majority of computer games lose money. So I think that as difficult as it is in cinema to
get something made that is kind of experimental or a little bit different, it’s way harder
in the computer games industry. The executives in my industry are much more afraid of
doing anything to shatter expectations.
I think another difference is that there is a path for the less expensive, artier films.
There’s really no similar path like that in the computer games industry. There are sort
of signs that maybe something might be developing on the Internet. It’s very encourag-
ing that the Game Developers Conference has been running the Independent Games
Festival, and I’m also encouraged by the work that’s been coming out of Garage Games
in Oregon. But for the most part there’s nothing like aBlair Witch Projector aCrying
Gamethat the computer games industry can really point to.
So, I think without an avenue for that kind of more experimental game, and with
publishers being even more conservative than in other industries, the bottom line is
publishers want the “safe game.” And the safe games tend to be the ones that aren’t
serious or message-oriented.
So you think Internet distribution might lead to the creation of more serious
works?
Well, I think that it may happen if a distribution channel coalesces, and the Internet
does seem to be the best bet for that. And it’s really not just distribution, it’s also on the
PR side. All the major magazines pretty much ignore everything except for the major
publishers’ games. In fact, I remember one tiny little blurb, and I think it was really just
in somebody’s column. It wasn’t the magazine reviewing a game, but just one of the col-
umnists mentioning that he’d run into a game that he liked and had maybe three column
inches on it. And it was this very low production value game that was being distributed
over the Internet as shareware, and it sounded really good, like the kind of game I
would like. So I went ahead and I downloaded it. And it just really stuck out as a real rar-
ity for a computer gaming magazine to have any mention of a game of that sort.
And certainly, in addition to having the distribution for something like that, you’ve
also got to have some method for getting the word out to people. You can have a per-
fectly good distribution system, and if no one finds it, so what? But I think if something
like that does coalesce, there will be an avenue for someone to do a relatively inexpen-
sive game, something that could be done in a garage but that does have something
really interesting, that does push the envelope in some way other than really high pro-
duction values. It might be something that creates a new genre, like aSimCity.
How didLeather Goddesses of Phoboscome about?
Quite a funny story. When Infocom was still pretty young and small, a few months after
moving into its first Cambridge offices, it was decided to have a small beer-and-pizza
party for our handful of employees and consultants, the board of directors, local retail-
ers, and people from companies we were working with such as our ad agency or our
production warehouse. It was a very informal gathering of just a few dozen people, but
it was Infocom’s first social function, and Joel Berez, Infocom’s president, and Marc
Blank were extremely hyper about seeing it come off perfectly.
178 Chapter 10: Interview: Steve Meretzky