Warren Spector Reflects on 2004

It's always fun to see what former influencial Origin employes are doing today. Warren Spector pops up rather frequently. He always comes across as a really nice guy who is interested in communicating with fellow gamers. Spector served as a producer at Origin from 1989 through the mid 1990s. GameSpot and Salon recently asked him about his gaming and professional highlights for the last year.

His reasons for leaving Ion Storm Austin, the game development studio he founded, this year:

You know, it was just time to move on. I'm kind of driven by the "seven-year itch" and I'd done my seven years with Ion and Eidos. (Look at my resume--I spent seven years in grad school, six and a half in paper games with Steve Jackson Games and TSR, six and a half with Origin. It's a pattern!) I wanted to try new things, with new people, under different circumstances. And, frankly, Ion had gotten big enough that I was spending too much of my time running the studio and too little actually thinking about the games. Just time for a change.

How do I feel? Weird, a little sad, and a little scared. The sad is because of all the great friends I'm leaving behind. The weird and scared? Well, that's exactly what I wanted to feel again, so it's all good.