“I dreamed, that games would never die…”: a Review of _Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings_

Review By: Ron Baxley, Jr., published fantasy and science fiction author 

As Roberta Williams would have perhaps done via an Easter Egg or Al Lowe or the Two Guys from Andromeda would have done as a straight parody, I must preface my review:

“I dreamed a dream in games I did buy
When cash was high with games worth playing
I dreamed, that games would never die
I dreamed God would keep me adventuring
Then I was young and often played
And dreams of making games were used and wasted
There were many bills to be paid
No games created, but novels vetted.”

Adventure gaming did basically die for quite some time, and its partial eulogy is laid out in Ken Williams’  Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings . He shows how Sierra Online was so much more than an adventure game company, but I was an avid buyer and player of that gaming genre, so my focus tends to be more on those. In the 80s and early 90s, Electronics Boutique and Radio Shack were used to seeing me around birthdays or holidays, and I had an extensive collection of “quest” games. In fact, I wanted to go more into computer graphics and use my past programming skills and writing skills as an adventure game designer at one point. My father pushed me more into computer programming itself, but I was always using graphics programs and game creation engines to make my own games. I wrote a research paper my senior year in high school on adventure gaming and even the future of it, focusing mostly on Sierra On-line and using periodicals from the nearest branch of the University of South Carolina. At the start of university, I did fairly well with programming but not calculus and other requirements. I did learn to do some rudimentary programming in a Multi-user Dungeon within the early 90s and remembered early forms of email and the starts of the Internet. Eventually, I moved from computer science to English and had many publications, including novels. Even recently, though, I created an interactive story for the Choice of Games company with adventure game facets. 

Therefore, what I liked most about Williams’ book was the insider background on Roberta Williams and others at the company creating games and what that culture was like. Seeing Roberta’s methods at work were intriguing to me. Not liking the last Sierra-produced King’s Quest particularly, I could understand her frustration when the corporate culture that had taken over did not listen to her about the divergent 3-D King’s Quest. I always identified more with Mrs. Williams because I had some programming background as she did, but my heart was in creativity and storytelling. Seeing how she always stuck up for what she wanted in the company in the face of investors – even when it was sold – made me admire her even more.  

Next, what I liked second best about his book was Williams showed who he admired and tried his best to emulate, including Walt Disney and Bill Gates. I am a life-long Disney fan and have a love of the parks and Disney films. When Williams stated that he was trying to make consumers feel like family and a part of something larger and that he got that from the early Disney methods, I knew just what he meant. Having grown up with Bill Gates’ products from MS-DOS on forward, I did have an admiration for him as well and understood how having a somewhat harsh, expert taskmaster at the helm of an enterprise is something one might want to follow in business. As a side note, William’s love of the early Apple computer company and what they did with that company made me very nostalgic. My late father was a techie and started my sister and I as children on an Apple IIe and a Texas Instruments computer before that. The screen captures from the Apple and the discussions of early games for it almost brought a tear to my eye.

Finally, what I enjoyed the least but still found intriguing were the ins and outs of the corporate buy-outs as that was the most tragic part of the book and also the most business-oriented. However, as with the “Disney War” book I read quite a few years ago and other comparable books, when a company I am interested in is involved, I pay more attention. For Williams to keep me reading through the entire book when it was focused a good bit on business at times is a testament to his ability to make business details into a good narrative.

I highly recommend this book to any adventure gamer who does not mind business details, wants to see what made the leadership of Sierra On-line tick, who is a fan of Roberta Williams and other game designers at Sierra On-line, and who also likes insider information about the growth and decline of a computer software company.

Five Stars (*****)