Josh Sawyer Interview at Gamestar.ru

[C2B]

http://gamestar.ru/article/1940.html

[WorstUsernameEver]

Always weird to see someone get to interviews before funcroc. I'll read in a bit, but darn it, Josh with a beard. I'm like.. wow. (And inarticulate at that. And tired.)

[Tale]

He rocks that beard. He looks too normal without it.

[Gfted1]

Its interesting to see the evolution of his look wrt his tattoo's. He went from nothing to almost having sleeves. You can even see the diiference from the second picture (with the rocket launcher) to the last picture (right forearm now has tattoo).

[J.E. Sawyer]

Some of those pictures are pretty old. I don't even know where all of them came from! I think the one of me in the white NCR shirt is from Gamescom... 2010?... in K

[sorophx]

is he holding that AT4 the wrong way?

[Morgoth]

Dat beard. Josh now not only *is*, but also looks like a real pundit elite game designer.

[Humanoid]

I thought I may have had an older picture (no stalker, honest!), but the only thing that comes up is this pumpkin, dated 2002, with the filename BIS_sawyerpumpkin.jpg, and another related one.

[Lexx]

I think NMA has still photos from when the pumpkins had been created.

[Pidesco]

I have the NCR shirt in green and I'm actually wearing it right now, at work.

[Wombat]

Somehow, nobody including funcroc haven't mentioned this interview at RPG Codex.

 

I haven't played Darklands (got it at Gog.com, though) but I think I know what influenced Hendrick. Something like Rune Quest/Traveller explored and established the possibility of open word RPGs, bringing just a mere branch of tactical combat game to a totally different level. Especially, Rune Quest employed various types of knowledge to build a world around them. The idea itself somehow fit postmodernism - rather than piling and boasting knowledge, why not play with it? I think Sawyer may share his view of throwing knowledge, which otherwise shared only by a certain percentage of people, into games to make interesting places for the players to explore. However, of course, at the same time, the game-play should be fun experience as Hendrick emphasized. The problem is that, despite of employing brand new technologies, CRPG lost the track of such possibilities to some extent, nailing RPG to a few stereotypes.

 

From Sawyer's interview at Gamestar

Every other form of fiction has managed to explore different avenues. Surely game developers, who also have the unique feature of player interaction are capable of doing more, aren't we? I'm not suggesting it's easy, but come on, guys.

I guess I agree with Sawyer, here - there must be places to explore in terms of the narrative, especially when there are various ways which more traditional media have already explored.

 

I think most of the people I work with have similar views, though I doubt any of us overlap perfectly. I don't think that would be a great working environment, personally. I know some studios hire based on like-mindedness. I think that's reasonable to a point, but I like working with people who have well-founded reasons for disagreeing with each other. Game development is insular and we tend to regurgitate a lot of culture. I don't think that's good for the long-term health of companies or the industry as a whole.

This reminds me of an interview with Warren Spector - Sometimes, it works pretty well when different personalities are in the same team. However, as a working environment, it seems to be quite stressful and it doesn't always bear a fruit, which again appear to be common in game development scenes. In fact, I cannot imagine how Sheldon Pacotti and Harvey Smith are working together and both of them worked on the original Deus Ex and Invisible War. So, while I understand the tendency of the current game development, a part of me would like to see occasional fruits coming out from melting pots of different personalities.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Partially OT: Art and Appreciation.