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Ken Williams on the Demise of Sierra

Discussion in 'Playground' started by Taluntain, May 23, 2011.

  1. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    So I found this a while ago at SierraGamers and thought I'd share... Sierra's gone down the drain in the early years of the Internet so at the time there wasn't much information about what exactly happened and why... we just gradually realized that the Sierra as we knew and loved it had died and a huge part of the creativity and innovativeness had gone out of the gaming industry along with it. The saddest part is, I don't think that after the death of Sierra it ever came back in any company as a whole, only with rare individual titles.

    Obviously reading about Sierra has a lot of nostalgic value for me as I've played most of their games as a kid and it's really very sad to read how unfortunately things turned out. Who knows what the gaming industry would look like today if Sierra had kept producing their games. One thing's for sure though, it'd be different.

    I can only guess at the reasons why Ken & Roberta never got back into making games after Sierra, but I imagine the way that Sierra was mishandled in the end was the disappointment of a lifetime... to build something for 20 years, only to have the suits ruin it in a matter of months would probably be enough to make you hate the whole industry. It's still hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that they just left it all behind, bought a yacht and have been cruising around the world for nearly a decade now though. Especially so because no company has stepped up to fill Sierra's shoes.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2011
    Taluntain, May 23, 2011
    #1
  2. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Many moons ago I applied for a job at Sierra On-Line when its location was in Oakhurst because my family often vacationed at Bass Lake for water-skiing, and Oakhurst was the nearest real town (just a few miles away). We'd go grocery shopping and eat at restaurants there frequently. Never actually looked for the building though; it actually is in the Sierra Nevadas.
     
    Blackthorne TA, May 23, 2011
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  3. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Interesting... I read somewhere that the building is now being used for some medical purposes. It's also had a huge addition built at the back. I couldn't find any pictures of the second building that Ken mentioned though, the "hangar" one.
     
    Taluntain, May 23, 2011
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  4. Marceror

    Marceror Chaos Shall Be Sown In Their Footsteps Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    The first game I purchased for my spanking new Pentium 133MHz machine with 16MB RAM back in the day was Sierra's Phantasmagoria. This game was one of a handful that helped me work through the end of a 5 year relationship I had been in. It was amazing to me to see such great graphics blended with actual actors in a game, and the mystery + sexual situations were rather mindblowing as well. I remember literally jumping in my seat in surprise more than once.

    I still have the 7 CD disk set in the original jacket in a drawer where I keep most of my older games.
     
    Marceror, May 23, 2011
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  5. Blades of Vanatar

    Blades of Vanatar Vanatar will rise again Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Leisure Suit Larry... brought entertinment to the PC for me. The King's Quest series were great games at the time and the Gabriel Knight series was pretty awesome as well. Sierra was defintely one of the best in the early 90s.
     
    Blades of Vanatar, May 23, 2011
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  6. Shoshino

    Shoshino Irritant Veteran

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    I always enjoyed the city building games, like Pharaoh and Emperor rise of the middle kingdom...

    such a shame
     
    Shoshino, May 23, 2011
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  7. 8people

    8people 8 is just another way of looking at infinite ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran

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    [​IMG] There's Tilted Mill at least, hopefully they'll continue more of the legacy. Children of the Nile is still a favourite for me and I thought Pharoah was the weak one in the series before.
     
    8people, May 23, 2011
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  8. Rawgrim Gems: 21/31
    Latest gem: Pearl

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    I loved the Sierra games. Great memories, for sure. Got all the collection acks on dvd now. Felt I needed to buy them all, since I mostly had illegal copies of the games in the past (didn`t know copying games were illegal back then). I hope they release a collectors dvd for Quest For Glory, though.
     
    Rawgrim, May 23, 2011
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