Warren Spector Interview

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Eurogamer: Care to speculate what the hardcore gaming response will be?

Warren Spector: I don't have to speculate. I know what it's going to be. And I can't wait. Oh my God. It's going to be like the world came to an end. Absolutely. I'm going to be vilified. I'm going to be accused of selling out, yet again. It's going to be glorious. Just glorious.

Eurogamer: Net debate is always something to see.

Warren Spector: You see, there's always going to be people that you just can't reach. You can't worry about that. The anonymity of the forums brings out the extremes of people. And some people, you're never going to get. And some people, you can talk to. I want to talk to them. Things are not always what they seem.

Eurogamer: What do you mean by that?

Warren Spector: People are often so much a product of their time they don't know where things came from and what makes and made things in the past. There's a whole cool education and re-imagining thing you can do with properties... and, in fairness, a Disney may not be for everyone. And I'm okay with that. The bottom line is I've made something like eighteen games now, in some capacity. I've been producer, designer, director in eighteen big games, forgetting about mission packs. And I have no problems in saying I'm 52 years old. I'm one of the oldest people still actively engaged in game development in the world right now. There's probably 20 of us in my age bracket.

And I still love the medium, but there's a couple of factors. Firstly, my attitudes about life, the universe and everything have changed. And so I want to make games that more reflect my interests, and not so much the interests of an 18-year-old in a frat house who likes to frag. And there's also... well, game development requires an intense amount of energy. It requires a level of focus and dedication and belief and confidence and time. What it means, in an ideal world, I may work on five more games in my entire life. More likely probably three given how long they take.

Eurogamer: Talking about those past games, have you been in communication with anyone at Eidos Montreal about Deus Ex 3 yet?

Warren Spector: I haven't talked to people at Eidos Montreal, but I've talked to people inside Eidos about the Deus Ex 3 project. And... you know? It's hard for me to not be a part of it. I can't be, because of my employment situation. But their intentions are good. We'll just have to see. I'm concerned only because... for Invisible War, for all its successes and all the risks it took, it just proved how delicate the Deus Ex game style is. And so people who haven't worked on it... they'll bring something new to it, which is good, but will they understand what made it work? I don't know.

Eurogamer: It's not an easy job, no matter how you cut it.

Warren Spector: It is very hard. I don't envy them that job. But... I feel kind of weird, because in a sense it's still my baby. But you have to look forward. You've got to look forward. There certainly are enough challenges in my near future to keep me busy. And I'll try and stay focused on that, and not so much on what other people are doing. But they better not screw up JC Denton [laughs]. I'm looking forward to playing it. I'm trying to be Zen about it. It's another studio making games like "that". Whatever "that" is - the BioShock, Fable, Mass Effect, Thief, Deus Ex, Ultima sort of thing.

Eurogamer: You can kind of plot a timeline going forward with those sort of games. When you play one, you know there's not going to be anything similar, for a year minimum. So each one you pray they make a good job of it, as if enough of those games fail, they may get made anymore. Bioshock's success has got to be heartening - they found away to make it sell.

Warren Spector: The thing which just kills me is how hard it is. It was kind of a running joke at Ion Storm. I would bring in people from outside that Origin/Looking Glass circle, and they'd come in and I'd warn them - you don't understand what's about to happen to you. You don't understand how much harder what we do is to anything you've ever worked on. You don't understand how your experience - and though it's valuable, or we wouldn't be talking - is not as valuable as you think. And they'd all give me a knowing look. And a year later, pretty much to the day, they'd come back and go... you were right. So when a new bunch of guys get hold of something and try and make those games with player choice with real consequences and a storyline which isn't black and white, good and evil... I hope they know what they're doing. As it's way harder than anything.

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