“Your crediting policy is pretty nonstandard”. I hear this a lot.
Whenever an interested agency reaches out to collaborate with my team, things usually go well right up until we talk credits, and it’s not for the reason you’d expect.
We’re pretty upfront about our policy: If you don’t credit, we’re not working with you. The LSPs that reach out to us know, and are usually open to crediting… just individually.
And that’s a no-go for me. Which usually requires some explaining.
Well, dear homogenized LSP straw man, you’re in luck—I usually give you the short of it, but today you’re getting the long of it.
Our team is a self-managed collective of freelancers. But let’s think about that for a second.
If you simply wanted to hire our freelancers, why wouldn’t you just cut out the middleman? They’re not hard to find. We’re not shy about crediting in-game or on our own website.
But you don’t, and for a good reason. When you subcontract an established team, you’re hiring the whole, not the individuals.
You work with us because of our approach, our chemistry, our workflows, our track record. Because the whole is greater than the sum.
So if you need the whole, why only recognize its parts? There’s scarce few valid(-ish) reasons for that. But the main culprits? Optics and Control.
■ A team is credited independently. They own their wins. Their employer just got the pick right. That’s power.
■ A team is credited only as individuals. They hold no such power, even if allowed to parade their work as a “team effort”.
One is betting on its own name and reputation. The other is betting on borrowed glory and the continued grace of their employer.
Huh. It’s starting to sound like we’re back to freelancing with extra steps!
Thankfully, I’m at a stage where I don’t have to compromise. If I want to freelance, I can just do that. But I stopped for a reason.
I want to own the results.
And if accountability threatens you, get your priorities in check.
By Seif Chaib.
Originally posted on Linkedin.