Game authors demand a defined participation in the editing of their works by publishers
In 2020, the Spiele-Autoren-Zunft e.V. (Game Designers Association) (SAZ) published a Model License Agreement as a guide for contractual agreements between game authors and publishers. Especially point 4.1, which regulates the participation of game authors in the editing of their works by the publishers, was the subject of intense discussions among the publishers and the resulting desire to explain our position in more detail.
The position paper linked below responds to this request, explains in detail the author rights and content-related reasons, and provides examples from practice. It is time that ALL game publishers accept the authorship of game designers in terms of content and do not leave them out of the content of rules and topics or grant themselves the sole monopoly on decision-making. In doing so, we do not misjudge the competence of the editors in the publishing houses. For book authors, the release of the final version before going to press is a matter of course. Why should this be different for game authors? These are our games - that's what we stand for with our name!