To me no, it is not fair at all (although generally there is little to no hiring in the last few months before shipping). From the game company perspective mak

To me no, it is not fair at all (although generally there is little to no hiring in the last few months before shipping). From the game company perspective making the new employee feel good is better than making a former employee feel good. What is interesting with games that are live for multiple years is how often should in-game credits be updated and how do you credit over time as people join and leave the product with differing amounts of tenure and influence. But yes, universally agreed crediting rules would be wonderful. I don't see how the collective industry gets there outside of a union pushing for it.