LucasArts Interview: Jim Ward

[Akeldama]

Jim Ward is President of LucasArts and Vice President of Marketing and Distribution at Lucasfilm. He began his career in advertising and was responsible for the promotion of Apple's Powerbook. Now heading LucasArts, he's responsible for bringing such franchises as Star Wars and Indiana Jones to the gaming public. In this exclusive interview, we asked Ward how LucasArts aims to succeed in the current market, where the future of gaming lies and how the company views the next generation of consoles.


I think we have great examples of great stories like Star Wars or Indiana Jones that have impacted the culture around the world. If you look at what's happening with Star Wars today, it was breaking all first day records. This is happening around the world because people have engaged in a story that transcends national walls and cultural idiosyncrasies and touches us all in a deep way. I think that can happen in gaming as well.

What we do is create an opportunity. By having LucasFilm, ILM and LucasArts all together, we are able to come up with great ideas. If we come up with a great game idea, that happens to extend beyond the game, then we have our animations division in Singapore that can create a movie out of that or a TV show. We are definitely trying to create those synergies, we don't care were the idea comes from.


You can read the whole Boomtown interview by waving your mouse-shaped lightsabre in this direction (http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=8387).

[dark_inchworm]

To hell with Star Wars games, give me Monkey Island 5 and the canned Sam & Max so I can rest in peace.

[mulligan]

To hell with Star Wars games, give me Monkey Island 5 and the canned Sam & Max so I can rest in peace.


Amen!

one could add Grim Fandango to that list, but whitout shaffer.. it wouldn't be the same, and it wouldn't sell shit.. what a pity, all the gaming world of 16 years old slipknot fans wants now its more violent gore, more hooker killing, more master chief, more madden... sighs, oh well, we had out time.

[Redline]

Given the quality of the last Monkey Island game (and being a long time fan of the series) I can honestly say I won't miss another installment.

[Cupelix]

Given the quality of the last Monkey Island game (and being a long time fan of the series) I can honestly say I won't miss another installment. Hey, to be fair, Escape had its moments. Its not the pinnacle of the series, but it maintained a great deal of the humor and style of the previous games. I'd love to see another MI game that was more in the style of Curse; lose the 3d go back to cartoons. The cutscenes in Curse were exceptionally cool.

[EGO]

LucasArts and this Jim Ward can SUCK A DICK!

Those guys haven't spit out a good game internally since Grim Fandango. The best thing they did recently was Republic Commando and then they FIRED everybody that worked on that, leaving nothing but lazy-good-for-nothing brownnosers behind.

Then, they squeeze and hamper the progress of their external developers (re: Battlefront and EP3).

LucasArts sux and now with no movie tie-ins to save them, they are dead to me... dead I say! :D

[bKangy]

Yeah, I also dream of a world where they keep making fantastic Monkey Island games, consistently create original gems like Grim Fandango and don't bother with shitty tie ins.

[Mondopest]

I think by having all three divisions together, it has only hurt their gaming products. Where are the Full Throttles, Secret of Monket Islands, Tie Fighters, Secret Weapons of he Luftwaffas, etc of our time? Lucasarts use to take risks, now they only play it sage by producing console game fluff. Even their PC games are playing it safe these days.

[Chill]

I just want Jedi Knight 3. Or at least, a spirtual successor.

[Royal Fool]

Hey Jim, thanks for firing all those people (Or forcing them to leave because of you cancelling all the game projects). Your company's former fans certainly appreciate all you've done to strengthen it.

LucasArts dropped the ball a few years back... they've ditched all their original franchises and are now leeching off the LucasFilm licenses. They've become nothing more than a licenseware publisher for Star Wars (And eventually Indiana Jones, I guess) spinoffs.

[Rommel]

Drawmij!?

Oh yeah, and there have been successors to the JK series - they just sucked.

[Oddmaker]

I want another Day of the Tenticle, Indy4, Monkey5 and a Sam and Max 2! not in 3d tho :P

[Finster]

I want another Day of the Tenticle, Indy4, Monkey5 and a Sam and Max 2! not in 3d tho :P

Abso-freaking-lutely!

And Republic Commando was very disappointing. Should've had cooperative. It was still mildly enjoyable, but it took me like a month to finish it, because it just didn't hold my interest. It wasn't compelling.

Oh, and KoTOR II? Why, when presented with an oppurtunity to interview someone in the game industry, like Jim Ward, are we not asking questions like, "What are your feelings about the way KoTOR II came to completion? Was it rushed? Why? What should've been done differently? Why wasn't Obsidian given enough time to implement the ending they had planned on?"

I'm sick of interviews with the same stupid questions. "Why is it hard to tell a story in a video game?" Cripes. It's time for game journalists to get a pair. Maybe if they started holding these people's feet to the fire, we wouldn't get games like Episode III, we'd get more KoTOR.

[bait]

I agree- Weak, softball questions to a person who leads a formerly great game company. Get a pair is right on the money.