TTH: Interview with R.A. Salvatore
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May 14, 2009 - 10:54 AM - by Union
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38 Studios' Bob Salvatore chats with Ten Ton Hammer about EQ, WoW, D&D and the specific challenges involved in creating an entire world from scratch. While I usually preface these posts by saying that no specifics are revealed, I would like to add that this interview really is a must read. Salvatore talks about his experience fleshing out the Dark Elves in the Forgotten Realms (a process that included a few old Gygax modules and a copy of "the Godfather").
The interview also includes an in-depth discussion of Bob's gaming experiences. He recounts the early days of Everquest with a fondness that will not be unfamiliar to many of you:
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They picked me up outside of Halas after I figured out how to swim and stop drowning trying to leave the place.
They cast SoW (Spirit of the Wolf) on me and they said no matter what you do, don't stop running. So we took off from Halas, through Everfrost, and Black Burrow into the Karanas. We avoided all the big ugly spiders and just kept running and running. We got into the gorge of King Xorbe and just kept running. And remember, this is in the days of dial up and pretty crappy computers. All of a sudden my screen goes black and I'm like, "Oh no. My system crashed." So I rebooted my computer.
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Salvatore also discusses his role on the 38 Studios team and the attention to detail that will define this new world that his team is crafting. He also offers further confirmation that there will indeed be multiple races in Copernicus and a deep ethnic lore that will effect everything from racial interactions to world commerce:
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Now the world itself, Curt and his friends had come up with some ideas that they really wanted to explore in an MMO. When they told me their story, I could see what they were missing. I knew what was missing. Instinctively, I knew where they were on target and where they were missing. So I took their idea and added one *huge* component to it and when I did, they all kind of looked at me and went, "Yeah!"
From there, I put together my team, my old Seven Swords team, and added my kids. My two sons joined in. We created a 10,000 year history of the world for the MMO so that everyone that comes into the company sees these deep threads so they understand why the races are where they are, who they are, what their relationships are to the other races, the commerce of the world, why it's this way, why these races have this deep-seated ancient hatred, etc.
So what happens is, the mechanics team, the content team, the art team, are all painting on the same tapestry. And it's working. I know it's working because when we first started, the art team came up to me and said, "What do you think of this concept?” I'd be like, "Well... I think this is kind of missing this because of this with this race. This might not quite fit because here's where they came from, here's who they really are." When the content team would tell me the stories they were adding to the more recent histories or the story of the game itself, I would say, "Yeah, but..."
This was a year and a half ago. Now, my reaction is almost universally, "Wow!" because they've all bought into it. They all understand it. They've all taken ownership of the world. So they know who these races are, what they look like, what they feel like, what they smell like, what motivates them. They know that as well as I do. Everybody's bought in.
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Check out the entire interview: here.
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27 Replies | 379 Views
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Schilling Gives First Post-Retirement Interview
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Mar 25, 2009 - 10:31 AM - by Union
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http://g4tv.com/xplay/videos/37391/A...Schilling.html
In his first, post retirement interview, Curt shares his views on both retirement and gaming with Adam Sessler of G4. You certainly cannot accuse this man of wasting any time. He seems to be transitioning into his role as full-time game dev with ease. Most of what is covered will be familiar to some of you long time Watchers, but it is cool to see Mr. Schilling ready to rock and roll, right away. Personally, I'd be relaxing on a beach somewhere.
from BSMW:
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At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today, Curt Schilling gave his first interview since announcing his retirement via his blog yesterday.
Mike D’Alonzo says that Schilling “sat down with X-Play host and G4’s Editor-In-Chief Adam Sessler at GDC and talked about his reasons for the timing of the announcement, which he jokingly referred to as a clever business decision to gain some publicity for his gaming company, 38 Studios, but then seriously noted that being away from Boston when he made the announcement made it easier for him to avoid intense media scrutiny.”
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0 Replies | 108 Views
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