So after Atari you became an independent game developer. Why did you do
that instead of opting to return to a big company?
Well, at first it was forced on me. But then, once I got going, I was working onBalance of
Powerand it was an independent project. It was more inertia than anything else.
Do you prefer being independent?
Yes, I am very much a solitary worker. I am very concerned with my efficiency and how
much I get done. When you’re working with other people, you spend a lot of time just
holding their hand, explaining things to them, helping them out, rather than actually
getting anything done. I felt I had a lot of ideas, and if I really wanted to explore them I
had to explore them alone.
So what originally started you working onBalance of Power?
It was a sort of a culmination. My
interest in wargames arose
because I was part of the Viet-
nam generation. While a lot of
people wanted to resist the war, I
wanted to understand war so that
I could ultimately do something
about it. I felt that protesting in
the streets was very ad hoc, a
very temporary solution, and not
very effective either. I was ask-
ing questions like, how do wars
get started? All through the early
’70s and early ’80s, I was very
much a student of warfare, learning everything I could about military history. Finally, by
1984, I felt I had figured that out well enough that I could design a game around some of
those concepts. I would say that the emotional support for the game was the Bob Dylan
song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” You know, “How many times must the cannonballs fly
before they’re forever banned?” That was the thing that gave me the emotional inspira-
tion to continue with the project even though there were many points where it looked
impossible. I was taking a completely different approach to design and exploring new
territory and there were many times when it looked hopeless. It took a lot of emotional
toil to get over those problems and carry on.
But you thought the concept was compelling enough to be worth it?
Yes. I really wanted to do an un-wargame. We have plenty of wargames.
And inBalance of Powerwhen you get to the point of having a war you have lost.
Yes, that was very much the point of the game. I don’t know if you remember, but if
there was a war, the screen would go black, and it would say, “We do not reward failure.”
That was very much a surprise to many people.
266 Chapter 14: Interview: Chris Crawford
Balance of Power II: The 1990 Edition