idnterview

In conjunction with the magazine's April cover story, GamePro.com has posted a two-page interview with id CEO Todd Hollenshead, Doom 3 lead designer Tim Willits, and id's director of business development Marty Stratton about Half-Life 2. No, wait, Doom 3. Not that it matters since they barely even mention Doom 3. But they do talk about John Romero a lot, so that's something.

FP!

Hmm, no Doom 3 info? Maybe this'll be one of those new ID things I can read without getting mad at myself about.

Or something.

Marty Stratton: "You can get into issues with overhype..."

No kidding!

Pretty interesting.

It seems like the interview is more of a guide to making a game development team that doesn't suck. Lots of very talented/smart people that love what they're doing and don't have huge inflated egos. Piles of money doesn't hurt either. Reading it gives me some reassurance that DOOM 3 will be good. They still know what they're doing over there :P

Anybody else read this? They really slammed Romero pretty hard. Perhaps that's just my perception, but it really seems like they downplayed Romero's influence on the original games.

But then, they DO work there. They would certainly know better than myself how much of an impact he DID have.

They slammed Romero because they're sick of people asking them the question, "Is Doom3 going to suffer without John Romero on the Development team?". I personally think it will.. but it won't be doom anymore anyway, so what do i care.. I'll be playing Doom1 and Doom2 forever. Amen.

Stratton sounds like a dumbass or a newbie. Hollenshed and Willits sound decent, but the second page is relatively lame in the context where you don't see Romero saying "yeah, dude, DOOM is my baby, the other guys just mopped the floor while I made it." And they don't even mention Tom Hall's design concepts.

Oh well, it's just a reaction to that Masters of Doom book, so whatever.

auxois said:

Anybody else read this? They really slammed Romero pretty hard. Perhaps that's just my perception, but it really seems like they downplayed Romero's influence on the original games.

definitely. i was surprised hollenshead spoke so candidly, because for some reason i had an impression that he's all about business-speak.

"I do think there's John [Romero]'s version of reality and then, at least the version that I understand and based on everything I can see, is the real story."

"factually, there has been a separation from lore and truth, and I think Kushner fell into that with the book a little bit. [...] I guess at least arguably that that interpretation is the correct one -- I think that's probably what John Romero would say [...] based on what I understand [...] that's more of a romantic notion"

"People maybe have not been given their fair share of the credit that's due just because they are shy about talking to the press or tooting their own horn or that they don't care about accolades or what have you"

It cetainly is business speak. They are afraid that the info given in Kushner's book may hurt their sales. And it sounds pretty bitchy and occasionally bordering on slander considering Romero's talked with goodwill about the upcoming game and about the other designers of DOOM and DOOM II, and even more so when the game's a remake of id's own work, which is an odd thing that you can expect some questioning about. I mean, people do make remakes, but they are usually their conceptions of other people's stuff, but otherwise unrelated.

did you read kushners book?.. i haven't.. i'd expect they could dispute Kushner's portrayal without saying Romero has his own "reality", but whatever, i think the interview is candid and refreshing, they actually spoke their minds.

And it's ironic how Stratton talks about hype and then shits on one of the designers of the original games (where he didn't participate) aiming to increase the importance of the ones that are still in the company (that's where Willits kind of mildly answers by saying it's team work and not a one, or two, man accomplishment), and that he says that id uses info releases efficiently... yeah, this is just an online interview, and isn't actual game info, but it isn't really opportune or brilliant either.

You won't find the Carmacks or Cloud saying these things.

myk said:

It cetainly is business speak. They are afraid that the info given in Kushner's book may hurt their sales.

Are you utterly deluded

Or are they? Not that I personally believe that the book should make much of a difference... nonetheless, they could have come up with way better answers for the little interview questions. I'd say the interviewer was just smart enough to lead them on with the questions for dramatic purposes... half of what they say is about Romero and how he wasn't that important; not quite elevated reading matter. Why the petty remarks about an ex-member of the company? I mean, lets say a designer has a grandiose character; that may have its negative effects in itself, but a designer decrying another due to that? Kind of drifts things towards the land of lameness.

And if it didn't matter (to them) would they say what they did? They are businessmen.

if they had interviewed carmack it would have been two pages of him kissing his own ass, not to say that he dosent deserve respect.

Most interviews with Carmack I've read have contained a minimal amount of anal self-stimulation.

Part two of the interview was posted if ya'll haven't seen it yet.
http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox/games/features/33988.shtml

Doom 3 vs Halo 2? What? I suppose this IS an X-Box feature, but still...

TW: Yeah, it's sorta like George Lucas working on The Phantom Menace. Hopefully, we'll do a better job. [laughs]

OH BURN

This just in, Doom 3's imp to look like Jar-Jar.

Heh. Pwninated.

I'll have to try the Xbox version and hook up my PC to the second S-video input on our TV to see which version looks better on a TV.

Here's a fun game! Try to pronounce the title of this news posting three times fast.

It seemed to me that the point they were trying to make was that "Romero wasn't the only person who worked on the original Doom games. There were others as well."

I did however feel that they downplayed Romero's influence on Doom I/II a bit much, but that's just my opinion.

Okay, that title is really giving me a headache. I keep trying to read the frickin' thing phonetically. UGH!!!