Slashdot Mirror
Brian Hook joins Verant Interactive
BRIAN HOOK JOINS VERANT INTERACTIVE'S POOL OF PROGRAMMING TALENT.
- Highly regarded programmer to work on next generation technology San Diego, June 3rd, 1999 - Hook, formerly of Id Software and programmer on both Quake 2 and Quake 3, is a veteran of the games industry. His credits also include being one of the chief architects of the Glide API during his tenure at 3DFX; development work on the OpenGL code base at Silicon Graphics; and he has written numerous articles for magazines such as Dr. Dobb's Journals and Game Developer. He brings with him seasoned talent and an immense knowledge base.
"Verant is committed to both massively multiplayer gaming as well as cutting-edge 3D technology," said President and CEO of Verant Interactive, John Smedley. "Insuring that we have the talent and expertise to lead the way in both of these fields is critical to our company's goals, and adding someone of Brian's caliber to our already strong programming team is going to help us make the best games out there."
"I'm very excited to have Brian on board," said Brad McQuaid, Verant Vice President . "I believe successful games are made from both great technology and great design, and Brian brings us a lot of talent in both of those areas."
"Verant is the perfect place for me. I'm a huge fan of their games, and the opportunity to work on Verant's future titles is just too good to pass up," said Brian Hook. "I strongly believe in Verant's commitment to making the best Massively Multiplayer games out there, and I'm excited to be able to contribute to a product line that will be the benchmark against which all other Massive Multiplayer games are judged. People are going to be blown away when they see what Verant is working on."
Hook will be involved with programming and technology in both current and future Verant projects. Verant Interactive is an independent development studio that develops cutting-edge online games. Based in San Diego, California, Verant Interactive has a staff of over 70 employees who consist of the development teams responsible for the online games Tanarus and EverQuest. "
Does this mean that there is now a Linux advocate on staff, or is that someone else i'm thinking of?
Verant used to be part 989 studios (who was formerly known as Sony interactive) before EQ was released 989 split into to parts 989 Studios and Verant Interactive, 989 studios works mainly on playstation/pc games, while Verant works on Massively multiplayer games, such as Everquest.
Ok, this is not good news for most of us current everquest players. Right now I play EQ for about 5 hours each night. The "/played" command says I've been ONLINE PLAYING my charecter for 13days 11 hours. Visually, this game isn't that advanced. It has POOR textures, and VERY blocky charecters (low poly count). It is even full of bugs with many broken quests.
Now it's got a wonderful programmer coming to work on it. I hope he doesn't make the game any better. I don't want more reasons to spend MORE TIME in front of that computer.
Enyar - lvl 16 - High - Elf Wizard
Server: Solesek Ro
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Posted by MaldaSuX:
Go out and get a shag instead it's much better!
Posted by MaldaSuX:
yes.
Yes, IT DOES.
Posted by MaldaSuX:
Thanx for clearing that one up
you know what's really sad, a couple friends of mine have dedicated so much time to this game, they've lost interest in school(college), work, and all the rest.. it's like a bad addiction, taking all your money (for more memory, cable access, better hardware) and leaving you a dull little zombie..
;)
i love these kinds of games
(haven't played everquest though, spending *all* my time playing around with Linux)
It's more than marketing speak--even Hook has used the term. If you've ever worked on an everyday multiplayer (C&C, Quake, Unreal) game, and then on a massively multiplayer game (UO, Furcadia, etc.), it's a whole different technical situation. What would be a more appropriate, technical term?
Personally.... I would call it a mud.
Everquest uses most of the same commands as your standard dikuMUD. The only thing that is really new is the 3d environment, not the fact that there are hundreds or even thousands of people playing the same game....
Don't get down on Hook because of that. Tom just seems to have this problem with him thinking his is the end-all, be-all of the hardware scene. There's a great many people out there now doing it better that Tom, and on a regular basis. I have a problem with anyone thinking that if they didn't do it, it couldn't have possibly been done right, even if you did help write the damn software. "Gee, Tom, that's a mighty tall stallion you've got there! Why don't you come on down and chat with us down here?"
Voodooextreme has an interview with the man himself. Check it out http://www.voodooextreme .com/articles/interview_hook2.html
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Um,
"Based in San Diego, California, Verant Interactive has a staff of over 70 employees who consist of the development teams responsible for the online games Tanarus and EverQuest. "
What else would you call a game that has over
40,000 people playing AT THE SAME TIME?
Tiny? Compared to Quake, this is MASSIVE.
There, I changed it. Now it reflects your complaint :)
Verant is a very new company, and Everquest is their first game that they released. Verant is essentially a spinoff from 989 studios, so while the people at verant did work on tanarus and everquest, they were working for 989 Studios (then called Sony Interactive) at the time. Everquest is the same way, it was originally a Sony Interactive game, then a 989 studios game, but then Verant was created, and it was released from that studio.
I agree. id Software never cared much about what other people thought of them. They tend to drive the market instead of the other way around. How many companies could've written an OpenGL game that caused hardware vendors to update their drivers just to support the game.
And as for Tom - I agree there too. He's a bit full of himself and doesn't seem to ever admit when he's wrong.
thank you very much!
Good atleast he didnt go to Ion Storm. If you read Ask Grand Master B on voodooextreme, he is always talking about EQ, so i guess this is really cool for him.
Gimme some of that sweet, sweet crack.
As an anonymous coward, I'm offended by the your signature's implication that all anonymous cowards should be thought less of because one of them was offended by your words and demanded that they not be repeated.
> Tom posted utter bullshit on his website, which
> I might add is sponsored by the company whose
> graphics card won all of the NON WORKING
> TIMEDEMO score comparisons. That DEMANDS a
> reply.
Tom allegedly based his benchmarks on the illegal hardware test which was leaked.
kinda stoopid, really.
Posted by MaldaSuX:
Repeating the previous poster is a really good thing to do. I found it really useful
EverQuest Rules!
sheesh, teach me not to be under-specific.
Have they done anything other than these 2 games? Game houses typically only mention games in current circulation in their press releases - no sense shilling games no longer in production - and I wondered if they had done anything of particular note in the past.
Particularly bad for those of us in Europe (see that other story today :-) since it's online only.
If you want to keep a life, don't start playing this game. Or at least, put an alarm clock beside your computer so that you don't suddenly realise you're supposed to be getting up for work in half-an-hour's time.
talking about pushing the marketing-speak to the bearable limit... if i hear the phrase Massively Multiplayer one more time today I'm going to choke!
guess i better check his plan file for the true dope, right?
--
Rare Window - free your photos
Q3 (test) is the cutting edge 3D app right now; it's only logical that hardware vendors would want to improve the quality of their drivers to support it properly. A lot of drivers had broken features, or features that had not been impemented properly, simply because no existing app ever used these features until Q3. This is a good thing.
As far as Tom, it's sort of disconcerting that his benchmarks look different that everyone else's, don't you think?
Anyone?
There are like 10 people that work there man, the CEO is one of like 5 biz guys they've had in the past 8 years, he's not the guy that runs the show. John Carmack runs all things id, and Brian Hook was one of two other id programmers. Chances are all parties involved knew what was going on. (or flat out fired)?!??! Are you insane? Evidently you have no grasp on how game companies work. Tom posted utter bullshit on his website, which I might add is sponsored by the company whose graphics card won all of the NON WORKING TIMEDEMO score comparisons. That DEMANDS a reply.
Yeah I understand that Tom made some mistakes and never apologised for it, but when you get a thousand dumbasses all screaming at Tom behind Brians back, ya tend to think "Screw em!", at least thats what i think.
Honestly, if i were CEO of Id and found out what Brian did, he'd be reprimanded (or flat out fired) for starting the flame war. You just dont do things like that reguardless if he's right or wrong.
Posted by MaldaSuX:
I think dickhead Malda has fucked up in his comment scripts with the '&' symbol. Sort it out Rob, you inadequate loser nerd.
WorldForge is a project to develop a free GPL'd online RPG Game/engine.
/El Niño
Posted by MaldaSuX:
Mud is that wet dirty stuff outside.