Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Just before Christmas it was announced that EA’s Man In Charge Of The Sims, Rod Humble, had upped sticks and moved to the peculiar worlds of Second Life. Fascinated by this decision, we tracked him down to a tower made out of penises, sat on a throne of eyeballs that sing copyrighted Disney tunes, and asked him some questions. (Please note, while Rod Humble does live in a tower made of penises and sits on a throne of eyeballs that sing copyrighted Disney tunes, this is in no way reflective of his activities within the world of Second Life, nor his work at Linden Labs.) He tells us about why he made the move, ways to get around the perceived inaccessibility of Second Life, and the plans to roll out new tech that will make the world look “dramatically different”.

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Rod Humble, you might recall, has been at the controls of EA’s The Sims projects for the past few years. But no more. Linden Lab have just issued a statement, full of comments about “growth” and “exciting opportunities”, saying that Humble (pictured in his previous state) is taking over as CEO. Not much more than that at the moment, but this is the first thing Linden has done for a while that has made me sit up and take notice. I’ll be intrigued to find out more. Maybe you’ll tell us more, eh Rod?

EA’s Rod Humble, as we well know, likes to turn his hand to artistic expression through games. The first of these was The Marriage, which attempted to express something of the nature of a relationship through simple abstract shape and movement. Brett Douville has responded, some years later, with My Divorce.

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During EA’s E3 press conference last night there was one moment that was by far the most extraordinary of the evening. Rod Humble, the man in charge of the Sims, came out and began to lecture on free will. The corporate reason for this was the announcement that The Sims 3 is to come out on consoles this Autumn – not something we need to concern ourselves with, unless the changes and improvements of the console version are not also updated into the PC version. But that’s a concern for another time. Because as far as we’re concerned, this was a glorious moment of sunshine amongst the usual pomp and explosions of a gaming press junket. You can watch it below.

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In a collision of appropriateness, Mr Sims, Rod Humble, contacted us to let us know his latest art game is partly inspired by cave paintings. Which is also to say, Rod Humble has a new art game, joining The Marriage and Stars Over Half Moon Bay. It’s called Last Thoughts Of The Aurochs. Rod describes it himself as “slight”, made as he continues to work on the as-yet unreleased Perfect Distance. Oh, and presumably works on the Sims too, that being his job and all.

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Alec suggested we do Gaming Made Me – ooh – last Friday? Being RPS, we only got around to working out anything on Monday morning. It takes until Tuesday to realise how special it feels, and we should pursue it. Also, we realise that since there’s only four of us, it totally means we’re lacking a post for Friday. So we quickly drop a mail to a number of RPS contacts in hope that some of them could say something by Friday. And some of them totally did. In fact, some said so much we’re extending the run of articles until at least Monday. But here’s a punchier panel, where developers like Soren Jonson, Paul Barnett, Rod Humble and Erik Wolpaw and journalists like Tom “Tom Bramwell” Bramwell and Quinns talk about their formative games. And, of course, more if any devs care to write in and share, do so.

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Well, this is a pleasant surprise. With EA’s embracing of online-activation culture, you’d have expected to see it turn up in Sims 3. But it’s not to be, as made clear by an announcement by Ruling-Sims-Monarch Rod Humble. “The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed,” says Rod Humble, “We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.” While fans of freedom will be pleased, I was personally hoping for some DRM so prescriptive that it requires one of the developers to be standing behind you, silently watching, for the game to boot up. Man!

In a slightly more controlled frame of mind, after the sweary action below, Mr Sims, Rod Humble, of course provided us with a space-themed game last year. Stars Over Half Moon Bay is an altogether far more sedate and serene setting, focusing eyes on the stars, and moods on the chilled.

If you’ve played Humble’s previous game, The Marriage, you’ll know that his private game development doesn’t bear much in common with the day job. While both could be described as “obscure”, Stars is possibly a lot more accessible than Marriage, with a more immediately identifiable means of interaction. Explaining the way the game works goes against the ethos of Humble’s design, so let’s leave it with saying that you’re playing with the stars, first dancing with them, then rescuing them, and finally creating with them. Also, it has the loveliest name of all games ever.