Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings

The Rise and Fall of Sierra On-Line

By: Ken Williams

Narrated by: Josh Horowitz

Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Sierra On-Line was one of the very first computer game companies and at one time dominated the industry. The author, Ken Williams, founded Sierra On-Line with his wife Roberta who went on to create many of the company's best-selling games.

Sierra grew from just Ken and Roberta to over 1,000 employees and a fan base that still exists today, despite the fact that the company was torn apart by criminal activities, scandal, and corruption that resulted in jail sentences and the collapse of Sierra. This is the behind-the-scenes story of the rise and fall, as it could only be told by the ultimate insider.

©2020 Ken Williams (P)2020 Ken Williams

No Bones About Bucks

Williams was clearly in it for the bucks, and really makes no bones about that, which I appreciate. He put making money first--which is understandable. So, in this book, he doesn't give as much attention to the creative side of things as I hoped for. Regardless, Chapter 13, about how to be a software engineer, is pure gold. There IS good stuff here but I think I'd like to hear more from Roberta.

Meh

I’m not a Sierra fan, but I enjoy reading about the history of technology and software so I picked this up. While some parts of the book are interesting, it’s just not very well written and lacks any sort detail. It’s meandering and the author brings the story to a complete halt with chapters unrelated to the story, that just feels like padding material.

It’s not a bad book to be sure - it’s just a poorly written one, and it could have been made dramatically better if Ken had worked with a real author who could have researched things and then told the story in a cohesive manner.

There is some entertainment to be found - but it could have been a dramatically better, which is a shame, since these stories are going to be more and more hard to document as we go forward in time.

A Good Trip Down Memory Lane

While it was nice to hear the history of the company that made so many of the games I loved as a child, I would’ve loved to have heard more about those games, and less about the business or conflicts in building the Sierra empire.

But, if you are into the business side of a gaming company, or want to hear thoughts from one of video games’ greatest founders, it’s a good book.

The narration, however, is that bland, uninspired style that we have come to expect in too many works of non-fiction. I know they all can’t be Wil Wheaton, but I am tired of the same old anemic sound.

Interesting anecdotes but overall uninspiring

I grew up with sierra’s games, not sure what I expected from this book other than to be reminded of the games for nostalgia and to learn of what happened to sierra. Unfortunately the book is way too long for what it is. Ken’s stories often sounded defensive and self praising, simple business lessons get too much airtime and seem overly explained. If you are not a business person you might find it interesting to hear of management stories and Wall Street transactions. If you have any management or entrepreneurial experience you might find the stories too basic and don’t drive to a deeper level.

a fitting ending to Sierra

Many people these days had their childhood revolve around Harry Potter, My childhood revolved around Sierra games. They taught me to type, read, spell.. they taught me it was okay to fail.. and to pick myself back up.. think through the problem and try again.. they taught me to explore and learn.. be curious.. all of these things made me who i am today.

This book goes into a lot of detail of Sierra as a company and Ken Williams. It answers a lot of questions and gives glimses into the 15-20 yr history of the company not the games themselves. Many of the reviews have mentioned that the interlude chapters are distracting.. i feel they were amazing. Expecially the one on Ken WIlliams opinions and approach to programming. He and his company were WAY WAY before their time in terms of story telling, technology, and vision.

Its a great read/listen

A Fascinating Memoir

I received a free copy of the audiobook to review. I will try to be as unbiased as possible, but full disclosure I grew up with Sierra. I played SQ, KQ, EQ, The Realm, QfG, Dr. Brain, TIM, PQ, BaK, BiA, PAiT, LSL, Hoyle, CoL, RB, TP, and a few others.

That should put me in square in the middle of a relatively small target audience. However, I feel that the real target audience is even closer to home. It feels like a book written for Ken Williams’ family, friends, and former employees. Those that experienced Sierra firsthand and may have lingering questions as to what exactly happened and what Ken Williams was thinking with his decisions.

The book feels almost like a conversation with him. Or more accurately, listening to him tell the story of his life. He reached out to friends for details or googled information more often than exhaustively researching facts. If there was something he couldn’t remember, he said so. He talked about several choices throughout his life that he would probably make differently now, but he stood by his choices. He acknowledges that he wasn’t always right, that he was cocky, that he wasn’t easy to work for, and this book is his side of the story.

It makes for a fascinating memoir. I mean, he was almost a household name. Sierra had so many firsts... graphical game, online game network, IBM compatible game, game on CD, game using a music card, online casino, personal finance software, BASIC compiler, etc. If he had made one or two choices differently, he would be a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Jeff Bezos. Several books have been written about those that made it all the way to the top, but how many memoirs have been written by those that were this close?

Probably a lot, actually. But there are a lot of biographies on my TBR list, and they’ve been there a while. I read this as soon as I found out it existed, and I enjoyed it.

Sierra's rise and fall

First off, I want to call out the narration, its excellent throughout.

The book covers the early years of Ken and Roberta Williams (mostly Ken), and their journey through the dawn of video games, to being merged into a global conglomerate.

My childhood was filled with the early Sierra games on my IBM compatible computer in the early 80s. Its great to hear how that all came about, and what things had to be done to rise to be the stars that they were.

Criticism - The book has its faults though, the pacing is a little off, and the interludes are distracting. This is one part story of the rise and fall of Sierra, and one part Self Help book. The Self Help parts.. im not a big fan of. Ken has a lot of traits that worked for him, but i think a lot of it was being in the right place at the right time and taking some initiative. A lot of his management advice is actually.. pretty terrible. I'd never work for him.

Still overall, a great book that I would recommend to anyone who was playing Sierra games since the 80s.

Why good things will always change

I have been a Sierra fan the moment I had King's Quest take all my time away from doing homework. To be honest, if it were not for my obsession of what a game could be I would never ha e ended up in the career I am now.

But what really happened to that beloved game company that seemed to go from top to bottom so very quickly. Reading what happened through the words of Ken Williams himself shines a spotlight on all the good and the bad that happened. I am sad to hear how a company like that was treated. But in the end, I am still very happy for the amount of amazi g products they created.

This is a well written diary that would interest anyone who liked Sierra, or who is interested in the rise of the computer game industry. Highly recommended.

An unexpected jewel

I'm a developer working in the video game industry, and grew up playing Sierra games (along with many others). I bought this book, as I bought many other dealing with the life of influential people or companies of this industry, because I enjoy hearing the stories of my childhood heroes. Nonetheless, I was able to take a lot of great advice and some pretty important insights. I'd admit these might not be for you (not every game developer out there will resonate with Ken's words), but I'd also say no other book on the subject had this amount of interesting things to take away and apply in your career.
The narration is spot on. I enjoyed it as much as the story itself.

Very interesting, but disjointed

A great insight into the founding and growth of the legendary company along with the story of the corporate nightmare that led to its demise. Ken gives a unique look in to his company's history and challenges they had to make as pioneers in the games industry. Unfortunately it also comes in a very disjointed form, jumping wildly between times and stories and often quoting Wikipedia and or even himself. I think this is a great book for fans of Sierra or video game history, but I feel like some editing would have made it a must read.