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 1 of 6

Cliff Bleszinski would've been the first one to tell you that there was a lot riding on Gears of War 2. Since the first game in the post-apocalyptic sci-fi shooter series has sold about 5 million copies to date, expectations for the sequel were high. Much of the pressure for the next Gears of War installment to be a blockbuster hit -- in a year without an entry from the Halo series -- fell squarely on the 33-year-old design director from Boston.

Few people in the world of videogame design have any kind of name recognition. Bleszinski has emerged as not only the public face of his employer Epic Games, but also as a stand-in for the average hardcore gamer. Still, even the man formerly known as CliffyB understood that the franchise he sweats over needs to find ways to expand its audience. The early word on Gears 2 tantalized gamers with teases of new weapons, new gameplay modes and an altogether new level of bad-assery. But the Gears 2 team also promised a more engaging story and deeper character portrayals this time around. While gamers around the world were firing up their Lancers again, we talked to Bleszinski about pop-culture guilty pleasures, getting girlfriends in on Gears' gory action and how videogames will affect media consumption.

Crispy Gamer: What do you think has changed in the gaming landscape since the first Gears game was released?

Cliff Bleszinski: I think the landscape has continued to grow in the casual space. There are people who stopped gaming after Ms. Pac-Man, or had never played a game at all, who are coming back [to gaming] with the Wii and Rock Band. We wanted to reach out to them with interchangeable difficulty settings in the Co-op mode so that everyone can play. A guy can play as hardcore and his girlfriend can play casual, and both can feel productive at their own pace.

Crispy Gamer: You talk about the increase in casual play. What do you attribute it to?

Bleszinski: I think there are multiple reasons. I think the audience in general is growing. The average age of gamers is 33 to 34, and some of them have kids who are being raised with games. If you look at the 19-year-old college student, they just play. There's no stigma attached to [gaming] anymore; it's not just the pimply fat kid in the basement who's playing. Games are part of [mainstream] culture, and it's getting bigger and better each year. If someone starts off with Guitar Hero and one day comes in and sees someone else playing Gears, maybe they're more likely to get into it. It might be the storyline about [Gears character] Dom and his missing wife that brings in a more casual gamer who doesn't really get into the shooters in general. But, that story draws them in.

Crispy Gamer: Do you feel that there's room for experimentation in the narrative?

Bleszinski: Sure. I think there are two types of narratives in games. The first is one that's told by what you're doing -- going around a corner and jacking a car. Then there's the background narrative -- family issues and backstories for the characters. We're at the point where we can start considering these things and how to merge them to create different kinds of impact.