Warren Spector Interviews Every-Bloody-One
EDIT: Site is 403ed. Comments thread is now a list of who got what and what to do with 'em.
Wow. This appears to be the motherlode. If you read our Warren Spector interview last month, you'll have probably been excited by the section where he describes interviewing twelve gaming luminaries as part of his University of Texas Master Class in Video Games and Digital Media. Talking to everyone from Richard Garriott to Blizzard's Mike Morhaime to Id's Tim Willits, in sessions you'd want to be a fly on the wall for. And now you can, as in a bandwidth-destroying move, the University of Texas has posted all thirteen lectures.
Get them now before the internet collapses.
(I'm not even joking. I was tempted to not blog it until I'd downloaded them all, as a quick technorati search reveals only Primotech and Spector's blog has actually publicised them so far. But I do this thing for you, yes, you. JUST YOU.)
This is what he said about these lectures in our interview...
"I’m teaching a course at the university of Texas, where I’ve been inviting - well - gaming luminaries to talk to me for three hours, from the perspective of, “Hey - I’ve known you for 20 years, don’t try to con me and let’s talk about the stuff that typically doesn’t get talked about.” It’s part of an oral history project - because we are all still alive. Well, not all of us - Dani Bunten’s gone and a couple of others. But we’re getting to the point where the pioneers are not going to be here forever. We need to get it recorded for future generations before it’s lost, in the same way that lots of early film history is lost. Gone. Never known. I don’t want that to happen to us, as I really believe that videogames are the medium of the 21st century, in the same way that movies and TV were the medium of the 20th century. We have to preserve our history before it’s gone."
I couldn't agree more, really. Spector also provides a watching order, if you're interested in doing it chronologically...
- 1. September 10, 2007: Warren Spector (Intro Lecture)
- 2. September 17, 2007: Patricia York (HR Director, Disney Interactive Studios)
- 3. September 24, 2007: Harvey Smith (then Creative Director, Midway Austin)
- 4. October 1, 2007: Hal Barwood (Game Designer, Screenwriter par excellence)
- 5. October 8, 2007: Matthew Bellows (GM, Floodgate Entertainment)
- 6. October 15, 2007: Marc LeBlanc (Designer/Programmer, Mind Control Software)
- 7. October 22, 2007: Mike Morhaime (President, Blizzard)
- 8. October 29, 2007: Tim Willits (Lead Designer, id Software)
- 9. November 5, 2007: Seamus Blackley (Talent Agent, Creative Artists Agency - also, “Father of the Xbox”)
- 10. November 12, 2007: Paul Weaver (Director of Development, Junction Point Studios)
- 11. November 19, 2007: Gordon Walton (Co-Studio Director, Bioware Austin)
- 12. November 26, 2007: Richard Garriott (Creative Guy whose title I don’t actually know, NC Soft)
- 13. December 3, 2007: Richard Hilleman (Guy With No Title - and proud of it - at Electronic Arts)
Only downloaded Spector's intro so far and watched a fragment. I sense I'll return. This actually feels kinda important.