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The new Inventory Magazine is out.
It features a look at AGDI’s QFG2 remake along with other adventure game stuff …
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“… (by wndsrf_98008@yahoo.com) But were the crooks at Cendant the main reason for Sierra’s downfall? …”Good question, but I wasn’t there, so I can’t really say what happened.
There’s a part of the story which hasn’t been told that may have been a factor…
When Cendant acquired Sierra, they also acquired Davidson (which included Blizzard). At the very first meeting to discuss acquiring Sierra, Cendant mentioned that they were also evaluating the acquisition of Davidson, and would be seeking to increase profitability through some consolidation of costs. I certainly supported this, but also said that any effort to subordinate Sierra’s development groups to Bob Davidson would be a disaster. Bob Davidson was a very smart guy, and did a good job with Blizzard, but it was my opinion that it would be a mistake to have him take over Sierra’s product development. This point was negotiated throughout the deal, and a system was put in place which I believed would prevent Sierra from being subordinated to Davidson.
Cendant did partially keep their word. Davidson was given responsibility for all sales and manufacturing immediately, and for a brief period it appeared that I would continue to run Sierra’s product development. But then, Davidson and I started a series of territorial wars. Davidson was not getting along with Cendant (at the time called CUC), nor with me. I felt that the company was being torn apart by Davidson’s and my disagreement, and Cendant “shifted” me to running their online shopping project – leaving the entire software business to Bob Davidson. I supported this move. I still had doubts that Davidson could run Sierra, but knew that the two of us could not co-exist. Bob’s a very successful person, as am I, but we’re two different highly opinionated people, with very different approaches to business.
Unfortunately, Bob and Cendant also had their conflicts, and Bob left the company entirely. At this point, the right answer would have been to put me in charge of the software business, but that is not what occurred. Instead, a member of senior management from Cendant, with no software experience, and little operating experience, was brought in to run a huge software business. He was a super-intelligent, and nice guy, but in way over his head. It just didn’t work.
It’s tough to get work done with management change. Over the years, leadership at Sierra (and Davidson) changed more often than some people change pants. Without clear leadership and vision no company can succeed.
-Ken W
But were the crooks at Cendant the main reason for Sierra’s downfall? It seems that the managers at Sierra after you left became too complacent with the past success and didn’t come up with any new good games (except maybe half-life). I never even saw any Sierra console games.
Points well taken, but this post is about what happened in LLS4. We know the offical story given by Sierra and Al Lowe, but this is our chance to come up with conspiricies and create our own order of events. I would still like to know how Vohaul ended up with the LLS4 box and cast it into space near Xenon. Even if you cannot come up with a fictional theory, what prompted the SQ4 development team to put LLS in their content?
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“… (by Benjamin Lindelof) I think this was posted before. Here’s a quick solution:……”Yup – although I’m thinking of just putting it on the same screen, as a drop-down list.
-Ken W
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“… (by Brandon Klassen) Cool, it’s great to give the user a choice of colors.Can we have the navigation of bulliten boards go up one more level? So for example, if I’m in Sierra Chat, I want to be able to go up one more level to navigate to “Games Chat” within the BBS system, without going back to the main website. Perhaps you want to simply have “Message Boards” be the link on the main website, and not have each one listed “Games Chat,” “Sierra Chat,” etc. I hope that makes sense!
And I’ve been playing more with the admin tools and they are definitely easier than before, I’m getting used to them. Good stuff.
…”Good idea. I’ll add this to my “to do” list. It should be easy.
-Ken W
Also I noticed that if I encode text like:
<% If SecurityLevel >= MinimumAccessLevel Then %>
Bulletin Board
links to: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/bbsCategories.asp/c/44000
<%End If %>It shows the “End Ifs” and SecurityLevel >= MinimumAccessLevel in preview but not on final post. You can allow people to post right away without preview another way. You can pass the data to new variables and replace as necessary.
I think this was posted before. Here’s a quick solution:
Create the link on the template for “Main” or “Sierra Gamers” » Website Discussion » Website Suggestions etc
The page should be a new page that shows a list of pages and links to them like:
Sierra Chat
links to: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/bbsCategories.asp/c/55746
Games
links to: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/bbsCategories.asp/c/55741 Same for Museum, and other chat areas. For the Game Developer’s area, just do this:
Sierra Chat
links to: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/bbsCategories.asp/c/55746
Games
links to: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/bbsCategories.asp/c/55741
<% If SecurityLevel >= MinimumAccessLevel Then %>
Secret Bulletin Board
links to: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/bbsCategories.asp/c/44000
<%End If %>This way if they don’t have the access level, nothing is displayed for them.
Cool, it’s great to give the user a choice of colors.
Can we have the navigation of bulliten boards go up one more level? So for example, if I’m in Sierra Chat, I want to be able to go up one more level to navigate to “Games Chat” within the BBS system, without going back to the main website. Perhaps you want to simply have “Message Boards” be the link on the main website, and not have each one listed “Games Chat,” “Sierra Chat,” etc. I hope that makes sense!
And I’ve been playing more with the admin tools and they are definitely easier than before, I’m getting used to them. Good stuff.
excellent.
I know that I have more happy memories from TSN/INN than the rest of my online days put together.
And I’m sure enough people feel that way to demand some action.Quote:
“… (by Ken Williams)
(by Thomas S) Is sierra still a game developer? Or are they just a manafacture?I don’t know…
My sense is that Sierra is now nothing. I don’t think they are using even the brand name anymore….
…”It looks to me as Half-Life 2 (and a Half-Life 3 perhaps?) and the Tribes games are the only things that will be carrying the brand on. I don’t foresee any new games saying anything BUT Vivendi Universal.
I agree that Sierra went into a slump in the early to mid nineties (from which it obviously never recovered). However, I reckon that games like KQ5 and SQ4 represent the peaking in quality with regards to Sierra’s output before the decline set in.
Though I personally reckon SQ3 to be the best of that series, I do recognise SQ4 as a close second. And it had (and still has) simply marvellous graphics and sound! KQ5 in turn, I believe, is the best game ever to come out of Sierra. It had everything that made/makes point-and-click adventure games so enjoyable, including a rousing sense of adventure that none of the other KQ’s are able to match, attractive graphics that have stood the test of time, varied settings, unforgettable characters, etc., etc.
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“… (by Thomas S) Is sierra still a game developer? Or are they just a manafacture? …”I don’t know…
My sense is that Sierra is now nothing. I don’t think they are using even the brand name anymore….
-Ken W
Hey Benjamin,Thank you for responding to my picture. Sorry it took so long to respond. I am currently working on a fanart for a LucasArts game, which I wouldn’t dare post here and play sort of devil’s advocate! But, I do intend to do more Sierra inspired pieces when I get more time. Might even take requests when I get a little better at computer art, if anyone is interested and don’t mind waiting.
Brendan Timmylikesit@aol.com )
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“… (by Billy Sherman) I was suprised I still have my adventure skills. …”I felt the same way – very proud of myself for still being able to play a text parser game after all these years.
🙂 emily
I agree. I recently played LSL2 & 3 and I amazed at how deep the character of Larry was in those games. I have played all of them over the years, but I really didn’t realize how poignant the series became towards the end of the third one. I too was disenchanted by Larry 5, but it seemed like Sierra was in a bad slump since a lot of Sierra games that year were average or below (like Space Quest 4 and King’s Quest 5). However, I rather enjoyed the two next incarnations, and I am really sad the franchise is gone. Maybe I’m in a minority, but I really like MCL, even though it’s a far cry from the original series. There’s a lot of humour and depth in the dialog scenes, which really are the game’s strong point.
thanks for the responce Ken I could not agree more. I always have notice that you are going on your and Robertas boat and thats actual what spore this topic. hehe from LSL 7 Love fore for sale mr laffer takes a cruise. jokes aside Ken by the way have the tought of coming to South Africa ever crossed your mind if not then you and Roberta take a cruise
Johann – I can understand why you would prefer Walls as a designer on a new police game. I find that his design with PQ1 has been the most true to life portrayal of a cop’s daily grind than any other game since. I chuckle when I remember that you even had to remember to shower before suiting up and remember to perform a vehicle inspection before driving out into the field otherwise it was game over. The humor was great too…some of the jokes are funnier to me now that I’m older and can apprectiate them better. And how often in any game do we see such tragic events unfold such as Jack Cobb’s daughter OD’ing on cocaine?
Ants – I agree with you to a point. Yes, I agree that there are lots of click-happy dolts out there that have a hard time spelling the word “a”. What I don’t think is that these people comprise the majority of gamers. Unfortunately, it is the rude, 133t d00d who is the most vocal about his play experience and therefore, the most influential to the marketing boys who keep tabs on this stuff.
All of that is kind of inconsequential though. Why not make a game that, in a way, caters to both crowds? Lets say, we make the gameplay open-ended where a player can fire up the game and just vehicle patrol for drunk drivers, speeders, crimes in progress, and stuff like that? Of course, good tactics and attention to detail would be a must because a situation could get hairy at any time. That kind of thing could be a fun, quick kind of play, especially if you throw in a co-op feature in there where you roll an adam unit with your buddy.
For someone who likes to get deeper into things, maybe let the player get into the investigations side of the house. Let the player properly collect and analyze evidence and use that evidence to build a case. With both scenarios, teach the player about good police work and reward the player when they use their skills properly. Maybe the rewards would entail unlocking a SWAT mode of play or allowing you to drive an interceptor vehicle or have a K9 unit or something.
I dunno…I’m just rambling. As I’m sure you can tell, I really dug PQ and would camp out at the game store if someone came out with a cop game that had the authenticity of PQ with an updated look and feel and a visceral play style.Windows 2000 is notoriously troublesome with running certain games (and some would say games in general). I run Win98SE, and rarely have any problems. So aside from changing your OS, the only thing I can recommend is that you scour the Internet for a solution. I’ve found that no matter what the game or what the query, someone somewhere has the answer.
And if you have an Nvidia card, keep in mind that some of their newer driver releases cause a lot of problems with some games, e.g. The Sims 2, Republic: The Revolution, Star Wars: KOTOR, etc. Though your specific card model may also have to be taken into consideration.
“Personally, I was immensely dissappointed with this whole development. Larry seemed a genuinely human and rounded character after playing through the original trilogy. Thereafter he just became a cartoon – a sort of charicature of the original character.”
I agree wholeheartedly. I thought I was in the minority amongst the Larry fans. I loved games 1, 2 and 3. But when 5 came out and I saw how they changed Larry, I was totally turned off. I don’t believe I ever played any of the higher numbered games all the way through.
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“… (by wndsrf_98008@yahoo.com) Do you think Sierra was left in good hands when you left in 96?…”
Grin… Search through this board and you’ll find plenty of comments from me on the acquisition of Sierra. The quick summary is that Sierra was bought by people who are currently facing criminal litigation, and may go to jail. The company has changed management many times since then, and is effectively gone now. I don’t know a single person that works there (as far as I know).
It used to really bother me, but now, I’m over it. Enough time has passed that it all feels like ancient history. I’m onto new things, and enjoying life. Most of the better people from Sierra are still in the industry making games, so the story has somewhat of a happy ending.
-Ken W
Ok Ken, check this out.
You are already displaying the user’s name, so obviously you are reading the data from the database at that point and exploiting it (to identify the user).
The user’s settings and access level might be variable AccessLvl. If AccessLevl=Admin then %> display
links for admins <%endif%> Nothing is displayed if the user doesnt have the access. If they do a table is shown with all the links. I use session variables and cookies to check user access level (if there’s nothing there they are not logged in yet).
P.S. I think my carriage returns are dissappearing?
