Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Craig Morrison


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Spartaz Humbug! 06:48, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

Craig Morrison

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This article topic—a video game designer—is not independently notable from Age of Conan/Funcom (i.e., lacks significant coverage from reliable, independent sources). (?) All hits in a video game reliable sources custom Google search were primarily about Funcom or Age of Conan, for which he was a creative director, and any coverage of Morrison fits within the context of those articles. I think either would be a fine redirect, but my attempt at that was reverted. If someone finds more (non-English and offline) sources, please ping me. czar 17:21, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Video games-related deletion discussions.  czar  17:21, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions.  czar  17:21, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Morrison works on the genre's biggest game now (World of Warcraft) which has millions of fans, myself included. That seems more influential than his work at Funcom, a much smaller developer, and still worthy of note. His first expansion on World of Warcraft as Design Manager pushed WoW back over 10 million subscribers [Forbes]. He has spoken at quite a few industry events independent of Funcom, including GDC and taking part in well attended panels discussions on MMO development at the popular PAX convention. He also teaches Game Design at a large, well established, US school University of California, Irvine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.129.204.39 (talk) 18:21, 26 January 2016 (UTC) — 12.129.204.39 (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
 * As in the links above, we care about what reliable sources have said about the subject. None of the above says Morrison is independently notable from the games he worked on. Anything written about him in a reliable, secondary source can be adequately described in the game/company articles. czar  18:27, 26 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Surely by definition, once a designer has worked on multiple important, well received, and successful games by different companies, and has been recognized by his industry (as a leader, speaker, and teacher) then he should be considered 'independently notable'? How else would a game designer be notable, but for the design of the games he leads?
 * Through significant coverage in multiple reliable, independent sources. (?) (If we don't have enough reliable material to write an article, we can't write an article.) czar  19:00, 26 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Comment Edging towards delete, but I did dig through some stuff, such as this Gamasutra interview provides some decent direct coverage of him and his views, with another example here. Engadget has several times made news articles in response to his personal blog entries, which helps illustrate that the industry is paying attention to his direct views. This GameIndustry article doesn't help notability but does verify some of his past (Telegraph, IGN).
 * Notably though, I found a strange lack of any real coverage of his time with Blizzard. -- ferret (talk) 22:37, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Blizzard is notoriously cagey about letting it's people on World of Warcraft talk in public (at least Historically, although Hearthstone is starting to change that) Massively]. He has clearly been of interest to the industry at large at various points in the past, and he is still actively blogging on how to get into games and educational stuff (which probably ties to his work at UCI, and is active on such topics on Twitter )


 * Comment He was featured independently in a Documentary on the Conan the Barbarian license itself []. He also appears as one of the experts in the upcoming documentary Riddle of Steel: The Definitive History of Conan the Barbarian, that focuses on Robert E Howard and Conan [Vimeo Teaser (3:50 mark)] . Both suggest his knowledge goes beyond just the game (In particular given the latter is from 2015 as well which would be after he left Funcom (2013).  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.129.204.39 (talk) 16:22, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Delete as unlikely better satisfying WP:CREATIVE. SwisterTwister   talk  05:59, 30 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I am still on the fence... There's a number of interviews and coverage of his blog articles that may satisfy WP:CREATIVE Bullet 1 (Widely cited). These typically focus on his design beliefs or industry views, rather than the games he's directly been involved with. -- ferret (talk) 13:54, 30 January 2016 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.