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With holidays coming up, it's only a matter of a few short months before anxious gamers go out to buy the games they all wanted in September. Sure, they could buy Tiberian Sun or Quake 3 Tournament or others, but there are those people who want to look into a thinker's game where the player can go through puzzles without the act of reflexes to kill someone. Those people will find their hope's dashed because Sierra, the leading producer of adventure games, is dead, at least sort of.
Under new management, Ken and Roberta Williams (King's Quest series), Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry), and crew (not Jane Jensen since she was in the middle of making Gabriel Knight 3) were fired after boss David Grenewitski decided that he needed to move offices to another location. Without the adventure producers, Sierra not only lost talent, but its identity as well. Many gamers expressed their discontent on message boards and signed petitions.
What does this mean? For all you people who haven't deduced it yet (many were left in the dark about this issue) Sierra will no longer produce the long running series of games that have been around since 1982. This means the end for the successful King's Quest series (King Graham and family adventures), Leisure Suit Larry (the horny woman lover), Space Quest (Roger Wilco and humorous aliens), Police Quest (be a cop!) and Quest for Glory (Hero's Quest in older games). Sierra has created a large following with these "classic" games over the years, enough to spark some anger among zealous fans.
Why did Grenewitski decide to do this? There were several reasons for this move according to the President of Sierra. The major one was that he wanted to move the company into a more centralized position. This whole business thing dates back to when Sierra was acquired by CUC, second software producer only to Microsoft. Soon, Sierra On-line had gone through a couple department changes going into Havas Development and renaming the division to Yosemite Entertainment. This was all located away from where the other divisions of Sierra FX and others departments were stationed. The moves caused some conflict and Grenewitski ended up requesting the Yosemite workers to “migrate” to the new location. Many refused and were ultimately fired.
The fans' explanation is that Mr. Grenewitski was a fan of “shoot'em-ups" in the likes of Duke Nukem and Quake. He felt that the society's need was going towards the kill'em type games. Fans feel that lagging sales in Sierra Studios (adventure sector) also prompted action. Fans allege that Grenewitski believed adventure games did not make enough profit and therefore, decided to get producers inspired by giving them raises, but in a different location. Most of the workers refused and they were eventually laid off.
This all happened during February of 1999, more than half a year ago. The next blow came when PC Gamer proclaimed that adventure games were dead. The majority of the gaming audience was no longer interested in long-running stories or the ability to think critically. Gamers of today only had patience to shoot and kill. This may explain the impressive sales of Sierra's Half-Life, a realistic shooter-up.
It seems that after Gabriel Knight 3, Sierra will no longer make adventure games. A note for adventure game seekers - petitioning and e-mails got gamers Quest for Glory V and avid Sierra lovers petition everyday and e-mail the management saying that they like adventures and would pay any price to get it back. If enough gamers are willing to buy adventure games, perhaps Sierra will once again employ the classic series.
In Sierra's 20 tears of experience, there was a point where almost all Sierra games were hits. With new management, people only notice the clouds on the sky rather than the sun. Kids today are exposed to more violent games and cannot think their way out of a situation. Adventure games give us the ability think, to read, and to figure out puzzles. Maybe a new Renaissance in gaming is what this industry needs. |
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