Erik Wolpaw

Who is Erik Wolpaw?

Erik Wolpaw is an American video game writer. Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek were the two writers behind the now-defunct Old Man Murray video game commentary web site. As of March 2013, he works for Valve Corporation in Bellevue, Washington. The Old Man Murray web site had a huge influence on gaming writing and gaming journalism and has been referenced in many computer games.

As a high-school student Wolpaw wrote two type-in program games for the Atari 8-bit family that Antic published in 1983 and 1984. He wrote dialogue for the video game Portal and wrote Portal 2 with Chet Faliszek and Jay Pinkerton. In 2006, Wolpaw won the Game Developers Choice Award for Best Writing for his story and dialogue contributions to Psychonauts while working for Double Fine Productions.

In 2004, Wolpaw was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Expecting his condition to require a departure from the company, he spoke with managing director Gabe Newell, who surprised him by offering an extended leave with pay. "Your job is to get better," Newell said. "That is your job description at Valve. So go home to your wife and come back when you are better."