Erik Wolpaw
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Erik Wolpaw is a writer at Valve and the former webmaster of Old Man Murray.
Biography[edit]
Wolpaw is the co-writer, along with Marc Laidlaw and Chet Faliszek, of the Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Portal stories. For the latter, he received the "Innovation", "Game of the Year" awards at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards, along with Kim Swift.[3] He also co-wrote Portal 2’s plot with Faliszek and Jay Pinkerton,[4] and Half-Life: Alyx’s plot with Pinkerton and Sean Vanaman.[5]
Wolpaw co-wrote the story for the video game Psychonauts, for which he received the "Writing" award at the 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards.[6]
He is, with Faliszek, the creator of the now defunct website Old Man Murray. He shared an office at Valve with Faliszek and Laidlaw for some time. The latter stated about Wolpaw and Faliszek on his personal blog that "for years, Chet and Erik were legendary figures of mythic status to me. They still are, except now I can throw things over my shoulder and hit them."[7]
On a previous version of Valve's official website, Wolpaw's function was described as follows: "Erik Wolpaw's father attended Yale, became a successful lawyer, got disbarred, lost everything, and went to jail for a while. Later, he and Erik lived in a horrible ghetto apartment where Erik used the Yale Alumni magazine to smash cockroaches. From this inauspicious start, Erik eventually went on to not graduate high school. Now he writes dialog for video games such as Psychonauts and Portal. Prior to that he was a freelance writer and before that he co-founded Old Man Murray. It's not like he's a surgeon or anything, but it's not too bad, considering."[8]
Selected gameography[edit]
- Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
- Portal (2007)
- Portal: Still Alive (2008)
- Portal 2 (2011)
- Aperture Hand Lab (2019)
- Half-Life: Alyx (2020)
- Aperture Desk Job (2022)
References[edit]
- ↑ Portal Writer Erik Wolpaw Leaves Valve on Game Informer (February 20, 2017) (archived)
- ↑ Half-Life and Portal Writer Erik Wolpaw Returns to Valve - Den of Geek (January 4, 2019)
- ↑ "Game Developers Choice Online Awards - Archive - 8th Annual GDCA at the Game Developers Choice Awards official website
- ↑ GameInformer's Portal 2 Hub on Game Informer (April 2010) (archived)
- ↑
Erik Wolpaw's tweet on Twitter (November 22, 2019)
- ↑ "Game Developers Choice Online Awards - Archive - 6th Annual GDCA at the Game Developers Choice Awards official website
- ↑ Not So Few Monstrosities : Links on Marc Laidlaw's blog (archived)
- ↑ Biography on Valve's official website (September 29, 2014) (archived)
External links[edit]
- Erik Wolpaw on Twitter
Erik Wolpaw on Wikipedia- Old Man Murray
- Valve's Writers And The Creative Process - interview with Wolpaw and Marc Laidlaw
- Writer's Block: Portal 2 Writers Roundtable on Game Informer (March 12, 2010) (archived)
