One of the problems with having had the most publicly significant parts of my life before the Internet is the difficulty of proving that certain things happened to me to a standard that the Internet will accept. The gold standard of this phenomena is of course Wikipedia. If you look at my WIkipedia entry talk page, you can see a lot of nonsense (some of which is cruel in the manner of trolling, which fortunately seems to be going out of fashion). I think that the Internet is growing up a bit now and there is not such an embargo against people talking about themselves anymore *. Glad to see this at last, because I love expressing myself. In a sense, if we do not live our lives as a kind of narrative of who we are, then what's the point? But I digress.
Wait... I can't resist a quote first, because it is relevant and quite funny:
Wait... I can't resist a quote first, because it is relevant and quite funny:
| I found an article on Dino Dini, an engineering professor at the University of Pisa, steamship safety engineer Dino Dini of San Jose, California, barber Dino Dini of Oak Park, Illinois, Club Dino Dini in Somerset, England, and Dino Dini, one of the leading fresco conservators in the world. I didn't find anything on Dino Dini, computer game developer. Wikipedia:Notability requires significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, here computer game developer Dino Dini. This cool-off period might be a good time to locate some reliable source material for the article. -- Jreferee (Talk) 22:57, 2 September 2007 (UTC) Sorry, I'm a bit confused, there are 30,000 pages on Google for "Dino Dini" of which 90% relate to me or the games I made. FYI. Dndn1011 22:03, 3 September 2007 (UTC) Wow! I'll add "is able to sift through 27,000 Google results about himself" to the Dino Dini article immediately. 89.243.98.120 11:56, 4 September 2007 (UTC) | |
Anyway, I think it is important for me to prove that, for example, I won the Golden Joystick 16 bit Game of The Year award for two years in a row. That's, like, A Big Deal. 1990 and 1991. Not that you will see that on Wikipedia (those years are mostly missing, typically. Did I mention my debut album is coming out soon, called Almost There?). Look, here's the Golden Joysticks Awards Facebook page. Lots of likes. No, I can't have my place in that glory, unless I can prove it, and that means finding stuff in archives of ancient print magazines.
Fortunately, archives of magazines are available these days, and through this I was able to get proof of some of my awards. Sadly, I am not even aware of all the awards I got. But I can at least now prove the ones I list.
This kind of thing is important to me. It's useful to me in my efforts to get the attention of people I need to work with (publishers, visa assessors, potential employers, colleagues, students, human beings and trolls) and help them to take me seriously. My fans know what I am all about, but there is a big world out there that has no clue about what I did, as well as a bunch of sad people who going around saying the word 'puffery" all the time.
I did make the cover of CTW (Computer Trade Weekly) for an important part of my history: my move to Virgin from ANCO. This magazine is no more, but it was the MCV of its day, and all big industry news appeared in it. I have tried to track it down over the years without success. But, now this issue has been found thanks to one of my Twitter followers, Darren Gurney (@degurney). I reproduce the fragment here (there is a whole article which he's going to send me, bless him).
My history has got scattered, like my fans, all over the place. I really need to make a collection of all the material, but it's a big job. You can help me. If you find any article about me or my games, in any language, in any magazine, I would really appreciate it if you can let me know. For example, because of some very nice people out there here's my only national TV appearance on Gamesmaster in 1993. There is a ton of stuff, reviews of my games, interviews, letters in magazines, chart listings. I will make a section on this site for all of this, with your help I can make a record of my history, if nothing else, then for the benefit of my family.
-Dino
* I would like to point out that I did not create my own Wikipedia page, although I did try many years ago to add information to it, with predictable results.
Fortunately, archives of magazines are available these days, and through this I was able to get proof of some of my awards. Sadly, I am not even aware of all the awards I got. But I can at least now prove the ones I list.
This kind of thing is important to me. It's useful to me in my efforts to get the attention of people I need to work with (publishers, visa assessors, potential employers, colleagues, students, human beings and trolls) and help them to take me seriously. My fans know what I am all about, but there is a big world out there that has no clue about what I did, as well as a bunch of sad people who going around saying the word 'puffery" all the time.
I did make the cover of CTW (Computer Trade Weekly) for an important part of my history: my move to Virgin from ANCO. This magazine is no more, but it was the MCV of its day, and all big industry news appeared in it. I have tried to track it down over the years without success. But, now this issue has been found thanks to one of my Twitter followers, Darren Gurney (@degurney). I reproduce the fragment here (there is a whole article which he's going to send me, bless him).
My history has got scattered, like my fans, all over the place. I really need to make a collection of all the material, but it's a big job. You can help me. If you find any article about me or my games, in any language, in any magazine, I would really appreciate it if you can let me know. For example, because of some very nice people out there here's my only national TV appearance on Gamesmaster in 1993. There is a ton of stuff, reviews of my games, interviews, letters in magazines, chart listings. I will make a section on this site for all of this, with your help I can make a record of my history, if nothing else, then for the benefit of my family.
-Dino
* I would like to point out that I did not create my own Wikipedia page, although I did try many years ago to add information to it, with predictable results.