Sierra. We’ll miss you, but it’s time to go
August 4th, 2008 Posted in Games, News
Sure, it’s been there for a while, but I’ve been busy playing with my new computer… What am I referring to? Edge’s article about why Sierra must die. It’s not the longest of articles, but it’s interesting, and it’s full of interesting little factoids about Sierra. Mainly regarding how and why it went the way it did, comparing it to the downfall of Atari, which has since tried to reinvent itself, to some success — much like Sega did after its console division disappeared.
But Sierra is long gone. It played its course a long time ago, and has since limped through a new age of video games. When games moved from text to point-and-click, the other companies started to do it better. Sierra was the king of the text-based graphical adventure, but it couldn’t move with the times. Of course, by the time things changed to point-and-click, Sierra’s (arguably) best titles had come and gone (then again, there was Gabriel Knight). Sierra tried to keep the series’ alive, but it wasn’t to be. While the earlier ‘Quest” games were awesome and remain among my favourite gaming memories, the later one’s were somewhat shameful. There are those who will disagree, but I think it’s true. Sigh.
And since then — since I stopped playing Sierra games — the Sierra label has meant nothing to me. Well, that’s wrong, it has, and always represented the same thing, but the Sierra I know and love lives in my memory. While Sierra have been associated with a number of games of late (and some pretty good ones at that), it hasn’t been the same Sierra.
And so it comes to this. Sierra needs to let us remember it for when it was awesome. Sega saved itself (a little), Atari will never be what it was, but has regained a modicum of respect among the community, but Sierra needs to be left alone to e what it was. And that’s all.
Well, that’s what I think, at least.
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