Besides, if you're article is simply offering ideas and suggestions, you don't need "credentials" per se for the article to have worth.
Whilst this is true, credibility still plays a part. Suppose there are two people in a room, both with "ideas" on how to sell software. One of those people is Bill Gates, the other is me. To whom are you going to listen to?
@DampeS8N,
This whole thing on game design has been nagging me, because I've hit a brick wall in the development of my own game idea. I've got some very basic technology running, I've got some high level stuff worked out, I've got some low level stuff worked out... and I've stalled completly. Again. Here goes another project, it's just going to fizzle away like all the others.
Only this time, I pulled out one of the many books I have on game design (Game Design: Theory and Practice) and started to read it over breakfast. I found a discussion on game design documents. Now, I thought I had a game design document, all 3 pages of it in Word. This book was talking about a thirty page document being somewhat light-on. So, I've taken a bit of time today at work and started to expand my design document. I've fired up Microsoft Project and started to lay out what I need to do in there, with some rough time frames. All of a sudden, the development road map seems to be coming together. Not taking the time to do a proper design document has been my problem all along (and it also means my wife has been right all along, damn her ;) ).
Now, my personal litle epiphany might be old new to the other guys here, but for me, the revelation that I've been screwing up at the most basic level is both welcome and annoying. But it also pinpointed what has been bugging me about this whole "I want to be a game designer" thing.
If you can't code, fine. Codeing isn't everyone's cup of tea. But if you want to be taken seriously as a game designer, design a game. Not the typical team request that gets stomped on within 10 seconds ("I've got a great game idea that I need a programmer and an artist for. It's like Quake 4 but better, with a neat twist that involves time travel and glo-sticks"), but a full-on design document with detailed gameplay breakdowns, art asset requirements, codeing schedules, development timelines, the whole enchilada.
Alternatively, if you've got a novel payment scheme worked out, give us the details. Show us the research that your idea is better than everything else out there. Prove it.
Your original article was an opinion piece, and as an opinion piece it was ok, I guess. Some of your opinions as advice seemed a bit odd, but hey, they are your opinions. If you're going to redo your article, and you don't have experience, have research. Link everything back to source articles and other research, so I can see that you've done the hard work of bringing all of this together, and are thus worth listening to. Lead me by the hand to your conclusion, and I will listen.