You may have already read part one of our interview with renowned games designer American McGee, in which the creator of Alice, Scrapland and latterly Bad Day LA talked about amongst other things, his newest PC project, the role of humour in gaming and challenges of creating good comedy.
So now, without further ado, it's on to part deux, where McGee dissects the current anti-gaming political climate in the US, discusses progress on his two film projects, Oz and Grimm and holds forth on why he thinks the Wii is the only true next generation console, how the publisher and developer relationship is broken and why he thinks the true future of gaming lies in MMOs, social gaming, mini-games, web games and episodic content.
Now read on...
Do you feel that, particularly in the US, there is a new Puritanism/neo-conservatism, which is unjustifiably leading to games being vilified? If so, how can the situation be improved?
Puritanism related to sexual issues is as rampant in the US as it's ever been. As for violence, the response is as usual, lopsided and nonsensical. We have US politicians wasting time on the non-issue of video game violence, while in the real world bombs are dropped, villages are flattened, and entire countries are being destroyed. I think the only way the situation will be improved is by the passage of time. Politicians are generally a geriatric, old lot. Hence their retarded views on the modern world. We just need to wait around a while and nature will do its thing. Current politicians die, new generation of politicians come into office. These new guys will focus on whatever happens to be the "entertainment is evil" topic of the day - probably direct-neural-stimu-pr0n. At least that's what I'm hoping for.
What is the latest on your Oz and Grimm projects? Is it true that you have sold the scripts for a trilogy of Oz films? Can you give us any insight into their subject matter? And are they likely to be given the game treatment at any time in the near future?
Oz was picked up by Bruckheimer Films and Disney. I just finished writing the script for the first Oz film and we're waiting for feedback. Can't say more than that at this time. As for Grimm, we'll be making a big announcement related to that project within the next month or two.
How is the Alice film progressing? Have you seen it, and are you happy with what you have seen? What was your involvement with the project?
The film seems to be moving along nicely. I've read the script and think it's great. So far I'm happy with everything I've seen, but you never know how these things will turn out until they are finished.
What is your take on the next-generation consoles? Will there be next-gen versions of Bad Day LA, and of future American McGee games?
The only truly next-gen console out there is the Wii. Everything else is just a video card and processor upgrade. I sense that Nintendo is going to capture the hearts of gamers while Microsoft and Sony stab each other in the neck for market domination. Nintendo is focused on innovation and games. The other guys are focused on making money.
What are your current feelings about the balance of power between developers and publishers?
I think it is pretty broken. For the past ten years developers have been slaves to the existing publisher model. It limits creativity and innovation and leads to SKU upon SKU of me-too games. Developers need to be empowered, they need to be the stars. Alternate distribution and finance models will help to fix the problem.
It has been suggested that you are working on an episodic game. What attracts you to episodic games, and are they best delivered by a service like Steam? Can you tell us any more about it?
Episodic is a "blue ocean", disruptive strategy. Like what Nintendo is doing with the Wii. Look at what the other guys are doing in your field, then go off and play in another territory. For episodic that means lowering production costs, time to market, size of teams, lower intervals between new releases, and higher customer involvement with the content stream. Valve are the only guys out there doing this correctly, but I think that their model could still use some tweaking. Eventually I want to get to a place where we can build a "pilot" in 6 months, and release new content every week. The closer we get it to episodic television, the better.
You have always been attracted by fairy-tales and fantasy like Alice In Wonderland. Is it the wonderful storytelling and do you think story, plot and narrative are being neglected in gaming in favour of cheap thrills and spills?
Again Valve is a great example for how to do this correctly. When you're playing one of their games you get a sense for the individual "compartments" of entertainment - exploration, narrative, puzzle solving, action, reward. This same model works in film storytelling. Adaptation of this model to gaming can lead to a really rewarding mix of narrative storytelling and engaging game play.
How do you see gaming evolving as the next generation of consoles takes hold in the next three to five years?
I'm not certain that "next gen consoles" - outside of the Wii - are going to have a huge impact on the evolution of gaming. MMOs, small scale MMOs, new ideas in social gaming, mini-games, web games, and things like episodic games probably hold the greatest potential to shape the future. That's where I'm placing my bets.
Episodic gaming does seem to be becoming more common (recently-ish I've bought SiN Emergence and HL2 Ep1) but can this work for consoles?
I could see it possibly working with a slow download on WiiConnect24 but otherwise aren't we going to have to leave our consoles online to recieve episode downloads?
I don't honestly see console gaming taking to episodic games on the shelf. The market is just too greedy. I mean look at it now, £50 for an XBox game that costs £3> materials wise and they've just added another £10 to recover from console losses.
It's just squeezing money from the consumer, and where are we meant to have all this money? Did we suddenly all win the lottery?
I don't know why people are whining so much about the increase in price of games by £10. Despite the costs of developing games having increased over the years the cost to buy the games has remained the same (decreased technically if you take inflation into count).
Added to this if you shop online you can get most 360 games for £40 or less anyway.
By his logic the PS2, XBOX and gamecube were not next gen consoles as they were just improved hardware and better graphics... Also megadrive and snes weren't next-gen to nes and master system. So has there been any next-gen machines since the nes?
By his logic the PS2, XBOX and gamecube were not next gen consoles as they were just improved hardware and better graphics... Also megadrive and snes weren't next-gen to nes and master system. So has there been any next-gen machines since the nes?
The SNES and Mega Drive would have been 'next-gen' because they introduced things like mode 7 and a degree of 3D into games as well as having extra power to create larger and more complex games that just weren't possible on the NES and Master System.
The Playstation/N64 era brought proper 3D worlds into games and FPS games, the Playstation/Xbox/Gamecube era gave the ability to have huge interactive 3D worlds.
I think what he's getting at is that the Xbox 360 and PS3 are only doing what the PS2 and Xbox generation did but with nicer graphics, there's no other real change.
Personally I found it was frustrating to see a lot of pc titles scaled down in order to accomodate the limitations of the xbox and ps2 versions. I'm glad they've moved forward in gaming power, but I won't be getting one.
I'm looking forward to the wii, a lot of us have some great memories of the n64 as a very social console but I'm a little bit worried it seems to have little more power than the Gamecube, that is a BIG risk. Increased power dosn't just bring prettier graphics, it brings bigger levels and allows more on screen.
"the true future of gaming lies in MMOs, social gaming, mini-games, web games"
Not everyone shares that opinion, personally I'm bored sick of MMO's and crappy web games.
My personal opinion on American McGee and his games so far is he's far more interested in style and narrative than gameplay. But I will be watching him, he was involved in Doom 2 and Quake, and these games have a special place in my heart.
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