gblock

Banned by Kotaku pedophiles

mindscienceofthemind

BananaKid

ssh83

The Sierra of today is not the same as the Sierra that everyone's talking about. But I still feel bad for the inevitable layoffs what will ensue.

Bobby Blackwolf

excaleranth

And just so I'm on topic: This article was pretty dramatized. These kinds of situations happen all the time. It's just too bad that it had to happen to poor old Sierra.

jamosthefifth

Chainsaw Monday started as an ordinary day for employees. They drove to work and when they got there, many of them were told they had to go to a meeting. Once they got there they were told that they were fired. 15 minutes later, before they had even left the building, Sierra issued a press release about it. The media practically knew they were fired before they did. Scott Murphy(of Space Quest fame) and Al Lowe(of Leisure Suit Larry Fame) were fired soon after. Two of the biggest men in the adventure genre were fired. Heck, one whole studio was shutdown while they were at it. This ended the Sierra I knew and loved. They made one more adventure game and then said they were leaving the genre. Since then, I haven't cared about Sierra games, mostly because I can't think of any game they've made in years that has appealed to me.

The cruelty of Chainsaw Monday is why I'm not feeling to bad for them over what Activision's doing. So before you rush to their defense because you loved their adventure games, remember what they did to the employees that made them successful.

lwelyk

astrixzero

VII repelled me right at the opening scene (A shitty disneyesque song about Rosella's bridal hopes). I could see where they were trying to go with it, making it a completely family friendly fairy-story endeavour to appeal to everyone, including young children. However, I think it missed the mark for people who'd grown up on the earlier games, which had many fairy-story elements but tended to be a far less cutesy in their approach. Ironically, that kind of style might have been what Roberta intended all along, but had been limited by graphic technology up until that point.

As far as VIII goes, yes it was, by all accounts, an abomination. However, you have to consider the condition of the market around the time of its development. The 3D revolution was well underway, the general market for games was expanding with people who weren't necessarily nostalgic for the good old 2D adventure days, and production costs were becoming dearer as a result of the new technologies becoming more widespread. By the time of King's Quest VIII (which I don't even think was acknowledged as 8, it was just called Kings's Quest: 'Mask of Eternity') Sierra realised it couldn't survive doing pure adventure games. I think the last one released around that era, 'Grim Fandango' by Lucasarts, was met with critical success but utter commercial failure. They realised they had to do something different, so Mask of Eternity was an attempt to try and reconcile adventure concepts with the new wave of 3D-only gaming.

Unfortunately, it was an utter failure both in terms of quality and market success. But it was a risk that had to be taken. The 2D adventure game market we all know and love was, despite nostalgia, a niche market, and a tiny one compared to today's behemoth of a games industry. Home computers in any form weren't ubiquitous items found in every household as they are today. However, the production bar was so low that a small team could develop a quality product for a relatively small market, and still come out on top. Not so nowadays.

And that's more or less what happened to 2d adventures. Nowadays, companies like telltale are trying to come up with ways to get back in touch with the niche market, like their episodic distribution model. They appear to be doing alright, but they haven't had the runaway success of, say, a Mass Effect. Unfortunately, I don't think a company like the old style Lucasarts or Sierra, focused mostly on AAA adventure games, could exist in today's world.

cordsie

But then again, I didn't play it.

TalKeaton: Game Design Major

I think the problem is that adventure games now need a very different talent base than before. Ken and Roberta Williams, Al Lowe, the Two Guys from Andromeda, Corey and Lori Cole... these were all brilliantly creative (and often very funny) people perfect for a garage-company way of making games. Lowe could write the text, program things within the scripting engine, and even write the theme song for Leisure Suit Larry. The games often included inside jokes poking fun at other employees at the company. At the same time, they pioneered the idea that a PC game should have decent sound, and popularized early Ad Lib, Sound Blaster and the venerable Roland MT-32, and were a big force in pushing gaming pcs up from CGA through EGA and to VGA graphics.

But times changed, and among other things, they couldn't adapt their formula to let the personalities of the visionaries behind their product line shine through in games. Too many other people had to be involved as all aspects of the game became more complicated, and while a strong designer does make their personality come through (Tim Schaeffer, for example), the type of person who does that well isn't necessarily the type that thrived in the earlier era.

Sadly, the Sierra brand now implies nothing from those days. There's nothing for Activision to kill. They just want to find whatever franchise they can annualize.

PositivelyGreg

Rez23

TheTimeRanger

That said, I miss the glory days of Sierra Online. I'm actually going back through and playing all the old QFG games again (for the 50th time...) via DOS Box right now. I just started QFG1 VGA 2 nights ago. Personally, I always liked Sierra's adventure titles even more than LucasArts. In fact, QFG was the first PC game I ever purchased. To me, that was the golden age of gaming. I still have all my old Sierra game boxes proudly displayed on their own shelf.

Ahh, to be young again. *sniffle*

Jeddy3

You know, in the same way that Atari WAS a pioneering force and Lucasarts USED TO produce the best adventure games we'd ever seen.

I'd hardly shed a tear for the current iterations or Atari or Lucasarts, so I'm not sure why Sierra is being treated any differently here. The founders sold up a long time ago, and the great names from back in the adventure game days were all pushed out/left.

Perhaps it's because there's been so little news about Sierra that many people haven't quite noticed that they've slid into irrelevancy.

cordsie

Although, I mean, I wonder if it still makes sense to buy the games that Sierra would've published (aside from them trying to fuck over Valve that one time, they've been behind a lot of good games)

DannoHung

Frankly, the worst thing that could ever happen to gaming was to become popular and start generating money. Suddenly we have the usual packs of money-grubbing whores in suits descending on it to leech every dollar and every shred of creativity out of it.

Fuck this, I'm starting to hate being in this industry more and more every day...

Tarislar

L_K_M

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

@KommissarK:
They did at least two. Right around the time Mask of Eternity shipped they released a KQ everything-else-pack for 98SE to help promote it, and recently I spotted KQ (MoE excluded) and SQ compilations for XP at Meijer. I snagged the SQ box, as I don't think I've ever played a single one of those games (I _might_ have played _one_ in college), but now I'm wishing I hadn't procrastinated on the KQ box set as I don't currently have anything running 98SE.

Purple Dave

Highlander Wolf

mindscienceofthemind

F.E.A.R. is from Monolith Productions (Time Warner owns it).

Last thing Sierra did was "World in Conflict" ... its funny hearing about the "good old ways" but that was what? the adventure games? the ones that pretty much "died" about 8 years ago?

Drakron

There is some amazing unannounced stuff in the Sierra lineup, very little is likely to survive.

Craptivision, bringing down the industry.

mindscienceofthemind

Of course, without Roberta Williams, its not like Sierra is able to make gold like this anymore.

So, am I sad that this has occured? Not really, I felt sad back when I realized Sierra was owned by Vivendi. They have been dead to me ever since. (Not that I dislike their games, but more that I actually have to check to see if its any good, where as before, the name Sierra meant something).

KommissarK

Ahsayuni

Sorry folks, I'm calling this fair play and natural selection. Sierra were great, but that was a long time ago.

DuctTape

Paladin58

ErskinPig

Vocally oppose mergers, takeovers especially when a PLC absorbs an Ltd company.

Selectively boycott the worst offenders & 'acquire their games via non-retail channels' (nudge nudge wink wink) if you must play them.

CORPORATE MONSTROSITIES ARE BAD MMKAY!

Developers: STAY INDEPENDENT!

ErskinPig

Did you just flame respond to your own post? :/

IRT Activision being douchebags to Sierra

I will seek revenge for the little guys. Sonny Bonds, Larry Laffer, and Roger Wilco to name a few...

Pezdispenser

[video.google.ca]

Diesel_Power

DasKonstruct

That was my home town *sniff* - used to dream of writing for that company.

I miss their adventure games, buggy as hell but with more heart and humor than anything I've seen in ages...

sir_carrot

Must not feel good to be undermined like this.

Diesel_Power

winston441984

TaggarT6

NowJacker

NowJacker

The Vampire Raziel

Voteforme2020

CoD4 is a rehash of pretty much every CoD game so far, the only real difference being that it's set in modern times instead of WW2. It might aswell be a complete reskin of CoD2, as the gameplay hasn't really changed at all. But it's heralded as a marvel of modern ingenuity. Strange.

Dioxen

@Paladin58: I can see where you're coming from...maybe I'm just not a Sierra fan? I honestly couldn't tell you...but the news of their (apparent) demise just fills me with...meh. Never got into the whole King's Quest thing, myself. That being said, losing games of any sort is never good for the industry (competition ftw) so there's that.

Hrm. I seem to be confusing myself now.

Cogito

Stormrider

(though I can understand forgetting that one)

twesterms 2nd

Paladin58

InsolenceAndHeresy

okenny :)

Wolfers

*Starts up time machine*

VGJ

People keep making indie films, but ya think that smaller gaming studios will crop up, or will tool kits like Microsoft's XNA be the extent of new, low budget deals?

Marion517

This is actually something I don't mind hearing. I get more excited for Guitar Hero and (hopefully) Diablo III than pretty much anything Sierra has done for a decade. Seeing as how I can't even name anything Sierra has done in the past decade...well, there ya go.

Cogito

Now we can hate on both Activision and EA! Equal opportunity hating! :D

Lstormy10

MaxS

[www.abyssandapex.com]

Pizzicato

neoraul20

FLYBOY611

KQ VII is a great game. Yeah, I said it. Go find it.

TalKeaton: Game Design Major

Bon5ai

ThatsMrOffDutyNinja

VGJ

Diversity, how I will miss thee.

zer0zen

Polywhirl

PaulHunter

Thassodar

Xideo

Boolean

/reminisce

TalKeaton: Game Design Major