The Origin of Fun
There's a great article in this weeks issue of The Escapist entitled, "The Conquest of Origin." Recommended reading for ANYONE remotely interested in game development. Particularly the description of how we went from being a hobby industry full of cool ideas and energy to ... well, as Lester Bangs put it in the movie, "Almost Famous": "An industry of 'cool'." Clones, sequels, and pretty graphics covering a lack of substance.

One of my most prized possessions is the book, "The Official Book of Ultima," by Shay Addams. I picked it up in '91 or '92 at an "inverse auction" at the BYU bookstore as they were liquidating inventory. I think I got it for somewhere around $4. I was on a newly-wed college-student budget, so that was not a trivial expenditure. I took it home, and didn't really look at it for a couple of days, but then I dug in and was enthralled. I was already hooked on Origin's Wing Commander game at the time, and I don't remember if I had already played Ultima 7 or not. But the thing that I enjoyed the most about the book was not the walk-throughs of the first six Ultimas, but the biography of Richard Garriott and his company, as well as the design and development that went on behind the scenes to create these games. Maybe that's how I knew I wanted to create games for a living - I thought the development stories were more exciting than the games themselves.

(Here's a hint to game guides today - don't just be about full-color photos and tips that you can get for free off the Internet. Put stories of its development behind it. Put in some details, charts, design philosophies that could only come from the developers. Put in stuff that can't be figured out after only an hour of playing the game.)

I'd already talked to my wife about my attempt to get a job with Origin after college. I'd talked to an HR representative at Origin about the prospect - she told me what things they look for on a resume, and also assured me that finishing my degree was entirely optional. That made me a little cautious. As I got closer to graduation, I heard rumors that Origin ran something of a sweatshop, and that they didn't use many college grads because the pay was lousy. With a wife to support and plans of adding a new person to our family in the relatively near-future, that slowed down my plans to relocate to Austin. As it turns out, I found a few videogame companies here in Utah, interviewed, and found myself happily employed at a brand-new studio named SingleTrac.

And SingleTrac was doing a cool space-fighter game that had me thinking of Wing Commander - albeit more of a 3D R-Type style game later called Warhawk. Not to mention the car-combat game that became known as Twisted Metal.

I somehow whined and wheedled my way into getting sent to the 1995 Computer Game Developer's Conference (before they dropped the "Computer" part, and just became the GDC, with an emphasis on console games). Though it had nothing to do with what I was personally working on at SingleTrac, I couldn't resist going to a session sponsored by Origin. They were still flush with cash from their recent purchase by Electronic Arts, and were on top of the world. Richard Garriott got up and showed a video of the big massive LARP-style Haunted House that he did every other year. Then he talked about how cool Origin was, how many projects they were taking on, how they were willing to provide money and expertise to small game companies (he pointed to Warren Spector's work managing Looking Glass on the Ultima Underworld and System Shock games as an example). He emphasized how they had a LOT of money now and weren't afraid to spend it. He also showed off their latest game, Bioforge, which looked a heck of a lot better than it played.

Then Warren Spector got up - he was the guy I really wanted to hear from, no matter how much I loved Richard Garriott's Ultima games. Because Warren was the guy who produced the Wing Commander and Ultima Underworld games, which had totally blown me away and made me want to go into game development professionally. He also had been in the dice & paper RPG industry, which was also near & dear to my heart. He talked about what KIND of games Origin was interested in investing in, and he said that what "really gets my shorts in a knot" was 3D, first-person-perspective games. Newfangled technology and all. And then they invited us to visit them at their hospitality suite.

This was a great year for the conference - the best year that I attended. It was still small enough that they had a "Hospitality Suite" night where you could wander all over the hotel and visit other companies in their suites. They'd show off what cool stuff they were working on - or show you what cool tools you should buy or hardware you should support, and bribed you with swag and all kinds of gourmet food. I remember IBM had pasta bar, and one company offered such dishes as scallops wrapped in bacon. Origin? They had pizza and beer. I don't drink, but I happily pestered Richard Garriott for one of their cool T-shirts. Unfortunately, when he introduced us to Warren Spector as he walked by, the best I could muster was, "Hi, glad to meet you." A wealth of knowledge available in these two legendary game designers, and that's the best I could do. But it was crowded, a lot of people clamoring for attention, and I was too modest to be an irritant. Nevertheless, Richard Garriott was extraordinarily gracious, attentive, energetic, and just plain cool.

A few years later Origin pretty much imploded under EA control. I read something from one of the leads (lead programmer?) on Ultima 8 - where he said he pushed hard to meet deadlines imposed by management (mainly EA), and learned later that your heroic effort to meet deadlines is forgotten, but the fact you came out with a buggy, poor-quality game is remembered for a long, long time.

I never played Ultima 8 or 9... I have Ultima 8 somewhere in the closet, almost completely unplayed. I don't even know if the saga of the Guardian was ever wrapped up --- he was set up to be such a great bad-guy in Ultima VII, and he was a constant looming presence in Ultima Underworld 2 and Ultima 7 part 2. I didn't even play Ultima Online - in spite of anxiously waiting for it for a couple of years - because I was too busy with work when it came out, and then I heard tales of extremely laggy servers and annoying PvP "ganking." But it survived, and lives still, I guess.

I just wish that I could see another Garriott-designed single-player Ultima again. Highly unlikely, but in this twisted industry, you can't ever really say never.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

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