What Is HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed?

HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is a family-friendly first-person shooter brought to life by six friends in the indie scene, and while it’s been available on PC and Nintendo Switch, it saw massive success with the launch of its Xbox port. Featuring Split-Screen multiplayer, online firefights, and just bringing an impeccable vibe to a genre that feels cut-and-paste, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is the perfect throwback to FPS games of yesteryear.

After working behind the scenes for nearly two years trying to make his dream a reality, Joe Henson never stopped believing in the phrase “Power Your Dreams.” Now, after pouring sweat and tears into this passion project, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is available on the platform, and I had the opportunity to speak with Henson about what helped him bring this project to life.

The Escapist: Are there any specific games that made you fall in love with gaming and game design?

Joe Henson: Oh, definitely! Counter-Strike 1.6 was my first real love in gaming. That’s where it all began for me – it holds a very special place in my heart! The endless fun times I had playing with friends and family at LAN centres are some of my fondest memories. It wasn’t just about the game; it was the whole experience that made it magical.

As for game design, Half-Life 1 and TimeSplitters 2 were the games that really got me curious about how games could tell stories and introduce complex mechanics. They’re amazing games that helped shape my understanding of what gaming could be.

Can you tell me more about your journey into game design and marketing from painting and decorating?

Starting in the family business right out of school at 15 was a safe harbour during a tough time. After being bullied throughout school, the familiarity and support of the family environment helped me manage my anxiety. While it wasn’t my passion, it taught me invaluable skills like customer relations, project management, and the importance of preparation – skills that would later be crucial in my gaming career.

Though I loved working with my family, and I’ll be forever grateful for those magical years, my heart was always in gaming. Every evening after work, no matter how exhausted, I’d dive into playing games, experimenting with game design tools, or watching game development videos. Over time, I started building fan sites for the games I loved. This became more than a hobby; it turned into a significant networking tool. Developers started reaching out to thank me for my work on these sites, which led to friendships and professional connections within the industry. I didn’t realize it at the time, but each interaction was building my future.

It was through these connections and friendships formed around the fan sites that I met my closest friends. Together, we eventually started our own adventure/indie studio, Digital Cybercherries, in 2015. We launched our first commercial title together in 2016, called New Retro Arcade: Neon, and the rest is history! I juggled both the family business and my gaming endeavors until 2020 when I finally made the full transition to work in the gaming industry full-time. Reflecting on this journey, it’s clear how every step, every connection, and every late night contributed to where I am today. From brushes to pixels, every moment has shaped my path in ways I could have never anticipated.

How did the name Digital Cybercherries Limited come to be?

Coming up with the name was actually pretty funny. We all just threw out random words and names and then voted on which ones we liked best. In the end, Digital Cybercherries won!

Related: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Will Hit Xbox Game Pass on Day 1

What games and movies served as inspiration for HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed?

Well, Small Soldiers is the biggest inspiration – what a movie! We also drew a lot from Toy Story, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and The Indian in the Cupboard. On the gaming side, we were inspired by the rat maps from Counter-Strike 1.6, Sarge’s Heroes, Toy Commander, Halo, and even TimeSplitters 2!

When you were younger, were you Team Commando Elite or Gorgonite?

I was Team Gorgonite. Archer’s quote, “Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t real,” has always stuck with me. It reminds me that the most important things in life – like love, hope, and dreams – aren’t always visible, but they shape who we are and how we see the world. This quote has helped me stay positive and believe in the unseen magic around us.

Why do you think HYPERCHARGE is succeeding so much on Xbox compared to other platforms? It’s right below Call of Duty on the Xbox Store’s most popular paid games right now.

I think it’s because HYPERCHARGE is really family-friendly and easy to pick up, especially with its full split-screen support. Plus, it really clicks with those of us born in the late ’80s and ’90s. It brings back a lot of good memories. It’s also a simple, classic-style shooter that many of us ’90s kids have been missing!

Are there plans for more HYPERCHARGE content, or are you already starting work on the next project?

While nothing is set in stone, we do have plans for a new Endless Game mode and maybe some other quality-of-life updates to improve certain aspects of the game. We’ll share more details soon!

What do you think that little Joe Henson would say if he could see where you are today?

Wow, this question really got to me! It made me tear up.

You know, when I was younger, I always had a small spark of hope, a tiny belief in myself that kept me going. But the saddest part is that he probably wouldn’t believe it. Given how low I felt back then, I don’t think he could even imagine it being possible.

If you’re hoping to pick up a copy of HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed for yourself, it’s available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

We wanted to learn more about how the Assassin’s Creed Mirage story fits into the franchise and the real-world location it’s based on, so we sat down for a quick chat with narrative director Sarah Beaulieu. During the interview, we learned more about Basim and the characters that surround him, as well as some of the historical events that players will experience.

Related: Assassin’s Creed Mirage Is One of the Best Ubisoft Games I’ve Played in Years

The Escapist: Tell me about yourself and your experience. I’d also like to know why you and the rest of the Ubisoft Bordeaux team are the perfect team to tackle Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

Sarah Beaulieu: As for myself, my name is Sarah Beaulieu. I’m the narrative director on Assassin’s Creed Mirage. I’ve been working as a writer for 15 years, or almost as long as Assassin’s Creed. I’ve been working for movies, theater, VR, video games, interactive fiction, interactive exhibitions, and all that stuff. Concerning the team of Ubisoft Bordeaux, I’m going to tell you that we’re very involved in the project and have been from the beginning.

We’re a bunch of veterans. I’m the youngest, but the others, like me, they played the first Assassin’s Creed back in the day when it came out. We have fond memories of what was Assassin’s Creed at that point… We wanted to go back to this moment, where Assassin’s Creed was stealth, parkour, and assassination. That was our three pillars right from the beginning. We’ve worked on it, I think, with a strong energy because this is our first lead project at Ubisoft Bordeaux. Before that, the team worked on the Valhalla expansion, Wrath of the Druids.

We’ve had great motivation on this project, and everybody put a lot of themselves into it.

I’d love for you to talk to me about the themes that you explore in Assassin’s Creed Mirage. What kind of story are you trying to tell?

Sarah Beaulieu: It came up very early that we were working on something about identity. Did you play Valhalla?

I did.

Sarah Beaulieu: Great. So, you know where we’re going, slowly, for the character of Basim. You don’t know how, but we’re going there. It was clear that we had a character that was very complex and complicated and had, you know, issues, personal issues, and personal struggles that we wanted to tackle. Identity is really there through the game. ‘What is my place in the world? Where do I belong? Who am I really? What do people want from me?’ That’s something that Basim really struggles with.

Supporting Basim, you have Roshan, the mentor. Roshan, she’s all about the Hidden Ones. She’s pushing Basim in that direction. ‘You have to fight for justice. You belong to something now.’ That is the Hidden Ones. On the other side, you have Nehal, Basim’s best friend, and she’s all about, ‘You have to think about yourself first.’ These two characters, also with Ali ibn Muhammad, the leader of the rebellion, they all support Basim’s evolution in that sense.

Basim is all about internal struggle and external struggle, the conflict with the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients. On the other side, he struggles with his own conflict and his own identity. So that’s the theme for the whole project, but we also talk a lot about destiny. As a player, if you played Valhalla, you know where this is going. At some point, it should feel a little bit weird to know where you are living Basim as a player because that’s you playing. That’s you interacting with the character. That’s you who is actually molding Basim’s destiny in some way.

The meaning of freedom was something we wanted to tackle, too, because it’s core to Assassin’s Creed as a franchise. What is freedom, really? In that sense, we also have different types of characters, like, again, Roshan, Nehal, and Ali, and all of them have different views on freedom. That’s core to the franchise, and that’s core to the story, too, especially in Mirage.

What was it like creating this backstory for Basim when he had already been introduced in Valhalla? Was it difficult to create the character knowing that he has a predetermined fate?

Sarah Beaulieu: Well, no. I like to do the comparison with romantic comedies, for example. You know where it’s going to lead. You know at the end of the story people will get together and this is going to end well. That’s a romantic comedy, but what you don’t know and what makes you excited as someone watching the movie is how this is going to work. How this is going to happen? So, you’ve waited for this moment to happen. How is it going to intertwine?

That was not difficult because the page was blank. If you played Valhalla, you know that Basim doesn’t talk very much. We have a bunch of clues here and there. We knew he grew up in Samarra. We know he had a dad who was an architect back in the day. We had clues, but we didn’t have anything except the very big element from Valhalla. We had complete freedom, so what I did was I talked to Darby McDevitt, the narrative director of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, to make sure we wouldn’t do anything that would contradict Valhalla and the character in the lore.

It wasn’t complicated, per se, but it was challenging, for sure. I don’t know what you think about Basim in Valhalla, but most of the time, it’s like, ‘He’s the bad guy. I don’t want to play this guy. Why would I play this guy?’ etc. The challenge was more into, ‘How can we make sure, in the first minutes of the game, as a player, you feel like you discover a new character, and he’s likable right away.’ What makes him likable? That was the challenge. How can we make him compelling as an assassin, and how can we make him likable?

Assassin’s Creed allows players to live out important moments throughout history. Can you talk about the historic moments we’ll get to explore in Mirage?

Sarah Beaulieu: Without going too much into detail so as not to spoil everything, we are at a very specific period of time in Baghdad, that is the beginning of what is called the Zanj Rebellion. The Zanj were a bunch of people, mostly slaves because there was some slavery in Baghdad, mostly people coming from East Africa, but also people coming from the Middle East in general and other countries. They started to rebel against the Caliphate, which, as you know in Assassin’s Creed, we love these kinds of stories where people are rising for justice and trying to rebel against the order in place.

That’s the setting we chose, but what we tell is pretty much the beginning. The real big moment in history happens a few years later, but we were depending on Basim’s age, so we couldn’t do that at that exact point. So, what we wanted to tell was how it started and how the Hidden Ones are involved in it. Ali ibn Muhammad is a historical character, and he’s there in Mirage. We understand what could have been the beginning of this rebellion through the Hidden One’s eyes and Ali’s eyes, too.

Related: Assassin’s Creed Mirage Is Getting a Haptic Feedback Gaming Suit, If You’re into That Sort of Thing

Was the team ever worried that there would be pushback from fans when Mirage was revealed to be a more compact and shorter Assassin’s Creed game? Were you worried that fans wouldn’t be interested in a return to this classic formula?

Sarah Beaulieu: Worried is not the right word for it. I mean, obviously, you want to make sure that people are happy about what you’re doing. Obviously, not all of them are going to be happy about it; we knew that. We were also very, very much aware that there are fans of the first Assassin’s Creed and fans that came a little bit after that, so they are more familiar with the big, open worlds like Valhalla. That’s two different types of players, really. The RPG side, too. We weren’t worried, but also, we knew it was compelling because we liked it. We’re players first.

We knew that there was something there. We knew the historical setting was solid. We knew that Basim was a solid character. We thought, ‘OK. We’re very excited about it. We’re going to push a lot for it, and we think that there is something to do there.’ So, we weren’t worried. We were just working, hoping it would work, working hard, and making sure we would do something as compelling as possible and as enjoyable for people as possible too.

How do the side missions fit in with the larger narrative? Do they connect in some way, or will they have completely separate stories to tell?

Sarah Beaulieu: What we wanted to do with the Contracts was, first, we want to feed the narrative about belonging to the Hidden Ones because that’s something that really is core to Basim’s character and the way he evolves and the choices he’s going to make at some point. They rely on how he became a Hidden One, slowly, and how much he thinks he belongs to this community or not. That’s the whole thing.

So, that was one thing. The other thing that we wanted to do is fit into the world. We have missions a little bit like the World Events, if that’s familiar to you, if you played Valhalla, what we called World Events we have in Mirage and we call that the “Tales of Baghdad.” These are little events that you explore as you wander the city. We wanted to make sure that this would fit the world in some way, so you can learn something about who was living there at that time or that you would feel Basim’s characterization. So, for example, how is Basim going to react if he encounters these kinds of people? What happens as Basim is evolving?

Those were our pillars for side missions, Contracts, etc. What we wanted to make sure of was, even though you have some light moments – not funny moments, though some moments are funny – in Mirage, the tone is pretty dark because we’re telling a tragedy. So, we knew the tone was not going to be funny, and one of the things we didn’t want to do was have some goofy moments. Moments where things feel a little bit out of place. The story is not a funny story or a goofy story.

So, we have light moments, and there was also an opportunity to do that in the world events. Some moments that are not that dark where we could have a little bit of the smiling Basim because it doesn’t happen a lot. Again, it was important for us not to fill the world with missions or activities that were meaningless. It’s there for a reason, and also sometimes it just helps the player with mastering, and controlling Basim better through side missions, exploring other ways to do stealth, and stuff like that.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage started as DLC, as we’ve heard over the last few weeks or so, but can you talk about what post-launch support for the game looks like? Will there be more stories to tell in Mirage’s world?

Sarah Beaulieu: Currently, we don’t have any post-launch plans. We don’t have any DLCs planned for Mirage. That’s all I can say.

Lastly, is there anything else you’d like to add about Assassin’s Creed Mirage or the franchise as a whole?

Sarah Beaulieu: Something I’d like to add… At this point, we’re tired as a team [laughs]. But we’re also very excited. There’s a bunch of different emotions. Worried, obviously, because it’s always a big moment, the release of a game, but in Mirage’s case, it’s special. We feel like we have a responsibility because the community is there. The community is important, and we never ignore the community. We’re doing our best, so I really hope, personally, that people will love what we did and that they will connect with Basim’s character as much as I did. I hope that they will enjoy the world, the work that was done by the artists and the sound designers, who did an amazing job. I can tell you, it’s not a spoiler that the soundtrack is absolutely amazing.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage launches October 5, 2023, for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S.

This interview with Ubisoft Bordeaux for Assassin’s Creed Mirage has been edited for clarity.

Kevin Cloud started at id Software in 1992 as an artist. Now he’s a co-owner, having worked on almost every game id’s ever made.

Here are the bits of our conversation that didn’t fit into the feature interview.

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On independent games: “When I look at the types of games that are popping up all over the place – from cell phone games to online games over the internet – there’s tons of possibilities; small companies coming up with a cool idea and getting it to the market really fast. I think from that perspective you can probably be more successful [now] than ever before. Even our most successful titles in shareware weren’t real, successful compared to retail titles.

“It’s definitely a different type pf thing than making these 3 and 4 year titles. So I think a team of guys can get out there and make one of these browser games or one of these smaller games for a handheld and really get themselves started, just like id did. I don’t see any reason why you can’t do that today any different than we did it back in the 90s.”

On Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: Enemy Territory … really evolved from Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer, which was very successful and got some nice awards and people played it for a long time. That gameplay was focused on teamwork. The goal was to create character classes based around the way people like to play.

Some people are really good at shooting and some people are better at strategy and some people just want to get in and have fun. They may not be the best shot, but they still want to have fun. I wanted to create a game in which people are all working towards this common goal. When you’re in a map, you’re not spreading yourself out, you’re working together as a team.

In terms of some of the design elements, al lot of them just came from the things that we wanted to do in Wolfenstein, but couldn’t because the technology couldn’t support it or because the design itself wouldn’t support it.

[For example], in Wolfenstein, you have a tank, but the tank is basically on a path. We were dying that whole game development to make the tank not on a path so that we could drive it around. When we looked at what the character classes could do, we had the field ops that could drop air strikes. We thought … it would be cool if we could drop in real artillery … adding in some more strategy elements into the game. So that’s where the elements came from, and it was a smooth continuation for one game to the next.

On id’s audience: Our focus still remains on action games. With Orcs and Elves or some of our cell phone games, I think our audience may shift. … I think with Wolfenstein we might get a slightly different audience than with quake Wars, but as far as our main focus, we’re focused on action games, and the people that are attracted to those types of games are what we’re going to get.

When I look at our next technology and what the potential for that is … we wanted to make something with great tools in it to make it easier to get great ideas in the game. We wanted something that was a multi-platform solution … right out of the box. The unique texturing solution that John’s come up with is a nice scalable solution, so the artists don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re working on a PS3 or 360 or PC – it all just works.

We’re looking at ourselves today, where id, say 6 years ago or more, was primarily a PC developer, I’d say today we are straight down the path of being a multi-platform developer. We’re going to develop one game that works great for all players on all platforms. I think that’s gonna expand our audience or make it a little bit different, but I think in terms of the types of games we’re going to deliver, we’re focused on delivering great, in your face, fun, visceral action shooters. That’s what we do.

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Next page: Epic’s legal troubles, the state of the industry and John Carmack

On the Epic’s legal troubles, and id Tech 5: What we’re good at is making technologies for games, and John is known for being the best in the industry at making great rendering solutions. His technology is easy to work with for making the game run very well and very effectively.

It’s not all things for all people, so that gives us the opportunity, when people come see the technology, to let them make the decision on whether or not this is going to work for them. Our goals are not to license to everybody, but to provide a good licensing solution to people who see believe it’s going to be great for the type of game they’re making.

The thing about the unique texturing solution is that it fundamentally breaks the boundaries for the artists. They can create anything they want t create.

Artists have been working with limitation for a very long time, and they create a universe that is fundamentally tiled out of textures that are repeated, and they go back in and cover up the fact at it is tiled with decals and different overlays. And that creates more geometry and more overhead and slows down the game. Basically they’re trying to do something in real time that they can do better prior to that in the data they create.

And that’s a huge opportunity for our tech to create a completely unique outside terrain – more detailed than what people see in Quake Wars, but that concept – or you could be inside a closed environment and like a haunted mansion or something like that, and every aspect of every character, if you want it to be, can be unique. You’re basically leaving it up to the artist and the art team to decide whit their parameters are. They don’t have to be restricted by the technology anymore. And because it’s such a scalable solution, you don’t really have to worry about where it’s going. We’ve got our tech running on Mac, 360, PS3 PC, and it’s all one asset set and it goes to these different platforms and it runs fine.

On the state of the game industry: Games do take longer to make. And the types of games we make do take more people. … Wolfenstein 3D took a handful of people 6 months to make. Doom took less than a year with less than 10 people. Back then you could come up with an idea and get it into the world really fast.

I remember back in Wolfenstein, when I worked on a character that was taking me more than a week I thought for sure they were going to fire me. Times have changed. You can’t really get anything done in a week because we’re dealing with very complex and detailed things.

It requires artists and designers that have significant talent. These guys could make it in any business. The guys who work here at id could be illustrators, they could work in the movie industry … but they’ve chosen to work in games. So that’s really different than the way it used to be when I first started. But still, on a fundamental level, you’re still creating cool stuff. You’re still bringing things into the world that nobody has ever seen before or thought of before. That aspect is still the same, and I hope that doesn’t change.

On working in games: 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.

On John Carmack: When a guy in his spare time [designs a cell phone game] and makes rockets, that’s pretty much all the signs you need to know you’re working with a true genius.

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Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor for The Escapist. His blog can be found at www.falsegravity.com.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure to hold a virtual round table via conference call with four of the most intelligent, responsible journalists working in the field of games.

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.

The following is a partial transcript of the highlights of the discussion that followed. For the full-length audio download, skip to the last page.

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Julian Dibbell: Writing about games is not the same thing as writing about other cultural forms, it’s really more travel writing. … I think it goes to the fact that understanding, particularly as games move online, what a game is about and how it works isn’t matter of simply playing it. It’s a matter of immersing yourself in a culture or working it as a beat for a while, so that these kinds of stories become the obvious ones.

Kieron Gillen: It’s like being an embedded reporter, isn’t it? I think about Jim Rossignol, writing about Korea, and he went there for a couple of weeks and got stuff you really don’t get from the surface level. There’s some real similarities to travel writing.

Russ Pitts: It’s important to note that Kieron was (for better or worse) the man who coined the phrase New Games Journalism.

KG: I did tell Jim if NGJ gets mentioned I’m hanging up.

RP: I know you’re sick of hearing that, and I bring it up only because that’s a comparison I’ve made myself between game writing and travel writing, and it feels like the meat of what you and Ian and Jim were after. Is that how you think of it? If you could go back in time and erase the bad parts of being the guy who coined NGJ, is that really the essence of what you guys were saying?

KG: It’s clearly something that a lot of people think about games in that way. It’s one of the fruitful ways you can write about games. It’s not the only way to think about games, but it’s quite fruitful.

RP: I want to talk to Evan about this, because I haven’t been to every game convention in the past year – I’ve been to a lot of them – but every one I’ve been to, Evan has been to as well. Evan, do you think of games journalism as travel journalism?

N. Evan Van Zelfden: Definitely. I mean, I was always more interested in developer culture than writing about the games themselves, so one of the things I would do is go to different cities. I toured Dallas, Chicago, Montreal and found that each city has a unique developer culture. It’s because whenever there’s a large company – here Austin had Origin, and Origin closed and everyone went off to start a different company. It’s fascinating. You’ve got these little city states of game developers across the world.

RP: How’s that translate into the work? Going back to the travel journalist metaphor … with game journalism, how do you sell for example, The Economist or The New York Times Magazine an article about games, particularly about a game niche that most people don’t even know exists?

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.

***

The Escapist: So, let’s start big picture. How would you characterize the state of print gaming magazines?

Jeff Green: Well, that’s a pretty broad question, don’t you think? But, OK. I’ll run with it. I’d say the “state” of the print mags is that we are in a period of transition.

We have, over the past few years, ceased to be the primary/first source of information for hardcore gamers, and are now all trying to figure out what that means, then – how to stay relevant, vital or even necessary at all. Not to sound overly pessimistic. But I feel sorry for any magazine folks who haven’t figured this out yet.

On the other hand, don’t get me wrong; I am not at all of the “print is dead” school. I still think print has its place, at the very least for the stereotypical “bathroom, couch, airplane” reasons. And plenty of mags in other entertainment media are finding ways to remain relevant. It can be done – you just have to be smart, creative and open-minded. The old ways won’t work anymore.

TE: It seems like the online component of magazine brands is gaining importance. You participate in a podcast, write a blog and who knows what else on top of trying to produce a monthly magazine. Does this weaken the print end of things by spreading out resources and time or strengthen the entire brand by broadening your base, so to speak?

JG: I think it’s the latter, for sure. I mean, it’s been a “learning experience” with lots of hiccups and growing pains for us, but I think it’s starting to bear fruit now. Wow. That was like three cheesy metaphors all mixed together in one! Maybe I am being spread too thin!

Seriously, we have been consciously pushing the online component for a long time now, and without being a corporate toady about it, I do feel like you can start to see the difference. ZD is very much now as much about the 1UP.com brand as it is with the magazines – we’ve come a long way on that front. And for some of us old-school print guys, there was, of course, a lot of resentment at first. “What, we have to podcast weekly now? WTF is a podcast? And you’re paying us how much extra to do that now? Oh, I see- – nothing! Great! Fuck off!” But we’ve come around to the point where we actually enjoy doing the podcast, at least at our particular magazine. And I think in our case now you are definitely seeing it broaden the base. The popularity of GFW Radio has directly translated into people who had never heard of or cared about or magazine – or even PC games at all – turning into magazine subscribers. That’s about as great a result as we could hope for.

TE: There’s the perception that there’s a lot of instability in the print magazine industry. We’ve seen some high profile outlets like CGM close, we’ve seen your own publication go through an entire brand change, and both PC Gamer and EGM have been the center of public conflicts with developers and fans; this seems like a different environment than just five years ago. Can it all be contributed to the rise of the internet and gaming blogs, or is there more to this change?

JG: I think there is a massive amount of instability – it’s not just a “perception” -and I definitely think it is from the rise of the internet, yes. It’s changed everything, obviously, forever.

But I still stubbornly believe it’s not all over yet, for all of us. At least a couple mags will live long and prosper. And, you know, I think frankly that it’s a good thing that this has happened. Game magazines have sucked for forever now. So fat and lazy. So content just to go for the low-hanging fruit. The online competition has forced magazine editors to start thinking more creatively about what to put in their magazines. I like the challenge a lot.

TE: So, if they’ve been below standard before, how have the challenges of adapting to online competition improved game magazines, and do you think the print sector would be in better shape if the quality of the material had been better all along? I guess that’s a long way of saying, was this turmoil inevitable or was there complacency in the print segments?

JG: Well, first, to continue to be hard on the print magazines (and I am not excluding my own, by the way), I don’t think we’ve all improved nearly enough yet as a response to online competition, but I do think that we have at least been forced to try to improve. Or at least, those of us who have accepted the changing nature of the beast now have tried. Any print guys arrogant enough to think they can still do things the old way are going to deserve their coming irrelevance.

That said, I know that for us, at least, the online competition has forced us to re-examine every single thing we do, from the kind of articles we write, to the games we cover, to the tone and angle we take, and to the timing of when we print things. Everything we do now is measured against the metric of: “How can we do this better/different/deeper than what everyone has already done online, weeks before us?” If we can’t answer that question, then the article doesn’t deserve to be printed. Of course, we still can’t get past the “meat and potatoes” articles of previews/reviews (and message boards whiners to the contrary, these are still, by far, the most popular articles in the magazine), but even with these articles, we can try to filter it through this same truth: A great many gamers will have already read similar articles online.

But it’s not black-and-white either. One thing we’ve also learned, which runs contrary to pretty much everything else I’ve said here, is that a lot of our subscribers don’t read any online gaming sites – and therefore get resentful and angry if we assume too much and don’t print something as a result. They want to read about it in our magazine. So we still need to cover all the basics, all the time, even if we don’t have much more than what was already said online. So it’s a balancing act. And not remotely an exact science yet.

We’re still all scrambling, trying to figure it out. But I am glad to be where I am, where the people above me are totally committed to print/online integration. Because it can work. We’re seeing it work already in some of the bigger mainstream non-gaming sites, Sports Illustrated/SI.com and Entertainment Weekly/ew.com being two great examples. The weekly magazines still totally maintain their relevance/readership, while the online components enhance/broaden the scope while also providing the daily bits that the mags can’t cover.

And to answer the other part of the question, I do think the print mags have long been too complacent, yes, for sure. But I think the print sector would be in trouble regardless. The Internet just changed everything and everyone, and even the best print outlets in the business – The New York Times, to name just one – has taken hits and had to readjust/rethink in response. It was inevitable, and it affects everyone. I guess my point was, in regards to the gaming press, it’s less of a tragedy because the quality has been so lacking that the shakeup is forcing changes that were long overdue anyway.

TE: Some of the print outlets don’t have the management in place to meet the serious challenges in front of them. They kind of keep blowing it. Do you see the split between magazines that are adjusting to the new environment and those stuck in the old mindset as widening or narrowing?

JG: And, hey, I’m not here just to bag on my competitors. Frankly, the less they adapt to current realities, the easier my job gets. They (and I don’t just mean one mag in particular here) also serve as instructional “what not to do” benchmarks for us.

When we see a print mag throw an article out there that’s way late, or has no online component, or covers nothing that hasn’t already been done to death on the websites, we just think: “Okay – let’s make sure we don’t do that when it’s our turn.” And lord knows we still have a long way to go on that, but we’re trying.

So, to answer you directly, I think that the gap may be narrowing in terms of everyone finally starting to figure out they need to do something, but the actual reality now between what has been done by some of us and not been done by others is very wide. Or to put it in a way that sounds less mealy-mouthed: I think those of us who figured it out early enough now have a huge head start over those who are just getting the dim candle over their heads now (if at all).

TE: So switching gears, what are your impressions of the state of online gaming blogs, and do you consider them competition?

JG: Sure, they are competition. If people are reading them, if they are providing decent information/commentary, then they are competition. Again, it’s foolish to dismiss or look down upon anything at this point. Is there a lot of amateur, unprofessional writing? Yeah, sure. But the gaming mags are not exactly The Atlantic, either, so you won’t see me throwing stones in that direction. And some of sites are great. I spend a good deal of my day, every day, reading them all. Even The Escapist!

TE: Is there equilibrium that will be reached between online and print videogame reporting? What do each need to do to improve?

JG: Things will make more sense over time, sure. What do each need to do to improve? If I answer that and everyone listens, then all my competition will get better and shut me out of business! But to try to answer anyway …

Online: I’d say take a little more time to edit and proofread your articles. I just read some truly embarrassing stuff today, from one of the more supposedly “professional” sites. I mean, we’re talking basic grammar here. Don’t swallow every goddamn little crumb of hype that the game companies toss to us, like fish to seals, and post it as if it was some revelatory big scoop. Exercise more critical judgment.

On the print side: Get over yourselves. It’s over. Your reign has ended. Adapt to the 21st century now, or go away forever. You can have a great monthly product that people will be happy to read on buses, planes, couches and restrooms everywhere. But you will be a dinosaur in the tar pits if you don’t adjust your editorial to reflect the fact that, 90 percent or more of the time now, you can’t possibly print something “new” that hasn’t appeared online already. So get creative. Use real writers. Show some depth and give people something beyond the old-school previews/reviews mediocrity mill. This can be a liberating time if you just take the chance.

TE: Since re-branding, how has Games For Windows Magazine been doing? How’s the mood around the office?

JG: Well, people can find us in stores now, so that’s cool. And the mood is quite good here, actually. We’re enjoying both the chance to experiment with more creatively interesting articles, and to goof off so freely on the podcast.

The actual name of the magazine has still not exactly gotten much easier to say without cringing somewhat, and that has not been helped by the less-than-stellar rollout of the entire GFW platform so far, but, hey, far be it from me to bite the hands that feed! I love you, Microsoft!

Seriously, they’ve put up with a lot of grief with us so far, and I am grateful so far that they have kept their word with us about “editorial independence.” I haven’t even gotten a call yet about my last column, in which I flat out said that GFW Live “sucks ass.” But we’ll see. If I disappear suddenly after this interview, you’ll know why.

War. What is it good for? In the world of Cyber Nations, quite a bit, actually.

Cyber Nations is currently the most active of a number of nation-building games popularized by the likes of NationStates, a game that itself was formed as a promotional activity for the creator’s book. Cyber Nations allows the player to develop a nation along any political viewpoint he desires, creating armies and forging alliances all through the 40,000-strong community.

Such an online base who plays daily, create their own content and make their own communities is the kind of thing most game companies would spend millions on. Yet Cyber Nations, which has no advertising or full-time staff, has done nothing of the sort.

The Cyber Nations fans that have sprung up in the past 18 months seem fanatical in their devotion, plotting wars in various factions, keeping track of the latest developments across the virtual world and recording every major historical turning point in frighteningly-detailed wikis.

We asked Kevin Marks, creator and admin of Cyber Nations, to explain the art of internet diplomacy.

***

The Escapist: Firstly, can you describe Cyber Nations to us in your own words?

Kevin Marks: In the most general of descriptions, Cyber Nations is a browser-based game about simulating nation building and management through economic development and defending one’s interests in war. Right now, the game simulates roughly 40,000 active nations. What makes the game great is not the game itself, but the community within it. The community and player interaction that occurs off-site is where the real fun lies. The game itself is just a place to determine who has more bark than bite or not.

TE: Can you tell us about how Cyber Nations got started?

KM: When I was around 13 years old, I came up with a simple world map-based game that involved push pins to indicate captured cities around the world. Whichever player controlled the most cities and resources won the game. When Google launched their Google Maps API publicly in 2005, the things that it allowed programmers to do with their API is what really sparked my interest in building a nation simulation game around the maps.

Initially I had envisioned making the maps the center point of the game, but through issues with providing map markers to represent thousands of nations, the maps eventually became a secondary feature of the game.

TE: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

KM: I started Cyber Nations when I was 24. I’m 26 now. I’m married and we just had our first child on March 29, 2007. Cyber Nations sometimes makes me feel like I have two or three full time jobs, but I somehow find time to manage it and work in the real world, too. The only way I’ve been able to manage everything is through the help of the wonderful moderation staff within Cyber Nations. They really stay on top of things and allow me to focus on code related issues, updates and other things.

TE: How interested are you in real-life geopolitical affairs? Are you a politics junkie?

KM: I wouldn’t consider myself a politics junkie, simply because I just don’t have enough time. I try to keep up with current events, but interestingly enough I tend to get a lot of my news and information by visiting the Water Cooler sub-forum in the Cyber Nations forums. When something major happens in the news, there’s always a topic or two there to read about it.

TE: How is Cyber Nations funded? Is it all through donations?

KM: Cyber Nations is funded through donations and through Google Ads that display on the site. I’ve received offers from companies wanting to display banner ads and pop-ups on the site, but I’ve declined all their offers. I just don’t want to clutter up my website like that at the expense of the users.

TE: A lot of people seem to have heard of Cyber Nations through Nation States. There are also some competitors springing up, like Lunar Wars. Do you think it’s inevitable that something will overtake Cyber Nations someday, as Cyber Nations overtook NationStates?

KM: I don’t think Cyber Nations has overtaken NationStates. If you look at the Alexa traffic rankings, NationStates is still active and doing well. I like to think that each site out there provides its own unique “thing” to interest players. I have come across a few copycat sites, which is both an honor that another programmer would be inspired by my work, but at the same time it is disappointing, since it’s not difficult to be creative and create something new instead of copying what’s already out there.

TE: One thing that has really surprised me is the level of devotion of the community. What attracts and keeps players in Cyber Nations, and how did you build up such a big community in 18 months?

KM: I think it has something to do with the fact that something is always happening in Cyber Nations. Every time I log in there is something new going on, one group flexing their muscles and on the brink of war, another group trying to keep the peace, another group getting caught for spying on another alliance. … It’s that kind of excitement that seems to drive new players to the game and keep them coming back.

TE: Speaking of the community, are the key players from the early days still there? Do players come and go a lot?

KM: I’d say there’s a mixture of both. We’ve still got a lot of players that started in the game just days after it launched on January 6, 2006, and have been active in the game ever since. We also get a lot of new users who pass by and don’t stick around for whatever reasons. We’ve got roughly 40,000 active nations, but over 100,000 nations have come and gone since the game started 18 months ago.

TE: The other thing that has really impressed me is the almost fanatical level to which the entire history of the game world has been transcribed and recorded in the wikis. Alliances rise and fall, wars come and go. What has been the defining or most memorable moment in the history of Cyber Nations for you?

KM: The most defining moment for me came in March 2007 during what players have come to call Great War III or GWIII. During times of war where thousands of players engage one another on a massive scale like we saw in GWIII, the game servers have a difficult time staying up with performance. With the site having performance issues during much of March, I stayed very busy with the game and, as I mentioned before, our first child was born on March 29, 2007, so it was both a very busy and exciting time for me.

TE: How far do you go to make the game realistic? For example, only the top 5 percent of nations can get nuclear weapons. What does that say about North Korea?

KM: When developing Cyber Nations on a MMOG scale, it was important to make the game fair. Because of that, some sacrifices were made for gameplay purposes. For example, the 5 percent rule was added because of massive outcry from the
community that the game was too unrealistic with nuclear weapons so readily available and being used on a massive scale like we saw before the 5 percent rule was added.

TE: Where do you and Cyber Nations go from here? Do you have any interest in developing a commercial version of this, or any other game?

KM: Cyber Nations has grown far beyond my wildest expectations for the game when it first started. Of course, I’ll always keep options open for new opportunities that may come for the game, but if things just remain as they are now I’ll be happy with that, too.

My main goal is to continue to provide for Cyber Nations for as long as people are interested in it. Along with Cyber Nations, I’ve got a couple of other browser-based games that I’m working on, even though I have absolutely no time in my schedule to manage. I guess that’s the story of most web developers, though. Too many great ideas and not enough time in the day.

Wizards of the Coast is probably the biggest brand in gaming no one ever thinks about. Despite my years-long affair with Magic: The Gathering, I was surprised to hear from them when they dropped us a line to talk about Gleemax, their new take on social networking. Gleemax, a MySpace-ish networking site based on a three-pillar (games, editorial and community) strategy, isn’t the first to target gamers, but it’s definitely the best-funded. I had a chance to speak with Randy Buehler, WotC’s Vice President of Digital Gaming, about his plans for Gleemax and the future of Wizards of the Coast.

Buehler’s history is deeply rooted in Wizards of the Coast. Before joining them in 1999, he made a name for himself winning Magic tournaments on the professional circuit. He parlayed his experience there into a spot on the Magic development team, building new cards. In 2002, he jumped to the Magic: The Gathering Online team and has since been looking for new ways to expand WotC’s online presence.

The way Buehler sees it, WotC’s traditional delivery model – getting people into hobby stores – is “stable, but it’s aging.” Teenagers just don’t go to Hobbytown USA anymore. Today’s youth are online, he says, and WotC’s two major properties, Magic and Dungeons & Dragons, translate well to the modern web. In an age where the user dictates the experience, games where the world literally changes on the player’s whim seem like a perfect draw for the Web 2.0 junkie.

Gleemax, Buehler says, is a natural extension of both WotC’s web presence and their offline community-building practices. In the past, they’ve launched two major initiatives to get people into hobby shops and to get them playing their games. The first is the large professional Magic tour, which has grown popular enough to birth its own player trading card set, has breathed life into the aging game; over 100,000 people watch the tournaments online. The second was Friday Night Magic, a grassroots movement to actually bring kids into a social setting inside hobby stores, giving them a chance to connect with others who share an interest after-school activities that don’t revolve around sports. Gleemax is attempting to go online with the latter.

Much of the community aspect of the site is based on fostering a similar vibe. The site is going to offer three different experiences. The first is very MySpace-like – social networking, trophy rooms, event calendars for local shops to coordinate with their customers. They’re also giving players a chance to sound off in an editorial capacity, either by reviewing games or blogging about their gameplay experiences, be it a WotC game or a competitor’s. But where Gleemax really separates itself is in the game channel.

In an effort to make Gleemax “the home for gamers,” Buehler wants to people to actually play games on the site. He plans on showcasing indie strategy games to start, branding them with a WotC seal of approval; sort of like the old Nintendo seal. He says the seal can help guarantee only good games make it on the portal. He mentioned Greg Costikyan’s Manifesto Games as a counterexample to the strict method WotC is using, saying, “Just because you have infinite shelf space; you shouldn’t use it.”

In addition to the indie game portal, Buehler wants to feature board games online. WotC owns the Avalon Hill brand, whose name brings joy to the heart of board gamers across the globe. Bringing those games into an online space may recapture a slightly older demographic that’s escaped gaming since starting a family.

As far as money goes, Buehler says WotC plans on making most of its cash by way of the tried-and-true ad-supported model. They’re also considering a subscription-based premium model, which will give users access to special content, and they might charge to play certain games. Similarly to MySpace, Buehler says they don’t plan on charging hobby stores to promote local gatherings. They’re also using the proceeds from Magic Online to develop and prop up the network, so chances are it’ll be around for a while.

If you were to visit the official site right now, you’d be greeted by a giant, green brain, Gleemax himself, floating maliciously in the center of the page, stating, “THESE ARE THE PIXELS I NEED. YOU MUST BE IN THE PICTURE. DO NOT SEND PIXELS THAT ARE ALREADY ON THE INTERNET. I HAVE ALREADY CONSUMED THEM. I WILL AWARD POINTS AS I SEE FIT. YOU WILL GET BONUS POINTS FOR HAVING MORE MINIONS IN YOUR PHOTO.” Gleemax the mascot is actually borne from one of the WotC fan base’s inside jokes: The community has long suggested an alien presence has been pulling the strings of the hobby company, elevating them to 400-pound gorilla status for reasons beyond human comprehension.

In a way, that might explain the decision to go ahead with a social networking site for nerds, a group not exactly known for being social or having a large network of people with which to socialize. It just seems like a risky proposition. But if Buehler, or the giant brain controlling him, does manage to pull gamers together under one banner, he’ll have struck a goldmine and done it in WotC’s name.

WotC plans on officially rolling out a working version of Gleemax by this year’s Gen Con. Until then, the giant brain will remain; floating, making demands … plotting. If Buehler has his way, we may all soon be thralls of Gleemax, but at least we’ll be together.

***

Joe Blancato is an Associate Editor for The Escapist. He quotes Wayne’s World and Dr. Strangelove too much. But someday, it will be funny. Oh yes, it will be funny.

To compliment Erin Hoffman’s excellent take on the subject of game design programs at the community college and university level, The Escapist recently contacted Matt Deller, long-time teacher and former a member of the development team behind Neverwinter Nights. Matt is now a high school assistant principal in Southern California’s Pomona Unified school district, and the mastermind behind the nation’s first high school game design program – and the only one fronted by a former developer.

“It was a crack shot to get in [to developing], as I was basically a ‘fanboy,’ for lack of a better term,” Matt recently told The Escapist, “with zero experience in programming/game development, not to mention I was already ensconced in a seven-year teaching career. One day I was teaching Ecology, the next I was working as a designer on NWN 2 with the guys who had made some of my all-time favorite games. Of course, the grass is not always greener on the other side, and I soon learned why the industry turnover rate is so spectacularly high – a topic which prospective game-developers never tire hearing about.”

Deller eventually left Obsidian to take on his assistant principal job, but he looks back on his days as a game developer fondly and hopes to bring a little of his experience to bear on the dreams of his “prospective game developers.” His program features hands-on instruction using Neverwinter Nights‘s Aurora toolset and the toolset for Valve’s Half-Life, as well as occasional lectures from the occasional visiting developer.

***

The Escapist: Does your program focus more on the technological skills required for game development or the more esoteric fundamentals of effective design, or both?

Matt Deller: I’d say both. We use a great text, The Art of Producing Games by David McCarthy, Ste Curran and Simon Byron that covers the history of game development, the basics of what goes into designing games and what the industry is like today. The instructor, David Newton, does an excellent job of supplementing the text with his notes and lectures concerning game design. Nothing beats hands-on experience however, and that’s where Neverwinter Nights comes in.

Throughout the semester, students have been learning the basics of Neverwinter‘s Aurora toolset to the point where they will soon submit a final project of a full-length module that follows their original design document. At Diamond Ranch High School, it’s currently “crunch time.”

TE: Some criticism levied at game design programs is that they’re often staffed by folks with little or no actual game design experience. How do you think your program fares in this respect?

MD: At this point in time, find me another high school assistant principal who also has a design credit listed for a Triple-A title and I’ll consider it valid criticism for our respective program. I suspect I won’t hold such a geek-tacular title for long though, with companies discovering new pipelines of talent from law, medicine, engineering and other fields.

Case in point: Ferret Baudoin, NWN 2‘s Co-Lead Designer, dropped out of law school to make games and Obsidian Lead Designer Kevin Saunders obtained a Masters in Physics from Cornell before switching over to game design.

The Escapist: What are your goals in terms of getting kids placed into programs? Furthering their goals for entering game design, or getting noticed by design studios?

MD: Well, it’s our first year in running the course – our goal at this point is to build the program where it is able to incorporate the other venues offered from our “Digital Academy,” like Computer Animation, Programming and Graphic Arts. Having done that, I feel that we can be confident in assisting students to apply for four-year game design programs or to look for work in the industry right after graduation.

TE: Is the program elective-based? And what kind of kids do you draw, demographically speaking, etc.? What percentage are male or female, and how many have played games before coming in?

MD: The program is elective-based, and part of our district’s Vocational Education program. Students must take at least 10 credits in Vocational Education to graduate from high school – they are able to choose from courses like Culinary Arts, Law Enforcement, EMT, Fire Science, Cosmetology, with Game Design now included.

Our requirements for gaining admission into the class are set pretty high. Currently our class consists of juniors and seniors, with 25 percent of the class consisting of female students. Most are avid gamers, the likes of having sold their souls to World of Warcraft many ages ago. I recently brought in Michael Chu, Game Designer for Blizzard, to speak to the class and they almost mobbed the poor guy.

TE: What is it about Neverwinter Nights and Half-Life that makes them particularly well suited for this type of instruction?

MD: We use Neverwinter Nights as our primary toolset – I don’t think that it has an advantage over any other toolset per se, but the fact that there is an enormous amount of community resources available like video tutorials and toolset manuals is the reason why it tops our list. In addition, I worked extensively with it back in the old days, so it made it much easier to provide our instructor Mr. Newton with support whenever he had a particular question.

TE: How receptive are the kids to the games considering they’re about a decade ahead of their time?

MD: Any game really, however often you may find it in the bargain bin, suddenly takes on a new life when it’s introduced in a classroom setting, as it does a fantastic job of breaking up the monotony of traditional instruction. Does the man dying of thirst ponder whether Evian or regular tap water will suffice?

Needless to say, our students are very enthused with both Neverwinter and Half-Life as mediums for game design.

TE: You recently mentioned you believed your students’ perception of gaming has changed. Changed in what way?

MD: High school students used to typically display an abundance of naivet?oncerning the game industry and how games were developed. Students who are in University-level programs for Game Design are a bit more hardened about what the realities are. I’m now starting to see some of that trickle down now to high school students.

This is striking to me because I remember picking up my newly minted copy of Baldur’s Gate in 1997. Playing it was such an incredibly immersive experience because I had no idea of the production that went into making such a game. Now, with company forums for fans, TV programs like G4, Penny Arcade tell-alls and designers gaining rock star-like status, gamers are sure to discover how many donuts their favorite designer crammed down their pie-hole while designing a particular quest or what the company’s restrooms really look like in a programmer’s blog. To me personally, it takes a bit of the magic out of the finished product.

***

Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor for The Escapist. His currently unnamed, yet critically unrecognized column appears every Monday at The Escapist Daily. He also blogs at www.falsegravity.com.

Richard Newsome is the plaintiff’s attorney in Hernandez v. IGE, a lawsuit recently filed against the notorious real-money trade company. The Escapist‘s own Alexander Macris, a Harvard-trained lawyer who’s written on virtual reality law, spent some time on the phone yesterday with attorney Newsome discussing the lawsuit.

The Escapist: What’s your background, Richard?

Richard Newsome: I was a federal prosecutor and then worked for a civil litigation law firm. I defended DuPont, Ford Motor Company and other large corporations. Eventually I decided my heart was on the other side, and that I wanted to represent consumers. I’ve been doing that ever since. My firm represents consumers in complex litigation on a contingency fee basis. We’ve done product liability, class action, multi-district litigation. RMT [real-money trade] seemed like an area that none of the consumer lawyers had waded into. It seemed like a worthy cause and we decided to jump in and see if we could help out.

TE: So what is the actual lawsuit – in layman’s terms?

RN: The actual lawsuit is Hernandez v. IGE. We filed it in Miami, where IGE has offices. In layman’s terms, the core of the complaint is a consumer class action for unfair trade practices. Guys like Tony [Hernandez, the plaintiff] have paid their $15 for some entertainment, and IGE is polluting that entertainment. It’s kind of like, if someone pays for a ticket to go see a movie, and if someone else comes in behind them and kicks their seat, you can get them to stop doing that. We’re just trying to get IGE to stop kicking the seats. This is not unlike other consumer complaints where someone has paid for a service, and someone else is interfering with it. It’s really very simple.

TE: What do you hope to achieve with this lawsuit?

RN: We want to make IGE stop kicking the seat – stop polluting the service that’s been paid for. We’re going to get an injunction. We pleaded for money damages, but the No. 1 goal that we really want is to make them stop. And that’s obviously going to be an intense fight.

TE: No doubt about it. What makes you think this will work?

RN: Oftentimes, to me, it seems like the best cases in the court are when an injustice is being done – when somebody isn’t playing by the rules. And that’s what’s happening here. There are clear provisions in the terms of use that everybody agrees to, and IGE is just violating those rules.

TE: So then why haven’t the industry firms or other consumer law firms done this?
RN: That’s a very good question. I think the consumer law firms are simply unaware of the problem. And I think, with respect to the industry, there are pros and cons of filing a lawsuit when your business model could be affected by the outcome, and the uncertainty of that is causing them pause.

TE: That being the case, do you expect the industry to get involved? And if so, as an ally or as an enemy? Or not at all?

RN: I am obviously hopeful that the industry will get involved one way or another as an ally. What I’d like to do is reach out to them to see if we can’t get some support, even if it’s behind the scenes. But publicly it’d be nice to know that Blizzard was behind us. Clearly their resources are getting gobbled up by this. The time CS has to spend chasing down gold farmers, banning accounts and dealing with angry customers – those are huge resources. And to the extent this action can lessen those problems, we’d like them to support us. Our clients love the game and love Blizzard.

TE: Even if you get no help from Blizzard, do you have the resources to win this?

RN: Yes, we do. The bulk of my practice is handling complex litigation for catastrophically injured people. We handle class actions and complex product liability, and we go to trial. The folks on the other side of us on these cases know this. We don’t think twice about putting a million dollars in costs and thousands of hours of attorney time on a contingency fee basis. So if we can’t work out some deal to the benefit of players, we are prepared to go to the mat. And even if we lose, they will spend a ton of dough fighting us.

TE: What if they want to settle, pay you off?

RN: Well, if there’s a way that we can resolve this case quickly so that players have a way to play in a pollution-free environment, then that’s really what we want. If IGE said, “We’re going to agree to stay out of WoW,” then that’d be great. We’re not in this for a settlement that’s only about money. This is about them needing to be a good public citizen.

But if they make us go to trial, then we will collect. A consumer case takes money. My client doesn’t have the money to pay for this. We’re spending our own money and time on this. We’d like to see some of that money recovered, and if they make us go the distance, let’s recover the damages.

TE: How can you enforce this against a Hong Kong company?

RN: You follow the money. Everything goes through the pipeline of Paypal and credit card companies. They have to go through legitimate institutions to further their conspiracy. So we can hit them in the pocketbook. We would take our injunction and enforce it against the payment companies so they can’t do business. That’s a real means to get them where it hurts. If we win, it’s Armageddon for them.

And IGE will try to claim they aren’t liable, that they are just facilitators. But as a former Federal prosecutor, I’ve handled this before. We had drug dealers say, “Hey, I never touched the drugs, so you can’t touch me!” Although it’s usually used by prosecutors in the criminal context, civil conspiracy is a recognized cause of action that lets us get past the shell game. IGE facilitates gold farming, and that’s the conspiracy. And we think the evidence will prove to a jury that they’re liable for it.

TE: So you feel you have precedent on your side?

RN: There’s no other case that’s been filed like this with respect to gold farming, but there is a ton of precedent with consumer protection law that has been created to protect consumers from illegal conduct. The law says you have to be fair and follow the rules, and when you don’t, and you adversely affect other consumers, you’re subject to a law suit being filed against you. It’s very straightforward consumer protection law.

All of the lawyers who’ve approached this have looked at RMT from the jurisprudence of intellectual property. That’s not what this is about. This is about a consumer who makes $8 an hour and for whom $15 a month is his whole entertainment budget. It’s for guys like him that we’re bringing this suit.

TE: What do you think the ramifications of winning this suit would be for the MMOG business overall? Does it introduce concerns over taxes, property ownership, EULAs?

RN: As I said, we are approaching this from a consumer protection standpoint. I don’t have an opinion on IP or tax jurisprudence. For me to give a legal opinion on those issues, I’d have to study them. But from a consumer protection standpoint, we think we can demonstrate that if you’re paying your subscription fee, you have a right to enjoy that experience unpolluted by people who are breaking the rules. I think that’s something everyone can feel good about. I think the players of these games will support us, because this is for them.

One hundred years after an epic disaster called The Big Wet, the scattered remains of humanity cling to existence in barren desert outposts, scrounging what they can from the lands and ruins around them. Some cling to pagan religion, and there are whispers that humanity is discovering long-lost abilities such as telekinesis, but most of humanity simply tries to survive. Antony Johnston’s Wasteland series is Mad Max meets The Dark Tower , with just a hint of frantic, end-of-the-world mysticism thrown in.

The Escapist: Tell us a little about yourself.

Antony Johnston: I’m from England, I’m in my mid-30s and I’ve been writing professionally for about 10 years. I started out writing RPG supplements after spending most of my school years immersed in rulebooks, then moved on to comics and novels about five years ago. I used to be a graphic designer, until the writing took over full-time. I’ve written 12 graphic novels, two prose novels, lots of miniseries and several short stories for anthologies. I jump around from genre to genre a lot, which some people seem to think is part of a grand master plan, but the truth is I just do it to stop myself getting bored.

I have two tattoos. I used to sing and play guitar in heavy metal bands. Anchovies are the devil’s tagnuts.

TE: Tell us about the series. How did you wind up writing it? Was it something you were working on before and Oni picked up, or is it something you did especially for them?

AJ: A little of both. The idea for Wasteland had been rattling around inside my head for about 15 years. I’ve always loved the post-apocalypse genre and always wanted to do something in it. But I also knew it would be a major undertaking, so I wanted to make sure I could do it justice.

I’ve been working with Oni for five years, now, concentrating on original graphic novels and miniseries. After doing plenty of those, the subject of an ongoing series came up during a chat with James Lucas Jones, the Oni Editor-in-Chief. I mulled over a few ideas, before wondering if “that post-apocalypse thing” I’d wanted to write for years would be a good fit … assuming I could convince Oni to take a chance on it. Oni prides itself on producing original, unorthodox works that don’t fit into the “comics fanboy mainstream,” and that includes genres like fantasy and sci-fi. Not that they won’t do those genres, but they have to be damn good, and different, for Oni to consider publishing them.

Considering how many times post-apocalypse has been done before, that presented me with a challenge. I knew what I wanted to do with Wasteland was different and uniquely my voice, but how could I get that across?

Eventually, I decided the best way was to simply demonstrate what I wanted to do. So I wrote the entire first issue on spec and sent it to James, which I think took him by surprise. But he liked it, so then I pressed forward with a full pitch and some marketing ideas – the website, a double-sized first issue, and so on. Meanwhile, Christopher did some design sketches based off that initial script.

We packaged the whole thing up and presented it to the other editors at Oni, almost as a fait accompli. I guess we kind of ambushed them into publishing it, in a way, but it all worked out.

TE: Would you mind giving us some details on the plot so far? What’s the basic premise/theme of the story? How did the world end, and where are we now?

AJ: Wasteland is set in America 100 years after The Big Wet, a disaster that destroyed society as we know it and swallowed half of the country’s dry land. A harsh sun beats down on a new dust-filled landscape, barren of life. What little of humanity that remains is trying to survive and rebuild a society they’ve all but forgotten. The old cities are abandoned and avoided, full of death and disease. New cities have sprung up instead, and new religions have taken root to try and explain what happened – because nobody really knows the truth.

Into this world steps Michael, a “ruin runner” – a desert scavenger, who scours the Wastelandfor anything he can trade. Michael comes across a strange machine that speaks in a forgotten language and claims it can lead him to the fabled land of A-Ree-Yass-I, where legend says The Big Wet began.

That’s the premise. The plot so far is, well, long and pretty complex (and besides, people can read it for themselves at thebigwet.com). Suffice to say that when Michael tries to trade the machine at a nearby shanty town, the creatures he “stole” the machine from in the first place aren’t far behind, and certainly not happy.

TE: So, why go post-apocalyptic? What about that setting appeals to you as a writer?

AJ: So many things. A post-apocalypse world gives you the opportunity to create the world anew, but keeping enough familiar touchstones that you’re not stepping fully outside a reader’s comfort zone. So there’s all the weird stuff – the landscape and environment, the almost mediaeval society of the cities, the new language and slang, and in [the] Wasteland itself of course the psychic powers and the new mythology of The Big Wet – but there’s also persecution of minorities, ideological conflict, violence, betrayal and power struggles. People are still people, you know?

TE: Tell us a little bit about the writing process. What sources do you draw from building the world and the mythology?

AJ: My influences, particularly for Wasteland, are all over the place. A lot of visual influence comes from Richard Stanley’s early work, such as the films Hardware and Dust Devil, and his music videos. It’s also got roots in the 2000AD strips I used to read as a kid, where post-apocalypse was a constantly popular genre, and they had some beautifully gritty artists to work on them.

The story has influences in just about everything, from movies to books to comics to TV. Mad Max, Pitch Black, When Gravity Fails, Preacher, The Shockwave Rider, Escape From New York. … It’s hard for me to point at just a few things and say they’re a big influence, because Wasteland has been germinating for so many years.

One thing that may surprise you is how much music plays a part. Music’s a big influence on me in general, and a lot of my favorite bands and songs have found their way into Wasteland. Fields of the Nephilim, Covenant, Paradise Lost, Testament, Front 242 and more have all played their part, not just in the mood of the book, but also the story in some cases.

The mythology aspects are drawn from a wide and disparate variety of sources and ideas – the Sunners have parallels to some native American traditions, but also to the Christian mythos. There are Celtic and Norman aspects to the rule of Marcus, in the city.

And the way the story is told owes a big debt to some of the excellent serial TV drama we’ve been blessed with in recent years, like Lost, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars. The early seasons in particular of those shows were a big influence on the storytelling and pacing of Wasteland as I was pulling it all together.

It’s all one big mash-up, really. Everything goes into my head, gets bashed about like a pinball machine and then comes out the other side in what I hope is a coherent form.

TE: While the world itself is pretty unique, Wasteland has several themes in common with post-apocalyptic movies/literature/games: The lone hero, the steamy desert wasteland, humanity falling into near-illiteracy and clinging to survival in these isolated hamlets, lost technology as relics, etc. Why include these in your work? What is it about these themes and symbols that make them such touchstones in the post-apocalyptic genre?

AJ: I think probably because, as I said before, a lot of the appeal of post-apocalyptic stuff is that you can create a whole new world, almost from scratch. To be able to do that, the “apocalypse” part – without which there’s no “post” – has to be something absolutely devastating, something that could literally destroy the old society and its rules. It’s a bit of a vicious circle.

Not that you can’t make a post-apoc book without those elements, of course – Y: The Last Man is a perfect example of the genre with a novel form of apocalypse, and consequently doesn’t have those genre touchstones in the same way that something like Wasteland does.

But I like taking people’s expectations and twisting them. Everyone who picks up Wasteland thinks they know what it’s going to be like, and what they’re going to be reading, because they’ve all seen or read some post-apocalyptic fiction at some point. And then, if they continue reading, they realize it’s not like that at all. It isn’t just about a grim bloke in a trench coat.

TE: Tell us about the religion, the Sunners, “Mother Sun”, “Father Moon” and so forth. What’s the history of the religion in the world itself? Tell me about building the religion.

AJ: Few things are as much fun to construct as a new religion (just ask L. Ron Hubbard). There are so many allegories you can make in the mythology and so many sources to draw on for the stories and origins that it’s just out and out fun. I think the fact that almost every otherworldly book I write contains at least one major new religion is a bit of a clue to how much I enjoy doing it. I’m as atheist as they come, but maybe that’s why I like it so much.

The Sunners believe The Big Wet was caused by man’s hubris. Man believed he no longer needed the natural gifts of Mother Sun and Father Moon, and shunned them. Mother Sun and Father Moon even sent their children to mankind, to impress their beauty upon the world, but mankind rejected and killed them. The children cried out, and their tears drowned the world, and it was called The Big Wet. Then Mother Sun sent fire raining down from the sky and ruined the cities. Father Moon hid the heavens from mankind’s sight and poisoned the oceans.

The world was destroyed, and now mankind must redeem itself in the eyes of Mother Sun and Father Moon to be redeemed. When that happens, Mother Sun will embrace mankind in her fiery bosom and take them all up to live in the heavens forever.

How exactly that redemption is supposed to come about is just one more thing nobody knows for sure. The Sun-Singers, who lead the faithful in “sings” to praise Mother Sun and Father Moon, might know. But if they do, they aren’t letting on.

TE: In addition to the almost pagan – in the Old World, nature-based sense – religion, it seems like humanity is developing powers like telekinesis, healing and so on. How did that come about, in terms of in-world story?

AJ: That would be telling …

TE: How did the world end, if it’s not giving too much away?

AJ: And that would be giving the entire series away. Sorry, no comment.

TE: Ultimately, one of the major themes in post-apocalyptic literature is hope, be it the lack thereof or the chance at a return to paradise after this fall of man. Is there any hope for your characters?

AJ: Mmmmmmmaybe. But I wouldn’t bank on it. I’m a pretty bleak guy.

In our world, the U.S.S.R. fell, ending the Cold War and depriving the entire creative industry of a worthwhile bad guy. However, the proletariat still hopes for revolution, and Christian Gossett delivered with his series of graphic novels, called The Red Star. The world of The Red Star draws heavily from Soviet history and myth, with more than a hint of magic, as the United Republics of the Red Star command kilometers-long airships over the skies of Al’Istaan, but sorcerers and summoners can be far more dangerous than the mujahideen the U.S.S.R. faced.

A videogame based on The Red Star was announced and swiftly disappeared with the demise of Acclaim, but publisher XS Games picked it up and snuck it out in March, three years after its intended release. Not only is the result a budget-priced action game with an interesting setting, it’s a budget-priced action game with an interesting setting that’s packed full of philosophical and Zoolander references. I had the good fortune to speak with Gossett about himself, the world of The Red Star and the troubled history of his game.

The Escapist: Would you mind introducing yourself? Where would we have encountered your work?

Christian Gossett: The most recognizable concept would be the double-edged lightsaber. In 1993 I was hired by Lucasfilm licensing and Dark Horse Comics to be among the first artists to design the look of the “Old Republic” for a series of graphic novels called Tales of the Jedi. Barely in my 20s, I attacked the work with the passion of a zealot.

I submitted many designs for approval, including a range of radically different lightsabers to Lucasfilm (as is normal for such a contract); there was, in addition to the double-edged saber a curved-handled saber, a pole-arm style lightsaber and other force-based weapons.

These concepts were submitted to George in 1993, and fortunately for me he liked them (I still have the fax that brought this good news). The double-sabre concept sketch was published in Sci-Fi Universe magazine in 1994 and also in Wired magazine in 2000.

There are lots of videogame, film and comics projects since then. I also had the good fortune to work with the Weta Workshop on Peter Jackson’s King Kong.

TE: For readers who are unfamiliar with the Red Star series, would you mind giving a brief overview of the story/mythology?

CG: The Red Star is a world much like our own, except that Military Industrial Sorcery has made the armies of the many different nations capable of incredible destruction. Every soldier is a trained sorcerer, armed with weaponry engineered to amplify their power.

Unlike other magical or fantastic realms, The Red Star uses modern military tactics to inform the way that this weaponry is brought to bear. Their assault rifles, for example, are linked to distant ammunition stores, meaning that infantry can travel light, but still pour impenetrable waves of sustained fire. Teleport gates are used for deployment, and dominating the skies are flying fortresses, two-miles long, that can raze cities with a single command.

The dark secret of this world is the source of this godlike power: The Imprisoned Afterlife. The leaders of the world’s nations have discovered the secret of containing the souls of the dead and transforming these souls into a new form of energy.

Unknown by the majority of humankind, the death of every human being means the imprisonment of another soul, and therefore the birth of another unit of Post Human Energy or PHE.

PHE, human souls, are the source unit of Military Industrial Sorcery, as well as the foundation of the true world economy. The spirit world has been transformed into a damnation of mankind’s own design.

The Heroes of The Red Star have discovered this secret and have taken it upon themselves to descend into the Imprisoned Afterlife, lay siege to its prison fortresses and liberate the souls of their ancestors.

TE: Soviet/Russian history with fantasy elements isn’t a genre you see often. What about it appealed to you? Was it just that no one had done it before, or was there something there that really spoke to you?

CG: Definitely both. God of War is another good example of how to take a great ancient mythology and adapt it to modern heroic fiction as a videogame. When I first started to develop The Red Star in 1994, I built on the idea of having a strong foundation: I would create a “Mythic Russia.” Using human history/mythology as a basis helps one greatly when mapping out a game world. God of War is an enjoyable series for many reasons, and one of these is the fact that the development team has a wealth of information to draw from as they’re building their levels.

TE: How did you build the world of The Red Star? Did you just take Soviet/Russian history as a jumping off point, or were you looking at some other influences and sources?

CG: The Red Star was built from my enthusiasm for military history in general, the history of Russia, epic heroic fiction across all media, Japanese animation and videogames.

TE: Who do you think The Red Star appeals to? Who would like the series/comic/world?

CG: I couldn’t say, really … I did my best to make it as universal a story as possible. About Love and Death, War and Peace, Obedience and Freedom. I’m very happy that we’ve been translated into seven languages so far, and that readers all over the world have contacted us to encourage us to keep going.

TE: Tell us about the game. Where does it fit into the storyline? Is it a spin-off/separate episode or is it a recognizable piece of the main story? How good of an introduction would it be to the world?

CG: It’s a great introduction to the world; but at the same time it is a world that could be realized in so many different styles. I really like the LEGO style Star Wars games, because of the philosophy of not taking a world so seriously that it has to look the same way every single time.

The point is to have fun, and having been a tabletop gamer when I was a teenager, and still an avid gamer today, The Red Star was built to be a world that could be every kind of game you could think of. Honestly. Well, anything but sports of course. When you read the stories, you can see the possibility of these different game genres jumping out at you from the pages. This is a very popular topic on our website forums. ( www.theredstar.com)

TE: From what I’m reading, there’s been some problems with getting the game out. It was with Acclaim for a while, then they ran into problems, then XS Games picked it up. Does all that bother you, or is it just the perils of doing business?

CG: It did bother me at first; it was a good game and having worked closely with the development team in Austin, I didn’t want their work to be for nothing. I had a choice. Surrender or Fight Like Hell. So I fought like hell.

I found some powerful representatives in my manager, Ken Levin, as well as Rich Liebowitz of Union Entertainment in Los Angeles. Together, and with the help of my friends in the industry, like Jamil Moledina of the GDC, Dave Halverson at Play Magazine and many other outspoken members of the game press, we kept awareness of the game alive.

Then, suddenly, it stopped bothering me. I realized that even if the game never came out, I was going to approach this as a unique business course in bankruptcy, negotiation and old fashioned salesmanship. If I passed the test, then the game would survive.

But how much time did I have? I had no idea, but I can say this: It is a testament to the skill and dedication of the development team that this game was supposed to be released in 2004 and that it is still being so well-received three years later.

TE: How much experience did you have with the gaming industry prior to the Red Star game? Was there anything that really surprised you? How does it compare with comics and other industries you’ve worked in?

CG: I’ve worked in games since PS1. I started at Activision in 1996. The Red Star was my first time as licensor, though, which was a nice change. I like being at the decision making level. Having worked my way up from a drawing table doing character designs and environment sketches, it was great to have open access to all of the different teams.

As for surprises? Well, my personal staff was really on the ball the whole time. Not even Acclaim kicking the bucket two weeks before release was much of a surprise.

TE: Do you have any plans for future expansion of the Red Star storyline? Will it just be comics and the videogame, or are you developing it for other mediums?

CG: The Red Star currently has three different graphic novels available on the market, and a few shorter special issues. I’m currently writing and drawing the next chapter, which has the distinction of being a collaboration with the world famous Weta Workshop New Zealand, the designers who did such an excellent job designing the Lord of the Rings films.

Other than the series, we’re currently in early development as a live action feature with Universal.

As for videogames, as much as I can’t wait to get a new one started, getting this one out has been a hard fought victory, and I’m going to let myself enjoy it just a liiiittle bit longer …

Humanity toils beneath the boot of Dr. Wily and his robots, cowed by the relentless forces arrayed against them. Protoman has fallen, and a grief-stricken Dr. Light refuses to allow Mega Man to face the evil around him, but Mega Man storms out anyway to confront Dr. Wily, his robots and the shadows of his past. One group of brave resistance fighters dares to share this epic story via compact disc technology (samples). They call themselves The Protomen, and I was able to make contact with them for this short, but telling, interview.

The Escapist: So, who are we talking to? What’s your role(s) within the band?

The Protomen: -MURPHY & PANTHER – we synthesize and organize.

The Escapist: Who are the Protomen? Who plays what?

The Protomen: CODENAME: COMMANDER – synthesis
CODENAME: MURPHY – synthesis
CODENAME: HEATH WHO HATH NO NAME – guitarmy
CODENAME: PANTHER – synthesis, voice
CODENAME: DEMON BARBER – drums
CODENAME: SCARTOE – guitarmy
CODENAME: THE REPLICANT – brass, human cries
CODENAME: THE GAMBLER – human cries
CODENAME: THE MERCHANT – human cries
CODENAME: KILROY 3K – service bot

The Escapist: How did the band come together?

The Protomen: Once, not twice, we stumbled upon each other in a sand pit of chaos in the middle of the state of volunteers. We accidentally delivered the fury from our instruments, and an army was discovered.

The Escapist: At what point do you decide to turn Mega Man into a rock opera? Is it something you set out to do, or was it just noodling around until, eventually, you said to yourselves, “I think we really have something here?”

The Protomen: There was a great meeting in the year of our Lord 1993. We knew there was a story to be told, we knew that the world was consumed, the very air rich with evil, the stage set for a tidal wave of music with nothing to say. Since the moment Billy Idol’s Cyberpunk hit the mean streets of Stanmore, the rock opera has been near death. We will revive it – we will tell our story or we will be destroyed trying.

The Escapist: How does one write a rock opera based on a videogame? What does the creative process look like for that?

The Protomen: The walls of the Thundercon are covered with what can only be described as the writings of a man possessed. Commander has visions. He then takes the thickest, blackest marker he can find and scrawls his visions onto the wall next to the 7-foot portrait of David Beckham. Then the work begins. Each member of The Protomen tries his hand at deciphering the nearly unintelligible marks. At sundown, one week later, we gather to determine if Commander’s markings meant anything. If yes, then we just write the music, lyrics and draw the artwork for the accompanying libretto.

The Escapist: For people who haven’t heard the album/read the liner notes, could you give us a summary of the story told within it? Was there any particular inspiration or works you looked to as guides when you were putting it together?

The Protomen: Act I begins with the death of the hero of man. ….

Observing what is going on in our world with the downfall of music and man inspires us to never stop educating with our ways of teaching.

The Escapist: The story told in the album is more on par with Children of Men or 1984 than the rather sparse narrative of the games themselves. On the one hand, it’s awesome that you’ve recast Mega Man into a dark, dystopian future under the thumb of Dr. Wily, where the oppressed humans may be too far gone for a hero to save them. On the other hand, some people will inevitably say, “Dude, it’s a game about a blue guy jumping on platforms and shooting stuff.” How would you respond to that? Do you guys ever think you’re putting a little too much thought into it?

The Protomen: There is no such thing as “putting too much thought” into telling a story. That “blue guy jumping on platforms shooting stuff” has a purpose that many do not see from merely playing the game. That blue guy and his story are little more than a vehicle for a story that needs to be told. We tell it the way it should be told.

The Escapist: At the end of the album, Mega Man has won the battle, but his spirit seems crushed and it seems like humanity/the chorus has traded one propaganda hero for another. A hollow victory, in other words. Will you be expanding upon the initial album? Where do you go from there?

The Protomen: Act II is currently being transcribed from the walls of the Thundercon. From here it seems we look back to the beginnings of the downfall of man. The broken friendship of Light and Wily – and the tragedy that nearly destroyed the hope of man.

The Escapist: From what I understand, you’re on tour right now. Where can people go if they want to check out the band and see if you’re coming near them?

The Protomen: We have just finished our Hope Rides East tour. We made it safely through the city streets of the east. When we arrived home, we immediately started organizing our war campaign “Unrest in the Midwest” for July 2007. There are so many who wish to stand and fight with us, and we hope to bring the fight to every cry around the world. Keep your senses to theprotomen.com for where the battles will reach next.

We are few and we are always looking for those who want to help in the struggle for victory.