between Adams and “Staff of Infocom.”

I can also add a paragraph about authorship to the wiki page, citing Jimmy Maher’s essay as the definitive accounting.

Unless there are objections or other suggestions, I’ll do so.

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