Interview with Gaming Legend Roberta Williams

[Atari]

WomenGamers.Com had the wonderful opportunity to interview <a href="http://www.womengamers.com/interviews/robertaintro.html">Roberta Williams</A>, the gaming legend who co-founded Sierra and helped define adventure gaming as we know it.<br><br><A HREF="http://www.womengamers.com/interviews/robertaintro.html"><IMG ALIGN=left width=45 height=79 border=0 src="http://www.womengamers.com/interviews/images/rosella2.gif"></A><I>"...in working with people, men as well as women, I have few chips on my shoulder, I stay pretty cool under pressure, and I let things slide off my back. I think those are good qualities for people in order to succeed. If somebody says something negative, generally, I ignore it, and then just work even harder in order to prove them wrong. It’s very satisfying to prove someone wrong and then see the egg on their face - especially, if you had done it in a very calm, cool, and professional way, and not ever gave them the satisfaction that they had ever rattled you."</i>

[Athena]

Roberta introduced me to gaming years ago through her King's Quest series and I am a great admirer. The gaming industry needs her and I hope she comes back in full force.

[Atari]

Roberta introduced me to gaming years ago through her King's Quest series and I am a great admirer. The gaming industry needs her and I hope she comes back in full force.

If it weren't for King's Quest, WomenGamers.Com might not have existed. Circe and I were completely addicted to the Sierra Quest series. I even wrote Sierra after Conquest of Camelot came out thanking them, and I remember they send me a T-shirt and a warm letter in response. <br>
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The funny thing is... when I later began working for a gaming company, I noticed a letter on the break room bulletin board from a kid who was praising our game. It means a lot to get those kind of letters, to know that you are making a product that people really appreciate.

[KaCee]

Oh wow, I am in awe of Roberta Williams. King's Quest was the first computer game I ever really got heavily into, besides an addiction to Space Invaders on the Atari 2600. I played KQ on a PCjr around the age of 12, and loved every minute of it. And it was one of the few things my severely dysfunctional family could do together. We all thought about the puzzles and tried to remember what fairy tale went what way so we oculd use that information, and my mom could type so she would get us through that scene where you had to type quickly in the wishing well before you drowned. <br>
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I'd love to make computer games, but I have insufficient programming skills and not much clue about marketing. Adventure games and sims are my thing (and I do love tetris!), but I haven't got the foggiest idea of where to start. That, and I can't legally work right now anyway because of my immigration status. <br>
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Whenever I finish a game and it shows the credits, I always look for women's names, but the only ones there are in marketing or other office admin stuff. Makes me want to go join a design team, but I can't. <br>
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-- Kimberly "but I've made some cool MUSH areas" Chapman <br>
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[Banshee]

An enjoyable interview -- she sounds wise and classy. I hope she makes a move back into the industry. <br>
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Thanks for the interview. <br>
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Banshee

[Anonymous Poster]

:) If it weren't for King's Quest, WomenGamers.Com might not have existed. Circe and I were completely addicted to the Sierra Quest series. I even wrote Sierra after Conquest of Camelot came out thanking them, and I remember they send me a T-shirt and a warm letter in response. <br>
<br>
The funny thing is... when I later began working for a gaming company, I noticed a letter on the break room bulletin board from a kid who was praising our game. It means a lot to get those kind of letters, to know that you are making a product that people really appreciate.

And you were a kid yourself!

[Zoras]

An enjoyable interview -- she sounds wise and classy. I hope she makes a move back into the industry. <br>
<br>
Thanks for the interview. <br>
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Banshee

Although I've only played one of the King's Quest games (One of the really early ones, I forget which one..) I was always impressed by the depth of her stories. And for me, anybody who's a good game designer should stay around, regardless of whether they're female or male.

[Xyzzy]

I feel old now, but I started with Mystery House, believe it or not! <br>
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Not too long ago Robert made Mystery House a free download. If you get an Apple ][ emulator for your PC or Mac you can play it. <br>
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Roberta Williams is an icon. <br>

[Anonymous Poster]

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I found the interview interesting and have a few comments. Although I am a male I have seen the struggles women face in both electrical engineering and computer science from the BS all the way to the PHD. I find you to be a gentle person and really like the comments about not giving people who try to upset you the satisfaction of doing it by responding with some outburst of anger. This shows good sense. I have never run a business , but I disagree with the statement that adventure games are dead. I feel that companies as large as SIERRA are probably dead because of the obscene development costs. The computer game magazines seem to want to have a funeral for the adventure games and their players. This upset me so much that I canceled my subscription to all of these magazines. I get my game news from several websites such as adventure collective , adventuregamer , and justadventure and feel that their information is far more fair to the adventure game developer and also the fans <br>
I see a reasonable number of adventure games under development ( although in some cases outside of the US , but have found some of them as good if not better than US made games ), but from accessing the developers websites it seems that most are being developed by VERY SMALL companies which reminds me of SIERRA when it started. I feel that there will always be adventure games because of diehard fans such as me that have found memories of the thrill obtained playing INFOCOMS DEADLINE which I solved using the hint book and the seldom mentioned INFIDEL which to my pleasure, solved on my own. I am such a fan I have an idea for a mystery game myself and will probably write it as a text adventure game and see if there is any interest. I feel that the game could be either a text adventure or a standard graphical game , but I alone do not have the abilities to develope the latter. I hope that the text version will demonstate the plot and puzzles well enough to see if there is any commercial interest. My primary motive is the fun I would have designing it , particularly the puzzles. The most fun I had teaching computer science was designing final exam problems which according to some of my students were really difficult at times. <br>
I own numerous SIERRA games as well including KINGS QUEST 8 which is on my to be played list. ROBERTA WILLIAMS, I feel that you have done great things to entertain millions of people. I often like games most people never heard of such as SIERRA'S URBAN RUNNER which I am still playing. <br>
I feel that you should be told of the new company HERINTERACTIVE which produces the great NANCY DREW games primarily intended for teen age girls. I bought both of them for my girlfriend , but am playing them first myself since I love mysteries.

[cyr3n]

Roberta introduced me to gaming years ago through her King's Quest series and I am a great admirer. The gaming industry needs her and I hope she comes back in full force.

Hello

I'll make my introductions brief..

I'm Julia and I work for Rubies of Eventide MMORPG by Cyber Warrior Inc. Surprisingly, our company is 1/2 female! This article really did strike a chord since all of us women-folk here are go getters. We work along side the men in the server rooms, art, music, programming, and game design departments. If you want to be in any industry, you need to be competative and strong in your field but also mentor and encourage other women to rise up and succeed because if you don't.. WE (everyone.. regarless of sex) LOSE.


Roberta thank you for the lovely interview. You and your family are formally invited to play our game if you should ever come across this post =)


Our game has an incredibly high male:female ratio for the mmorpg genre and its really nice to be able to CHOOSE whether you feel like running around in an all female party tonight rather than just running around with the guys. "Rubies" is truly a unique rpg where mothers run around just as enthusiasticly in-game as their daughters and sons. We may have a winner here.

We'd LOVE to have you make a cameo .. (even if you arent Roberta Williams! =)) ) drop by our website and write to webmistress@eventide.net if you have any questions.


ciao,

Julia "Cyr3n"