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Home , Anachronox, Bruce Daniels, Gordon Walton, Ion Storm, John Romero, Marc Blank

in line and everything will be just fine. two articles I fired up Noctis to see the Which, frankly, is about how many of us insanity for myself. That is the loneliest think to this day. With the exception of a game I’ve ever played. For those of you who fell asleep during very brave few. the classical mythology portion of your In response to “Development in a - Danjo Olivaw higher education, the stories all go like In this issue of The Escapist, we take a Vacuum” from The Escapist Forum: this: Some guy decides he no longer look at the stories of a few, brave souls As for the fact that thier isolation has In response to “Footprints in needs the gods, sets off to prove as in the game industry who, for better or been a benefit to them rather than a Moondust” from The Escapist Forum: much and promptly gets smacked down. worse, decided that they, too, were hindrance, that’s what I discussed with I’d just like to say this was a fantastic destined to make their dreams a reality. Oveur (Nathan Richardsson) while in article. I think I’ll have to read Olaf Prometheus, Sisyphus, Icarus, Odysseus, Some actually succeeded, while others Vegas earlier this year at the EVE the stories are full of men who, for crashed and burned. We in the game Gathering. The fact that Iceland is such whatever reason, believed that they industry may not have jealous, angry small country, with a very unique culture were not bound by the normal gods against which to struggle, but and the fact that most of the early CCP constraints of mortality. Men who oftentimes the rabid fans, power-hungry team was from a telecommunication dreamed impossible dreams, set out to distributors and cynical reviewers can be background also benefited the game make them realities and failed. Often just as irascible. early on. miserably. Prometheus was chained to the side of a mountain to feed the crows. In The Escapist Issue 55, “Against the Very curious about “other games” that Icarus flew as high as the sun, then Gods,” talks with legendary they eventually get into. We’ve been plummeted to his death. Odysseus was MMOG developer ; Lara hearing about it here and there, but cursed by Poseidon to spend 10 years Crigger tackles the story of storied nothing concrete so far. fighting his way home only then to find ; Bruce Nielsen gives us a first- that a gaggle of suitors had besieged his hand look at the demise of a wargame - crazykinux faithful wife. And Sisyphus? Well, his company; Shannon Drake deals with the story is better left for another time. hubris of EA’s and John In response to “Footprints in Romero discusses both his successes and Moondust” from The Escapist Forum: What’s the moral of these stories? That failures in his interview with The Escapist. What an unforeseen intersection, the no man is an island, for sure, but also discovery of determinism in a game that the gods aren’t to be trifled with. where the player is only an observer. Gods are gods, men are men and that’s Since it was mentioned in no less than just the way it is. Do what they say, stay Stapledon’s ‘The Star Maker’ again. And If I could meet Chris C. I would shake as Fable (highly innovative) are maybe I should try Noctis again too. his hand for how much influence he had marginally received I think because of in my career and game playing. the consumers lack of willingness to - Zapatero commit to the idea that went into the - JohnnyLA games creation. On the other hand, the In response to “My Own Private market is overflowing with various game Galaxy” from The Escapist Forum: I In response to “Lost in the Void” genres that try to do, in my opinion, too started reading this weeks issue, and as from The Escapist Forum: It seems many things. Games that focus on doing I read past all the articles mentioning that BioWare is attempting to tap into a single thing extremely well always Wing Commander, X-wing, and other some of that space sim mystique in the satisfy my expectations and usually space games I thought, “How could they upcoming RPG Mass Effect. I have no leave me wanting more. write an issue based on outer space idea what the mechanics of space games and not mention Escape Velocity”. exploration will be like -- probably - Br0wnShugha To my surprise, Pat Miller cooled my jets nothing like the old school sims -- but with a piece about the game I used to it’s at least an indication that play on the old Macintosh. Escape glimmerings of this genre are still alive Velocity had such depth that you actually in the mainstream. felt as if you were out in space calling the shots. It was an awesome game, no - Ian Dorsch doubt From “Bang for your buck” in The - Gradius Master Escapist Forum: It seems that the very nature of the initial cost of a new game In response to “Wing Leader” from somehow determines a persons The Escapist Forum: Actually Origin’s willingness to play it. Let’s face it, its all and the Wing Commander series about our level of satisfaction with the are what inspired me to get into the game vs. the amount of money that we game industry as an artist. spent on it. Who hasn’t paid good money for a dog of a title before? Games such Romero. In the five years he worked with , contributed Perhaps it’s something about the name heavily to developing a number of itself that brings to mind great things. innovative PC games, including id’s Some combination of etymological breakout hit Castle 3D and triggers, perhaps; a heady mental one of the most widely recognized and mixture that’s part romance, part controversial games of all time, ; Camaro - sex in a Z28. the game that has been accused of inspiring the Columbine High School The man himself evokes a similarly shootings, made its designers multi- visceral response. Meeting him, speaking millionaires and ushered in the era of the with him and tracking his movements “rockstar game developer.” Yet inside the across nearly three decades of life in the game industry, Romero is even better game game, one can hardly imagine known for the one that got away. John Romero as anything other than a smashing success. Which is why, In 1996, following a widely-publicized perhaps, so many take such pleasure in feud with - centered pointing out his one great failure. around the belief among key id staffers that Romero talked too much to the Romero has developed, or been involved press and worked too l ittle on the in developing nearly 100 games, at least games - Romero founded his own half a dozen of which have sold more company, , with fellow than 100,000 copies. Having cut his designers and Todd Porter and teeth in the game industry coding games artist Jerry O’Flaherty. The men leased for the Apple II, Romero worked for the penthouse of a prestigious , Origin and (founding a few of Texas office building, deep in the heart of his own companies along the way) oil country, for the company’s before co-founding id Software in 1991 headquarters. A monument to excess, with John Carmack, Adrian Carmack (no the Ion Storm offices featured a movie relation) and Tom Hall. screening room (complete with leather furniture), arcade machines, a bank of videogame ever made, and was heavily where Ion Storm’s other designers had tentatively called , computers devoted to Doom and advertised as the game that would make failed, creating the critically acclaimed, which has recently begun hiring “,” 60-foot glass ceilings you, the player, John Romero’s “bitch.” best-selling science-fiction action/ programmers and artists to work on a (which prompted the company’s , . Spector then new, super secret massively multiplayer programmers to erect felt tents over That eventually sold 200,000 presided over a sequel to Deus Ex and a (MMOG), which the man their workspaces to reduce the glare of copies - a smashing success by some long-awaited follow up to Looking Glass himself has called “super stealth,” and the daytime sun), oak furniture, steel standards - is irrelevant. Costing more Studios’ games, before parting which he promises will be bigger than cubicles, and a pool table. It was an than $10 million and taking three years ways with the company to pursue other office fit for the man who had once to develop, Daikatana would have had to interests. Ion Storm was closed for good referred to himself as “God,” and it do far more than make you its bitch to in 2005. would be within this 54th floor glass have been considered a success. Since cage that John Romero’s Icarian flight day one at Ion Storm, Romero and Co. After leaving Ion Storm, John Romero would come (at least temporarily) to an had set their sights on Doom-like sales founded his own company, Monkeystone, end. figures, and in what was certainly the with former girlfriend and game industry greatest example of star-driven, game icon, Stevie Case. There, the pair, with Ion Storm, backed by publisher Eidos, industry hubris, had been completely Tom Hall, produced games for the mobile planned initially to ship three games, surprised by their failure. phone market, until Romero joined San each designed by one of the company’s Diego-based Midway, long-time maker of three co-founders. Romero’s long-time Ion Storm’s Dallas office, rocked by arcade games such Spy Hunter and friend (and Softdisk and id Software political in-fighting (which led to a near- Mortal Kombat. For Midway, Romero colleague), Tom Hall, planned to develop complete walk-out of Romero’s developed a follow-up to the successful a science-fiction roleplaying game called Daikatana team) was closed in 2001 by Gauntlet and an original , which was eventually Eidos following a bail-out deal in which game called Area 51. Romero has since released in 2001 to poor reviews and the publisher had acquired a controlling left Midway to found a new company, lackluster sales. Todd Porter, former interest in the hemorrhaging game ministry student, exotic dancer and company. The company flag was then Origin employee, was to develop a game moved to Austin, Texas, where industry called Doppleganger, which was veteran had been hired eventually cancelled. Romero’s game in 1997 to create a small arm of Ion was Daikatana. It was intended to be Storm away from the tumult to the larger and grander in scale than any north. Spector’s team had succeeded anything he’s ever made. Looking back us indeterminate [development] cycles over his resume, one has to wonder how on our games, which then fed the next such a thing is even possible. game’s dev cycle; it’s not something many indies can do. We were also very The Escapist recently spoke with John active in trying to help other small game Romero about his past, his present and dev teams make great games (Raven, his mysterious future. Rogue, Ritual, Valve).

*** TE: All of the id guys, but especially you, pretty much defined the role of “Rockstar The Escapist: So, let’s start off by going Game Designer.” A lot of us who’ve been back to the heady days of Castle playing games (including yours) for most and Doom shareware of our lives have thought at one time or releases. There’s a lot of ink being another that it would be nice to be John sacrificed right now on the topic of Romero. Who does John Romero want “indie” or “scratchware” development, to be? and comparisons to id’s success story have been made more than once. Back JR: I like being me, actually. I want to in those days, just before the entire continue doing things I consider fun. As universe became your playground, did do we all. I still love developing games you guys see yourselves as “indie” game and as a daily job it just cannot be beat. TE: Touching again on the subject of developers? No matter how much bitching you hear fame, for better or worse you became from overworked game employees, the remarkably famous in a relatively short JR: After 10-plus years of reading about John Romero: Yeah, we definitely saw work definitely beats just about any time, and consequently became a sort of yourself, all the good and bad, it all just ourselves as indies, but it wasn’t other job for the kind of work you do and lightning rod for criticism of the industry becomes irrelevant after awhile. I know something we focused on – we were just the salary and benefits you can get. I’ve in general and the products of your what I’m capable of doing and the doing our own thing. We developed our worked beyond insane hours and have company(s) specifically. How much of people I work with are united in our games in a pretty non-disciplined and loved every minute of it. You have to what is written about “John Romero” do mission, and they treat me just like they non-organized way because so much of really love game development to go you take in, and how much of it do you treat each other. The whole fame thing it was R&D. We were lucky that our first through that. Especially for 27 years. put away in a special place never to see doesn’t come into play when we’re in game trilogy sold well enough to afford or hear from again? development, because we’re all a team. I know some of my guys read a lot of Austin studio every few months – that’s TE: What were your aspirations for forums and sometimes they’ll see some just a taste of the pure insanity that Monkeystone, as a company, and how remark that someone clueless made and prevailed in the Dallas office. well do you think you achieved them? show it to me, chuckling because they know the truth of who I am and how I It was hard to concentrate on making a JR: My main aspiration for Monkeystone work. The media personification of John game when someone was always trying was to get back to a small game Romero is not who John Romero is. to disrupt everything every day. And it company and work directly with Tom showed in our first two games. Luckily, again and my girlfriend Stevie. To get TE: One thing that I and I believe our Anachronox, Tom’s game, had an extra back into programming 24/7 and learn readers are keenly interested in hearing year of development without the negative as much as I could. I wanted to explore from you about is Ion Storm. What can influences affecting his team, and it shows; the emerging mobile world and see what you tell me about that time, now that his game is a work of art and passion by a it was all about. We had a blast with you’ve had some distance from it? young dev team trying to prove something. Monkeystone, and so much happened Of course, with the Austin office far away during the short time we ran the company – an incredible amount happened. It deserves its own book.

TE: In 2003, you and Tom Hall joined Midway. I suppose the two questions that immediately come to mind are: Why would such an independent, creative guy JR: For me, the end of Ion Storm came and Warren at the helm, Deus Ex turned join a company like Midway; and: Why exactly five years ago, and for the world out to be a masterpiece. did you leave? Ion Storm ended in February [of] last year, after eight and a half years. There All I wanted was a big, fun game company JR: The reason I left Monkeystone was were four of us co-founders, and I where everyone was united in the purpose that Stevie Case and I broke up and a convinced Warren Spector to join us to make great games. I never imagined major part of creating Monkeystone was almost a year after starting the that someone would ever want to screw to have a company with her. The company, and what a great decision that that up, but they did and it happened. I’ve breakup was more like a supernova was. I fought hard to keep two of the co- learned a lot from that experience. explosion that we tried to contain and founders from trying to shut down the keep away from the media (it worked). Truly, all the turmoil of Ion Storm was because San Diego is awesome. My dwarfed by this event; it was the worst second reason for joining Midway was to experience of my life. do original console development as opposed to the majority of my career I finished off theRed Faction N-Gage which had been focused primarily on project with the team and told Tom that home computers. It was something new I needed to get out of Dallas and do for me, in a way. something else for a while. I was devastated. But Tom wanted to join me, Tom and I eventually hired our so we put Lucas Davis in charge of the Monkeystone guys when we decided to Monkeystone office while Tom and I shut down the company. Tom then left looked around for other opportunities. Midway to be Creative Director of two The best [opportunity] we found was MMOGs at Kingsisle Entertainment in working at Midway in beautiful San Austin, and I left to co-found my new Diego. In the meantime, we had game company in the Bay Area to do an Monkeystone working on an N-Gage innovative [MMOG] on the PC. version of Chronicles of Riddick (eventually canceled), and then we TE: What can you tell us about that? moved the company down to Austin to complete the multiplayer part of Area JR: I can’t say anything until the JR: It would have been some kind of cooperative gameplay left out of a single- 51. I was working on Gauntlet: Seven summer of 2007! What a difference it crazy world without game magazines and player game is unthinkable. Sorrows and Tom was Creative Director makes being quiet about my projects. online media. Just kidding. It would in third-party over several games. probably have been a world where Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor at The TE: To wrap up, a lot has been said people all love to baby-sit their sidekicks Escapist, who was formerly head writer I joined Midway because of two reasons. about this, so I don’t want to belabor it, and watch them die while doors close on and producer of TechTV’s The Screen Reason number one was that I wanted to but I do have to ask: If you were to them 1,000 times in 10 seconds. A world Savers and has been writing on the web see what working for a big company was believe in a Bizarro World (and who where people love to hear sidekicks talk since it was invented. He will soon be like. So, I was only talking to big doesn’t), what do you think a Bizarro to each other and the player, where air producing and hosting a bi-weekly companies, and Midway seemed like the World in which Daikatana had actually control and speed in is podcast for The Escapist called Escape best place, because revitalizing Gauntlet made gamers your bitches would look like? something taken for granted and where Radio, which will undoubtedly make you felt like it could be really fun, and its bitch. Raphael Koster is a prolific theorist in the Austin office of Online young field of massively multiplayer Entertainment, where he was creative online game design. For many years, he director for Galaxies: An has developed his design philosophy on Empire Divided. Shortly after SWG’s his blog, in lectures, at conferences and launch, Koster moved to San Diego to in his 2004 book, A Theory of Fun for become SOE’s Chief Creative Director. Game Design. Though Koster left Sony in March 2006, Unlike some high-profile thinkers, Raph his contract expired in June. In this Koster actually ships product. “I do all interview, conducted by e-mail soon this writing to clarify things for myself,” afterward, he talks about past and he says. “I put it out there afterwards, current projects, and about what went figuring maybe it’ll help other folks, but right – and wrong – in UO and SWG. the initial drive comes ... because I am banging my head against a design Writings problem. So, the theory is a tool. You In A Theory of Fun for Game Design (you write it down so you don’t forget it – it’s can find some excerpts here), Koster like having a toolbox full of screwdrivers, defines “fun” as a function of learning wrenches and whatever.” and mastery. As we explore a new game, we learn to recognize its challenges and Koster started designing for MUDs in exploit the tools offered to overcome 1992, while working on a Master of Fine them – that is, to gain mastery over the Arts in Poetry from the University of game environment. “Fun” (which Koster Alabama, Tuscaloosa; he was distinguishes from aesthetic “implementor” “Ptah” in LegendMUD. appreciation, visceral responses, delight (Check out an in-game interview with and other forms of enjoyment) is “the him here.) Joining Origin in Austin, act of mastering a problem mentally” – Texas, in 1995 as a designer, Koster the endorphin reward feedback the brain worked as creative lead on gives us when we are absorbing patterns and, after launch, was lead designer on for learning purposes. the Live Team until 1999. He joined the “Overall, I was thrilled at the reception the book were too obvious – and Koster’s current book project is A Ultima Online the book got. I’m really honored and certainly lots of folks, like Chris Grammar of Gameplay, an ambitious The first large-scale success among pleased it seems to have become a Crawford, had said large pieces of the attempt to symbolically describe the graphic MMOGs, Ultima Online peaked at useful part of the overall landscape of book before. component “atoms” of games. He 250,000 subscribers in July 2003 before thinking about games. It was interesting presented an early example at the Game gradually declining to its current 135,000 seeing the criticism, too. Many “By and large, the general ideas have Developers Conference in San Jose, CA, (of whom half are in Japan). academics wanted much more detail in held up for me. I think the most March 2005. The grammar would be a the book, for example. It’s a mode of interesting comments on the book’s tool to reverse-engineer and notate “I really like my [MMOGs] to embody writing I am not all that interested in ideas have come from the folks who say individual game ingredients, such as user creativity. I also dislike cliques, so I anymore, not since graduate school, so I it did a good job of pinning down one topology (“the operational space for a have tried to design so people who felt few qualms about shrugging and sort of fun – a few people have taken to given asset”), core mechanics wouldn’t normally hang out together moving on. Lots of folks said the ideas in calling it kfun. I think there’s something (“ludemes”), depth of recursion, cost of come to realize each other’s importance there. As [player experience failure and many other abstractions. in the world, the value of their roles in psychologist] Nicole Lazzaro keeps doing Using the grammar, a designer could the society, that sort of thing. So I try to research into emotion and games, my quantifiably assess a game’s difficulty, have interdependence as a key feature – theorizing may get replaced by concrete range of challenges and required people relying on each other, not in the data soon, which would be incredibly feedback mechanisms. moment-to-moment sense, but in the helpful to game designers.” sense that our modern lives would fall apart if there weren’t people in a zillion jobs doing things we never think twice about, from stocking grocery shelves to manufacturing pens. The heart of UO was in many ways the original ecology system, which I wrote about at some length on my blog. It didn’t pan out, but even what we managed to get in there did in fact open up a lot of doors. I think we hit a lot of [our design goals], and were close to having much of it working, but the PK [player killing] problem basically undermined everything.” UO inadvertently popularized several “We worked hard to reduce PKing now-familiar online dysfunctions – without instituting the switch, and based especially player-versus-player (PvP) on what I saw, we did in fact make griefing. Koster and the Live Team steady progress. But after I left the wrestled with UO’s escalating problem of team, the introduction of the Trammel high-level player characters killing and and Felucca facets [settled the issue] in looting lower-level characters. Koster a very different way than I would have argued against a “PK switch,” whereby chosen. I would have kept to the general players could select whether to participate path we were on. The various systems in, and be vulnerable to, PvP combat. like stat loss and ping-pong murder After Koster left Origin, UO instituted an counts were having a gradual effect on area-based PK switch, segregating its PK attacks. shards (servers) into two facets (worlds): “Felucca” (unrestrained PvP) and “If we had gotten to the natural next “Trammel” (PvP only by mutual consent). step, which was player cities with control Most players migrated to Trammel. over PvP within their territory, I think the real nature of PvP in the game could “A big part of why I fought the PK switch have emerged. was because it meant we were trading away player self-determination for “On the other hand, in terms of what I security – echoes of today’s political expected players to do with it, I think situation, in some ways! UO often felt [UO] exceeded every wildest like long days of taking out things we expectation. The players don’t care about had put into the game because players what you wanted there, about what the found ways to hurt each other with the dreams were – they only care about toys we gave them. But the goal was still what they have in front of them, and self-determination and freedom. The then they proceed to do things you never Ultima series was about learning to live imagined. And in UO’s case, a lot of what with the Virtues, and I wanted the they managed to come up with was truly MMOG to be about the same thing. amazing and not at all something I had ever pictured. “I literally have not logged in for several Ultima Online with all the content and hey, this is an interview, and there’s no really finished under my tenure were years now. It’s changed beyond recognition depth of EverQuest. My feeling at the time room to give my detailed postmortem on player cities, mounts and the Warren – for me, in some ways. I am still in touch was, ‘This is the single best opportunity every system! Yes, I still think something and by cities, actually, I was barely with some of the players, though.” ever for MMOGs to swing for the fences, like HAM [the threefold Health-Agility- involved. I had philosophical damn the cost – if not now, when?’ Mental damage system] could work, but disagreements with a lot of the direction Star Wars Galaxies: What Went yeah, it was probably too complicated.) taken after that. Wrong? “Fundamentally, SWG was launched too After almost three and a half years of early from a game design point of view. “I was not involved directly with SWG “I didn’t like a lot of the subsequent development, Sony Online Entertainment It may not have been from a financial from about four months after launch. choices – thinking here of Holocron launched Star Wars Galaxies in June point of view – there’s considerations like People seem to think that as [Chief drops, [Temporary Enemy Flag] changes, 2003 to mixed or negative response. how much had been spent, how soon it Creative Officer] I was somehow in group sizes, buff expansions, global SWG peaked in 2004 below 300,000 would earn back the investment, that control of all the design being done at market, entertainer changes, creature subscribers. SOE revamped the game, sort of thing – but most systems in there SOE. That’s not really the case at all; I handler removal, levels, a lot of the first in April 2005 and more drastically – were first-pass at best. The place where had some influence, but I spent most of combat upgrade ... I could give you my some say disastrously – in November, that was most obvious was in the my time doing pitches, R&D, publicity with the New Game Enhancements relative lack of content at launch. The stuff and that sort of thing. It’s been well (NGE). Bruce Woodcock estimates SWG’s tools simply came on too late to make over two years since I did anything current player base at between 110,000 the volume of content needed, and even significant on the title. The last things and 175,000. though a heroic final push tried to populate the game with distinctive content, it just “When I started on SWG, one of the first wasn’t anywhere near enough. things I did was write down the things I thought the game had to mean: a great “A large chunk of the blame lies with me, civil war, political battles (under the for being over-ambitious with the design. influence of the new trilogy here), the I don’t think there were all that many Light and Dark sides of the Force, fundamental problems with the overall swashbuckling derring-do, a rich and design itself – some, sure, but nothing diverse world and, lastly, community – like the closed-economy debacle in UO, because this last one is common to all for example. [The systems] were first- MMOGs and also because Star Wars fans pass, but mostly conceptually solid. (I are themselves a strong community. My am sure current and ex-SWG players will goal was to marry the open-endedness of want to argue this point in detail, but opinions there, but there’s no point – were a big one. But it boiled down to the even those changes have been changed. fact that I had a few projects and Many of them were essentially trying to directions I really wanted to pursue, and dig out of the hole that launching SOE wasn’t at a place to pursue them. prematurely had caused. I can’t really They couldn’t fund the projects I wanted blame anyone for them, whether I to do, because of other projects already agreed with the decisions or not. The going. They generously let me start whole time, the team worked their ass working on going indie before the off and tried their best. contract term was up, even, which they didn’t have to do – it was a very “I’ll make an exception for the NGE. I amicable departure. don’t think you can or should change a game that radically out from under a “I really wanted to get back to working user base. You dance with the ones that hands-on on a game, and I also have brung ya, whether they are the market firm ideas about the next directions of your dreams or not. They have online games are going to take. The cost players happy forever. That means new invested their passion and built of making things like World of Warcraft sorts of virtual worlds have to come into expectations about where they want the is pretty much completely unsustainable being, or else all those folks will just flow different sizes. Sometimes they are game to go. Changing things out from for most companies, and it’s mostly in right back out of the market. It’s way, trivial little card games you can play in under them isn’t fair in my mind, making endless numbers of static quests way past due that we get out of the five minutes, and sometimes they are especially given how they have been and awesome artwork. The next tank-healer-nuker game I got bored of complicated German-style board games loyal to you in times of trouble. It’s like generation of MMOGs, outside of a few back in 1993. that take an hour or more to play. dumping the girlfriend who has always blockbusters, will have to be about Sometimes they are puzzle games on been patient and loving to chase after something different: lower cost “I am working on a startup company, but the PC, and sometimes they are online the supermodel who probably won’t love development, smaller mountains of static we’re running quiet for a while. I’ve got worlds. I just enjoy making games, so I you back.” content, more embracing of techniques that book to write. I also have two or imagine I’ll keep doing it.” that reduce those costs. three game ideas banging around that I Next really shouldn’t work on, since I need to Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA “I wanted to do things that weren’t really “I don’t doubt the DikuMUD-based game focus on the startup! paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 possible at SOE, for a variety of reasons. we’re all still playing will have legs as edition) and has contributed to computer Oh, we’d had our disagreements, too – long as there’s people who still haven’t “The public doesn’t get to see it, but I games from Sony Online, Origin, the NGE changes in SWG, for example, tried it out, but it won’t keep the current usually design a dozen games a year, of Interplay, and Looking Glass. (Author’s note: The story you’re about to Then, one of Erudite’s owners, Jim, read is real; only the names have been approached me about managing the changed.) game division on their follow-up titles. I was nervous about this, because the I stared the Cold Equations in the eye game division wasn’t popular with the and survived, though I was not other company owners. But seeing an unscarred. Yet the true hero in this story opportunity to help turn the division was a man named Jim. around, I eventually decided to help out part time. Besides, how hard could game When I started working for Erudite development be? Software Consulting in 1994, I was excited about finally getting out of school and into How hard indeed! the software industry. Though primarily a software consulting company, Erudite also Although managing artists was a new sported a games division, which was experience, it turned out to be pretty working on a game based on the board much like managing programmers. But game The Great Battles of Alexander. there was one huge difference between the two groups: The game programmers Three years passed before Alexander made between $30,000 and $50,000 per finally saw the light of day. It was a year, whereas the artists were lucky to complex, historically accurate, turn- break $19,000. So, why would highly based strategy game made during the skilled, highly trained, college-educated time of the RTS. Despite this, the only artists make less than equally skilled and truly negative review I read about it was trained programmers? When I asked Jim, in USA Today, which said that its – he responded, “It’s the price the market obviously casual – players couldn’t figure will bear.” This was my first brush with out the game. But magazine critics, who the Cold Equations of economics. were hardcore gamers, raved about Alexander! At last their favorite niche Though not well paid, the artists were was being filled. still passionate. Making money as an artist is, for them, like jocks making life to save millions of others. Little did I money playing sports. Unfortunately, know that supply and demand would soon artists “over supply” the market create my own “Cold Equation.” I found compared to its demand, which means myself confronting immutable economic lower salaries. laws that coldly took their victims, regardless of the best human intentions. Soon, I realized the game programmers were underpaid, as well. By far the most The first game I worked on,The Great technically adept programmers in the Battles of Hannibal, was only a six- company, these game programmers month project. It was little more than a made 30 to 50 percent less than re-skin of Alexander with a few new equivalently skilled software consultants rules, so I was confident of its schedule. – not counting overtime! I supposed We produced it almost exactly to this was the price you paid to make schedule and made a 20 percent profit. games for a living. Like Jim, the Though relieved, one thing still bothered programmers and artists had real me: If I had deployed these same passion for what they did. Making money resources on a consulting project, at making games allowed them to do Erudite could have easily brought in a 50 what they enjoyed and still pay the bills. percent gross profit. In fact, if our software consulting arm only made 20 The effects of supply and demand on percent profit, we’d go out of business. game division salaries reminded me of Tom Godwin’s classic story, “Cold Though we talked big about making Equations.” A spaceship captain was to additional royalties if the game sold deliver time-sensitive vaccines to the better, this proved a pipe dream. dying inhabitants of a far-off planet. Alexander had sold to all of the world, we only made a few dollars on game had cost compared to its advance According to physics laws, the ship’s approximately 30,000 people in the each game sold. We had found a niche against royalties. Jim had to pick me up mass and fuel must be carefully world that liked that sort of game. And and captured it. It wasn’t possible to sell off the floor. It had cost nearly 10 times calculated to insure an exact arrival they didn’t just like it, they loved it. more units. the amount of the royalty advance! I ran time. But after discovering a stowaway, They loved it so much that almost all of the numbers, taking into consideration and realizing her added mass will them returned to buy Hannibal. Besides, Concerned about the game’s profit the capitalization of the , endanger the mission, he sacrifices her as is typical in the developer/publisher margin, I asked Jim what the original and found we’d have to publish 20 games as profitable asHannibal before We started work on what would be our we’d break even! What had I gotten final game using theAlexander engine. myself into? This Civil War game, North vs. South, was a departure from the previous Undaunted, the passionate people of our games. Many on the team started to little game division moved on to The worry. They had grown tired of being the Great Battles of Caesar. Although we “ugly duckling” at a successful company. made our schedule and were profitable Would it be any different at Jim’s new again, I still worried about how easy it company? Some approached Jim with would be to fail. Even a one-month slip their concerns. He reassuringly said he’d would wipe out our profit margin. Our find other types of games for them – software consulting arm would walk perhaps web-based Java applets – if the away from such business, because, in new company wasn’t interested in their software, a single unforeseeable problem current work. This revelation didn’t sit well can easily lead to such a delay. I was with many team members, who saw Java beginning to understand why the other applets as featherweight programming. company owners disliked the game division so much.

Jim’s passion was the sole force allowing us to exist. A man with a mission, Jim was fulfilling a dream to bring these board games to videogame fans worldwide. So I knew we were in trouble when Jim announced he was leaving. He left saying, “I’m coming back for the Fearing the worst, some programmers game division. I’m going to convince my departed for greener pastures. One of new company to buy it. Keep it in good them was going through a divorce partly shape.” I saluted smartly and reassured caused by the job pressure, and he just the team that Jim would return for them. couldn’t take anymore. One of Erudite’s game-division-hating owners offered him family. I helped him find a job in the cold equations of our over-supplied $80,000 to work as a software trainer. It game industry with a friend of mine. He industry and still stay in business. was three times what he used to make. alone stayed in the game industry. With Passion? Ha! What had it gotten him? the publisher’s help, we figured out a The only real cure to this problem is He quickly left and others soon followed. way he could finish offNvS . We worse than the disease: Remove the completed the game two months late passion from the industry. But do we Then, my worst fears were realized. Near and lost money in the process. Not long really want the entire industry to be like the end of the NvS schedule, we ran into after NvS, they went out of business. ? What a shame it would a problem: The new unit types (like be to not have people like Jim, who have cannons) were too big for the engine to The sad truth is that we never had a a driving passion in the industry and who properly display inside a single hex. In shot at success. We were driven by Jim’s take chances that were logically never some circumstances, this caused the passion to make computer games. From worth taking. There are no villains in this large units to turn invisible. We did not an economic standpoint, it is simply not story. Just a group of passionate people have time in the schedule to resolve this worth making a game for the 30,000 that believed they could defy the Cold unforeseeable glitch. Working through “historically accurate turned-based” Equations of economics. the issue required all of our rapidly enthusiasts in the world. We were shrinking resources. Pouring salt on the victims of the Cold Equation of supply Bruce Nielson’s short experience as a wound, our financially struggling and demand. game producer left him cold and he’d publisher canceled our follow-up project. rather be a game consumer anyhow. If Our future vanished before our eyes. By My perspective on computer games has you’re stupid enough to want to hire him the time we finishedNvS , there was changed forever. Soulless companies anyhow, please offer a very large salary. exactly one programmer left, and all the that don’t take chances, show little He can be reached via The Online artists had been laid off. originality, work their people to the point Roleplayer, which he runs. of lawsuits and let the accountants run Joe, the remaining programmer, had a the company may not be popular with lot of talent and was passionate about hardcore gamers, but they do understand games, but even he needed to feed his what it really takes to wrestle with the The Sims Online should have been a sure Executive Producer of The Sims Online, thing. The premise reads like a gaming who called the task of transplanting the executive’s dream sheet. A popular, long- wonder of The Sims to an online lived franchise loved by casual and environment one of the “real challenges. hardcore gamers alike; a game that sells We just couldn’t get everything built in at Wal-Mart as well as it does at EB the time available, even with great Games and developed by Will Wright, resource support from EA.” one of the most famous names in game design. The launch window picked was “Not enough time” is a common refrain close to perfect: December 17, 2002, among developers of failed games, but just in time for Christmas, virtually gamers and reviews alike have also laid assuring millions of sales. In-house blame for TSO’s stunning failure at the predictions called for an ongoing active feet of its a boring, repetitive skill subscriber base of up to 1 million people, system. One that even the hardest-core but The Sims Online launched out of the MMOG players considered tedious. There gate and promptly fell flat. Six months were also significant problems with the after launch, Wired reported 125,000 target Sims audience. retail copies sold and 97,000 active subscribers—not bad, but not enough to “Will was really interested in the social justify the game’s $20 million budget. By and gaming possibilities bringing the April, 2004, their subscription rate Sims audience together would offer,” peaked at around 55,000, and has now according to Walton. Fans of The Sims, stagnated near 35,000. however, didn’t seem to agree. The series’ core audience, in hindsight, had The “sure thing” is now an “also-ran,” an little interest in playing an online game embarrassment to all concerned and an at all, but if they were to play an online eyesore on the balance sheet of the Sims game, they’d much rather play one world’s largest game company. that was more like the rest of the series.

“The game we shipped didn’t actually Instead, players logging into The Sims have the complete feature set that Will Online found themselves in a strangely and I envisioned,” says Gordon Walton, familiar, yet incredibly unsettling place. It was like The Sims, yes, but here they disinclined to show up to some new Hardcore online gamers, raised with one MMOG offerings, and the launch of were expected to create and Sim’s house when they could just as eye on the game and the other on an Second Life gave the adult elements a micromanage one Sim, rather than a easily work for more popular players who image of goatse have come to accept the playspace all their own. What remains is family of them. Moreover, they were would then collect the rewards for all the “porn-ification” of an online community the ‘til-the-lights-go-out crowd and the expected to raise her up in the classic stuff going on in their house. It was a as a matter of course; the inevitable faint, but distinct, scent of MMOG model: Doing repetitive things for backward system which punished entropy of an anonymous virtual disappointment at a 20 million dollar a meager amount of money to raise latecomers severely. hangout. However, the majority of Sims failure. numbers that make doing the repetitive players, new to online gaming, were thing slightly easier which would then Yet, as with any desperate economy, unaware of the den of iniquity that Shannon Drake likes commas and enable them to possibly get more many TSO players (the majority of which awaited them. The initial reaction many standing out in the rain. money. In TSO, however, once the player were female) soon discovered that the had to the game wasn’t that it was a clicked on an object, all there was left to world’s oldest profession still had a place massively multiplayer virtual dollhouse. do was watch and chat. in the world’s newest boomtown. It was “My god, it’s full of whores.” Whorehouses soon sprang up, as did “Not having a fully functioning economy freelance child prostitutes and the and more fun activities to entertain inevitable nude patch. players made the game less appealing than we wanted,” according to Walton. “The most exciting major feature that Those brave few who tried TSO would the team wanted was player-generated seem to agree. custom content,” says Walton. “It was also the most involved to implement and “We really wanted to make something The flashy bits, all the furniture and administer.” Meaning EA had launched the majority of the Sims audience would gadgets that made The Sims what it the game with no clear guidelines or love to play online,” says Gordon Walton, was, were very, very expensive in The tools for players wanting to creatively who now heads BioWare’s Austin studio, Sims Online. It was possible to build a express themselves. Players filled the and is working on an MMOG he hopes to rudimentary house with a few void themselves by injecting their own announce at next year’s . What he moneymaking objects with the initial ideas of what might make a good game and his team at EA created was the grubstake, but the rewards were meager. great. The result was, of course, an online world’s first great social Rewards scaled up proportional to the avalanche of explicit content and activity, experiment. The underground has number of people playing, which meant and since the T-rated title had no outlet largely moved on, as it’s far more to accomplish anything, it was necessary for adult content, it went everywhere. exciting to play one of the many other to attract other players who were Infocom, king of the text adventure and players who wanted more natural, the first behemoth of American computer complex commands. game development, began not with a bang, but with an internet meme. So, in 1977, four MIT students - , Tim Anderson, and Long before “All Your Base” and the “O - decided to make their R’LY? owl,” there was Adventure. own game in Adventure’s image. Their Released in 1975 onto the ARPANet (the version retained Adventure’s basic internet’s predecessor), Will Crowther’s interface but featured an improved Adventure was essentially a simulation parser, which now could understand of a caving expedition he’d done in complete sentences. The new game, Kentucky. But his co-workers loved it, which they named , appeared on the and they passed it along to their friends. school’s mainframe in 1979, where As the game traveled across networks, it anyone who had access could play. Like was revised and re-written, particularly Adventure before it, Zork steadily earned when Stanford researcher Don Woods a worldwide cult following. beefed up the storyline and added some Tolkien-esque flair. By the time it *** migrated onto MIT’s mainframe in 1976, the game had blossomed into somewhat Shortly after Zork’s publication, a few of a pre-internet net phenomenon. MIT computer science students - including Zork’s writers - decided that As a game, however, Adventure was far they wanted to work together outside a from perfect. Aside from programming stuffy university setting. That summer, artifacts and design flaws,Adventure ’s they started their own software company biggest drawback was its parser (the and called it Infocom. program that translated a player’s input into directions the game could In retrospect, the idea was painfully understand). The parser could only naïve. Although Infocom’s founders handle two-word commands, like “go vaguely knew they wanted to create north” or “take sword,” frustrating business software, they had no model, no business plan, not even a product. But even after re-tooling, Zork was still it, and thus began Infocom’s famous Forever Voyaging and The Hitchhiker’s But as luck would have it, the home PC too big. So, the game was divided into tradition of “feelies.” Guide to the Galaxy - would be market had just entered its first boom. three parts, and the first segment was remembered among the greatest games Blank, along with his friend, Joel Berez, released in 1980 as . As Zork I steadily gained in popularity, ever made. suggested bringing Zork to this new Infocom released the rest of the Zork home audience; the game’s profits could *** trilogy, as well as some standalone titles: Much of Infocom’s success rested with its help finance Infocom until its business Deadline, Starcross, and employees: Most were young, well- division took off. Although Zork I would eventually sell others. These games were consistent educated and without families. Lacking more than a million copies over several critical and commercial hits, and soon, other commitments to hold them back, the But Zork was monstrous; the game’s platforms, initial sales were slow. This Infocom had earned a reputation for programmers (known as “Implementers,” memory requirements alone made most was partly because Zork’s publisher, enjoyable, well-written games. This or Imps for short) could turn games around contemporary PCs weep in horror. To Personal Software, Inc., incorrectly goodwill continued for years, and some quickly - within nine months, on average - make Zork run on a weaker system marketed the game as a hack-and-slash: of their later titles - like Trinity, A Mind and for less than $500,000. would require substantial re-engineering. The cover art featured a mustachioed barbarian with a gleaming sword, Blank and Berez started their ambitious vanquishing a cowering orc. But when task by first constructing the “Z- Personal Software dropped Infocom in machine,” a virtual machine that 1981, Infocom brought its publishing in- included only the operations Zork house and started over. They discarded specifically required. The Z-machine all of Zork’s original packaging and made would also leave most of the game code their own much-improved game materials. on disk, loading sections into the system’s memory only when necessary. In-house publishing was a brilliant move Next, they built a new compiler, the Z- for Infocom, since it allowed them more machine Interpretive Program (ZIP), creative freedom. This proved especially which ported the game to a given true in 1982, when Marc Blank, working operating system. To run Zork, all a on his detective mystery, Deadline,, computer needed was its platform- realized he couldn’t fit everything he specific ZIP. With the variety of computer wanted into the actual game. So, he models available at the time, this designed extra items to include in the portability would become the crux of packaging, like photos, lab results and Infocom’s success. pills. Reviewers and players alike loved Moreover, most Imps enjoyed developing many employees believed the company games for Infocom because it was a should diversify in order to survive; genuinely fun place to work. There were fickle gamers could quit their Infocom parties, costume contests and weekly addiction at any time, but business Imps’ Lunches, where employees got clients tended to invest heavily and stick together and discussed ideas freely. In with their software. the Imps’ Lounge, aborted board games and half-finished diversions covered the Yet, from the start, suffered tables. Sometimes, Imps would stage money troubles. Finding investors proved hermit crab races on a makeshift tabletop difficult, since people were racetrack. The quirky culture and laid-back understandably skeptical of a gaming creativity made Infocom unlike anything company interested in making “serious” the gaming industry had ever seen. software. Moreover, Business Products hurled cash at new offices and resources, *** money that Infocom hadn’t yet made.

Emboldened by their gaming success, This might have resolved itself, had Infocom executives felt confident enough Cornerstone sold well. But when the to return to their original plan: software was released in 1985, it was a Developing business software. In 1982, commercial flop. In its first year, the company created a Business Cornerstone only sold 10,000 copies, Products division and started work on a less than 40% of its projected sales. relational database called Cornerstone. Cornerstone’s problem was not poor At the time, Cornerstone seemed like a design but obsolescence. It operated on bright idea. Business software promised the same virtual machine technology higher profit margins: Whereas the that had made Zork and other games so typical game retailed for $50, database portable, but by 1985, the IBM-PC had software sold for 10 times that. Also, become the dominant computer platform. Portability was no longer an was similar to Infocom’s, or that Levy By 1989, had had enough. adventures have inspired a quiet but issue. In fact, Cornerstone’s virtual promised to stay out of their affairs. That May, the company laid off most of substantial net following. Today, you can technology slowed the IBM to a crawl. the remaining Infocom staff and find most of Infocom’s games online, and But then, six months later, Activision integrated Infocom’s sales, marketing Zork is only a short away. Unfortunately, Cornerstone’s failure also ran into financial trouble. Levy was and customer support teams into its coincided with a lull in the gaming replaced by Bruce Davis, the only board own. Infocom was officially dead. While industry. For the first time ever, member who’d been against the Activision continued to release greatest Lara Crigger is a freelance science and Infocom’s game profits stagnated, and Infocom merger. hit compilation of Infocom games (like tech writer whose work on videogames Zork I slipped from the number one slot The Lost Treasures of Infocom), text has appeared in Computer Games - where it had been for three years - to Davis was far more hands-on than his adventures themselves faded away. Magazine andGamers with Jobs. Her number 10. predecessor, and many of his ill- favorite Infocom game is Trinity, but she conceived decisions crippled Infocom. That is, until they found a home on the still has a soft spot for Leather *** Not only did he require the company to internet. Returning to the primordial Goddesses Of Phobos. use Activision’s packaging plant instead soup from which they spawned, text Infocom was in dire financial straits. Even of their own, doubling their marketing three rounds of layoffs and across-the costs, he also restructured Infocom’s board salary cuts couldn’t save the selling practices. Previously, older company. By the end of 1985, it was clear Infocom games sold like books, side-by- Infocom would need outside assistance. side with newer ones. Davis halted that, Returning to the retiring the older ones for good. To fill primordial soup In 1986, Jim Levy, CEO of Activision (and the now-empty shelves, he ordered huge Infocom fan), offered to buy the Infocom to produce eight games a year, from which they struggling company. Infocom accepted, instead of the four or five as before. spawned, text and that February, Activision purchased the company for $7.5 million. To make matters worse, text adventures adventures have were no longer selling as well as they In general, most Infocom employees used to, especially since graphical inspired a quiet looked favorably upon the union, adventures had finally become but substantial realizing it was the only way to keep competitive on the market. But Infocom their beloved company afloat. It didn’t had little time or money to experiment net following. hurt that Activision’s corporate culture with graphics, and the few such titles they released sold poorly. EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editor Layout Artist Associate Publishers Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Jerry Godwin Russ Pitts Gregory Lincoln Lead Web Developer Contributing Editor Whitney Butts Director of Advertising JR Sutich Susan Briglia Web Developer Research Manager Erik Jacobson Chairman of Themis Group Nova Barlow Thomas S. Kurz IT Director Contributors Jason Smith Lara Crigger Shannon Drake Bruce Nielson Russ Pitts Allen Varney

Issue 55, © 2006. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com