General:Vijay Lakshman's Posts

Vijay Lakshman's Posts
Medium/Format	Online Forum
Interviewee(s)	Vijay Lakshman
Hosted By	The Elder Scrolls Wiki Discord Quora

These are a few notable comments from Vijay Lakshman on The Elder Scrolls setting. Lakshman is known as @vj9287 on twitter.

1994

On Playtesting Arena (circa 1994-05)

When playing the game with another tester, we had cooked up some super characters to try out the rigors of the Imperial Arena. As he reached the fourth floor, the tester asked, 'What did you guys put here?' Just as the answer came back, 'liches,' the scream of a lich pealed out of the speakers followed by the crash of a spell, knocking his spellsword character back four paces and killing him. The shock of the sound sent the tester flying out of his seat, giving him quite a long and unexpected scare. We laughed for a long time about the two casualties of that encounter in the testing room confines.

2018

What is your most epic video game disaster? (circa 2018)

Though not epic from an industry perspective, I can only point to my own incredible blunder, which was epic to me personally.

I was the Producer/Designer of the The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Back in those days we used floppies (if you remember the hard plastic 3.5″ floppies, you're as old as me :)).

TES: Arena was a 9 disk game. So we finished up and my job (along with a high school student who was working with us, Jay Beale, awesome guy) was to do a checkdisk on all the disks to be sure they weren't corrupted before sending them to the disk duplication place. For industry knowledgeable folks, probably Starpak.

So I check all the disks, packed and sent them off to Starpak. That was Sunday night to make Monday duplication.

We get a call soon thereafter that after the first run of duplication (about 90,000 copies) we'd duplicated disks, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9.

Yeah, I packed and sent two disk 6's instead of disks 6 and 7! And worse, I never called Starpak to confirm the disks they'd received.

Everyone went bananas. It was a six figure mistake and Bethesda Softworks was only about 14 people at that time... not a good thing.

Just to put my mistake in perspective, I was starting out and making almost nothing (like $23k/yr) and I just cost the company enough to pay for me for the next 4 to 5 years. It was my 3rd game and the very first where I'd been in charge from 'end to end'.

One of the programmers who'd really disagreed with the idea of ever hiring a producer said, 'Well, he's the producer... fire him.', literally in front of everyone.

I remember looking at the CEO as the programmer's sentence hung in the air — I'm sure I looked like someone Geoffrey from Game of Thrones would soon execute, a mixture of 'OMG!' and 'I think I'm gonna be sick'.

But Chris Weaver, CEO, was a man of class and a great teacher. He looked at me and (after what felt like an eternity) said, "Think you'll ever make this mistake again?"

All I could do was shake my head vigorously, 'no'.

Then he said, 'Fedex them disk 7 and we'll eat the cost... but make sure disk 7 works, please."

Wow! My career was maybe 13 months old... I could've been fired and lost it all. Instead, my CEO mentored me to be better. 'Wisdom comes from experience, and experience from bad judgment.'

I'll never forget that crazy moment almost 30 years ago, and I sincerely still appreciate how it was used to teach me about attention to detail and follow through.

Epic fail for me, but a life lesson I never, ever forgot. Thanks, Chris!

;)

-vj

Edit: a few people asked about the fate of the extra disks. Here's my best guess:

I don't know for sure but I think when I sent master disk 7 they just duped 90,000 copies of that. I doubt they copied over the extra disk 6's because part of their quality control would've prohibited reusing disks that had been magnetically pressed (encoded).

They would've then used the extra disk 6's on the next run (and therefore not technically costing us anything except floating the cash) but I'm truthfully guessing. It wouldn't be unheard of for Starpak to charge us regardless. The margins back then (and now) are razor thin.

BUT... I was just so happy to still have my job. :)

2019

Oncelost Games Discord Introduction (2019-09-22)

Silbane is Vijay Lakshman, lead designer and producer on the very first Elder Scrolls.
like three decades ago...
sigh
My new dark fantasy series, Mythborn... check it out on Amazon or Audible.
it's fantasy but nanotech with assassins
but I'm super excited about the world that Ted and team have come up with...
Amazing!

Who was your self insert in The Elder Scrolls? (2019-09-22)

none. I designed the entire world story but forgot to put myself in :(
I think the [race] I loved the most were the Khajiit.

2022

Autobiography (2022-04-12)

Vijay "VJ" Lakshman is a video-game developer, fantasy-novelist, master martial artist with over 30 years of training in multiple combat styles, an avid cyclist, and one of the original creators of The Elder Scrolls series as its Lead Designer and Executive Producer, along with Julian LeFay (Lead Programmer) and Ted Peterson (Designer).

Vijay Lakshman is a 33-year veteran of software development, having successfully delivered more than 85 titles and over $2.5B in lifetime sales in deadline-oriented environments with budgets ranging up to $100MM per project. His expertise spans multiple development strategies designed to reduce risk and increase engagement and improve healthcare and patient compliance via product gamification. His multi-faceted background draws from both his creative talent and his proven business education to deliver consistent returns to his investors. His work experience includes serving as Vice President of Product Development for Universal Studios, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Planet3, Executive Director for the National Geographic Society, and Executive Producer & Lead Designer for Bethesda Softworks, where he created the Elder Scrolls world mythos and lore, and fleshed out the world while creating TES: Arena, the first game in the epic series set in Tamriel. VJ joined Bethesda Softworks in 1989 as head director, lead designer, and executive producer of The Elder Scrolls: Arena. VJ also contributed to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, deciding to leave the company afterwards in search of new projects to helm. His notes, maps, stories, and adventures set in the world of Tamriel filled five novels worth of world-building, resulting in one of the greatest CRPG franchises ever known.

VJ served as a judge for The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship's Youth Entrepreneurs Semifinal Business Plan Competition, and is a featured speaker on The Business Destiny show. He has also been a speaker at many events, including addressing Georgetown University's 2023 MBA candidates on entrepreneurship, speaking on leadership at the 2018 Finalist for the Profiles in Success Leadership Awards, the 2001 Game Developers Conference on "Managing Mega-Franchises", and again in 2002 for "What Hot Publishers are Looking For in Game Development".

VJ semi-retired in 2016 to pursue interests in other fields of work, and remains an active investor and entrepreneur helping new ventures launch, promoting better tools for education, and most recently, pushing the envelope in NFT Gaming and tackling the problem of targeted advertising in a metaverse dedicated to anonymity. He has conceptualized a new super-secret RPG using the Play-to-Earn mechanic based on a proprietary technology known as the MalaiaZK Protocol. He has remained tight-lipped on whether his latest novel series, Mythborn, is the basis for this new world, but one thing is clear. He's back to create something epic and new. The award-winning dark-fantasy series Mythborn is currently available here on Amazon.com.

VJ also serves as the Managing Director for Mindgrub Ventures, a boutique venture capital firm focused on technology assisted human acceleration, investing in ventures designed to improve human capabilities. He received his B.S.B.A from George Washington University, graduated from Harvard Business School's elite General Manager Program, and received his mini-Medical School certification from Georgetown University's School of Medicine. He was twice ranked #1 in the U.S. in full contact karate and named the 2018 Top Contributor on Quora.com with over 600k content views of his articles and writing.

He's got an eye for taking things apart. Putting them back together in working condition... not so much...

Trivia:

• VJ is currently single and lives in Bethesda, MD.
• He has a dog named, Isis, a Basenji bred to hunt lions and therefore never barks. She's like a cat/dog.
• VJ is an avid aquarist, at one point caring for over 900 gallons split into both fresh and saltwater tanks.
• VJ trained in martial arts for approximately 35,000 hours, from 9 years old to his 40's. That number is only exceeded by one thing: his time watching TV clocks in around 36,000 hours. Go figure.