
Origin Sells Out - doppp
https://www.filfre.net/2019/09/origin-sells-out/
======
jbattle
Origin made a ton of great games. "We make worlds" was their motto and I feel
they lived up to that lofty ambition.

One game I remember fondly that would appeal to this crowd was called Omega.
There was some light but well-done chrome that you were an employee of some
gigantic defense contractor writing AI for drone tanks. You'd design the
chassis of your tank with parts that you unlocked by playing the game. Then
you'd write the AI for your tank using a simple BASIC-like language. The game
shipped with a hefty programming reference book.

Finally once you'd designed your tank you'd put it into an arena to test
against other tanks. Early matches were 1:1 but you could build tanks that
operated as a team (there were ways for the tanks to send messages to each
other).

The game was a blast. My best tanks were stupid simple (back into a corner and
rapidly scan the quarter of the arena where the enemy might appear). I feel
like the game taught me a lot and was really fun to play. The only downside
was all the loading times, swapping disks on my C64. But that was how games
were back then

[https://www.mobygames.com/game/omega_](https://www.mobygames.com/game/omega_)

~~~
Osiris
I played this game as a kid and usually ended up writing key bindings so I
could directly control the tank. But, it was so fun to experiment with
different strategies.

Thanks for reminding me of the name of the game because I loved it and could
never remember what it was called.

~~~
jghn
When I was a kid my friend and I played a lot. We'd bring our favorite AI
programs over to each other's house to compete with the other's favorite AI.

One day I stumbled across how to set up keybindings, neither of us knew that
it was a thing. I kept it to myself and invited him over, challenging him to
try extra hard on his AI. He loaded it up, and I proceeded to annihilate his
tank with my human controlled version. The look on his face was priceless and
sticks with me to this day.

------
gameswithgo
I worked at Origin in Austin as a summer intern shortly after EA took over.
They were hard at work on Ultima Online 2, which they cancelled a about a year
later. It was a bummer, as I had just interviewed to work on the Star Wars
MMO, and when UO2 got shut down, suddenly a ton of experienced MMO devs were
on the market and in town, and they passed on me, a college grad :(

On the bright side I probably make more money now than I would have had I
gotten my foot into AAA gamedev!

~~~
jadbox
I really really wanted Ultima Online 2 to happen, and looking back, it could
have changed how future MMOs like Everquest or WoW had been developed. The
failure of UO2 made a lot of studios wary of sandbox open world games, and
they decided to go the more moderate route of theme-park design (limited,
predictable design) for both world design and character abilities.

~~~
SeanBoocock
Eh Star Wars Galaxies was still developed in the “sandbox” mold and released
to tepid reception. There have been successful sandbox MMOs - EVE Online and
Second Life - but the audience for that experience is a lot smaller than for
games like WoW (or the MMO-lites that are de jure now like Destiny, The
Division, Anthem).

------
tibbon
I've always been curious of what EA's side of things was here. Are they really
just money-hungry executives who like buying brands to suck the money out of
them and kill anything good there? Or do they have other motivations and
reasons?

It seems EA truly does not care about gaming, or the people working under
them. But I'd like to hear differently about how they all saw this go down
instead.

How does Trip Hawkins view all of this? He seems to be someone who got lucky
(started at Apple early), and then proceeded to be manage companies that kept
sinking good opportunities under his leadership.

~~~
SeanBoocock
Can't speak to EA's motivations then, though I worked with a couple of Origin
engineers who worked at Origin post-acquisition and have been at EA in Austin
most of my career. The impression I got from the ex-Origin folks is that
Origin was a ripe acquisition target: large portfolio of games and franchises;
good body of talent in a major game development hub; and a failing business
that they could get on the cheap.

I've never understood the cynical way certain people view EA from the outside.
EA is a large business (~30B market cap) and subject to the same sorts of
challenges of any business at that scale. From my perspective EA is a
federation of mostly autonomous studios trying to "find the fun" in an
increasingly competitive entertainment landscape. Even if you manage to create
a compelling core experience, bringing that to market is a challenge even at
EA's scale.

~~~
EpicEng
>I've never understood the cynical way certain people view EA from the
outside. EA is a large business (~30B market cap) and subject to the same
sorts of challenges of any business at that scale. From my perspective EA is a
federation of mostly autonomous studios trying to "find the fun" in an
increasingly competitive entertainment landscape.

Maybe you should listen to what those outsiders are saying. EA ships half
baked games for full price and loads them with the most scummy and deplorable
monetization models in existence (looking at you too Activision.) I haven't
heard wonderful things about the working conditions come crunch time either.
It's not difficult to understand.

And let's not forget the now (in)famous "surprise mechanics" debacle. EA
deserves every bit of their current public image.

~~~
frenchyatwork
EA certainly deserves their reputation, perhaps several times over.

That said, I also suspect they don't care. They make money off their
properties, and as long as that is working for them, they can continue to have
their jobs.

~~~
EpicEng
>That said, I also suspect they don't care

Oh yeah, that much is obvious.

------
aasasd
I wish someone did a writeup on how it is that practically every cool studio
of the 90s has dissolved in a big publisher. The only exceptions I really can
name are Id and the Obsidian/BioWare duo. Even Blizzard, industry's sacred cow
around 2000, were apparently put through the blender in the later years,
despite keeping the name and franchises.

My hypothesis, of course, is that very few people can keep delivering for
twenty years. But still I can't help thinking―what it'd be like if Psygnosis
taught a generation of rookies their way and did something other than F1 and
Wipeout after 2000.

~~~
skymt
The basic economic angle of it is that video games are a hit-driven business.
Large publishers especially during the 1990s have a diverse product portfolio
that can cushion moderate failures with the income from hits (more so during
the 90s than today). When a small studio is growing its games and budgets to
keep up with player expectations, the relative safety of a publisher can be
tempting compared to sticking it out independently and betting the company on
each game.

~~~
aasasd
Yeah, but you'd think that studios that made plenty of hits in the 90s and
early 2000s would be kept as they are in hopes that they make more hits—even
as subsidiaries. The publisher financed the games before, after all. But no,
afaict it's the same story every time: after several years, the publisher revs
up the old blender, reassigns the studio's sub-outlets to its existing
regional divisions, moves people around, and either renames the studio to
‘BigPublisher RegionName’, or shuts it down.

Also iirc there's a running theme of ‘we solemnly promise that the studio
keeps the creative control after the acquisition,’ from both companies.

------
SenHeng
One of my favourite Origin games was the Crusader: No Remorse|Regret series.
Young me never managed to complete either of those two.

It was interesting to learn that Remorse was made using Ultima VI's game
engine that was considered too action-y for a turn based RPG.

~~~
zajio1am
Wasn't that Ultima VIII (Pagan) game engine?

~~~
fabiensanglard
It was.

------
wlesieutre
Thanks for posting, that was a good read!

Related tidbits for Chris Roberts' current project, the long in development
and hopefully finished some day Star Citizen. They've referenced both Origin
and EA as companies in the Star Citizen universe, it's a cute little easter
egg of industry history.

"Origin Jumpworks" as one of the ship manufacturers, and "Electronic Access"
as makers of the Star Marine (first person shooter) and Arena Commander (ship
combat arena) modes which are positioned as in-universe video games.

I missed out on a lot of the older spaceship games, I ought to pick those up
on GoG and give them a try sometime.

~~~
theandrewbailey
Same here. The only Chris Roberts game I've played was his last, Freelancer. I
liked it enough to give him $60 for Star Citizen.

The only other space games I've tried are in the X series, but they focus
heavily on economics instead of flight and combat.

~~~
wlesieutre
If you're interested in checking out more recent space games, Everspace and No
Man's Sky are the two I've played in the last few years. Everspace is more on
the dogfighting and equipment progression side of things, while NMS is
exploration, survival, and base building with a heavy dose of retro sci-fi
visuals.

Got my start on Mac games, so Escape Velocity: Nova was my jam. Loving the
variety of space games these days.

~~~
theandrewbailey
I heard about No Man's Sky. The launch disappointed lots of people, but I
heard the updates have made it into what it was supposed to be.

I have some broad gaming tastes, and about 500 unplayed Steam games, so I'm
not exactly looking into acquiring more right now.

~~~
wlesieutre
I didn't play it until the recent _Beyond_ update. Definitely a rough start
but they've more than made up for it. Cherry-picking some screenshots from
reddit:

[https://i.redd.it/bdbu308b61h31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/bdbu308b61h31.jpg)
[https://i.redd.it/or8x426qq0j31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/or8x426qq0j31.jpg)
[https://i.redd.it/3gq1x76165h31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/3gq1x76165h31.jpg)
[https://i.redd.it/ufdqd5digij31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/ufdqd5digij31.jpg)
[https://i.redd.it/7meco1wufzj31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/7meco1wufzj31.jpg)
[https://i.redd.it/7120n20i00h31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/7120n20i00h31.jpg)
[https://i.redd.it/jowjsxd9qfi31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/jowjsxd9qfi31.jpg)
[https://i.redd.it/4aimsghw5mj31.jpg](https://i.redd.it/4aimsghw5mj31.jpg)

------
mwexler
Remember, not only Ultima and the other big stuff, but also an early computer
version of the wargame Ogre and the Car Wars inspired AutoDuel. Really brought
together a bunch different play aspects from multiple sources and made some
amazing experiences.

