Point of Origin: Vol. VI, No. 6

One thing that should be clear in this August 9, 1996 edition of The Point of Origin is that the heart and soul of Origin certainly isn't dead - check out their company-wide assassination game and their award winning raft race rafts... not the only impressive Squid they'll be designing this year!

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• What the hell is up with... Product Support?! has both funny and touching stories about Wing Commander support:

According to Evan, the funniest bug recently was in Wing Commander III as part of Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga at this point in the game:
Gameflow K003
Gunnery : Movie 117
The movie where Blair talks to Eisen about shaving is full of bad acting. The only way to bypass it is to process [ESC].

Right now, PS is working on Crusader: No Regret, Gene Wars, Longbow Mission Disk, NATO Fighters Mission Disk for ATF, Privateer 2: The Darkening, Syndicate Wars, and Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga, as well as EA Classics titles BioForge, CyberMage, and Ultima VIII. They soon will be working on Crusader: No Remorse Playstation and Saturn, Dungeon Keeper, U.S. Navy Fighter Platinum, Wing Commander 4 Playstation and are doing ongoing support for Ultima Online and Ultima IX.

Of course, because they're on ORIGIN's front line every day, Customer Service gets to hear plenty of feedback from our customers--the good, the bad, and the ugly. Fortunately, they hear a lot of good, such as this following letter:

Dear Mr. Garriott:

As a long time customer of ORIGIN and an avid fan of your games, I felt I needed to write you directly concerning a recent incident I had with ORIGIN technical support. A couple of weeks ago, I purchased Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, and must say I was having a great time playing it when at one crucial mission, the game crashed. Being an experienced gamer and a professionally employed systems analyst, I went about the standard system checking and configuration tweaking that often solved the majority of errors. To my chagrin, I still had no luck.

I decided to call ORIGIN Technical Support. I believe it was February 19th (I could be wrong), in hopes ORIGIN's staff could help me. Not only did I receive excellent technical support at a short time wait, I am specifically writing to commend the help of one Jay Allen, the tech who helped me out. I realize it is the job of tech support reps to deal with users' problems, but Jay did much more than this. I gather from our discussion about my system and its configuration he realized I was somewhat experienced as a user. Rather than treating me as, quite frankly, an imbecile, as many game companies' reps do, he treated me with respect and intelligence, humor and a friendly manner.

I understand, again, that it is the duty of a tech support representative to help solve my game problems. It is not, however, his obligation to be friendly to me, to comment on my cool Windows sound files (playing in the background), or to treat my technical problem as a cooperative effort that made me feel more a part of the process. In short, Mr. Allen was the nicest and most helpful person I have ever spoken to in over four years of dealing with computer industry vendors, and I felt he was owed recognition for such conduct.

Sincerely,
Robert C.
Wantagh, N.Y.

• In Ink has all the news that's fit to reprint:

Privateer 2: The Darkening
Strategy Plus: "The interface is wonderfully stylish, with menus which grow and shrink, and animation on nearly every screen. Here it is in all its multimedia splendor."
Computer Gaming World: "The SVGA space combat engine was one of the most impressive we saw at the recent E3 show."
PC Gamer: "With a new space flight engine and a big-budget style, ORIGIN's foothold in the space combat market is sure to remain firm with this baby."

...There are more reviews cropping up for Wing Commander IV for the Macintosh. Joel Enos at Mac Home Journal called WCIV Mac, "An amazing blend of adventure, arcade and flight sim action."

Michael Dixon writes for the Mac Gamer's Ledge, an online magazine for Macintosh gamers. He graded WCIV Mac at 9.5 out of 10. "I praise ORIGIN Systems for getting this well-polished game to the Macintosh platform as quickly as it did. One of the best space combat simulators I've played."

... Finally, a couple of things to look forward to. The October issue of Strategy Plus will feature Privateer 2 on its cover with a preview of the game scheduled for inside. And the October cover of PC Gamer will focus on ORIGIN. Inside, editors are planning a 12 page feature on the company with interviews and pictures from Ultima IX, Ultima Online, Privateer 2 and Crusader: No Regret.

Point of Origin
Vol. VI, No. 6 - August 9, 1996 Contents Spotlight: Origin Brings Home the Gold Again
Point Man
Kat's Korner of Phun Pfone Phacts
Visit the Company Store
Off the Clock
What the hell is up with... Product Support?!
In Ink
New Hires & Promotions
EOM
News Briefs
The Future
Ticker