F. Randall Farmer
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Frank Randall "Randy" Farmer (born October 16, 1961) is an American game developer, co-creator with
Chip Morningstar Chip Morningstar is an American software architect, mainly for online entertainment and communication. Morningstar held many jobs throughout his career in the research and development of technology and programs. Most notably was Morningstar's r ...
of one of the first graphical online games, 1985's ''
Habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
''. In 2001 he and Morningstar were the first recipients of the Pioneer Award (at the time called the "First Penguin Award") by the
International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorpo ...
. Farmer was involved with the creation of
Yahoo! 360 Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
and Communities.com, and has published several works on web and game development, social media, and online communities.


Biography

Farmer was born in
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
to Frank and Katherine Farmer, and grew up in
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. His interest in computers began as a teenager in 1974, as his Junior High School had access to a
teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Initia ...
. He played an early ''Star Trek'' game, Mike Mayfield's '' STTR1'', and learned that he could add modifications to it. He began writing his own games at
Henry Ford II High School Henry Ford II High School is a public high school located in the Metropolitan Detroit region in the city of Sterling Heights, Michigan, United States. It is a part of Utica Community Schools. In 2004 Ford was recognized as a Michigan Blue Ri ...
in 1976, and then ''COMUNI'', an early
Bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...
. In 1984, Farmer began working at
Lucasfilm Games Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...
, on an
Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
version of ''
Koronis Rift ''Koronis Rift'' is a 1985 computer game from Lucasfilm Games. It was produced and designed by Noah Falstein. Originally developed for the Atari 8-bit family and the Commodore 64, ''Koronis Rift'' was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, MSX, ...
''. It was at Lucasfilm that he met
Chip Morningstar Chip Morningstar is an American software architect, mainly for online entertainment and communication. Morningstar held many jobs throughout his career in the research and development of technology and programs. Most notably was Morningstar's r ...
, who was beginning design on the ''Habitat'' project, a groundbreaking graphical multiplayer adventure game. When the project received funding, Morningstar hired Farmer for the team, along with others such as Aric Wilmunder, Janet Hunter,
Noah Falstein Noah Falstein (born June 1957) is a game designer and producer who has been in the video game industry since 1980, winning "Game of the Year" titles for multiple games such as '' Battlehawks 1942'' and ''Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis''. ...
and
Ron Gilbert Ron Gilbert (born January 1, 1964) is an American video game designer, video-game designer, video game programmer, programmer, and video game producer, producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably bes ...
. After Lucasfilm, Farmer worked at the
American Information Exchange The American Information Exchange (AMIX) was a platform for the buying and selling of information, goods and services as well as the exchange of information, ideas, and certain kinds of intellectual work product, created by economist and futurist ...
on smart contracts, and founded Communities.com, where he remained from 1993–2001. In 2003 he served as Community Strategy Analyst for
Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
, co-designing
Yahoo! 360° Yahoo! 360° was a social networking and personal communication portal operated by Yahoo! made available in 2005. It enabled users to create personal web sites, share photos from Yahoo! Photos, maintain blogs and lists, create and share a public ...
. From 2009–2011 he was involved with Social Media Strategy Consulting for
Answers.com Answers.com, formerly known as WikiAnswers, is an Internet-based knowledge exchange. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by entrepreneurs Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard and subs ...
, and in 2011 he founded his own company, Suddenly Social, to provide platform services for social and mobile games. In 2013 he began co-hosting the Social Media Clarity Podcast with Scott Moore and Marc Smith. He was a social media consultant for Rosenfeld Media for 2014-2018. Farmer was announced as the Executive Director of the Spritely Institute in 2022. The Institute describes itself as "a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation attempting to re-decentralize community on the internet."


Awards

In March 2001, Farmer and Morningstar were awarded the inaugural "
First Penguin Award The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were p ...
" (later renamed to Pioneer Award) by the
International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorpo ...
for their work on ''Habitat''. In 1995, they were named as ''Tomorrow Makers'' by '' NetGuide'' magazine.Fjermedal, Grant (1995). The Tomorrow Makers: NetGuide. January, p. 56.


Selected works

Articles * * Farmer, Randall; Morningstar, Chip (1990).
The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat
, presented at the First International Conference on Cyberspace (
UT Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, May 1990). Published in ''Cyberspace: First Steps,'' Michael Benedikt (ed.),
MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
1991. . * Blogs
Habitat Chronicles
the blog of Randy Farmer and
Chip Morningstar Chip Morningstar is an American software architect, mainly for online entertainment and communication. Morningstar held many jobs throughout his career in the research and development of technology and programs. Most notably was Morningstar's r ...
. * ''Building Reputation'
blog
an
wiki
Book chapters * * * Books *


References


External links


''Randy Farmer''
at
MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, Randy Living people American non-fiction writers American video game designers MUD developers People from the San Francisco Bay Area Metaplace 1961 births Lucasfilm people Male non-fiction writers