I just started posting here, but been reading for years. I've seen lot of people who are lying about themselves, their projects, experience, skills, and so forth. For what purpose does it serve? In most cases, no money seems to be involved. Especially in Help Wanted. I mean, you don't see it often, but every once in awhile. All those "I'm making MMO X, I've worked on 7 commercial games in the past"... so bogus. Are these people just like Rick, the phoney war veteran? For example, a recent incident, and one of the scariest I've personally seen: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=548111

Quote: have unique games been a writer for 30 years been a gamer since atari combat & the commodore 64 summer olympics/4 and inches been a singer and toured the world in a rock band for 20 years been an agent for models/actors & SAG Agencies for 20 been a model/actor and most importantly been unable to do what I dreamed of doin when I was a kid make a living as a game developer im easy to work with and professional at all times hope someone reading this can use someone like me thanx 4 taking the time to read this

IF that doesn't scare you.. he obviously was at it again... and this time he improved his typing! http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=548997

Quote: 1. Extremely passionate and highly creative writer for 20 years 2. Experienced (currently a contributing writer for Dreamworks Animation) 3. Have created numerous game concepts and designs for console games (unpublished) 4. Can write anything you need...just ask 5. Have directed and written over 30 animated movies 6. Adept in Photoshop/Word/Excel/ect. 7. Anything else you want to know...just ask

I wonder, especially online, how many people are who they claim to be?

There's a reason I avoid help wanted [lol].

Quote: For what purpose does it serve?

I think it's often a combination of factors.

There's the good old resume padding -- even unpaid positions are valuable for some (those looking to get experience and resume material for future paid positions), and try to boost their chances through dishonesty. This tends to go hand in hand with conspicuously absent portfolios, to show what they could bring to the table.

For others, it's naivety and simply not realizing how unskilled and unaware of it they actually are. This tends to go hand in hand with measuring time spent in a given field from the first moment they started learning it, instead of, say, their first paid job in the field.

Sometimes they're just trying to fool people into making their dream mmo where you can marry the hulk. This in turn goes hand in hand with completely underestimating the amount of worked involved in actually building games. "It'll be easy, right?"

What about you? What reasons can you come up with?

Dont be so quick to dismiss, whilst its likely the claims are bogus/exaggerated

>>been a writer for 30 years
well they didnt state widely published perhaps they were including stuff theyld written at school :), so possible (I've written songs for >20 years)

>>been a gamer since atari combat & the commodore 64 summer olympics/4 and inches
Ive been one from before that

>>been a singer and toured the world in a rock band for 20 years
Ive been a singer + played in a couple of bands (though not for many years, didnt tour the world though)

>>been an agent for models/actors & SAG Agencies for 20
nope

>>been a model/actor
Ive been asked to do some modelling/acting a few times (though not my thing, but certainly has been possible)

Quote: Original post by zedz
Dont be so quick to dismiss, whilst its likely the claims are bogus/exaggerated

In these sketpical posts over the years... *part* of the information probably had -some- kind of truth in it. But if you dig deep... it's so twisted and deranged, maybe a sign of mental illness? Not sure what to think. MaulingMonkey has great points. But I also have observed something... fundamentally flawed with a small minority of the 'frauds' that hasn't been discussed.

What if:

1. The fraud is educated/intelligent.
2. Has joined, attempted to join, created several projects, using different identities. None of which the fraud fulfilled any meaningful duties.
3. Never is inclined to make a profit.

These 3 observations, are clearly what disturbs me the most. If anyone has noticed this, or also been a victim of it, come forward and do share.

Quote: Original post by Edoc
These 3 observations, are clearly what disturbs me the most. If anyone has noticed this, or also been a victim of it, come forward and do share.

...and do what? Change the world? These things will always happen, they shouldn't disturb you.

http://www.damninteresting.com/unskilled-and-unaware-of-it

Quote: This tendency of the average person to believe he or she is better-than-average is known as the “above-average effect,” and it flies in the face of logic

seems perfectly logical to me, humans are not machines.
I sometimes overestimate my speed as well, eg I was meant to have finished a game last week (though looks like now it will in fact be today or tommorrow)

FWIW I was just about to write that average is not the correct word he should of used but median, (but I see someone else has already pointed out this fact)

Quote: I've seen lot of people who are lying about themselves

90% of the posts there are full of patently obvious bollux
eg
'idea for the greatest MMORPG ever' etc

In fact at a guess Ild say less than 1% of the posts there actually result in anything worthwhile.

but cheers anyway, youve given me an idea of what song to record next (If I can only get my soundcard installed :( )

Quote: Original post by LeChuckIsBack

Quote: Original post by Edoc
These 3 observations, are clearly what disturbs me the most. If anyone has noticed this, or also been a victim of it, come forward and do share.

...and do what? Change the world? These things will always happen, they shouldn't disturb you.

Aye. The more problematic situation is where you're facing paid positions -- which is why those positions typically have interviews where you can get a feel for if the individual is actually competent. Sometimes you'll hire them on, on a provisional basis -- nothing says you can't kick someone out who's clearly not bringing anything to the table.

Sure, it wastes some of your time, but that's the risk you have to take when dealing with others in basically any situation.