Benefits for members
Anyone who becomes a member of SAZ strengthens the representation of interests of game authors and consequently the own position. The advantages are obvious: a strong SAZ has more weight in negotiations with publishers about fair contracts as well as in political initiatives, e.g. on intellectual property and the cultural asset of games. Our performance record and successes are impressive. Creatives are often individualists, but everyone benefits from a strong community – both experienced game authors and newcomers.
- Members benefit from the exchange of experiences among each other and can participate from a wealth of well-founded knowledge. . A special APP is available to all members for quick exchange.
- Support with contractual and intellectual property issues: Drawing on many years of experience, a database of well over 100 annotated contracts, and with the support of its legal adviser, the SAZ can provide important advice free of charge. In this way, many contracts have already been optimised significantly in favour of the authors and problems resolved. A Model License Agreement, which is also available to publishers, serves as a guide. In specific cases – following referral by the SAZ office – the SAZ’s legal adviser, a Berlin-based solicitor specialising in intellectual property and media law as well as industrial property rights, is available to provide an initial consultation free of charge. In certain legal cases, the SAZ’s legal defence fund may offer financial support.
- The series of publications called SAZ Points provides the basic knowledge for game designers; it is available for download to all members – see title overview. A newsletter also provides regular information on current topics.
- Guidelines and information leaflets on various German and international tax topics, on German social insurance, on contract advice and on library royalties by the German collecting society VG WORT are also available to all members for download exclusively at the SAZ MEMBER AREA.
- In the SAZ Academy, we offer online seminars via Zoom on a wide range of topics for our members; the series of Topic Talks complements the offer.
- At SAZ training events, members receive exclusive or at least preferential access.
- SAZ members benefit from ticket discounts: For instance, they get free entrance to the Toy Fair in Nuremberg (otherwise for registered trade visitors only), reduced tickets for the consumer fair SPIEL in Essen and reduced fees for the IDEAG conventions in Italy and from 2020 for the Game Designers Convention in Göttingen (Germany).
- The SAZ website is our business card to the public and provides regular information on current topics and dates. Members can create an author profile in the internal area, where they will also find all the documents that we make available exclusively to members.
- The author profiles on the website help to make SAZ members better known as game authors and their expertise. Publishers, companies in other sectors, agencies, media, and even colleagues can contact you quickly and directly.
- An exclusive 3rd party insurance for property and business liability covers a whole range of risks for those who are more intensively and professionally involved in the development of games. Unfortunately, it is currently restricted by the insurance company to residents in Germany and Austria.
- SAZ members can have influence on how the SAZ represents the interests of the game authors, on which topics SAZ is active and who represents the organization. General Assemblies serve the purpose of democratic decision-making, in which all can participate. In addition, there are many opportunities to participate directly in regional groups and individual projects. We also support the formation of national SAZ groups or independent interest groups of game authors in other countries and cooperate with them.
Supporting members also benefit from many of these advantages, but have no voting rights at general meetings, no advice on copyright and contract problems and no author profile on the SAZ website.