From 1992 to 1994, a division called Maxis Business Simulations was responsible for making serious professional simulations that looked and played like Maxis games. After Maxis cut the division loose, the company continued to operate independently, taking the simulation game genre in their own direction. Their games found their way into in corporate training rooms and even went as far as the White House.

By the time a prototype was delivered, the project had run amuck. Rather than being a simulation with charts and menus, it was going to be a first-person adventure in the style of Myst, complete with live-action film sequences and voice actors. “It was… very ambitious on our part,” Skidmore recalled, sighing. “We didn’t have the resources at all for that kind of thing. Looking in hindsight at the time, it was like, ‘Oh sure, we can do this!'”9

On top of that, Hiles had taken the message of the project too far. “I made the mistake of bragging that [Race for the White House] would help people to understand that given enough money and a dog that looked like Rin Tin Tin, you could make Rin Tin Tin become the president,” he said.7 The Markle Foundation wanted something that would ask challenging questions about American politics,9 but not like that.

Between the bizarrely failed Myst approach and the bleak message, it was too much for the Markle Foundation. “They were horrified and shocked and said, ‘We can’t have our name associated with that!'” Hiles said. “They actually had it destroyed, the entire stock, the entire product.”7

Think 2000 was a Hail Mary to change the business model of Thinking Tools, from tailor-made simulations to being an office software company.

It sold one copy.

“Maybe two, I dunno,” Skidmore said. “It wasn’t enough.”9

At the end of Q1 1998, Thinking Tools reported zero revenue.60

At the end of 1998, Phillip Whalen gathered the staff together for a final meeting.

“Well, I wanted to bring you all together,” Wibbens remembered him announcing. “The good news is that you’ll be able to spend more time with your families this holiday.”44

“They couldn’t even pay severance,” Skidmore said, frustrated. Whalen told the staff to take home their office equipment instead. “That’s your severance.”9 It was the last insult, the ignoble end to the company at the hands of growth capitalism.

The employees of Thinking Tools did take some their work home, and they burned it. After they were let go, they got together for a bonfire, taking some of their project files, their pink slips, whatever papers they had around, and letting the past burn away.9,44

As you might expect, SimIraq really, really pissed people off.