Erik Wolpaw is an American videogame writer. Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek were the two writers behind the now-defunct Old Man Murray video game commentary web site. As of 2012, he works for Valve Software in Bellevue, Washington. The Old Man Murray web site had a huge influence on gaming writing and gaming journalism and has been referenced in many computer games.
As a high-school student Wolpaw wrote two type-in program games for the Atari 8-bit family that Antic published in 1983 and 1984. He wrote dialogue for Portal, which is set in the same universe as Valve's Half-Life, released in late 2007 together with Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress 2. He was also part of the team that wrote Portal 2, together with Chet Faliszek and Jay Pinkerton. In 2006, Wolpaw won the Game Developers Choice Award for Best Writing for his story and dialogue contributions to Psychonauts while working for Double Fine Productions.
In 2004 Wolpaw was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Expecting his condition to require a departure from the company, he spoke with managing director Gabe Newell, who surprised him by offering an extended leave with pay. "Your job is to get better," Newell said. "That is your job description at Valve. So go home to your wife and come back when you are better."
Famous quotes containing the word erik:
“Young people of high school age can actually feel themselves changing. Progress is almost tangible. It’s exciting. It stimulates more progress. Nevertheless, growth is not constant and smooth. Erik Erikson quotes an aphorism to describe the formless forming of it. “I ain’t what I ought to be. I ain’t what I’m going to be, but I’m not what I was.””
—Stella Chess (20th century)