Interviews

"I think people say I'm a little bit harder on Microsoft than others just because I know them, and I know what they want, and I know why they want it," Fergusson says, "so I tend to call 'bullshit' a little bit quicker than other people do."

Nestled high on the Dish Network's channel list is Gameplay HD, a 1080p channel where videogames take priority over videogame reviewers, professional gamers get treated like NFL athletes and cut-scenes run like feature-length films. I initially found the network via ESPN, who aired a shortened version of The Madden Challenge, a 24-man Madden tournament with a $10,000 purse, on Superbowl Sunday. From there I got into contact with Mark DeAngelis, Gameplay HD's creator, to ask him about his philosophy of televising games. Here's what he had to say, as he shouted over the sound of fire trucks rolling out of New York's Station 1 (their offices are on the same block).

At this year's GDC, I sat down with two guys from Hothead Games, developer of Penny Arcade's Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, to take a look at the game and talk about the resurgence of the adventure genre.

NetDevil is looking to reinvent its own niche with a sequel to Jumpgate called Jumpgate: Evolution, a larger and more organized effort to finally make the property both a cult and bona fide hit. We sat down with Hermann Peterscheck, Lead Producer of Jumpgate: Evolution to find out how NetDevil is planning to elevate their game to the next level.

From Intuition Games, Dinowaurs is a trajectory shooter (think Artillery with dinosaurs). Pasley calles it "Barney with a Rocket Launcher strapped to his back running through Omaha Beach in [Saving] Private Ryan." The idea is you and your competitors will battle it out online with dinosaurs who have weapons strapped to them. Kind of like what the U.S. Military does with dolphins, but without the PETA lawsuits.

"Maybe a week before release," says Serviss, "Vivendi took a hard look at TimeShift." The muckymucks decided the game was ready to take the next step, and decided to position TimeShift as a AAA title, and release it in late 2007, opposite The Orange Box and Halo 3. Cue the time machine.

A manager of a GameStop outlet in Dallas, Scott began demanding proof of good grades, by way of report cards, before he would allow school-aged children to purchase games from his store.

Wouldn't a similar but less punitive program be a better idea? A program that rewards kids for educational excellence while not infringing upon those who don't is a simple and positive concept; why not do something like that instead? As it turns out, someone already has.

Andy Chalk talks to Play N Trade's Founder, Ron Simpson, about his "Games for Grades" program.

On Tuesday I was privileged to take part in a live chat on Xfire for their Careers in Gaming Week. Joining me was Michael Zenke, Games Editor for Slashdot, and a host of people with questions about being a game journalist.

Hubert Thieblot is not unlike a lot of gaming webmasters, a player who cobbled together a website dedicated to his favorite games. Unlike other webmasters, though, Hubert turned his casual enterprise into a go-to site for the growing MMOG population, securing millions of dollars of investment in the process.

Ever wonder what game design secrets the Palm Pilot holds? We had the chance to sit down with Scott Corley, the guy heading up Wideload Shorts, Wideload's "casual" (though "casual" is a four-letter word in their offices) game design shop. He explained Wideload's design philosophy, as well as Shorts' unlikely beginnings.

"We're trying to seed a system of indie development," Jim Greer, Kongregate's CEO and Co-Founder told The Escapist by phone, calling his efforts akin to "The Xbox Live of Flash games. We're looking for games that emphasize multiplayer, particularly co-op multiplayer."

We were able to fire off a few questions to Gamecock's Grand Champeen and CEO, Mike Wilson, about Gamecock's role as a publisher, as well as its image in the industry. What happens if they get as big as EA? Read on to find out.

"When I think back about the kind of stuff I was doing as a kid, whether it's drawing new characters for comic books, or writing up ideas for D&D adventures and stuff ... really this is sort of an extension of that. I just get a chance to do it at 42, which is pretty nice."

N'Gai Craol is an editor at Newsweek and writes for the blog LevelUp. Julian Dibbell has been writing about games longer than any of us, and is currently a freelancer working for The New York Times Magazine, among other places. He's also the author of the book Play Money. Kieron Gillen is a career freelance game journalist who writes for The Escapist, Edge and other magazines in the U.K. and the U.S. And N. Evan Van Zelfden is also a career freelancer, and has also published in The Escapist as well as The Economist, Kotaku and others.

All four were kind enough to take an hour out of their day to share their thoughts with me on game journalism as a whole, the art of crafting an interesting story about games and how they made into one of the sweetest gigs on the planet.

Some suggest, in this digital age of instant information, print media for videogames has been obsolete for years and is only just now finding out. Others suggest print media can still be relevant, as long as it adapts to a changing reality of game journalism. And still others see traditional outlets as the only true professional game reporters on the block.

But, as the game magazine business and its consumers continue to figure out just where magazines belong in the digital age, the bloodletting has been brutal. Where some outlets have been forced to close, others have adapted to survive. The Escapist recently spoke with Jeff Green, Editor-In-Chief of Games For Windows Magazine (previously Computer Gaming World) about his thoughts on staying relevant and the current state of videogame magazines and videogame reporting.