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Trip Hawkins Inducted Into AIAS Hall Of Fame 27

Voodoo Extreme has the news that game development veteran Trip Hawkins has been inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame. Previous inductees have included luminaries such as Peter Molyneux, Will Wright, and Sid Meier. Individuals are inducted for "pioneering a new game genre; changing the face of the art form through new technology; influencing other designers and products; demonstrating the highest level of creativity and innovation; and consistent product success at a level that helps expand the industry."
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Trip Hawkins Inducted Into AIAS Hall Of Fame

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  • This makes a great deal of sense to me. Hawkins was a trialblazer in the early video game industry. His influence is perhaps felt more on the business side as opposed to the design side (like Meier and Molyneux). He deserves a place in that Hall of Fame. Well deserved.
    • No, he doesn't.

      This is like making the 4th person into a sports Hall of Fame an owner. This is disgraceful. You give respect to the guys on the ground floor first, not the guys in the suits. This Hall of Fame has turned into a joke less than 5 inductees in.
      • EA treated games like a legitimate business when very few did, and they fostered the development of some amazing games by some extreemly creative people and by that they laid the foundation of a games industry. Yes I believe he does deserve a place there. It would be more like making the 4th person in a sports hall of fame the owner who first allowed a minority to play on a team. It would have shown forsight that changed the face of the game. EA showed enough forsight to provide an atmosphere where great ga
  • Rightt.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Tuesday February 01, 2005 @03:43PM (#11543434)
    When I think game development,I think of John Carmack, Will Wright, Sid Meier, and TRIP HAWKINS...

    I'm very surprised that he is being inducted with all of the EA stuff going on all around us. Also, he ran 3D0 into bankrupcy with a terribly over-priced console.

    • That was my first thought... 3D0 and their financial troubles. I even understand he spent his own money a few times to bail the company out, and gave up on it the last time.

      EA though, for all of its bad publicity of late, was a huge name in games. he left in 1991, which I think was either bad timing, or showed his lack of vision.
      • Is a joke! Right? I mean, 'cmon, guys!

        It was bad enough when the schlockmeisters of Hollywood invented their pseudo-academy to vest a dubious enterprise with the veneer of an acquired establisment and respectability.

        Is anything actually studied? Are theories advanced or any problem solved?

        How about "Guild" or "Association".

    • Trip who?

      I thought 3DO went bust cause of poor publishing, the console was dead well before they went AWOL... They whored out the Army Men franchise, and let's not even talk about the Heroes of Might & Magic Chronicles fiasco... Oh sure, we'll make 10 mini-expansions for a game, but add no features... And people wondered why they went down the tubes so fast.

      I guess we can thank him for the demolition of New World Computing (and other studios) and the founding of our new publishing overlords.
  • by Goosey ( 654680 ) on Tuesday February 01, 2005 @03:45PM (#11543462) Homepage
    I don't think anyone can claim that the founder of Electronic Arts has not had a signficant impact on the video game industry. That being said I am weathering my house for the flame storm I am predicting not far down the road.

    Truely though, he left EA in what, 1991? To found 3DO of all companies, a company which really didn't have much impact on the industry. Now he is trying another venu, Digital Chocolate.. A Pocket-Computer game developer.. Considering that EA wasn't really that big a deal back in 1991, how much effect did this man really have. I hate to sound like I am trying to cheapen his award (because, thats exactly what I sound like), but I think there are a number of developers out there who are more deserving of this award.

    One can not help but wonder what the industry would be like if he was still running EA. Considering his success with 3DO, I will speculate that the face of the industry would be much different.
    • by jeblucas ( 560748 ) <[jeblucas] [at] [gmail.com]> on Tuesday February 01, 2005 @03:54PM (#11543552) Homepage Journal
      Considering that EA wasn't really that big a deal back in 1991, how much effect did this man really have.
      Perhaps you are forgetting something.... ONE ON ONE: DR J VS LARRY BIRD [classicgaming.com]. Still the best sports title of all time (just barely squeaking by Tecmo Bowl and 8-bit NES Ice Hockey with Team 4-Fat-Guys). They also made M.U.L.E., Wasteland, Earl Weaver Baseball, Populous, The Bard's Tale. Just awesome [classicgaming.com]. All this before Hawkins left, so I think he had a pretty big impact.
    • "Now he is trying another venu, Digital Chocolate.. A Pocket-Computer game developer.."

      Hmmm, someone that came from someplace once great(EA), started another company and drove it into the ground(3DO), then switched to Pocket Games(Digital Chocolate).
      Remind you of anyone?

      .....John Romero!

      Came from someplace once great? (id Software!) Check!
      Started another company and drove it into the ground? (ION Storm!) Check!
      Switched to Pocket Games? (MonkeyStone!) Check!

      When will Romero get his award?!?

    • I am shocked. This guy does not belong in the same league as Shigeru Miyamoto and the rest. The fact that he's even associated with Electronic Arts just destroyed this award.

      The engineers who pioneered scaling, rotation and Mode 7 made 100x more contribution than this fucker in 1991. He didn't innovate in business or engineering.

  • by Kizzle ( 555439 )
    The name Trip Hawkins gives me an image of a bad ass rebellious skateboarding brother of Steven Hawking.
  • Everett Kaser for advancing the genre of "logic puzzles" as computer games. But I'm not part of the academy. Still, Honeycomb Hotel has got to be an all-time favorite. I'm fairly certain he'll make it someday!

    Now Mr. Hawkins' company, 3DO, did so much melding of entertainment and media! I really understand the induction. The failure of the 3DO console didn't change that.
  • Trip was actually a manager at Apple before he quit to form Electronic Arts...
  • wow. I hope with these new accolades can he now afford to pay me back for the last 3 high heat games

    don't get me wrong, it is impressive that a game can contain the same bugs for 4 years in a row while actually degrading the gameplay. hall of fame worthy, though? I'm not so sure.
    ----
    (army men joke here)
  • by SpottedKuh ( 855161 ) on Tuesday February 01, 2005 @04:21PM (#11543886)
    From the AIAS qualification list for induction:

    [C]onsistent product success at a level that helps expand the industry.

    Perhaps they glossed over that requirement in this case? After all, running a company into the ground by selling a console 7x more expensive than their competitors (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trip_Hawkins [wikipedia.org]) isn't exactly product success.
    • As well as that console fiasco, don't forget the fact that in 1996 3D'oh (as we used to call them) bought up [wikipedia.org] and subsequently trashed Meridian 59 [meridian59.com], which is now widely accepted as the first commercial graphical MUD and a forerunner to the MMORPG industry. Trip Hawkins was handed a glimpse of the future and did everything he could to squeeze the service to destruction within around three years - completely handing their slice of the market over to the 'newcomers' - UO, EQ etc.. Ranting aside, this guy has d
  • by MiceHead ( 723398 ) * on Tuesday February 01, 2005 @07:34PM (#11546052) Homepage
    Trip Hawkins is an interesting choice, in that the other inductees [interactive.org] were all heavily involved in game development, whereas he was more of a facilitator. There's also a great deal of debate on whether Hawkins is to be villified or celebrated. I'll throw in with the latter category, because he pulled together the "electronic artists" who created my favorite games of the early '80s.

    An article written by the Dot Eaters [emuunlim.com] does a good job of describing how I think of Electronic Arts when it was just a small studio. I'm still fond of those LP-style packages [armchairarcade.com]. And their toolbox-titles, such as Adventure Construction Set [mobygames.com], Pinball Construction Set [mobygames.com] and Racing Destruction Set [mobygames.com] brought about my own interest in creating games with a strong building component to them. There was nothing in the world like M.U.L.E. [salon.com] before Dan Bunten/Danielle Bunten Berry created it. And I think it was Hawkins that made these things possible.

    He may deserve the harsh scrutiny he receives -- and, certainly, he's not going to win any points with anyone for his comments earlier this year [gamedrool.com]. But somehow I can't hate the fellow who brought together so many bright folks under one roof. Electronic Arts has recently published some of my favorite [eagames.com] games [ea.com], but it's the early ones I remember best.
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