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I just found out today that [[http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,115/|John Watson]] passed away. I worked with John. Well, sort of - we worked at the same studio, The Collective. I only really met John in the last half of my time there, but I quickly came to realize that he was "one of the good ones," one of the developers that really understood games and what made us want to play them.

You might be surprised to learn that such devs are in very short supply. We all know what's cool, but fun is far more elusive. The last few months of my time at the Collective were hard. It was a great team and I really liked the project, but it always felt like an uphill battle and there were times where I'd walk outside at midnight, cigarette in hand (a habit I'd managed to kick until then), wondering why I even bothered...

Many of those times, John was out there, talking to other smokers and taking a break from his own Crunch. I'm pretty sure he was working on Silent Hill V at the time, but you know, I don't actually know. I really only know John from those breaks and the conversations we had.

John, it turned out, had worked on UO. Not only had John worked on UO, but he was one of the few people on that team responsible for, literally, the most memorable experiences I've ever had playing an MMO.

I beta'd UO and during the Beta, UO was amazing. There were events happening like all the time (maybe twice a week, in reality) and they had believably acted characters and big huge epic battles... everything we're still saying we want in our MMOS, today. UO had that all in the beta... then it went away.

During one of my stronger moments of doubt, I walked outside to find John talking to Dave, a level designer colleague of mine that I worked with on AA. They were talking about MMOs and Auto Assault and what they thought modern MMOs were missing. To illustrate his point, John told the story of how, while larking about his own game late at night once, he'd created one of the most memorable MMO moments I'd experienced - an Orc invasion that was the talk of the UO beta for weeks when it happened. He wasn't supposed to do it -- he even got in trouble for doing it, it turns out, but he had done it anyway because he thought the folks online would enjoy it and it was late and he needed a break.

I was there. I was one of those people. I've been looking for that experience, ever since.

As John finished his story, I looked at him and I said, "So what did you do about getting in trouble? Did you quit, or bitch or anything?" He said something akin to (I'm definitely paraphrasing here), "It pissed me off, but I let it slide. I figured let them fire me, if it came to that --- moments like that are why I do this."

When I went home that night, I went home happy. Moment of doubt gone. John was like that. If I ever needed a reminder of what it means, beyond the technical skills, to be a game designer -- I just thought of John and that story.

And now he's gone. I can't say I know the guy well enough to say that I'm torn up about it, but I definitely mourn his passing. The industry lost a ton of passion today; I can only hope that I wasn't the only person who was affected by him -- that he was able to pass on as much of his passion to others as he could, before he passed away.

This industry is going to miss John Watson, whether its members realize who he was, or not.

Rest in peace, John.

- Snipehunter

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