Chronos,

No, the public does *not* have a right to know. In almost all cases, the information is covered under non-disclosure agreements and business contracts. Not only does the disbursement of information such as you seem to want to "ferret out" constitute a breach in contract, it can also be construed as libel. And once things hit the "libel" category, the lawyers come a-calling. It''s not pretty.

Thus, as I said before, the information you want cannot reasonably be obtained by posting messages on public forums. You will need to contact the people directly involved and convince them to disclose it to you...off the record, of course, because anything else leaves them liable. And good luck on doing that if you''re not either a personal contact, or at most a contact of a contact.

If a developer is going to enter an agreement with a publisher, it is up to that developer to do whatever research they deem necessary prior to signing anything. If you are the developer, and want to find out about how the publisher treats its developers, you can (a) ask the publisher for a list of references you can check, and/or (b) ask other people you know in the industry to put you in contact with someone who has done business with the publisher. Asking for such information in a public forum is going to result in a signal to noise ratio that is ''way off the scope, and possibly generate enough negative "vibe" that the publisher just pulls the plug on your agreement. After all, why deal with an unprofessional developer more interested in controversy than in getting the job done?

No respectable game development web page will ever maintain a list of "good" and "bad" publishers. The risk of legal liability for creating such a list far outweighs any benefits there might come from it.

I hope this adequately explains my position on this topic.


DavidRM
Samu Games