Thought/Process: Gear Shift: An Interview With Cliff Bleszinski

We thought he should shut the f*** up during E3, but it turns out Cliff Bleszinski's got some insights worth hearing.
12/17/2008 3:52 PM | 3 Comments | Page 6 of 6

Crispy Gamer: People do pay attention to what you play, though. You're one of the few game creators to have name recognition. Do you think that's a good thing for the games business? Is that helpful to the industry, a distraction from the work, or a slight against the behind-the-scenes people?

Bleszinski: I would say that with great power comes great responsibility. Whenever you do interviews, you have to make sure to mention the people who actually build the damn game. But I think that it's good for the industry to put a face on the business, so people don't think of us as a bunch of guys sitting in our basements playing games all day and drinking Mountain Dew.

Crispy Gamer: Who are other producers and designers whose work you admire?

Bleszinski: I like Will Wright because he has an attitude of "the player is the designer," which is the direct opposite of what we do here. He's the creator and I'm the destroyer. [Shigeru] Miyamoto, of course. And Randy Pitchford at Gearbox is an intelligent designer and businessman with lots of great things in the queue.

Crispy Gamer: What are your hopes for videogames as a storytelling medium? You obviously think they're going to dominate, but how do you think that's going to happen?

Bleszinski: Well, I think games are going to continue to grow as a medium while other forms -- TV and music -- struggle and fade a little more into the background. The face of your average gamer is going to shift away from the geeks and to the everyday public.