On May 20th, 2012, a gaming news site called IGN published an article titled “Deus Ex 2.” It opens with a quote from Warren Spector saying, “There’s a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person.” The quote becomes ironic when the site does not credit whoever wrote the article, simply saying, “By IGN Staff.” Despite living in a digital age, crediting people is still difficult for many people, especially given how much is uploaded daily. The sad reality is that being uncredited has a long history.

A well-known case of credit not being given is the person behind the popular Disney Channel theme. Although today, a Google search will tell you that the person who made the theme was Alex Lasarenko, but for the longest time no one knew who made it. Before 2022, the internet had been endlessly searching for clues and hints to the man behind the theme until Kevin Perjurer found the answer in his documentary “Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery.” It took so long to discover it because Alex’s company, TONAL, consists of several musicians who worked on several projects, including himself.

Unfortunately, most acts of people being uncredited are done for malicious purposes. Many of the first game designers at Atari would be uncredited for their work, as the company saw the games they made as their property. Therefore, they did not allow their employees to credit themselves, which led them to add them as secrets and Easter eggs like Atari’s Adventure. This would result in some members like David Crane and Bob Whitehead leaving to form the now infamous company Activision so they could freely credit their work.

There are plenty of examples of people who don’t receive the proper recognition, yet why does this happen so often, especially in the digital age? There are many reasons why, but two reasons come up very frequently. Reason one is due to the loss in the transition to computers. The recent rise of the internet has resulted in the disappearance of many works done before widespread acceptance. The other reason is for fame and fortune, as taking credit from others is sadly easy to do with enough charisma to your claim.

So, is there an easy way to solve this issue? There isn’t much to do on the business side, as greed will motivate anyone to try their best to steal recognition from their colleagues. However, we can correct people whenever they praise someone for work they had little to no involvement in and speak out whenever it happens. Ensure that people like Lasarenko get praise for his music and speak out whenever people like Crane aren’t allowed to name themselves in a project. We must ensure that history is documented and stop the rewrites of it by those seeking glory. As it’s the artist who creates the world, not those who try to profit from it.

Works Cited
Defunctland. “Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery.” YouTube, 20 November 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_rjBWmc1iQ&ab_channel=Defunctland. Accessed 17 January 2024.

“Deus Ex 2.” IGN, 12 November 2001, https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/11/12/deus-ex-2. Accessed 17 January 2024.

Fleming, Jeffrey. “The History Of Activision – The History Of Activision.” Game Developer, 29 July 2007, https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-history-of-activision#close-modal. Accessed 17 January 2024.