There is a surprisingly blunt in-depth analysis in the Escapist about the history and eventual winding death of Origin. Long, too. It starts off with memories of a historical bitchslap.

Richard “Lord British” Garriott even worked an EA reference into Ultima VII (1992). Two high-profile nonplayer characters, Elizabeth and Abraham, perform seemingly helpful tasks for the player – but E. and A. turn out to be murderers in league with the player’s nemesis, the Guardian. The three items that power the Guardian’s evil generators are a cube, a sphere and a tetrahedron – the former EA logo.

Ultima VII was released the same year that EA was bought (whether before or after I don’t remember off the top of my head – 1992. EA and Origin went on to enter a long, acrimonious affair that ultimately ended up in Origin’s demise, 11 years later. But this marriage started a year after Trip left to start the ill-fated 3DO. So it was somewhat odd to see the article start thusly:

“Trip Hawkins is the Antichrist.” The scene: a bar at a gaming convention in the late 1980s. The speaker: an executive at the computer game company Origin who today, no doubt, would prefer to remain anonymous..

Why the holy-fire view of William M. Hawkins III, founder of Electronic Arts? Because (as this exec explained) EA meant to win in the computer game business not only by making good games, but by preventing competitors from making good games too – by actively interfering with their ability to do business. As one example, EA had filed a frivolous lawsuit against Origin. Forced into a costly out-of-court settlement, Origin execs asked Trip Hawkins why he had allowed the suit; he responded, “This is just business. This is the way we’re going to win.”

Trip felt forced to respond:

It is ludicrous to adopt the Garriotts’ views about me….Robert and Richard Garriott took it very personally as an insult to their integrity…there is a tremendous amount of ego and self-righteousness that needs to be exposed.

Given I’ve worked for both men, I’ll just say that I genuinely like both men, and then reserve my tongue. As for the article, it’s awfully harsh on EA, and not enough so on Origin. No, really! While Origin was a wonderful place to work, the truth is that all companies are dysfunctional, and in the case of EA and Origin, the two companies were incompatibly so.

Kind of like Dharma and Greg, only not funny. Okay, kind of like Dharma and Greg.