Some brief background: Jason French works as a development director and programmer for EA Tiburon, the studio that makes the Madden NFL series of football games. He goes into how he got his start in the gaming industry, and Origin’s role in that, in the presentation embedded below, and it makes for an interesting telling.

French has worked for Tiburon for a number of years, and was part of a small team that styled themselves “Tiburon Austin”, who worked out of (you guessed it) the Origin Systems offices; they build Madden NFL 2002 through 2004.

So, here’s his story:

It’s interesting, just what a role Origin played in his development as — and, indeed, into — a game developer. He notes that the “View Credits” screen in Ultima 7: The Black Gate, was a major source of inspiration for him, and…you know, it strikes me that putting the credits out front like that was an Origin innovation that has and hasn’t become commonplace today.

I mean, it’s very common now for games to include credits, usually played as a final sequence after the ending cutscene. Not many games that I can think of put the option to look at the credits right on the main menu, though. I suppose that tells us something about Origin’s view of the people in its ranks and offices, about their value to the company and the importance of even the most mundane role.

Anyhow, do have a watch of the presentation, if you haven’t yet.