Hi All, I'm starting a new game dev. company and I need to know what titles can we use? I'm partnered with 2 other people so one of us has to be the president, or CEO, vice president, etc.. How should it work when starting out?

If it's a situation where you don't actually know the appropriate titles for each employee (are they even employees?) then it really doesn't matter.

The fact of the matter is that if you've just got a small group of you working together on projects with zero funding and no actual registered business credentials, position titles mean squat. Spend less time focussing on the fancy names you want to put in your forum signatures and focus on creating some quality work. It sounds alluring being able to call yourself CEO, VP or simply lead designer with MAgnesium Studios (or some other generic team name) but it doesn't change the fact that you're still not a business and what counts is the end product.

Apologies if this comes off as arrogant, it's not intended - in hindsight I'm probably not in the best mood right now for answering posts - but the fact is that your question is irrelevant, you can call yourselves what you like but these labels are of little to no use.

When I was a kid, I used to call myself Captain Supremo, but that doesn't allow me to put ex-superhero on my CV. Nowone would care if I did as I was never super and certainly wasn't heroic.

Thanks for the reply ghosted. I understand that creating the product is more important than fancy titles. I'm really not looking for fancy titles, but I believe that they are needed since we are a registered company. None of us can program a video game, I'm probably the closet that can and I am a web developer.

So; we're a small group of executives building a team. We'll hire programmers, designers, etc, but for now in order to get our business cards and emails looking professional.. PRing potential employees and rubbing elbows with other folks in the industry.. titles are needed. I just don't know which ones are really relavent right now.. in these early stages of the company.

So far I've researched some sites and this one is the closet to giving some good explainations about titles.

http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layoutscripts/swzl_newsearch.asp

Don't use CEO unless if your company incorporated. For startups like that it is common to put 'founder' and 'art director' or 'technical director' on the business card. Try to identify you role in the company first to the people with whom you are dealing. People care about what kind of decision you can make not about the title.

The best business card I ever had was for Virgin Games (another part of the sprawling Branson empire). The card read...

Quote: Dan Marchant
Shit Bastard

What's on your card is of limited value. What you do and say is much more important. It is much more important to have a management structure where everyone knows what their role is. Have a job title that reflects your responsibility in the company.

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Don't use CEO unless if your company incorporated.

I disagree. The more important your job appears, the more important others perceive you.

Quote: Original post by Obscure
What's on your card is of limited value. What you do and say is much more important. It is much more important to have a management structure where everyone knows what their role is. Have a job title that reflects your responsibility in the company.

I'm hesitant to describe a vital component of an identity system as having "limited value". A business card defines how you are initially perceived and how you are remembered, especially when combined with a well-presented self to (prospective) employees, customers, clients, and investors.

In addition, succinct position titles can facilitate the design of an effective management structure whereas ambiguous, and somewhat meaningless, titles can confuse management, human resources, and other contacts. Confusion in business processes should be avoided.

I agree with not confusing management. I've done my research and it seems that there isn't a 1,2,3 step for giving out titles in ones company. It seems that you have the given, which is the President or CEO and everything else after that is whatever the company chooses.

What I want is to model what gaming companies have right now. Just to see what kind of people and titles they are using. I checked out Rockstar and Midway - what I found was their board of directors, but that normally doesn't work because it is comprised mostly of CEOs and Directors from different companies.

I'm not trying to be fancy, or overcomplicated.. I just want a basic guide.. a structure to start with.

There is the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System though.

Quote: Original post by Adraeus
I disagree. The more important your job appears, the more important others perceive you.

I am afraid I strongly disagree. It might be true in banking but this is a creative business. Business cards impress only those who are easily impressed. To everyone else they are just contact details (unless they are Japanese). It is what the person says that will impress (or not).

I have met dozens of five man start-ups over the years and when one of them hands me a card that says "President" the first question I ask is "what do you do?" because their card is meaningless. I know they don't spend all or even the majority of their day being President of the company. If you are the lead programmer then have that on your card. If your ego demands that you have a swanky title then VP of technology but rememeber, VP is a manager. If you are the only programmer then who are you managing?

Quote: Original post by Obscure

Quote: Original post by Adraeus
The more important your job appears, the more important others perceive you.

I am afraid I strongly disagree. It might be true in banking but this is a creative business. Business cards impress only those who are easily impressed. To everyone else they are just contact details (unless they are Japanese). It is what the person says that will impress (or not).

I disagree, however, I don't want to appear negative in the light of our disagreement; therefore, I will send to you (when finalized) an outline of a speech, which I gave to an undergraduate marketing class last year, concerning the fundamentals of strategic branding.

Quote: If you are the lead programmer then have that on your card. ... If you are the only programmer then who are you managing?

Who can a sole lead programmer manage? Programming services vendors, freelance programmers, the programming project, etc. The management of IRS-classified employees is not a requirement of the role of manager. There are more manageable assets than just human capital.