SHP Forums

From a post on sierragamers.com:

"Daryl F Gates, retired from the LAPD and designer behind the Sierra game, Police Quest IV, has passed away today. Though he was controversial at times, he was still part of the Sierra family for a time, even if briefly, and will be missed."

Christi Marx would argue that he's not a game designer... just ask Rudy.

Tawmis wrote:Christi Marx would argue that he's not a game designer... just ask Rudy.

Yeah... When i announced his passing on the Sierra Chest Facebook profile last Friday, Christy commented: "Ahem..he did not create PQ4. They may have used his name, but he wasn't a game designer."

How very appropriate...

Rudy wrote:

Tawmis wrote:Christi Marx would argue that he's not a game designer... just ask Rudy.

Yeah... When i announced his passing on the Sierra Chest Facebook profile last Friday, Christy commented: "Ahem..he did not create PQ4. They may have used his name, but he wasn't a game designer."

How very appropriate...

Yeah... I thought her comment was kind of... off... I mean, the guy passed away.

But perhaps she has her reasons. Maybe she was personally involved in creating the game, and got no credit because they wanted to throw his name on it instead, to sell the game... who knows. But yeah. Her comment was pretty cold. I even referred to him as a game designer in my reply on there. So at first I thought her comment was directed at me, specifically (when I said I wasn't a fan of the games he designed in Police Quest/SWAT, but still a sad loss of life)... hadn't even noticed you referred to him as a game designer as well.

Well, he wrote the story, didn't he? He was also present on all blue screen recordings and verified and corrected to make sure every aspect of the game was as close to realism as possible, from the beginning to the end, providing consulting throughout the entire design. No, he didn't program, no, he didn't create the art, no, he wasn't a musician or system developer. Is that a requirement to be a game designer? If so, would you say Roberta Williams isn't a game designer either then?

Maybe she's jealous the PQ series went further in sequels than the Conquests. Or something else that went behind the scenes in Sierra land at that time. *shrug*

No idea what her issue was, Jules. I didn't reply to her post, but obviously i strongly disagree with it. Either way, RIP Daryl F. Gates.

Designer or not, Gates died. A "funeral" thread (for lack of a better term) is there to recognize the individual who passed away. A "funeral" thread is NOT an open invitation to debate the merits of the deceased.

RIP Daryl.

You will be missed by all. I really Liked PQ4 and Completed it recently

I agree with you there Rudy about him being a designer because if you watch the making of PQ4 you will see him helping out alot.

I also agree with you dead that this shouldnt be turned into a debate thread when its a funeral thread. Any one could make a new thread for that.


As for Christy I do agree that she should not have said that. A man died. Very good point Rudy mentioning if you go by Christy Marx's standards of being a game desginer that Roberta Williams would not qualify. I would have responded to her post with something similar.

Fender_178 wrote: As for Christy I do agree that she should not have said that. A man died. Very good point Rudy mentioning if you go by Christy Marx's standards of being a game desginer that Roberta Williams would not qualify. I would have responded to her post with something similar.

I think responding to her comment would have given her the doorway to debate whatever issue she has, so it was probably just best avoided.

Has anybody ever thought that maybe it was just a little minor correction and not really the heinous comment everyone's making it out to be?

Maybe, MI. I'm kind of curious what she'd say if someone responded to her comment.

Was this on Rudy's site? It looks like it's down at the moment.

It was on the Facebook post.

MusicallyInspired wrote:Has anybody ever thought that maybe it was just a little minor correction and not really the heinous comment everyone's making it out to be?

That may be the case. But really - if I was going to correct someone about what they did for a company, I wouldn't make it publicly (especially if it's about mourning their passing).

I'd email/send a message directly to the person who posted it and correct them - so that THEY can correct the response, rather than coming off a little snotty in public.

And mind you, I am not hyper defensive about Daryl Gates passing - like I said, I wasn't too big of a fan of PQ4 and such. And her post still irked me. So it's not like I am wound tight because she's saying something about one of my favorite game designers. I just thought her post was disrespectful.

MusicallyInspired wrote:Has anybody ever thought that maybe it was just a little minor correction and not really the heinous comment everyone's making it out to be?

Oh, I'm sure it was intended as a minor correction. The problem was that was neither the place nor the time to make such a correction. If she had simply started a new thread -- perhaps a debate about who is a designer and who isn't -- I doubt anyone would have minded.