MTV hosts game designers roundtable

by Christopher Grant { May 22nd 2006 at 8:55PM }

MTV News' Stephen Totilo somehow managed the Herculean task of getting four major game designers -- Harvey Smith (aka Witchboy; Deus Ex), Will Wright (The Sims), David Jaffe (God of War), and Cliff Bleszinski (aka CliffyB; Gears of War) -- to sit down and talk to each other ... during the week of E3.

The roundtable took place at Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight amidst the backdrop of their currently running I AM 8-BIT art show. Though it begins with more input from host Gideon Yago, it quickly evolves into a conversation between the four designers, running the gaming gamut from design to violence in games to the art question, all with a healthy sprinkling of (the outspoken) David Jaffe's trademark pottymouth.

While MTV only ran an edited version, MTV's online-only Overdrive channel is hosting the whole shebang. It's unfortunate that MTV decided this didn't deserve to be aired on television even though they've managed to make room for another half-dozen airings of the Gears of War promotional special. But seriously, if MTV's doing this, what does G4 do nowadays?

[Warning: Ever attuned to the pulse of the younger generation, MTV had the foresight to recognize that nobody under the age of 34 uses Mac OS and, accordingly, they've made their Overdrive site only compatible with Internet Explorer running on Windows.]

Tags: Cliff Bleszinski, CliffBleszinski, CliffyB, David Jaffe, DavidJaffe, Harvey Smith, HarveySmith, MTV, MTV News, MtvNews, Overdrive, Will Wright, WillWright

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Catastrophic @ May 22nd 2006 9:07PM

Cliffy B rocks.

TK00 @ May 22nd 2006 9:09PM

[Warning: Ever attuned to the pulse of the younger generation, MTV had the foresight to recognize that nobody under the age of 34 uses Mac OS and, accordingly, they've made their Overdrive site only compatible with Internet Explorer running on Windows]

Funny, but the real reason is Mtv feels they must "protect" their video WMV DRM.

grable @ May 22nd 2006 9:10PM

Any site that cant be bothered to support browsers other than internet explorer. is a site i cant be bothered to check out.

Chance @ May 22nd 2006 9:26PM

Uhm...I use Firefox and I can use Overdrive with no problems. I'm the first to condemn a site for not including alternate browsers, but saying Overdrive doesn't support other browsers is a lie.

Amos @ May 22nd 2006 9:44PM

That was great! :D As the first comment talking about the actual interview, I'd like to say Kudos to mtv for managing that. Of course Jaffe even pointed out, "Why the hell isn't this whole thing going to be put on tv?" Course the answer is it's still mtv (which I hate), but man, I wish there were a lot more Game Dev interviews like that with really good designers who were clearly and obviously completely into and masterful at what they are doing.

p.s. Cliffy B. still rocks :D. I'd love to go for your job, bud, but the education to do it is just so damn expensive...

boots @ May 22nd 2006 9:45PM

Holy shit, Will Wright is awesome.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, behold! I present you my most refined french friend: DAVID JAFFE!!!"

Vander @ May 22nd 2006 9:53PM

Fuck MTV. I, although not one of their tween pop-culture devouring zealots, love games and am a gamer. I also happen to be utilizing the wonder that is OSX on my, yes, ibook. Anger seethes through me.

s0m3guy @ May 22nd 2006 10:10PM

That was a good segment though I felt like each part was cut off prematurly. I think with those 4 developers they could have talked about each topic at length, it could be cut for most people but a full 1-2 hour show could have been done here and that is what I would like to have seen.

I did appreciate CliffyB and Smith's comments about violence and death in videogames. I also liked the dynamic videogame world that Wright discussed, whereby it changes depending on the players immersion level. Either way, we know we will be seeing some exciting games coming out of these guys here in the near future.

Mark D @ May 22nd 2006 10:17PM

It doesn't work on Linux or Mac OS X. It does at least work on Firefox, but that's not enough to overcome the pain it causes me to reboot into Windows.

Kain @ May 22nd 2006 10:31PM

Anyone having problems with the video's buffering every 15 sec? It's really annoying.

Clay @ May 22nd 2006 10:55PM

Cliffy B and Will Wright were the best. The Deus Ex designer was okay, but the God of War guy was pretty much annoying, always cutting off Wright before he could make a firm point.

However, I'm impressed the MTV did that. Though, I'm sure the worst parts were selected for cable; thankfully, I haven't owned a TV in many, many years.

DarkJosh @ May 22nd 2006 11:00PM

Those are definetly not the best game developers ever...other than Will Wright, he is one of the best. What happened to Miyamoto? WTF?! Hideo Kojima? That is a very opinionized group of best developers

UGN @ May 22nd 2006 11:03PM

Anyone want to upload this somewhere else? I typically have no issues at all streaming videos EXCEPT from that crappy bloated overdrive crap.

Mark D. @ May 22nd 2006 11:43PM

I think the fact that some of the Japanese devs wouldn't be able to hold a conversation going with the American devs had something to do with it.

That said, I think you're completely off base saying that Deus Ex and the Unreal series were not some of the best games ever. The original Deus Ex had one of the best stories ever at that time, and a wonderfully open ended play structure that truly allowed you to either kill everyone or kill no one and still "win".

Matt @ May 22nd 2006 11:59PM

Will Wright rocks for sure.

One nice thing about the overdrive player was that it actually let you size the video to a reasonable size.

sherlok @ May 23rd 2006 12:39AM

there definetly needs to be mroe of these.

Eric @ May 23rd 2006 12:51AM

OH....MY....GOD

I HEART JOYSTIQ!!

Thank you joystiq for pointing this out to me, normally I wouldn't touch anything associated with MTV but this was seriously worth it.

You cannot know how refreshing it was to hear these icons talk about their craft, instead of selling their game to a crowd of gawking onlookers. I seriously hung on every word these men said, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they all respected each other's work and held each other in high regard---None of them had a huge balloon head ego that I would have assumed. (and if they did have an ego they checked it at the door which is still cool)

Best post on any blog anywere ever.

KUDOS!

Collin @ May 23rd 2006 1:27AM

This video was amazing, I'm school for game design and watching these four go at it got me excited about my field again.

Anyone who has watched this video and realizes the quality of the discussion, I ask you to point me to other game develop roundtables that you have seen. There have to be a handful more out there on the internet somewhere. FIND THEM!! I need more!

Props to joystiq for shedding light on the shadow that is MTV.

Don Jose @ May 23rd 2006 4:48AM

"all with a healthy sprinkling of (the outspoken) David Jaffe's trademark pottymouth."

I'm a little disappointed with the continued focus on "profanity". I love joystiq (probably more than most), but I'm sick of this bizarre infatuation you guys seem to have with the "dirty" words (despite the fact that I see numerous posters here daily using said words, rarely reprimanded). I understand that many people who are not of adult age read your site, but linguistic cleansing is their parent(s)'(s) responsibility, not yours.
What does it matter if Jaffe says "fuck" 5 times in 10 seconds as filler. I know dozens of teens and twentysomethings who say "like" just as much, if not more, and even though they sound even more ridiculous, no one (except maybe English teachers and the elderly) scolds them for it. George Carlin did a brilliant bit on this-something like 25 years ago (it could be less, or more).
Besides that, I LOVE Joysiq. It's pretty much the only place I go for video game news. I'm not bitching, but I just can't understand this one aspect of your collective writings in general. Please, the original gaming generation is of legal drinking age now ( and we all know that booze is much more dangerous than Mr. Carlin's "7 words you can't say on TV/radio." Let's evolve, shall we?

Don Jose @ May 23rd 2006 4:49AM

Otherwise, I loved the video.

Adam @ May 23rd 2006 5:32AM

Hey, maybe this is a stupid question but any idea how those of us in the UK can watch the video? It keeps blocking me becasue I'm not in the US.

Cheers,

Adam

vc @ May 23rd 2006 6:10AM

Don Jose: we have no choice but to apologize or disclaim dirty words that appear in content we blog about. We've learned to do this or else people who are working at very corporate jobs will chastize us for getting them into trouble (or, for not warning them).

In other words, we're obligated to warn people about content that's not safe for work or that could get someone into trouble at work. That's why we're always careful to note such content.

You seem to think we do it because we've got an internal problem of some sort. Our problem actually lies in a readership that tends to do most of their Joystiq reading during the workday. We cater to these folks because we think that there's no more important task for the American worker than staying current on video game news.

Don Jose @ May 23rd 2006 6:28AM

Vlad, I understand that, and I apologize for chastizing. I guess I just lean WAY too hard to the left on the language issue. It just seems like a waste to expend mental energy on something so utterly relative.

Don Jose @ May 23rd 2006 6:34AM

I should note, Vlad, that I, too, do most of my joystiqery during my work shift as well (which is the graveyard shift, so I have far fewer constraints than most). But I do it at my own risk (which I feel others should, as well). However, you've shown me a point of view that I haven't considered.

I didn't really think it was an internal problem. I was just venting-when I continue my education, Linguistics will be my major (yeah, I'm one of those). No worries on my end.

vc @ May 23rd 2006 8:19AM

If I had my druthers, we'd make no beef about minor swear words like "shit" and "fuck." Americans are too puritanical. It's annoying.

Don Jose @ May 23rd 2006 9:24AM

"If I had my druthers, we'd make no beef about minor swear words like "shit" and "fuck." Americans are too puritanical. It's annoying."

Preach on, vc. I'm with you 100%. 1 word should not hold more presence in people's minds than something like the "I have a dream" speech.

boots @ May 23rd 2006 11:13AM

Well I don't have a beef with David Jaffe swearing, but it's funny how out of every 3 words he says, 1 is used for swearing; if I met him though, he could get to be annoying the first days as I would have to get used to someone saying "shit" and "fuck" most of the time, trying to discern the actual message. Hilarious.