17-04-2002 04:17									#1
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From delphi boards:

quote: I know everyone's been anxious to hear what's going on with Alan these days so here's the scoop. As most you know we're moving on from the very detailed design phase of Master of Orion III and are now concentrating on the revision phase. This will focus almost exclusively on user interface modifications, gameplay system tuning, AI programming, and of course debugging. With the main design phase complete, Alan will be stepping back as a full-time Quicksilver employee and will instead be shifting to a contracting role for potential future projects which are now under discussion. He will still be available for consultation on MOO3, of course, and will be here from time to time to check up on the project. We are delighted with the depth and breadth of the design and look forward to the opportunity to work with Alan again in the future. You can expect to see Alan on the boards from time to time and perhaps flying through the chat rooms, but don't be surprised if he's got other things going besides MOO. Bill Fisher, Executive Producer

	17-04-2002 04:18									#2
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And response from Alan himself:

quote: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." – Yogi Bearra The formal ties between myself and Quicksilver have been untied. That is, for the record, I’ve ceased to be a full-time Quicksilver employee and, at month’s end, I will not be a Quicksilver employee at all. Obviously, I’m not a quitter by nature and this situation was not one of my choosing. Write this one off to ‘circumstances;’ when these kinds of things happen in life, you roll with ‘em. However, being forewarned by Bill Fisher, I’ve spent much of the past couple weeks rearranging my personal life, investigating other work possibilities, and preparing for the wonderful world of ‘independent contractor work’ (known to cynics the world over as ‘unemployment’). Naturally, this personal matter has been very much on my mind of late, as I indicated in my last post some days ago (Emrich Speaks). I’ve made a lot of friends on these discussion boards, and have received permission to make this posting to say my ‘good bye’ to you all in my own way. I just want to tell everyone not to worry about me. Many of you have my email address and some of you my home phone number, so you’ll be able to satisfy yourselves that I’m still alive and kicking whenever you want to get in touch. Now, as for MOO3, I’ve stated to both Bill Fisher and Constantine my willingness to remain involved in whatever capacity we can work out between us. I mean, shoot, I still live 12 minutes away from Quicksilver, and Bill is still the same best friend I’ve had since Kindergarten and whom I stood beside as the best man at his wedding. If Bill asks for help, or advice, or just needs a friend to listen to him while he rails at the injustices of the universe (which he seldom does; he’s pretty stoic) – he knows I’ll always be there for him. We’ve got a lot of history, Bill and I, and a new chapter awaits to be written. So, the future is in motion. In it, you may see me do a bit of playtesting and offering my suggestions about MOO3; maybe attend a meeting or two or take some MOO3-related phone calls from Quicksilver and try to answer any lingering design questions – maybe I’ll get to do more. Whatever works out. But chances are you won’t see me much here on the boards. I’ve got other things in my life besides MOO3, and under the circumstances, it’s time I pay them a lot more attention (starting with my wife, who has been a real trooper these past few weeks, and kids). I expect I’ll occasionally post here if I see an interesting thread, or do a ‘fly by’ in the chat room at lunch sometimes, but if things are ‘going well’ for me, I really won’t be much of a ‘presence’ here and I doubt if I’ll be saying much publicly of a MOO3 nature in the future (depending on my future involvement in the project and the desires of QS management to allow my posting on such matters). I’ll close by saying that the support and commitment from both Infogrames and QS for this MOO3 project have been tremendous. We all must give them credit the time, money, and effort all have contributed, but most especially for sharing so much of ‘the process’ with the public that they rarely get to see. MOO3 remains a great experiment on many, many different levels. I learned from a very wise instructor in Jr. High (‘middle school’) that ‘those who reach for the stars are unlikely to come up with a hand full of mud.’ The design for MOO3 was a reach for the stars like it had never been made before; I assure you, that when you see the final product, it will still tantalize players with all that it reached for and was able to grasp. Dig you later, Alan Emrich

	17-04-2002 04:49									#3
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This is the news I've been hanging onto for about a month. Make of it what you will. Je n'ai plus de temps pour la folie.

	17-04-2002 05:04									#4
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I remember the early days on the moo3 forum alan's enthusiasm and design ideas drew me to the game.Its sad how thing's change he's out of a job and the most interesting things in his design seem to have gone with him.

	17-04-2002 05:56									#5
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Is it normal to release the head designer like this? While game still being worked on?

	17-04-2002 07:13									#6
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Whether or not its a normal procedure I'd have to question their timing. This coming on top of everything else that's been going on lately surely can't be good for their marketing/PR dept...

	17-04-2002 09:38									#7
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Cool!

This MOO3 money will be another $50 I can put towards the down payment on a house this fall.

All mourn the pachyderm...

	17-04-2002 12:52									#8
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You can also wait a few days and download it from KaZaa or Morpheus, that´s what I´ll do

	17-04-2002 16:20									#9
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I need hip waders at least, maybe a snorkle after those two press releases.

I have a suspicion that Alan was reminded about a NDA and its possible affects on profit participation and/or he could be sued. Wonder what he will say in 365 days about this.

	18-04-2002 00:04									#10
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More from AE:

Quoting a doubting poster: "I will continue to believe they did not like his reaction to the massive changes they decided to make."

And there, you would be wrong. I'm 'down with' the need for the vast majority of the changes in store for MOO3. Oh, I could quibble about a decision or two, or an approach here or there -- all relatively minor stuff -- but overall the 'finishing direction' the game is taking is needed and, better still, it is 'getting done.'

Hey, if I didn't like where the game was going, I'd ask to have my name removed from the credits, you know? :-) Well, I still expect to see my name in the credits (in the usual 6-point type on the bottom of page 128 of the 128-page manual, where everyone else's name seems to get buried these days ).

Anyway, chill out all you conspiracy theorists out there. Take a Ride on the Reading, Pass Go, Collect $200, and check out MOO3 when it's finished.

Always, Alan

~~~~~~~~~~~~
As long as he has faith in MOO3's ultimate outcome, I cannot see why any of you should not, you pirating losers...

	18-04-2002 04:02									#11
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More from Alan:

quote: To all my well-wishers (and I had no idea there so many!), I wish to reply with my sincere and heart-felt thanks. I'm very touched; you're really a great bunch. Now, for the record, CEOs are not lined up outside my door. Honestly, most of them don't even know my name (which I should probably change to Sid Meier, just to get 'em to return my calls ). Honestly, I'm preparing for a long siege in 'independent contractor' work based upon my long experiences with the game industry. That's why it's taken so long to set up my 'departure plans.' Bill and the team have been great about giving me the breathing room to do that, and it's made the 'landing' a lot softer. But the bottom line is 'thanks.' The feeling is mutual and I'm glad I could touch so many lives in a positive way through this experience. It's been good for us both. :-) Here's to better gaming! Alan Emrich

	18-04-2002 07:03									#12
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Whatever happened, thanks Alan for the grand design. Best. MM

	18-04-2002 08:05									#13
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Hmm... I guess all those hopes about Alan doing MOO4 or MOM2 were a bit off then. A shame.

But Alan can code, right? If he can't, I suppose I can maybe see a justification, they need to cut costs and are getting rid of people whose job is mostly over. If he can, though, then... well, I think it's fairly clear he lost out in the politics game.

For Alan's sake, I hope MOO3 does well, since people are probably more willing to hire somebody who (helped?) design a hit.

	18-04-2002 08:39									#14
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Alan,

I would like to know if you think the original approach was overambitious (in that scope was left too broad too long.)

I would like to know if it is normal to release a head designer like this.

	18-04-2002 08:40									#15
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quote: Originally posted by SnowFire But Alan can code, right?

I didn't think he could. He used to be a game guide writer, where he fell in love with MOO and helped organize this game. But I don't think he could either write code or at the very least, he didn't write any code on this game.

	18-04-2002 09:00									#16
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He started as a writer for Computer Gameing World. He was a game designer and producer at Interplay. I don't think he was a programmer.

	18-04-2002 09:51									#17
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Maybe Alan's lack of coding knowledge led to problems...

	23-04-2002 11:42									#18
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Coorporate politics are brutal. Hello, best man, how are you, oops, sorry about that knife in your back, its only business.

	28-04-2002 21:02									#19
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quote: Originally posted by GP I would like to know if you think the original approach was overambitious (in that scope was left too broad too long.)

That was my feeling after I looked at their initial scheme.

It seemed that my lonely voice of cynicism was drowned out by the horde of enthusiasts at the time.

Cie la vie (or however it is spelled)

	28-04-2002 22:16									#20
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C'est la vie.

(That's life)

You and I are in agreement. I also posted about this earlier. I didn't realize anybody agreed with me. Well, you are a veteran coder...

WRT Civ3, I really just wanted an improved version of Civ2. Love the basic civ2 concept. Just want the cheats fixed, AI improved, and graphics, multimedia improved. Seems like we got some of that, but also some new concepts. The new concepts, (trade, culture) worked ok. But I'd have been just as happy having attention put into even better AI, etc. Also, in some cases they slipped back. No wonder movies for instance...

	29-04-2002 06:30									#21
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UR: They were pretty up-front that not all of it might get put in. And besides, I figured they wouldn't design something that they knew would be totally beyond their grasp (and I still don't know if the decision to scale back was "legitimate" or not in terms of what they could do). We'll find out when we see the finished version what really happened, most likely.

	29-04-2002 08:43									#22
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GP,

I made my mutterings some time last year, just right after they created the forum. I am not surprised you didn't see them.


Snowy,

That's the thing. Unless you got a couple of experienced game programmers in the original team to access the feasibility of what the designers were shooting for, it's very easy to get carried away.

In a pinch, a project manager or designer who had experience in this area could work, but you can't beat having people in the trenches on the design team.

	29-04-2002 09:51									#23
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My veteran game coder friend says that it can be a problem to have designers who don't have coding experience...or won't learn basics. They tend to design something and then toss it over the wall to have it coded. many times they don't realize how feasible it is. The best designers have coding experience and can give detailed instructions. in some cases including flow charts or truth tables...

	29-04-2002 17:19									#24
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Well... If you're a smallish company having to pay everyone from YOUR pockets now that your producer isn't paying, you sometimes have to let people go you'd otherwise like to keep.

It's like getting "free" cable. When it's "free" we want everything but when we have to start paying the bills it's time to get rid of those extra channels you don't need as much..

	01-05-2002 14:10									#25
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While it's true, it does say something bad about the project management at QS. The project manager should have at least ran the design through the programmers to see what they think about the feasibility, with all the known constraints.

	03-05-2002 02:33									#26
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I have been lurking on MOO3 Delphi forums and here for a while and I have to say I was orginally both excited and overwelhmed by the prospects of MOO3. However, my nagging feeling was the design was way way to ambitious, to be finished in any reasonable time. I'm not even sure that final result would be fun (deep yes, playable not sure).

I think many MOO3 fans have been caught in the Alan Ermich "reality distortation" and are taking there frustrations out on Infogrames who may not deserve to be the bad guy here.

I meet Alan (and the original staff of CGW Johnny Wilson, Russell Sipe) many years at game Con. He made an impression on me as beeing very bright, high energy guy, with a lot of charisma at least for us nerdy game guys :-). One thing is certain Alan is/was the best WRITER about computer games. Not only were his game guides the best every but his articlse in CGW were excellent. His writing skills were evident on the MOO3 website. The MOO3 website has tons more details about the game than almost any other game, which is remarkable cause the game isn't even in Beta yet!

However good writers don't necessarily make good game designers. My bet is Alan laid out this vision of a really hot incrediable sophisticated game and got everybody really excited about the game. Unfortunately, not enough people played devils advocate and said sounds great but can we build it? Of course the fans on the website were even worse constantly asking for even more features....

So rather than launch another BattleCruiser 3000 Infogrames decide to cut their losses. I don't think Alan would be the right guy to figure out which pieces of his baby should be chopped out.
There hasn't been a good 4x space game since MOO2, and Space Empire IV, and Reach for the Stars were so disappointing that I'm still rooting for MOO3 to be good.

	03-05-2002 10:46									#27
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Anybody want to offer a fact-based defense of the Alna desing? Storu mpuppie?

	04-05-2002 01:55									#28
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quote: Originally posted by GP Anybody want to offer a fact-based defense of the Alna desing? Storu mpuppie?

What do you mean by 'fact-based'? I was absolutely having no problem with the Alan Design. I believe the game would have been GREAT. The Sistine Chapel of Computer SciFi Strategy Gaming. They simply should have given it another year. If it takes one more year to build the Sistine Chapel, so what?

	04-05-2002 02:53									#29
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quote: Originally posted by Comrade Tribune If it takes one more year to build the Sistine Chapel, so what?

Speaking of which, CT, how's your own game effort coming along?

	04-05-2002 05:46									#30
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quote: Originally posted by Comrade Tribune What do you mean by 'fact-based'? I was absolutely having no problem with the Alan Design. I believe the game would have been GREAT. The Sistine Chapel of Computer SciFi Strategy Gaming. They simply should have given it another year. If it takes one more year to build the Sistine Chapel, so what?

So they didn't have enough of an advance to build the sistine chapel. The project needs to be in budget. The reason its not is because the designers didn't consider codability in their design. The project manager screwed up. He needs to control effort so it gets done well and on budget. This is a very basic concept that any businessman must follow.