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Trip Hawkins Inducted Into AIAS Hall Of Fame
Voodoo Extreme has the news that game development veteran Trip Hawkins has been inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame. Previous inductees have included luminaries such as Peter Molyneux, Will Wright, and Sid Meier. Individuals are inducted for "pioneering a new game genre; changing the face of the art form through new technology; influencing other designers and products; demonstrating the highest level of creativity and innovation; and consistent product success at a level that helps expand the industry."
This makes a great deal of sense to me. Hawkins was a trialblazer in the early video game industry. His influence is perhaps felt more on the business side as opposed to the design side (like Meier and Molyneux). He deserves a place in that Hall of Fame. Well deserved.
I'm very surprised that he is being inducted with all of the EA stuff going on all around us. Also, he ran 3D0 into bankrupcy with a terribly over-priced console.
I don't think anyone can claim that the founder of Electronic Arts has not had a signficant impact on the video game industry. That being said I am weathering my house for the flame storm I am predicting not far down the road.
Truely though, he left EA in what, 1991? To found 3DO of all companies, a company which really didn't have much impact on the industry. Now he is trying another venu, Digital Chocolate.. A Pocket-Computer game developer.. Considering that EA wasn't really that big a deal back in 1991, how much effect did this man really have. I hate to sound like I am trying to cheapen his award (because, thats exactly what I sound like), but I think there are a number of developers out there who are more deserving of this award.
One can not help but wonder what the industry would be like if he was still running EA. Considering his success with 3DO, I will speculate that the face of the industry would be much different.
--- "End Of Line" - MCP
The name Trip Hawkins gives me an image of a bad ass rebellious skateboarding brother of Steven Hawking.
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Everett Kaser for advancing the genre of "logic puzzles" as computer games. But I'm not part of the academy. Still, Honeycomb Hotel has got to be an all-time favorite. I'm fairly certain he'll make it someday!
Now Mr. Hawkins' company, 3DO, did so much melding of entertainment and media! I really understand the induction. The failure of the 3DO console didn't change that.
Trip was actually a manager at Apple before he quit to form Electronic Arts...
wow. I hope with these new accolades can he now afford to pay me back for the last 3 high heat games
don't get me wrong, it is impressive that a game can contain the same bugs for 4 years in a row while actually degrading the gameplay. hall of fame worthy, though? I'm not so sure.
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-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
You forgot to link to the article where Trip Hawkins behaves like a bigoted cunt.
I'm of the belief that any accommodation representative of the gaming industry should also consider such merits as honour and decency, rather than just handing awards to the psychopaths who managed to fool the most people for the longest amount of time.
I bet they'll give one to EA's middle management next for "extreme accomplishment in utilising employee goodwill".
From the AIAS qualification list for induction:
[C]onsistent product success at a level that helps expand the industry.
Perhaps they glossed over that requirement in this case? After all, running a company into the ground by selling a console 7x more expensive than their competitors (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trip_Hawkins) isn't exactly product success.
The sound of a million fapping geeks heard round the world.
*yawn*
I bet Trip wrote a http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/12/ 1920231&tid=188&tid=10another letter :D
It was bad enough when the schlockmeisters of Hollywood invented their pseudo-academy to vest a dubious enterprise with the veneer of an acquired establisment and respectability.
Is anything actually studied? Are theories advanced or any problem solved?
How about "Guild" or "Association".
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Trip Hawkins is an interesting choice, in that the other inductees were all heavily involved in game development, whereas he was more of a facilitator. There's also a great deal of debate on whether Hawkins is to be villified or celebrated. I'll throw in with the latter category, because he pulled together the "electronic artists" who created my favorite games of the early '80s.
An article written by the Dot Eaters does a good job of describing how I think of Electronic Arts when it was just a small studio. I'm still fond of those LP-style packages. And their toolbox-titles, such as Adventure Construction Set, Pinball Construction Set and Racing Destruction Set brought about my own interest in creating games with a strong building component to them. There was nothing in the world like M.U.L.E. before Dan Bunten/Danielle Bunten Berry created it. And I think it was Hawkins that made these things possible.
He may deserve the harsh scrutiny he receives -- and, certainly, he's not going to win any points with anyone for his comments earlier this year. But somehow I can't hate the fellow who brought together so many bright folks under one roof. Electronic Arts has recently published some of my favorite games, but it's the early ones I remember best.
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