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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><a href="../../2.1/uc/index.html"><font color="#904C10" size="3">Beaker's 
                        Bent - On Vision</font></a></i></font></b><br>
                      
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        Rich &quot;<a href="mailto:rich@loonygames.com">Beaker</a>&quot; 

                        Wyckoff</font></div>
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                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 3&nbsp; <br>
                      November 24, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <loonystart>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Finally, 
              even games companies that have company-wide ideologies and the strong 
              indoctrination processes to create the cult-like atmosphere Collins 
              and Porras describe still need to set themselves big hairy audacious 
              goals. Audacious goals of visionary companies described in Built 
              to Last include Boeing's project to make a commercial jet even though 
              the airlines had gone so far as to say they wouldn't be interested. 
              Boeing did anyway at great financial risk, and within a few short 
              years all the airlines were phasing out their prop planes almost 
              entirely. </font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It is possible 
              that id's decision to make Wolfenstein 3D when action games were 
              entirely 2D counts as a BHAG, and likewise the invention of deathmatch 
              for Doom, but it is unclear from an outsider's perspective whether 
              these were treated as BHAGs or just naturally evolved. In recent 
              years, id's decision to postpone the indoor/outdoor Trinity project 
              and make another indoor, deathmatch game could be seen as somewhat 
              less than visionary. Indoor/outdoor in itself may not actually be 
              that audacious of a goal anyway, as the 3D engines which were popularized 
              largely by Wolf 3D are slowly evolving into it as hardware and software 
              technology develops.</font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The previous 
              examples of applying the ideas in Built to Last to the games industry 
              are largely conjecture on my part. The important point, as noted 
              by the authors themselves, is that this book pretty readily disproves 
              most conventional business thinking, and our developing industry 
              is in real need of thinking that goes far beyond the conventional. 
              It is unlikely that more than a handful of companies in our industry 
              could ever become true visionaries &#150; one piece of information 
              the book does not provide is how many other companies they would 
              consider visionary beyond the 18 they studied. My guess is there 
              would not be very many, and this book sampled from many industries. 
              However, even if no games companies managed a full transition to 
              visionary status, the very attempt to analyze their internal practices 
              could be helpful.</font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The games 
              company is not going to go away at this point, and companies which 
              hope to last need to do more than just follow trends and acquire 
              licenses in an attempt to maximize profits. The fact that the book's 
              title is Built to Last is not coincidence: these are companies that 
              have found formulas that enable them to survive and in the long 
              run to prosper. Game developers come and go so quickly that some 
              don't even publish a game before their principals find themselves 
              looking for a new job. Any ideas to reverse this trend should be 
              studied closely.<br>
              <br>
              </font></p>
            <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>- Richard 
              &#147;Beaker&#148; Wyckoff is a game designer, not a level designer, 
              damnit!</i></font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Beaker's Bent is &copy; 1999 Rich Wyckoff. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  so don't do it or we'll sick our lawyers on you. Muhahahahahahahah. ph3ar our 
  m@d l3gal sk1lz y0.</font></i></p>
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