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The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

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Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#71

Post by condwanaland »

chongli wrote: post #47
TheBlight wrote: post #28

People don't strictly want to play games as much as they want to experience alternate realities. That's why Doom/Quake resonated. People want these simulations to be as realistic as possible.

People don't strictly want to play games as much as they want to experience alternate realities That’s a very sweeping statement to make about a very large number of unrelated people. I happen to be a gamer and your statement doesn’t describe my wishes or experiences very well at all! I’d much rather play a game of NetHack than some new ultra-realistic PS5 game. I’m not the only one who feels this way. There a ton of…

Always thrilled to see another nethack player in the wild!

Been playing on and off for 20 years and have only managed a single ascension in that time!

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#72

Post by canucker2016 »

influx wrote: post #68
JKCalhoun wrote: post #3

> Forbes first became associated with Sierra in 1991, when he agreed to join the company’s board. Ken Williams, Sierra’s co-founder and CEO, considered this a major coup... And then: > “Have you and Ken ever thought about selling Sierra?” asked her out of the blue one day in the lobby of the Paris hotel. > “No,” Roberta answered shortly. “We’re not interested.” > “But if you ever were, what sort of price would you be…

She also built most of the intellectual property.

And from Steven Levy's Hackers, she was one of the women in the hot tub for the cover and ad for the game Softporn Adventure, published by the company that was soon renamed to Sierra On-line.

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure

Interesting to read the link to the Leisure Suit Larry game.

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#73

Post by chongli »

condwanaland wrote: post #71
chongli wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't strictly want to play games as much as they want to experience alternate realities That’s a very sweeping statement to make about a very large number of unrelated people. I happen to be a gamer and your statement doesn’t describe my wishes or experiences very well at all! I’d much rather play a game of NetHack than some new ultra-realistic PS5 game. I’m not the only one who feels this way. There a ton of…

Always thrilled to see another nethack player in the wild! Been playing on and off for 20 years and have only managed a single ascension in that time!

That’s awesome! I have been playing off and on since 2009!

If you haven’t heard of it, check out The November NetHack Tournament [1]. I played it for the first time in November of last year and almost got a Wizard win (ran out of time) after getting so close with a Monk (got killed by Rodney’s touch of death after he stole my only source of magic resistance).

I’m looking forward to playing again this year!

[1] https://tnnt.org/

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#74

Post by alexey-salmin »

canucker2016 wrote: post #72
influx wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She also built most of the intellectual property.

And from Steven Levy's Hackers, she was one of the women in the hot tub for the cover and ad for the game Softporn Adventure, published by the company that was soon renamed to Sierra On-line. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure Interesting to read the link to the Leisure Suit Larry game.

There are a couple more photos from that photoset https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-o...

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#75

Post by DrFalkyn »

TheBlight wrote: post #28

People don't strictly want to play games as much as they want to experience alternate realities. That's why Doom/Quake resonated. People want these simulations to be as realistic as possible.

That must have been why PacMan was such a dismal failure. How realistic is to play a giant yellow mouth chomping on dots in a maze while being chased by ghosts

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#77

Post by BrtByte »

tmsbrg wrote: post #4

Jimmy Maher is really a great history writer. The way he writes is very compelling. He made a whole history of windows which I somehow read through completely[0]. I can also recommend his other site, Analog Antiquarian[1] where he writes more about the larger history. His Magellan series that's going on now is really amazing, makes you feel like you're really experiencing the epic voyage through South America and Sou…

Jimmy Maher has that rare mix of deep research and genuinely engaging storytelling. He somehow makes technical or historical rabbit holes feel like page-turners

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#78

Post by BrtByte »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #3

> Forbes first became associated with Sierra in 1991, when he agreed to join the company’s board. Ken Williams, Sierra’s co-founder and CEO, considered this a major coup... And then: > “Have you and Ken ever thought about selling Sierra?” asked her out of the blue one day in the lobby of the Paris hotel. > “No,” Roberta answered shortly. “We’re not interested.” > “But if you ever were, what sort of price would you be…

Yeah, that exchange says so much in just a few lines.

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#79

Post by BrtByte »

grokys wrote: post #30

A lesson for the ages: that cultured (or not) rich person over there isn't any more intelligent or prescient than your neighbour or colleague, and most certainly no more than your partner. They just have more money.

So true. Money has this weird way of making people seem smarter or more trustworthy than they actually are, especially if they talk the part

Re: The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

#80

Post by BrtByte »

HellDunkel wrote: post #11

The business side of things with sierra is certainly spectacular. But the story of the characters making the games would be so much more interesting. Where did the humor come from? What was office live? How come the games were both topsellers and also extremly silly? I remeber a space quest scene where a room full of computers was a joke on sierra offices. How did that make it into the final product?

Sierra games had this uniquely goofy, irreverent tone that felt super personal, like the devs were sneaking in jokes while no one was looking
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