For most executives, having an Xbox 360 and an armload of video games in their office would be an admission that they have way too much time on their hands. But for some Hunt Valley corporate-types, it's practically required.
Just ask Dave Inscore, a founder of video game company Big Huge Games. He often uses the Xbox 360 in his office to check out the competition.
"Right now I'm actually playing a couple of games - I'm playing one on Xbox and another game on PC - that I need to play for the sake of making the correct decisions for my job," Inscore said. "But at the end of the day, I get to play games and that's part of what I do. That's why I love what I do so much."
Big Huge Games is just one of a small cluster of game companies in the Hunt Valley region. The industry's decidedly unbuttoned-down culture may seem out of place in the more traditional corporate atmosphere of the area.
The computer game industry draws geeks and artsy, creative types who love to play at work and work at play. Those in the business are overwhelmingly male, and many of them grew up playing the kinds of games they now create.
The video game industry is usually associated with the West Coast, especially the San Francisco Bay area, the epicenter of gaming companies. But on the East Coast, the office parks around Hunt Valley are known as a hub of talent.
Credit Sid Meier and "Wild Bill" Stealey, who founded MicroProse Inc. in 1982, a time when video games where just beginning to take off.
Meier went on to become known as the father of computer gaming and one of the most well-respected creative minds in the industry. Talented game professionals from around the country were drawn to the area for the chance to work with him.
When a California company merged with MicroProse more than a decade after the company was formed, many employees left and started their own businesses in the Hunt Valley area.
"Bill Stealey and I started MicroProse in the early '80s and chose Hunt Valley as its home because we all lived nearby and the area provided some nice new and affordable office space," Meier wrote in an e-mail. "Over the years, folks left MicroProse to go out and start their own companies ... and since they lived locally, and Hunt Valley was a blossoming business community, it made sense to stay in the area."
