The first real blow to my love of the company came during an all-hands company meeting. Burger Bill and I stood in the doorway and looked at the mass of people gathered. Interplay was expanding exponentially; so large that after this meeting, they would be held in the outdoor atrium. Bill and I had shipped 10th Anniversary only a few months earlier. Brian Fargo addressed the crowd and told everyone that how well the company was doing. But, he especially wanted to point out that the 10th Anniversary was a huge seller, responsible for 60% of the company's sales that quarter. Bill and I stood proud. Brian continued by saying that the 10th Anniversary project wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the dedication and hard work of two people. Burger and I grinned in anticipation. Brian continued, thanking two of the marketing ladies who helped to distribute the product. Burger and I stood and gaped. Not to belittle the job of marketing, but after scavenging the code, rewriting executables, creating installers, laboriously digitizing the manuals, for ten whole games, all under a massive crunch, I felt as if I was kicked in the man-bits.
Long before I ever heard the term "Jump the Shark", I began to see some warning signs of Interplay's continued success. I sensed a change in the management. There was a shift from a passion for game making, to a desire to make Hollywood-style cinema. We changed from the old adage of "Shoot for the moon. Here's a nickel." to "How can we make this experience more like watching a movie." It began with Stonekeep (which started as a throwback to the old Bard's Tale, but became a nightmare of "cinematic experience"), and exploded with the Sim-CD series (Interplay's remakes of SimCity, SimAnt, and SimEarth in CD-ROM format with lots of movies) and the horror show that was "Cyberhood" (an interactive movie that became a black hole of funds.)
I remember one producer summit when we first saw the film footage shot for Sim City CD. The idea was that you could click on buildings and see a movie of the people inside living their lives. They were 30 second clips of people watching TV, or sleeping in bed, or doing aerobics, or eating cereal. And there were dozens of these clips; the most boring and mundane things you can imagine. Immediately after seeing this footage, we learned that it cost over a million dollars to film, and there was more filming to do. Considering that most of the games in production had a sub 100K budget, I (and many of the producers there) about had aneurisms. All it took was for this one game to be a train wreck, and the whole company suffers, or even dies.
