Hello, everyone from r.a.s.!
It certainly has been a while since I posted here on the newsgroup.
I've been extremely busy here at Papyrus, to say the least. Anyone
heard of the corporate phrase, "employee at will"? Believe me, that's
what happened after I started here.
To update you about me in the six months since I've posted (in case any
of you remember who I am). My big project right now is overhauling
Papyrus' Web content on the Sierra Web site. By now you've seen the new
Sierra site and will agree with me that the improvements made are
tremendous, especially since now you can find Papyrus a whole lot easier
<G>. Well, I guess putting my SimRacing Online experience on my resume
sparked something, because I now answer to the title "Papyrus Webmaster"
in addition to my original responsibilities.
The first "new design" mini-site will debut on the SODA Off-Road page,
and hopefully this new content will be out sometime in the next couple
of weeks (once I finish it, it still has to go through Sierra before
being put onsite). I hope you all enjoy it once it's up. It's the
first in what I hope to be a comprehensive renovation of our content.
Let me address a few other points that have come to my attention in
recent weeks. I understand a lot of speculation has been flying about
Papyrus and its future. Remember, I spent a couple years on r.a.s. as
one of those *** theorists before coming to work here. Without
going into specifics, let me just say that to assume that Papyrus is
working on vaporware, that Papyrus is dwindling away to nothingness, is
inaccurate (to put it mildly). We're working on some EXTREMELY exciting
stuff here. Sierra Corporate and everyone here want to devote as much
time as possible to these projects to get them done right.
I've also heard about comments regarding people leaving Papyrus. With
all due respect, let me just say -- "Hello!" People leave companies all
the time for a myriad of reasons. I just read that Mr. St. John, the
DirectX guru at Microsoft, is no longer employed there. Yet Microsoft
will continue on with equally talented and devoted people to continue
the work. People like Ed Martin and Jim Sokoloff contributed incredible
amounts of time and effort to their projects here at Papyrus, and their
mark on the company is indelible. But to say that Papyrus will not
continue forth without them not only isn't true; it really
underestimates the drive and devotion that those of us who are still
here have. Someone said that people who are being hired in their stead
don't have the same dedication to sim racing as those who left. Well, I
can promise you that if they DON'T have those qualities, we make dead
sure that they DO within a week of hiring <G>. I am personally making
almost evangelical efforts to win every single person in this company
over to "True Racing Fanaticism(tm)" each day.
Ladies and gentlemen, if ever I contributed anything to sim racing, if
IWCCCARS and SimRacing Online ever proved to be of worth, believe me on
this issue. Papyrus is here for the long run. I certainly would not
want to be anywhere else when it comes to sim racing, even if EA is
spending megabucks on marketing to convince you that they are the
end-all be-all of racing games. I am solidly convinced that the TRUE
test of sim racing games for the PC is sitting down and playing them.
When you sit down and play our existing and future games, you will
realize that Papyrus is far from dead.
Sorry to have been out of the loop for so long. I will make a concerted
will forward tech support mail to Sierra (it's their job, anyway) and
some questions regarding future products cannot be answered yet. And
I'll try to keep up with r.a.s. more frequently.
Thanks,
Tony
--
Papyrus Design Group, Inc.
The views expressed are mine alone and
do not represent Papyrus in any official capacity.