Ken 'Sierra On-Line' Williams Interview

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Ken 'Sierra On-Line' Williams Interview

Posted by simoniker on Monday May 19, 2003 @06:51PM from the softporn-adventure-highlight-of-career? dept.

DasJan writes "Adventure-Treff has conducted an extensive interview with Ken Williams, the founder and former boss of Sierra On-Line ("Leisure Suit Larry", "Space Quest", "King's Quest"...) Ken tries to give insight into his gaming philosophy, and talks about the history of Sierra and adventure gaming. He also mentions several little-known and intriguing anecdotes, such as his meeting with Bill Gates or how he tried to buy id Software."

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Hmm... by funkhauser · 2003-05-19 19:03 · Score: 4, Funny

...or how he tried to buy id Software.
First-person Leisure Suit Larry... sounds like fun to me! :)

--
Learn to Play Go
1. Re:Hmm... by stefanlasiewski · 2003-05-19 19:06 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  sounds like fun to me!
  
  Fun? Fun?!? My god man, would you like to sleep with Carmack?
  
  --
  "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
2. Re:Hmm... by kurosawdust · 2003-05-19 20:28 · Score: 1
  
  and I've already got the BFG! Hooah! :P
I cannot believe... by Dot.Com.CEO · 2003-05-19 22:09 · Score: 2, Interesting

how little attention this thread has been getting! Sierra games basically sum up my adolescente computer game playing. I remember being stuck with an Atari ST with a mono monitor (640x400 resolution baby) and Sierra and Lucasarts games were the only ones playable on the machine without needing to occupy the family TV. Anyhow, I remember playing Police Quest, yes, Leisure Suit Larry, Hero's Quest, the ultra-funny Space Quests and, of course, the epitome of frustration that was King's Quest IV. I still remember that stupid scene where you had to tiptoe on a whale's tongue....
Even though everyone remembers them for the "Quest" series, the memory of playing the two Manhunter games. Truly a testament to excellence. Manhunter and Loom were two of the most original games of the 80s, and I cannot help but think of the Manhunter people doing Loom 2...
Ah, I guess I'm getting old...

--
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
1. Re:I cannot believe... by TwistedKestrel · 2003-05-20 01:55 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, me neither. Everybody in my house was into the Quest games, on our Tandy ... what was it, 100? It was the one with three-voice sound. Man, I miss that thing. Anyway, my mother, my brothers, I don't know about my sister ... my dad always stayed away from it for some reason though. But Sierra games are definitely an important part of my fledgling geekdom.
  
  The interview was a great read. Ken Williams seems to come off a bit strong, though, but I guess it worked for handling his company. It was very interesting to hear from one of the men who had a tremendous effect on the gaming industry.
  
  And since there doesn't seem to be too many threads on the article, it seems like there is not enough people reading it! Come on, people! In addition to the ID reference, there's a Steve Wozniak reference, and a mention of a dying music company! Read it!
2. Re:I cannot believe... by gurgi · 2003-05-20 08:29 · Score: 1
  
  It was a Tandy 1000. One of the first PC clones. It had 16 color CGA and three channel sound with one noise channel. One of the better comptuers out at the time. The two front joystick ports were perfect. The only problem was that you could not plug in a standard HD controller for an IBM PC and have it work.
  
  I defeated KQ2 and 3 on a Tandy 1000. Those were the days.
  
  Google turned up this...
  http://www.oldskool.org/shrines/pcjr_tand y/
Good old games... by ude · 2003-05-19 22:12 · Score: 3, Interesting

Man.. I just remembered how much fun I had with the old Kings Quest series and my favourite, Quest for Glory series. But I also enjoyed Space Quest.

I think it's too bad that all games now are "point-n-click". I actually enjoyed typing in what I wanted to do.

hmm.. all those good memories... And the nice graphics aswell. I think it's the expectation that the games now should be so stylish, and they completely forget about gameplay. Which in my opinion is the most important thing.

Anyway.. I could always play those games on my old AMD K-6 233Mhz.
Old Games on Apple by robbway · 2003-05-19 23:24 · Score: 2, Informative

Interestingly enough, Ken doesn't remember that the Roberta Williams Collection, a very good buy (don't know about XP compatibility), had an Apple II emulator on it to play Roberta's Apple games. He didn't have to download it at all, his own company sold it.

He's right though, old games typically don't hold your interest, mainly because we're used to a higher standard for graphics and sound.

[The first Sierra game I played was Sammy Lightfoot on the Apple II (a Donkey Kong clone). You literally had to line up pixels before you jumped back then.]
1. Re:Old Games on Apple by bjb · 2003-05-20 00:26 · Score: 1
  
  The first Sierra game I played was Hi-Res Adventure #1: Mystery House. That was on an old Apple ][ back around 1980. The graphics were so primitive by today's standards, but naturally back then you didn't even notice.
  I remember there being a slightly corrupted sector on my disk back then that caused one of the images to be drawn incorrectly. If you didn't know about the game before, it basically was non-filling hi-res graphics. In other words:
  hplot 10,10 to 10,20
  hplot 10,20 to 20,20
  hplot 20,20 to 20,10
  hplot 20,10 to 10,10
  
  ...would draw a box. Now with the speed of those games, you SAW it draw this box. So, one of the sectors containing the image data had a bad bit or two, and as a result, it started drawing a person, but then shot off completely askew. Interesting.
  
  --
  Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
Who killed sierra? by SmallFurryCreature · 2003-05-20 00:46 · Score: 2, Informative

The interviewer asks why sierra is no longer the company it once was. Read to the very bottom of the article and you will see the answer.
After talking to Bill Gates (Just the person to ask about making profit on games :) he decided to switch the company around. No longer make HIT games but focus on edutainment (yah kid love that) and renewable games.
So who killed Sierra, the founder after talking to gates.

--

MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
1. Re:Who killed sierra? by AltImage · 2003-05-20 02:59 · Score: 1
  
  Edutainment and renewable games definitely fall in line with Bill's marketing strategy and even reflects a model that the software industry is going to nowdays. MMPORGs, leased software...business models that continue revenue after teh intiial sale. I think part of Sierra's trouble is not necessarily that Bill lead him toward a bad business model, but that Sierra chose the wrong aspect of that model. I'm sure it was in large part because the technology hadn't matured to that level yet but I know I would have been into a MMPOG of Leisure Suit Larry. Thinking about a MMPOG of Kings Quest, it might have been similar in concept to Everquest.
2. Re:Who killed sierra? by Torgo's+Pizza · 2003-05-20 03:09 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You've got it all wrong. This was actually a *good* thing. Have you even noticed the instability in the game industry? It isn't a question of making hit games, but weathering the storm when the bad times come. This is how Sony has survived the past decade. When the electronics giant had some serious problems due to the economy, the Playstation saved its butt. When the economy improves, Sony can use its other divisions to prop up the gaming side.
  In fact, the most successful game publishers have other divisions that complement the game development. Lucasarts has the myriad of George Lucas properties. Cendant had hotels, car rentals to help them during slow periods. (Of course, the recession hit all their industries hard.) Microsoft became a juggernaught by using their other divisions to prop up the XBox and game publishing side. Heck, even Electronic Arts has edutainment software.
  So it ends up being not just making hit games, but being able to take on the slow periods. If the game industry has another year like 1984, only those companies who have a large enough nest egg or are able to lean on other sources of income are going to survive.
3. Re:Who killed sierra? by Mex · 2003-05-20 05:07 · Score: 1
  
  He doesn't even refer to them as games. He calls them "products".
  
  That's where Sierra went wrong.
4. Re:Who killed sierra? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-05-21 09:59 · Score: 0
  
  i wouldn't exactly call microsoft a juggernaut in the gaming industry. they are the 90 pound weakling with a rich daddy. what ms doesn't realize is that they've got to work for their cred. their problem is, they would rather buy it...
just me? by Baron_911 · 2003-05-20 02:44 · Score: 2, Insightful

... or does Ken kinda come off as a big ass?
I had no tolerance for anyone who didn't understand my goals. I thought of business as war. Sierra's employees were my soldiers and competitors were the enemy. If someone wanted to have fun at work, they should do so - but, not at Sierra. Go elsewhere.

I bet all the fun was Roberta's idea, and dude was the grumpy money guy. He doesn't even PLAY games for cryin out loud! Sry... I do love old Sierra games BTW, so im not tryin to be too cruel >:)

--
Polaroid. See what develops!!
1. Re:just me? by deanj · 2003-05-20 03:06 · Score: 1
  
  I was thinking the same thing. I especially cringed when I read the part about him keeping his fingers into everything, long after he should have stopped.
  
  I mean, really....KNOW what your company is doing, but trust the damn people you hire to do a good job. You don't need a manager hanging over your shoulder for every decision. Geesh
2. Re:just me? by grimzap · 2003-05-21 00:58 · Score: 1
  
  It is not just you... I think it is telling that this guy raves about how you have to be completely immersed in something to make a game about it (fishing, golf or whatever) but now, he doesn't even play games and has little idea of what is going on in the industry. Makes me think that maybe he never knew what he was doing and benefited mostly from the facts that their were not a lot of competitors in his genre and he surrounded himself with talented people. I mean, Phantasmagoria is one of his favorite games... please! I think defining it a game is a reach. I think if I had been immersed in the industry and then acquired the means to be set for life, I'd at least dangle my foot into the waters now and then. I'd at least check out the top games and maybe back some promising projects. The only good games to come out of the Sierra factory were the ones that also had Valve or Dynamix on the box. Now THOSE were innovative and quality development houses!
  I always thought the adventure/quest games were shallow and lame. Clicking (or typing) your way through an adventure game is an exercise in repetition and backtracking. I think Lucasarts kicked their collective butts soundly in this category. Think about it... The Monkey Island Series, Indiana Jones, Sam and Max, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango... these are the pearls of the genre.
  
  grimzap
  
  --
  grimzap
3. Re:just me? by KewlPC · 2003-05-23 08:27 · Score: 1
  
  Roberta Williams is an elitist snob.
  
  She was once quoted by Old Man Murray, when talking about why adventure games aren't popular anymore, as saying something along the lines of, "Well, back then, you had to be at least somewhat intelligent to use a computer. Nowadays, a lot more average people feel they should own one."
  
  Besides, everyone knows that the old Sierra adventure games sucked. LucasArts' adventure games were 100x better.
Wow by Monkeylaser · 2003-05-20 03:08 · Score: 3, Interesting

Judging from the interview, now I can figure out the exact point at which Sierra games started to suck. Those perennial products and edutainment games weren't what people wanted to see from Sierra, as far as I can tell. At one point I think Sierra or Dynamix, (they tend to sort of run together in my mind), produced a football game that was pretty brutally bad. It got pretty much owned by Madden, if I'm not incorrect. Can someone tell me what the relationship of Sierra and Dynamic were? I just remember Sierra's magazine always selling Dynamix products such as A-10 tank Killer and the game with the futureistic hovertanks in it, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Stellar 7, that's it. King's Quest 4 was the first game I picked up for my 286. The copy protection came as something of a suprise for a 10 year old, as I thought everyone was trustworthy and wouldn't steal games. You'd have to literally memorize the entire manual to get around the copy protection. It wasn't much fun at all, but the game was cool. Well, if you liked a single misstep sending you plummeting to your doom, or otherwise dying in a relatively amusing way in-game. I never realized the kind of production values and work that went into these games until I saw the crap that gets churned out today without a single interesting story thread. And no, I'm not some retro freak, I still play games, I just wonder whether these EGA graphics and text combining games didn't somehow lend themselves better to storytellers rather than corporate moneymongers.
1. Re:Wow by xingix · 2003-05-20 04:12 · Score: 1
  
  I believe Sierra purchased Dynamix then they released a bunch of games together including Space Quest 5, the Incredible Macine, Willy Beamish, Front Page Sports Football (the one you're trying to remember), and many others. That was around the time when Sierra also purchased the French company Coktel-Vision who released the Inca and Gobliins games to name a few.
  
  --
  Confucious says: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.
  // jeku.com
2. Re:Wow by Painaxl · 2003-05-20 04:15 · Score: 1
  
  As far as I understand it, Dynamix Studios was a subsidiary of Sierra. A group of designers doing games that Sierra wouldn't normally do (I.E. The awesome Aces series, A-10, etc.) Of course, I believe Dynamix also penned Willy Beamish, which is pretty much EXACTLY what Sierra would normally do :)
3. Re:Wow by xingix · 2003-05-20 04:17 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I forgot to add that I used to love that Sierra magazine InterAction. It was very cool in the day (or so I thought) especially when Ken and Roberta's son had his own column every week. He was around my age so I thought he must've been the luckiest kid alive. I used to pore over every word of that magazine every 3 months that it came out.
  Back in the early 90's I used to call up Sierra's customer service several times a year requesting free demos and they used to send me boxes of floppies with 5 or 6 demos for free! The company seemed like they really wanted to keep their customers :-D
  
  --
  Confucious says: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.
  // jeku.com
4. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · 2003-05-21 18:12 · Score: 0
  
  Dynamix was a subsidiary of Sierra.
  
  I disagree with your comment that Sierra's products "started to suck" at some point. In the years between my discussion with Gates, and when the company was sold, our sales climbed from about $35 million to nearly $200 million.
  
  Football was a Dynamix product. It wasn't perfect, but I considered it a multi-year quest to beat them. Madden football was a awesome product. It isn't possible to compete with a product that has been around for 10 years with one that has only been a couple of years in development. My plan was to grab a little more market share each year (which we did), with a long-term plan to beat Madden. There were aspects to our product that were unique from Madden, and for some football fans it made sense to own both products. I am convinced that if Sierra had maintained its committment to Football we would ultimately have given Madden Football a run for its money.
  
  -Ken Williams
Similar Experience by swat_r2 · 2003-05-20 06:25 · Score: 0

I used to play console games growing up, but it wasn't until my parents bought the 8088-XT back in 1989 that I truly discovered Sierra games. A grabbed a copy of King's Quest 2 and instantly fell in love. The next several years I remember using what little money I had to purchase the next Quest games, I played them all and *every* series holds a special place in my heart (sounds lame, but true) and brings a smile to my face. Looking back after all the advancements in game technology, these titles are extremely dated and pretty cliched, but for the time they were groundbreaking and pretty much invented a genre. It was a great article to read, and here's hoping that Ken and Roberta (Not to mention the Two Guys from Andromeda) will forever be rememberd as pioneers.
Man that's cool! by swat_r2 · 2003-05-20 06:31 · Score: 0

I wish I would have known that back then! Pretty good customer relations if you ask me. Back in the early early 90's I had to ride my bike to a local computer store and buy 5 1/4's and access the local shareware machine in order to get demos. 75% of them didn't work when I got home, so it was a bit of a pisser sometimes. Ahh, memories.
Days of the little guy... by Ochobee · 2003-05-20 11:05 · Score: 1

Yeah, Ken Williams does come off sounding a bit arrogant, but this article does give a good idea of what the industry was and will never be again: a small business that can be run by 10 people or less, possibly out of someone's house.Sure, there are still a few out there, but they are not the power they once were (like Sierra Online, Origin, or even id during the commander keen/wolf3d days...)

--
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. -Plato