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(re: The faery folk in Quest for glory 4: Shadows of darkness) Hi It was cool to hear you talk about Shadow of Darness as I havn’t played it for a long time. I will have to drag it out and play it again. I remember something about the aria you are stuck in but not enough to help you any.
Jim(re: I miss Sierra) I have no idea how Sierra is doing today. Counterstrike was after I left, and I’ve never played it.
During my time (1979-1997), 99% of development was internal. We had approximately 700 people in development.
My understanding is that the current owners have de-emphasized internal development, and that most development is being done outside. That said, I couldn’t even remotely tell you how many people they have in development now. Nor could I give you the names of any products they’ve released in recent years.
I personally opposed the publishing metaphore, and would not have gone that route.
-Ken W(re: I miss Sierra) I’m sorry, but I can’t see how Sierra should be given credit for CounterStrike. No complaints about the game, but it started off as a fan-made mod to Half-Life, and was only purchased and published by Sierra when it had become big enough. There’s no Sierra in there, except in the packaging and shipping. Ok, it shows that Sierra isn’t completely hopeless when it comes to finding a good deal today, but that’s about it.
I would really like to know what the latest Sierra game was that actually was developed by the company, and not only published. It seems to me that it’s mainly a publishing company today, and I’m not sure if they develop in-house games anymore. Companies like Valve works very independently of Sierra. They have little more than a business deal about publication of their games. Also, Sierra today stands next to two gaming giants, namely Blizzard and Fox Interactive, which I assume have outgrown Sierra by far and currently are Vivendi’s real cash-cows.
It is my view that Sierra has not merely gone from an artistically creative company to a corporate entertainment giant like Electronic Arts, but that it has gone from a leading artistically creative company to a corporate entertainment company that’s not very significant at all among its competitors. Of course I could be wrong, so feel free to disagree and I will listen…(re: Leisure Suit Larry cameos) I must say I also loved the in-game jokes. Really, they did work at the time, but I doubt such things would work today. This also says a lot about Sierra in those days. Thanks to The Sierra Newsletter/InterAction, TSN/INN, g-r-e-a-t technical support, a friendly attitude to fan letters and so on, there was a connection between the game developers and the people buying the games. Seriously, can you think of any other game company that alone has produced so many “developer superstars” as Sierra? It was funny and kind of cute to see a game crack jokes about the chairman of the company. And people knew who the chairman of the company was. Who knows the name of the chairman today? Is it still Mike Ryder? I don’t know… Anyway, if they put him in Half-Life 2, who would find it even remotely amusing, let alone recognize the guy?
There are many other things that may be said about the humor in the classic Sierra games. It is a reminder of old times. Young people today can’t relate to the shoddy 70’s athmosphere in LSL1 the way they could back then. And how about that joke in LSL2, where Larry has to prove his worth to Chief Keenewauwau (Ken Williams that is) and his tribe of island natives by writing some fancy Assembly language program? 😉 Back then, people used to have at least a hunch of what Assembly language programming was. How many ordinary computer users does today?(re: Leisure Suit Larry cameos) I loved the cameos that you had in the older Sierra games, especially the LSL and SQ ones. The one I remember the most was the one in SQ3, but then that was the first one I saw. Then second was the celebrated Daventry Castle crash in SQ1. Anyway, personally as a game purchaser, I thought that the cameos gave me a more personal connection to Sierra as a company. It was less of a faceless entity, you know what I mean? Plus they were freaking funny!!!!
-Levi(re: Ken Williams – after Sierra) Ken,
I’m sure we would all be willing to pitch in a few bucks to help you out!! 🙂 If I was a millionaire I’d buy it for you.(re: I miss Sierra) Ken,
Are you serious? That is amazing. You are a God. I can’t believe that you had a hand in that project. Don’t take any offense but I thought that you could only do those adventure/mystery games. Not that that’s bad because those games were always top notch but wow I can’t believe that you really started Half-Life. That is a serious achievement and that game is so different than most other FPS’s. You HAVE to get back into the business, forget what I said about living the dream, it’s a must. How does everything you touch turn into a masterpiece? You know what? I changed my mind about the “New” Sierra, cutting you out was the biggest mistake they ever made. Ken, you need to pull Roger Clemens and sign with the hated Yankees. Did Sierra even have a rival or an arch nemesis back in the 80’s and 90’s? I think you mentioned EA but whatever it’d be great to see you on board a project, the publicity alone would sell those games.(re: Leisure Suit Larry cameos)
Perhaps it should have, but it didn’t. I thought it was cool!
Plus, Al Lowe is a good friend … and Larry my favorite game. My only concern with it was that I thought we ran the risk of doing “inside humor”. I don’t like stuff in games that is put there to amuse ourselves more than our customers.
-Ken W(re: Ken Williams – after Sierra) I think about it sometimes. I did make a call to see if Sierra could be bought back, but have no idea how I would raise the $500 million or so it might take.
Actually, what I would most like to see occur is for some game company to make me “chairman” of a product committee, where I can spend my life working with the product teams. I don’t ever want the grief again of “trying to make quarterly revenue goals”. But, I do miss the creativity and innovation of building great product.
Sooner or later, Sierra will be managed by someone who thinks I could add value. (I hope…)
-Ken W(re: I miss Sierra) No one should adjust their opinion one way or the other “for my sake”. I’m a big boy and am of the opinion that if 100% of the world ever likes me, I’m messing up somewhere.
That said: Half Life was my product – it, and Homeworld were amongst the last products I started at Sierra.
-Ken W(re: LSL movie)
Here’s an interesting bit of history:
About 10 or so years ago, Disney approached me to buy the rights to Larry for a movie. Apparently they wanted to pitch Jim Carrey about being Larry. After a tough negotiation we signed on the dotted line – and, nothing happened. Carrey passed on the project, and Disney let their deal lapse after sitting on the rights for about 5 years.
After the sale of Sierra, I wanted to do a Larry film, and tried to buy the rights. Several successive regimes at Sierra agreed to sell me the rights, and none followed through. It has been frustrating dealing with them.
-Ken Williams(re: I miss Sierra)
Ah, I’m not trying to knock them for Ken’s sake. I’ve just never been a huge FPS fan. The only FPS I’ve ever enjoyed to completion has been Metroid Prime. So while Half Life may or may not be a fine game I can’t say I’m horribly interested in it either way.
CL
(re: LSL movie) Many people, including Al Lowe, has mentioned Rob Schneider. You know, that guy who does comedies like “Hot Chick” and “Deuce Bilalow: Male Gigolo”. As much as many of his comedies suck (being filled with juvenile jokes that are just embarrasing) he’s SOO much like Larry. And besides, if not done totally wrong, I wouldn’t mind a Larry comedy to be in the style of his movies at all.
Here’s my dream scenario. Make a Larry movie starring him and base it on the second game in the series. It is the one best suited to make into a movie script. It would be sort of a Bond spoof. Wouldn’t that be great!?(re: I miss Sierra)
Trust me, were not knocking the new Sierra for Ken’s sake;). You can’t compare the old games with the new. CS is a pretty good darn multiplayer FPS, and if you like FPS that’s going to rank that game up there. If however you like the old fashioned adventure games, KQ5 and the multitude of other adventure games Sierra made back then are golden.
(re: LSL movie) Well, I’m not sure… Maybe it’s the glasses and moustache, but this guy doesn’t look to larry-like to me… Maybe I should see him in a Leisure Suit. 🙂
The nose is good, though.(re: I miss Sierra) No offense to the old games but my favorite game of all time is Counterstrike which was produced by Sierra. I don’t feel their quality of gaming has gone down, they have just shifted their emphasis. I know everyone likes to knock the “New” Sierra for Ken’s sake but I think they are doing a good job. I spent hours and hours of my college life couped up in a basement with 8 other guys on PCs playing Half Life and I can’t even begin to tell you how intense and how fun it was. Don’t get me wrong, my first PC game was King’s Quest V, and I still like to play it every now and then, but I can appreciate the new with the old.
Counterstrike vs. KQV
(re: Ken Williams – after Sierra) Ken,
All I have to say is that you are living the dream. Seriously, if I started my own business and it went huge, and then I sold it, I’d be set for life. Why would you want to take the risk of doing it again. I mean I know life is boring without challenges but I’m sure there are plenty of challenges out there without having to have the stress of your own computer company. I don’t like to compare but I will. Look at Miyamoto for Nintendo, he basically oversees ALOT of games but he doesn’t own the company and he totally loves his job. Ken, I think you would be amazing in that sort of role where you give projects vision. In todays world of regurgitation we need people like you who is proven to put games back on track. Yeah, I know it’s my selfish dream for your life but hey I thought I would give it a go.(re: The faery folk in Quest for glory 4: Shadows of darkness) Now that you mention it… You’re right, you don’t need to be ordered by Katrina in order to get the Ritual from the Faeries.
Hmm, weird problem.(re: What made the old Sierra great) Gabriel Knight 3 was indeed the last Sierra Adventure game.
And also a very good one, I might add.(re: re: Bugs and Troubleshooting) Hehe, you’re welcome. After all, maintaining the forum is kind of my job. 🙂
(re: The faery folk in Quest for glory 4: Shadows of darkness) Actually Martijn, I don’t think Katrina needs to have ordered you to get the rituals before you can obtain them, specifically the heart ritual.
When I last played as a Wizard:
1. Find the faeries. There should be a drinking fountain in the middle of nowhere outside Erana’s garden, I believe. Click it, it disappears.
2. Exit the screen and come back.
3. If that’s not all of it, then you should be able to work out what comes next.
You do need Erana’s staff.
Keep posting, I’m interested. Must play QFG4 again.
– Alistair(re: What made the old Sierra great) One of the things I’ll always remember about the old Sierra was when I called their 800 number and asked the customer service rep for some demos. A few days later I got a cardboard box with about 20 floppies with 3 or 4 demos! I was amazed that it was free, especially since I live in Canada! Plus they sent me free copies of InterAction. Half a year later I called again and got another stack of floppies. This did of course make me want to buy only Sierra games, especially after seeing the Goblins demo 😉
– Jake Jensen(re: What made the old Sierra great)
Actually I think GK3 came out after that and was the last one but I’m not sure.
(re: re: Bugs and Troubleshooting) That’s okay…
I actually like this solution better – opening a bugs section. I should have thought of it myself!
