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AGC: the Gamespot interview

September 12th, 2006 (Visited 2036 times) Tags:

While I was at AGC I did a GameSpot interview that is now posted.

GS: Right now we’re seeing a lot of game legislation efforts and criticism of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Pretty much all store-bought games carry that rating symbol, and the reason the ratings are so important is because retailers won’t carry any games without them. But you say we’re going online, where there is no requirement for the ESRB to be involved in any way, shape or form. As online gaming grows bigger, are we just going to have this exact same sex, violence, and ratings argument again?

RK: Yes. The tactic that the game industry has taken is self-regulation as a kind of prophylactic measure. It’s saying, “We’ll self-regulate so that they don’t come and regulate us worse.” So the publishers get together and fund the ESRB, and they intentionally make it independent. They make it independent, but it’s clearly still of the industry. So we set them up to watch us. “Don’t let us do anything stupid.” And I think it’s very literal. “Don’t let us do anything stupid so that the government won’t come after us.” I think that’s pretty much the way the system works, if we’re talking about it bluntly.
On the Internet, everyone is free to be stupid, as we know in spades.

Also discussion on game back catalog reuse, developer celebrity, and more.

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Wolfe said on September 12th, 2006 at 11:50 pm:

I had a minor reaction to what you said in the interview that goes:

And I’m just not really in the mindset of making MMORPGs anymore. I’m still interested in making online worlds,

If I remember correctly your definition of an MMORPG is something along the lines of A technology which empower people to co-exist within a virtual space through the proxy of avatars, now I could probably dig your exact quote up as some resolutions will be lost by my blunt translation.

Now this makes me wonder if you have adjusted the definition of mmorpg’s, intend to create something that dosnt fit the vision of your definition or just adapted the more common frame of the term for making life easier on the interviewers? o.O

Morgan Ramsay said on September 13th, 2006 at 2:22 am:

Message to GameSpot commentators: read the Escapist interview.

Raph said on September 13th, 2006 at 9:13 am:

Wolfe, what I mean is that I won’t be making something that is a straight up traditional MMORPG.

I think those of you who want to see another worldy game from me may not be expecting what you’ll first see announced, but let me assure you that a worldy game is indeed in the offing.

David (Tal) said on September 13th, 2006 at 11:28 am:

Is there such a thing as a “stright up traditional MMORPG?”

Diku-style I guess?

If that’s the case I don’t think any of your previous projects really qualify as those either…

Wolfe said on September 13th, 2006 at 11:31 pm:

Thanks for the reply, I think I understand the logic behind describing a “traditional MMORPG” as a constuction that share some particular types of game systems. I guess once you gain “DPS” from “Str” you are sitting in the traditional construction, it will be interesting to see what other things people can come up with that actually relocate the what you do part of the world from improving dps and hp to somewhere else.

I rather enjoy using the Raph definition of MMORPG however and cant help but wonder if the “DPS -> Str” relationship isnt an itegral component of a player avatar?

Athela said on September 14th, 2006 at 7:10 am:

Good interview. I’m expecting from that and the other interviews I’ve read lately you are more interested in something that operates the way Second Life does (beware the hacks though).

My twisted sense of humor finds the reader comments from the Gamespot article pretty funny. Most of us idolize you, Raph, but you do have one or two detractors…

Athela said on September 14th, 2006 at 7:30 am:

That last started a whole train of thought. Go ahead and ban me now. I picture you smiling out from a box of Wheaties, your new game intriguingly distributed in that way to a wide audience. It was the Kelloggs comments you made, and the whole appeal to a mass market thing, sorry.

Michael Chui said on September 14th, 2006 at 9:03 am:

I … cant help but wonder if the “DPS -> Str” relationship isnt an itegral component of a player avatar?

Think about it this way. Imagine a MMORPG with no combat. It would be somewhat irrelevant to include it. A Tale in the Desert (ATiTD) does not have hit points, to my knowledge, and it’s considered a MMORPG, last I checked.

Allen Sligar said on September 15th, 2006 at 6:50 am:

Hahha….almost let that one get by:

but let me assure you that a worldy game is indeed in the offing.

I’ll take “worldy” game for 600.00

Of course I cant answer this question with a definition but perhaps you would be willing to? unless its still to early!

AGC: the Gamespot interview

10 Responses to “AGC: the Gamespot interview”

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