Luc Barthelet
Encyclopedia
Luc Barthelet is Executive Director at Wolfram|Alpha Inc ( December 2010 – Present). Prior to this he was CEO of TirNua, Inc, a games company, which developed an eponymous MMO virtual world. TirNua was acquired by RockYou! in December 2010
Between 1998 and May 2008 he worked for Electronic Arts
. He is famous in the gaming community for engaging with players on blogs and in discussion boards. In his previous post of Group Studio Head, Electronic Arts, he was also instrumental in the development of persistent state worlds, a responsibility that included Majestic, Motor City Online
, Earth and Beyond, Ultima Online
and The Sims Online
. Before ascending to that position, Barthelet was General Manager of Maxis
where he led product development for titles such as The Sims
, The Sims 2
, SimCity 4
and SimCity 3000
.
He has an engineering degree in Mechanics and Electricity from E.S.T.P in Paris, where he studied while developing his first commercial software. Luc's software startup was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1988, and he has worked for EA ever since, first leading the development of Paint products, then the internal development of games as Chief Technology Officer and then managing the Entertainment Studio in San Mateo
.
Barthelet is also an avid Mathematica
user, having created the first user community wiki (with forums) at Mathematica-Users.org, which features sculptures designed in Mathematica
and realized with 3D printers, glass molds and a 5 Axis CNC Mill he built with Marc Thorpe.
In March 2007, Luc announced his involvement in a project entitled TSO-E, under The Sims Online
on the official message boards. Barthelet plans to update and redevelop existing aspects of The Sims Online in the project called TSO-E. Custom content is a major point of the project, as well as a major fix to the game's economy after a long lasting money exploit in-game.
In April 2008, Luc wrote a special message announcing that the EA-Land project is being brought to an end and thanked the TSO community for their support throughout the years and during the re-engineering experiment. Luc did not provide any specifics for the closing of EA-Land except that the decision was a difficult and complex one.
Shortly after, he began a new venture with TirNua, a MMOG with environmental overtones.
Between 1998 and May 2008 he worked for Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. He is famous in the gaming community for engaging with players on blogs and in discussion boards. In his previous post of Group Studio Head, Electronic Arts, he was also instrumental in the development of persistent state worlds, a responsibility that included Majestic, Motor City Online
Motor City Online
Motor City Online was a racing massively multiplayer online computer game released by Electronic Arts on May 11, 2001. The point of the game was to buy classic cars ranging from 1930s to 1970s models, tune them up, and race them against other players...
, Earth and Beyond, Ultima Online
Ultima Online
Ultima Online is a graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game , released on September 24, 1997, by Origin Systems. It was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today...
and The Sims Online
The Sims Online
The Sims Online was a massively multiplayer online variation on Maxis's highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as EA-Land and major...
. Before ascending to that position, Barthelet was General Manager of Maxis
Maxis
Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...
where he led product development for titles such as The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
, The Sims 2
The Sims 2
The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims, which debuted on February 4, 2000. It was first released on September 14, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. A port to Apple Mac OS X...
, SimCity 4
SimCity 4
SimCity 4 is a city-building/urban planning simulation computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. It was released on January 14, 2003. It is the fourth installment in the SimCity series. SimCity 4 has a single expansion pack called Rush Hour which adds features to the game...
and SimCity 3000
SimCity 3000
SimCity 3000 is a city building simulation personal computer game and the third major installment in the SimCity series. It was published by Electronic Arts and developed by series creator Maxis, a wholly owned subsidiary of EA...
.
He has an engineering degree in Mechanics and Electricity from E.S.T.P in Paris, where he studied while developing his first commercial software. Luc's software startup was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1988, and he has worked for EA ever since, first leading the development of Paint products, then the internal development of games as Chief Technology Officer and then managing the Entertainment Studio in San Mateo
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
.
Barthelet is also an avid Mathematica
Mathematica
Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...
user, having created the first user community wiki (with forums) at Mathematica-Users.org, which features sculptures designed in Mathematica
Mathematica
Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...
and realized with 3D printers, glass molds and a 5 Axis CNC Mill he built with Marc Thorpe.
In March 2007, Luc announced his involvement in a project entitled TSO-E, under The Sims Online
The Sims Online
The Sims Online was a massively multiplayer online variation on Maxis's highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as EA-Land and major...
on the official message boards. Barthelet plans to update and redevelop existing aspects of The Sims Online in the project called TSO-E. Custom content is a major point of the project, as well as a major fix to the game's economy after a long lasting money exploit in-game.
In April 2008, Luc wrote a special message announcing that the EA-Land project is being brought to an end and thanked the TSO community for their support throughout the years and during the re-engineering experiment. Luc did not provide any specifics for the closing of EA-Land except that the decision was a difficult and complex one.
Shortly after, he began a new venture with TirNua, a MMOG with environmental overtones.
External links
- Luc Barthelet Short biography at All Media GuideAll Media GuideAll Media Guide , is the company which owns and maintains Allmusic, Allgame and Allmovie. AMG was founded in 1990 by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine....
- Mathematica Users site created by Barthelet
See also
- Tirnua, Inc.