The Onco Project - work for exposure

[web-wyvern.livejournal.com]

This is NOT an advertisement. This email was removed by my spam filter, and I consider it to be a risky endeavour that could leave any gullible young artist disappointed, hurt and possibly out of pocket, so I felt it belonged here.

 

 

Who:

Project Manager – The Onco Project

 

Where: Approached via email from Epilogue . Can not find a website for this proposed project.

 

What: they request work for an rpg. Payment is exposure on undisclosed sites/media.

 

Proof: Original uncut email

 

“We saw your portfolio on Epilogue and thought this might be of interest to you:

Graphic Artists are needed for a project that will garner a good amount of exposure among online RPGers.

Interested parties should have a portfolio of previous work ready to present for perusal.

Successful candidates will be asked to produce full-colour illustrations of RPG characters to be used in an online context from a set character description.

Credit for said work will be circulated through social media and will appear on the website associated with the project.

 

Please use the e-mail address below for further inquiries.

(PARTIAL) e-mail: XXXX@eastlink.ca

 

Thank you for your time.

We look forward to hearing from you,

 

(Name removed, initials only): S J H

Project Manager – The Onco Project

Comments

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

http://wiki.python.org/moin/VolunteerOpportunities#The_Onco_Project

This is all I could find in a few minutes' search. (And I'm not even sure it's the same group.)

Looks like it's a possibility it might be one of those work your butt off for nothing more than "getting your name out there". (Based on the whole "credit will be circulated through social media, etc.")

On the other hand, it's just an introductory letter, so there's also the possibility they could actually be paying for the art...

[web-wyvern.livejournal.com]

I contacted them a day after I posted this to the mods, and it was confirmed that the artist should not expect any payment.
Alarm bells are sounding.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

I see. Would you mind adding that bit to your post for those who don't read the comments?

[ogawaburukku.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this didn't seem like a beware until that was mentioned!

[westly-roanoke.livejournal.com]

It's all I could find too, and it's the same, look at the initals of the name.

Not so much a scam, but not so much a paying job either... "Exposure" is cheap, I mean, he already found the OP, right?

Makes me wonder what exactly this person is doing, if it's not art or programming...

[web-wyvern.livejournal.com]

Looks like the same guy. Another race to the bottom for artists willing to give up their valuable skills, time and money. Projects like these just make the art industry worthless. They wouldn't even have graphics for the game without us, but we're not worth paying.

[westly-roanoke.livejournal.com]

Well, to these guys, Python programmers aren't worth paying either, and...without art or programmers, there isn't a game.

It looks like it's just another one of those "I want you to care about my project as much as I do, but I'm not willing to pay anyone to care about it."

[techno4tomcats.livejournal.com]

Not so much as a scam since they don't promise payment, but a 'YOU SHOULD WORK FOR FREE IT WILL HELP YOUR CAREER' post.
Nope.
Nothing hurts your career more than getting suckered into doing 50 hours of unpaid graphic work.
Only your mother and charity work should get free work.

[magusmanx.livejournal.com]

Only person I do game-art work for free is my husband. I got suckered into doing something like this in high school. A} It never panned out. B} Because they kept praising me, I thought my art was amazing, and never actually thought about improving. Putting me in a rut of mediocre art X.X

[techno4tomcats.livejournal.com]

Okay spouses should be added to the list. Since well, you know.
It's a deadly trap for beginners. x_X it makes sense now, but when you just start out...
Me, I've always been ; no money, no dice. But I'm kind of cutthroat when it comes to my art.

[ogawaburukku.livejournal.com]

Kind of off-topic, but since everyone's been talking about it, my stance on free art for publicity is this:

If it's for an anthology, yes! If you only have to do one or two pics and it's going to be in a widely circulated anthology, this is actually great for beginners.

But doing all the work for "exposure" for a GAME is a bit different, haha, depending on the project. I got asked to consider working for a freelance gaming company earlier this summer, and I considered doing it for free when they randomly asked me how much I cost. I sent them prices a little lower than what I would normally send, since I wanted the job, and I never got a response, so... I guess my cheap prices were too expensive!