Steve Jackson Interview

[fernsho]

From a recent interview at GamerGod.com (http://www.gamergod.com/article.php?article_id=3253), it seems as though the MMO business may get one of the pen and paper industry's long time heavy hitters in the mix of things. Steve Jackson, creator of the GURPS, or Generic Universal Role Playing System, is looking to break into the biz with a few ideas of his own. From the interview:

New projects are too derivative of the Last Big Hit. There's very little originality. Second: Too many games are aimed at the lowest common denominator of player, which means that's what they get, and the more mature players are driven away. Third, as I said at the rant: the industry standard for documentation is miserably bad.

[Rirath]

"In the entire world there is at least one man with vision enough to take aim at the big dogs"

"Steve is the man who can bring the entire world of MMO’s crashing down upon itself in an onslaught of plain old common sense gaming designed for the maximum experience of the players themselves. "

Seriously... I can only take so much of this stuff. I have to admit I know nothing about him, but I gather so far he hasn't made a videogame, and he answers "puzzle pirates" to "do you currently play an MMORPGs".

Someone tell me when there's results.

[fitbabits]

For just a second I thought it was the Steve Jackson (of Ian Livingstone/Choose Your Own Adventure fame). I was wrong. :(

[frederec]

I love a lot of Steve Jackson games (having first played Illuminati years ago, and the various Munchkin games more recently). But I must admit to being very apprehensive about a video game coming from them.

[Librum]

They tried to get invovled with the original Fallout series but, from what I heard, Evil Stevie's ego got in the way of it and so they just went with their own in-house system. I've always been a big fan of GURPS, but there's only so far 'sticking it to the man' will get you in game design.

[agentgray]

Remember when they were "raided"? Goodtimes.

[Worldcrafter]

Seriously... I can only take so much of this stuff. I have to admit I know nothing about him, but I gather so far he hasn't made a videogame, and he answers "puzzle pirates" to "do you currently play an MMORPGs".

Someone tell me when there's results.

If you read the article, he says he hasn't made a video game, but would like to. And just to be clear, Puzzle Pirates is a valid answer for 'Do you play an MMO?' Just because it's 2D, and combat is replaced with puzzles, doesn't change the fact that it's an online universe where you role play with others.

I have no idea how Steve Jackson's ideas would translate into a video game, but Munchkin is one of my favorite card games to play with friends. Perhaps he can bring some new ideas to the genre. I'd like to see where this ends up.

[Bone]

Heathens! Steve Jackson made Car Wars, a pen n' paper RPG which led to the classic videogame "Autoduel", which, if made into a MMORPG universe would smash every one of your weak Elf and Orc RPGs in one fell swoop.

Autoduel was like an MMORPG without the "MO", in that it was the first massive RPG on a computer. For its time, it was groundbreaking and I personally lost hundreds of hours to it.

[Heretic Machine]

Steve Jackson Games is a great company! I can't tell you how much I enjoy a late-night Munchkin game in the dorms. Besides that, there is an official Discworld suppliment for GURPS! D-I-S-C-W-O-R-L-D!

[frederec]

The best thing about Steve Jackson is I got my MOM playing Ninja Burger. It's gone so far that she's taken it to school and had her elementary students play it. She loves it. And she's in her mid-fifties.

[mkelehan]

If the Illuminati guy wants to make a game, I'm more than willing to try it.

[thegameguru]

SJ is a good guy... he hasnt simply whored out his ip's on crap games to make a buck... he's holding out for the right publisher, the right team and the right tech.

Afterall a truely open-ended Autoduel based world where there are few "rails" and both complete FP and Driving engines is something to hold out for.

[Nite_Moogle]

Steve Jackson + Richard Garriott please

[GrinR]

For just a second I thought it was the Steve Jackson (of Ian Livingstone/Choose Your Own Adventure fame). I was wrong. :(

Holy shit, I was about to correct you and instead schooled myself on the history of the Steve Jacksons! WOW! I always thought they were the same person!

Man I loved the Sorcery series. Those books were awesome.

[PIPBoy3000]

I have fond memories of playing Ogre and GEV with my dad when I was a kid. His latest interview does sound a bit odd and uneducated in the way of the modern gaming industry, but I must extend my thanks to him for those good days of yore.

Plus I played Car Wars into the ground. That game was great, though I'm not sure how well it would do in real time. And I'm not sure how well a turn-based game would work as a MMORPG. Fights were over in a few seconds real-time, as I recall. Most of the fun was building your car.

[Bone]

Like I said, Autoduel already took Car Wars into real time with amazing results, as far back as 1986 if I remember correctly. Building your car WAS a lot of the fun, but so was surviving a marathon cross-country trip across the anarchic wasteland with your car and courier packages intact.

[PIPBoy3000]

True, and I remember loving Autoduel at the time. It worked fairly well, though I suspect the underlying rules had been tweaked. I think it's been about fifteen years since I've played it, so I'm a bit fuzzy.

I ran across Mexican Motor Mafia (http://www.scienceoftomorrow.com/mmm_main.htm) and wondered if it might bring back that nostalgia. Haven't played it yet.

[Jetherik]

I loved The Fanatsy Trip, and then loved GURPS, and all of the other Steve Jackson games. I remember spending hours designing characters - that was the fun part and kind of miss that in the computer games. Give me books, let me figure out my character, then let me play the character on the computer. IF he ever does a MMO, I hope it is based on the GURPS system or something like it, where it is skill based and my character will be quite different from everyone else.

[Bone]

Damn, Mexican Motor Mafia seems to have a lot of the same elements as Autoduel- I need to check that out! The top-down view was great, I remember having one good wheel and trying to beat the last guy in an arena battle as my car careened out of control. You wouldn't be able to recreate that in 1st or 3rd person, I don't think.

I agree, I spent more time making characters (and then drawing them for myself and my friends) than I did playing RPGs back then. With the exception of Battletech- but before Mechwarrior came along, there wasn't much role in the playing, just shooting the hell out of your enemies. Still, there was a lot of art in designing the perfect mech, and that would take hours too :)

[nonchalance]

Holy shit, I was about to correct you and instead schooled myself on the history of the Steve Jacksons! WOW! I always thought they were the same person!

Man I loved the Sorcery series. Those books were awesome.

Wow.
Me too. That's crazy.

(the two SJs, I mean)

[Spigot]

I thought they WERE the same Steve Jackson.

Man... now I'm confused... One of the bridges between my childhood and adulthood has now crumbled like the Golden Gate Bridge in the X-Men 3 trailer...

[BigJonno]

British Steve Jackson: Fighting Fantasy game books, Games Workshop (Warhammer etc) Now works in the videogames industry, if I remember correctly.

American Steve Jackson: Steve Jackson Games, GURPS, Car Wars, Munchkin etc.

Used to confuse me too.