If there’s a cautionary tale of late, the kind of story parents tell their children so they won’t grow up to be game designers, it’s the saga of Black Isle Studios. With no shortage of blame to be turned o­n Interplay’s legendary mismanagement, the lamentations of BIS have been lavishly wept across the gaming spectrum and mostly deserved. But, and please forgive me for suggesting the blasphemous, it seems a bit naïve to assume this end was either sudden or even avoidable. Black Isle may have been scraping along for the past year or two, but it was no healthier than Atari during its dark Jaguar days, and barely a shadow of its o­nce dominant self.