(re: re: re: re: re: re: If it were me…) Well, say they did call you to ask your opinion, what would you say? What suggestions would you give to help make Sierra more profitable? Would you suggest they start producing adventure games again? Would you suggest they re-hire some of the old designers? More aggresive marketing? Suggest they re-hire you as the CEO 😉 ?
You say he said the report was to find out why Sierra was failing; they’re failing? I knew they weren’t doing as well as when you were onboard, but they’re failing? Seemed to me their action games were doing pretty well.
I actually have a thought about why Sierra isn’t doing as well these days. During your reign, most of the company’s games did well, but what I think really made the company so popular was its brand name. During the late 80’s and early and mid 90’s, when you saw a Sierra product, you knew it was quality made. You knew the people who created it actually cared about making a fun game, as well as making a profit. When you looked through a Sierra catalogue, you learned not only about a game, but it’s designers as well. I remember reading about Space Quest III in an older catalogue, I also read about Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe. You knew what kind of games they made, so next time you say their names on a Sierra box, you knew what kind of game you’d get. When you bought a Sierra product, it came with extras, like a comic, or some other thing. I know most of those things were just copy protection, but they were made fun to read and use, like for Space Quest IV, The SpacePiston Magazine. It had the copy protection within it (a necessary), but it allowed you to interact with the game without actually playing, giving more bang for your buck! That was fun! You also had good customer service and customer policies. Sierra seemed like a company that actually cared and tried to EARN people’s money. Nowadays, you don’t know anything about the designers of the games, there are no extras for the games (they just give you a box, the game, and a manuel), and there isn’t any real customer service. They just make a flashy product to catch your eye, but ultimately, doesn’t deserve your money. You’d think with all the CEO’s Sierra’s gone through, one of them (besides you) would actually care about the company and look into ways to make it more successful, instead of a quick fix to raise profits for that fiscal quarter.
