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May 2002
 A
CHAT WITH ELONKA DUNIN
GIGnews recruited Melanie Cambron,
known by most in the industry as The Game Recruiting
Goddess, to use her skills for the good of gamekind and
recruit some of the big names in the industry to give us
all valuable insight into what they do and how they do
it.
In this interview, Melanie chats up Elonka Dunin,
Executive Producer and General Manager of Online
Community at Simutronics Corporation (www.play.net), a pioneer in the
field of massively multiplayer games. Before joining the
world of games, Elonka studied Astronomy at UCLA, and
then joined the United States Air Force where she worked
on the SR-71 and U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Elonka has
been with Simutronics since the early days when she
helped the CEO shift the base of operations from his
bedroom in his parents' home to an apartment loft in St.
Charles, Missouri. Today, Simutronics is, as named in
1999 by Inc., one of the fastest growing privately-held
companies in the United States. In addition to her
duties overseeing a team of hundreds, Elonka serves on
the IGDA’s
Online Games Steering Committee. On the
personal side, Elonka’s interest in cryptography became
an award-winning talent when, in 2000, she became the
first person to crack the PhreakNIC Code, a puzzle that
had remained unsolved for a year. Her code-cracking
skills did not go unnoticed by others. Elonka has been
invited to give talks to a variety of investigators
ranging from the FBI to the Secret Service. She also
speaks several languages and has visited every
continent, including Antarctica.Okay!
MC: The story of
the Garriott brothers in their parents’ garage has
become the stuff of game industry lore, but as I read
about the early days of Simutronics, you certainly give
them a run for their money. Tell me more about how the
company got its start and the kinds of games you make.
ED: Simutronics
was originally the brain-child of David Whatley. As a
teenager, he'd been big into the old BBS days and had
even written some Fantasy Game BBS software that he sold
all over the world, and he did this all from his
parents' home. He’d also gotten involved as a player in
some of the early multiplayer games that were out there
such as Sceptre and Island of Kesmai, and,
like many others who play these games, he thought to
himself, "I can do this too." So in 1987, at the age of
21, he founded Simutronics Corporation with Tom and Susan Zelinski.
Along with one other programmer, Tom Tayon, they
released two multiplayer games on the Genie online
service: the medieval fantasy RPG GemStone and
the "wizards in team combat" game Orb Wars.
I came from a much more diverse background. I was -- and
am -- a lifelong gamer, but I'd held a variety of
different jobs ranging from a USAF avionics technician,
to an English teacher in Brazil, to a computer
programmer in Colorado, to a very highly-paid legal
secretary in Los Angeles. I heard of Simutronics
originally because I was a player of GemStone. It
was an immediate connection for me -- I'd played many
other games, both single- and multi-player, computer and
tabletop, but the very first day I logged into GS2, I
had this weird sense like, "I'm home." So in 1990 when Simutronics had its first-ever player convention, called
"GemCon" in St. Louis, I was one of the players that
made the trek out to meet the makers of the game. David
and I hit it off immediately, as we had very similar
world-views on a lot of things. A month later I moved
to St. Louis, and together we moved Simutronics’ base
operations from his parents' home, to an apartment loft,
and eventually to our current location in a 10,000
square-foot office building, where David has one corner
office and I have the other.
The next game that we released after GemStone was
the 3D CyberStrike, a multiplayer mech "take
control of the city" game, which was state-of-the-art
for online games when it came out in 1993. It got lots
of attention and praise, and Computer Gaming World
magazine actually created a new category in their "Game
of the Year" awards, just so they could give an award to
CyberStrike. It was the first game ever to win "Online
Game of the Year." And we just kept growing from there.
Within the next couple years we'd hired Neil Harris
as our VP of Marketing, plus another couple of
programmers, and we actually had our first real office.
It was a converted house in an area of town that was
being turned from residential into business space. A
real estate developer had bought two beautiful old homes
next to each other, built a connection in between them
and then a second story up on top, and turned the whole
thing into office space. We started off on that top
floor, and then as we grew we moved down into the first
floor as well, and also took over the basement where we
kept our game servers. Eventually we outgrew the
building and so we moved into a "real" 10,000
square-foot office building where we still are today.
But sometimes I miss the old location, because it had a
lot of character. My personal office had been the
original front room of the house that was there before,
so I had stone walls, stained glass in the windows, and
even a working fireplace. It was small, but, wow, did it
have personality!
In terms of other games in our product line, most of the
ones that we’ve released run on our text-based IFE
(Interactive Fiction Engine), such as Modus Operandi,
which has actually kind of changed its genre over the
years, from a Caribbean island "murder mystery" game to
its current status which is more of a modern day
vacation/adventure with some "X-Files" mixed in. We also got the license from Universal
Studios to do a game based on the popular TV shows,
Hercules & Xena: Alliance of Heroes. And we have
other "instances" or "shards" of our biggest games,
GemStone III and DragonRealms, with
different community dynamics. For example, we have
"Platinum" versions of those games where customers can
pay a little more per month in order to have a separate
-- and much quieter -- game world, where it’s easier to get
to know everyone who plays. We’ve also just opened a
new "PvP" version of DragonRealms called "The
Fallen" a few months ago, which is a "no rules" server.
It’s been an interesting experiment, since rather than
starting a brand new community, it’s one that’s been
seeded with a large percentage of our existing
DragonRealms customers. So they already have a
tightly knit community, and the customers themselves,
since they’re already "socialized," are working hard to
establish control of the new environment, and not just
let the grief players run amok. It’s fascinating to
watch, especially since we don’t really have to do
anything. We just set up the world, and then step back
and watch what happens.
I also have to mention with a note of pride that our
flagship game, GemStone III, is still going
strong and is one of our largest products. We’ve got
customers in that game who have been with us for over a
decade. In fact, GemStone III just celebrated
its 12-year anniversary this year, which, among
commercial MMORPGs, makes it the longest-running
persistent world, in the world!
MC: At this year’s
GDC, Western Illinois had a booth to encourage game
companies to locate there. Maryland did the same.
Missouri isn’t exactly considered a hotbed of game
development. Has your location been a help or hindrance?
Did you ever consider relocating and what has made you
stay rooted in Missouri?
ED: Well, we
never really needed to relocate anywhere, because we
were an internet company. We didn’t have to be
geographically "near" other companies or customers,
since we already had access to everyone via cyberspace.
Plus, the lower cost of living in Missouri has
definitely been a help over the years. We can stretch a
dollar much further here than on either of the
coasts. As for "not being a hotbed" of game
development, it all depends on your point of view.
Aside from Simutronics, we also have PopTop Software
here, and John Ratcliff, designer of such games as
688 Attack Sub and Seawolf (and currently
working on Verant's Planetside).
Silicon Valley wasn't always a technical mecca -- a
few companies got going there, and then it hit critical
mass and kept growing. I see St. Louis as having the
same possibilities as Austin, which wasn't previously a
"big game development town", but sure is now. So, here
in St. Louis, it was pretty much just Simutronics and
PopTop and John Ratcliff, but then Verant came and
opened up an office here, and we're looking to start a
new IGDA chapter in St. Louis as well, so I anticipate
quite a bit of continued growth over the next few years.
MC: While
Simutronics was a pioneer in the MMOG world and has been
around for 15 years, many people in the industry may not
be aware of you perhaps because, with the exception of
CyberStrike, an action game with 3D graphics,
your games are entirely text-based. And, yet, according
to a report by Media Metrix in 1999, no other on-line
pursuit came close to the kinds of minutes your average
player was spending on your games. In fact, I recall
reading that the average player spent about 38 hours
every month playing a Simutronics game. What’s the
secret to creating that level of player interest?
ED: An
incredibly strong sense of community, combined with
compelling gameplay that always has the possibility of
something new, each time you play. We've got an
enormous team of GameMasters who are enabled with an
extremely versatile and easy to change game engine, so
each day you login, there's a good chance you're going
to run into something new, and then need the help of
your friends to deal with it. I've always been proud of
that aspect of our multiplayer games. Instead of the
game always pitting player against player, our games are
more cooperative. The game sets up challenges to be
overcome, and then players need to work together, each
contributing their own unique skills, to cooperatively
achieve common goals. That's powerful stuff that really
intensifies the bonds between people, and gives them a
sense of feeling needed, so they want to come back and
be with their friends.
MC: Does
Simutronics see itself moving toward more 3D games or is
the "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" philosophy guiding
the way?
ED: We've
always been into 3D. In fact, our game CyberStrike,
which came out in 1993, was state of the art in that it
had 3D graphics for an online game. There was nothing
else like it at that time. Since then we've released
CyberStrike 2, which also has some great 3D
graphics. And on the MMORPG front, we're moving forward
with our game Hero's Journey. It's been a dream
of ours for over a decade, but we never had the right
mix of team, technology, and resources to implement the
vision. But it's a game that someday we will
release, and with all our experience, it's going to be
awesome!
MC: In a recent NY
Times article, the question posed was whether realism
was taking the fun out of games. The author heralded
"the great achievement" of Nintendo's game designer,
Shigeru Miyamoto and the "Mario" games which put aside
the ambition of realism, and instead create an elaborate
world with its own regulations and peculiarities that
the player would probe, gradually discovering its
secrets. The article also noted that "something odd has
taken place along with technological progress.
Technology is not altogether welcomed by the games
themselves." The article cites Oddworld: Munch's
Oddysee for Xbox where an endangered species is
being rescued and medieval machines abound -- power is
won through communal chant. Is the industry coming back
around to the strength of story over eye-candy or is
that jumping the gun a bit?
ED: I think
there's always room for both. We're in the
entertainment industry, and asking people to pick one
type of game is like asking them to pick their one
favorite music CD -- at different times, they're in
moods for different types of entertainment experiences.
Now, having said that, there is a customer
expectation for a certain amount of eye candy on certain
platforms. If someone is used to a certain type of
graphical game, then the next game they buy will
probably have to have something comparable in terms of
visual experience, in order for them to still feel
they've gotten value for their money. On the other hand
though, consumers have shown an obvious willingness to
forego cool graphics as long as the game is compelling.
For example, look at Pokemon and the Nintendo Gameboy
games. They're enormously popular, even though
their graphics are at a very simple level that would be
completely unacceptable for high-end PC games. And of
course, look at our own games. Though we won awards for
the cool graphics of CyberStrike's 3D world, and
got lots of press write-ups, our most popular games
then, and now, continue to be our text-based MMORPGs.
Many of our customers argue that the most awesome
graphics in the world can't compete with the power of
their own imaginations and the images that they come up
with from our text-based worlds. So, when it comes down
to it, the game is always more important than the
graphics. The coolest cutscenes in the world won't save
a boring game.
MC: With regard to
"communal chant," I know Simutronics set up a Crisis
Center the day after the September 11 attacks to offer
information and updates for the members of the online
communities, tell me more about that.
ED: I am
extremely proud of the Crisis Center that we set up
right after the attacks. We posted the status of every
one of our customers that we heard of who was in the
affected areas. Hundreds of reports streamed in to a
special address we set up, as countless members of our
community assisted in either reporting the names of
people who were missing, or tracking down the status of
those that no one had heard from yet. You can see our
crisis page at
http://crisis.play.net.
We also set up a special program for our community
members who were in the military, telling them that we'd
keep an eye on their accounts for them in case they were
called away suddenly to service because of the events of
9/11. We told them that we'd even suspend billing on
their accounts so they wouldn't be charged, but that
we'd still keep their characters safe for them while
they were gone, so it would be one less thing that
they'd have to worry about while overseas.
And for anyone in our company who had doubts about
whether "working on games" was important during that
time of crisis, I told them that the players who were
logging in to our games during that time were not just
looking for entertainment. They were looking for
community, and, more importantly, for continuity. If we
were to shut our games down during those first days, it
would just be one more point of confusion in all this
chaos. But by doing our jobs, keeping the games running
and the worlds stable, we were giving many of our
customers a stable point of reference. Many of them came
together in the virtual worlds of our games, to gather
in the towns and share their grief. So we kept doing our
jobs, and did our best to maintain this sense of
continuity in our own corner of this world. That was one
of the best ways that we could help.
In terms of the Crisis Center, I didn’t see any other
MMORPG doing what we did, and it really brought home to
me just how tightly-knit our community is - and that,
quite frankly, is one of the reasons I credit for why
Simutronics is still here, while most of our early
competitors are no more.
MC: While we’re on
that subject, what other reasons do you credit for
Simutronics’ continued success?
ED: (1) A small
but very diverse management team. The fast growth of
cyberspace definitely kept throwing bizarre challenges
at us, so we had to be pretty fast on our feet to
survive. But because we always stayed independent, we
were able to make quick changes to adapt. Also, because
we had very diverse skills, there was always someone
on the team who could brainstorm a way to deal with the
latest crisis. The diversity did lead to conflict at
times, which we got through with varying degrees of
success, but ultimately the chemistry kept us going. (2)
We have a very dedicated and extraordinarily talented
team of offsite GameMasters, who we empower with
enormous creative control over the game worlds -- so
when large changes were needed, we could quickly
mobilize a larger team to distribute the work and get
things done very rapidly. We didn't have the
"development bottleneck" that other companies did, where
every change to the games needed to be done by the main
office. We can push the authority and responsibility
down to the team-members who are on the front line with
the customers. And (3) An intuitive understanding that
it's not just about offering games as products,
but that it's just as important to offer a high degree
of service to our customers. Via our message
boards, our customer service team, our annual convention SimuCon, the various forums in the games themselves and
even our support of the fan websites that our customers
create, it's never been about just Simutronics
providing games that "those customers" play, but has
always been about a high level of communication between
both us and our players. That synergy has always guided
our development.
MC: Several years
ago I saw some comedian do a bit about how he was
sitting on his couch eating chips and flipping the
remote when he came across some footage of an armless
man playing the guitar with his feet, and all the
comedian could think was, "I suck." When I look over all
your accomplishments, all I can think is "I suck." Most
of us have seen A Beautiful Mind and the
portrayal of cryptography and John Nash’s code-breaking,
so I have a basic idea about cryptography -- thank you,
Ron Howard -- but can you tell me a bit more about it
and breaking the PhreakNIC Code?
ED: I've just
always been fascinated by puzzles and codes and
different methods of communication, ever since I was a
little kid. My interest manifested in different ways,
ranging from being fascinated by jigsaw puzzles (so my
mother tells me) when I was a toddler, to when I
borrowed a book on codes that an older boy in the
neighborhood had, to one day when I saw some other kids
using sign language at school, and, when they didn't
want to teach it to me (it was their secret language), I
went home, pulled out the Encyclopedia, and taught it to
myself.
Anyway, I'd heard about this uncracked "hacker" code
challenge through one of the sci-fi conventions that I
occasionally speak at such as Dragon*Con in Atlanta. I
decided to take a look at the code one weekend, and then
I just got really obsessed and couldn't put it down. It
was something that hadn't been solved in a year of many
other people trying to solve it, so I knew it was going
to be hard. But for some reason, I was convinced that I
had the right skillset to be successful where the others
had not. It pretty much consumed me for several days,
but I was successful, and cracked it open. It was
formed sort of like one of those puzzle boxes where you
open one part, and then inside there’s another part to
solve. It had a little bit of everything, from simple
substitution ciphers all the way up to some
state-of-the-art stuff such as PGP and steganography.
In total, there were about twelve different types of
cryptographic systems that I had to wade through, to get
to the center. There was an amusing surprise there
though, because the code's author had not made the
assumption that a woman might be the one to solve
the code. So there was some sexist stuff in there. For
example, to announce my win, I was supposed to post a
cryptic message to a particular hacker mailing list,
with a haiku or sonnet that explained something -- well,
I won't go into the exact details, but it was very
specific, and described something both a bit crude, and
something that someone of my gender would probably
not be doing. So, after having solved the code, I
was faced with another challenge, of how to post a haiku
that fit the requirements, and yet still do it in a
somewhat classy way. But I like the solution that I
came up with, and you can see it at my personal website
if you want
(http://elonka.com).
I also wrote an entire tutorial on how I'd cracked the
code, and explained the various cryptographic techniques
involved. I had a lot of fun with the tutorial, as I put
in a lot of counter-culture and hacker "in-jokes", and
even hid another puzzle or two within my website and
tutorial. I really had a blast with the entire process.
Aside from just cracking the code, I won a free trip to
a hacker-con, got free drinks and t-shirts and stuff and
basically got a VIP treatment, or about as VIP as the
hacker scene ever gets.
Since then, I've cracked a few other hacker code
challenges. Also, after September 11th, I contacted the
local FBI because I was wondering if my crypto "skillz"
would be useful at all to help in the search for
terrorists. I was as eager as everyone else to use all
my skills and experience to track down whoever had been
involved with the atrocities of September 11th. The FBI
took me up on my offer, not to crack al Qaeda codes in
particular, but they did ask me to come help educate
other government investigators about cryptography and
steganography. So I've given talks to all kinds of
investigators, ranging from FBI agents to Secret Service
to Postal Inspectors and Customs agents. Maybe it'll be
helpful in the war on terrorism, and maybe not, but
everyone's been learning something, and it's been a very
rewarding feeling for me, to have a sense that I'm using
some of the skills that I've gained to give something
back to the community.
Continued>>>
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