Richard's Online Journal

Greetings and salutations. In case you were wondering, Richard Cobbett is a writer and journalist and producer of many other things involving words. He likes cats, hates spiders, and plays a lot of games. This is his website...

[26/02/07] Sierra Sudden Death Syndrome

It's a short life for a Sierra character

A random piece of amusing gaming trivia. Back in my teenage years - pause to regret prickish tendencies... and done - I coined a phrase: "Sierra Sudden Death Syndrome". SSDS for short. It was a description of the way that Sierra Online's adventure games at the time loved nothing more than to murder the player at the slightest provocation.

In the following years, the phrase stuck in plenty of peoples' heads, and it wormed its way, at least a little, into the (primarily) adventure gaming lexicon. You won't find many references on Google, and it's hardly a man selling a fine leather jacket. Still, I've always been tickled on the many times I've seen it mentioned over the years: in chats, in forums, in passing conversation with other adventure fans, and even used by a few designers. Even now, every now and again I see people turning up to the site after the parody article of the same name went live.

Okay, I hear you say. Some random trivia that only Richard could possibly care about. Why does he mention it now? Simple. Because he just found out that someone wrote a song about it. You'll find it under Music/Sierra Sudden Death Syndrome. And that's cool, even if I do say so myself, finding out that someone's converted one of your catchphrases into a medley...

Hurrah for adventure games! And remember. Always look both ways before crossing the road... and you'll still be hit by a flaming meteorite if the designer didn't want you to go that way yet. Life's a bitch. Read a walkthrough.

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