Wasteland 2 Interview

GameFront is offering an interview with Brian Fargo which focuses on Wasteland 2 and covers the usual broad range of subjects that come with it. Here’s a sampling:

Beyond artwork, are there plans to crowdsource other assets, such as voice acting and level design?

The two most likely candidates are localization and voice acting indeed. Although the voice acting would likely be done through a source like Voicebunny who specialize in working with qualified talent. I have not done a test yet so it is a bit early for me to declare that as a strategy. The level design is done and was created by my team of experts like Chris Avellone and Colin McComb so that doesn’t apply in this case. In general I embrace the concept of working with the world as much as I can and that certainly applies to smaller concepts such as logo feedback and in the more important aspect of beta testing. It’s been so rewarding to work with the crowd to make the game better at every turn.

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Beyond the games themselves, do you think it’s within the ability of game makers or the media to influence the culture surrounding our beloved hobby to make it more inclusive? If so, what can we do?

I think the real question here is whether we managed to make our medium more inclusive over the last few decades. Years ago I used to constantly be asked why we don’t make more games for girls and I always questioned what that meant. It seemed like their version of that statement included games about shopping or vanity which I found ridiculous. My assumption is that women too want to run a city, manage an army, gear up for a romp in an RPG or solve puzzle physics games. There is so much variety to choose from in gaming these days. I would say that things have improved when you look over the last 20 years, but one of the things we can do now is to avoid the offensive stereotypes.

Games have the potential to address serious issues. BioShock addressed libertarianism and Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, while Spec Ops: The Line painted video game violence in a completely different light from normal, run-of-the-mill first person shooters. Is Wasteland 2 going to approach any difficult, or even political, topics?

The main purpose of Wasteland 2 is not to tackle the big questions. It’s primarily a game about having wild and dangerous adventures in a post-apocalyptic world, and, in the tradition of the first game, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Having said that, post-apocalyptic worlds have always been great venues for satire of the contemporary world, and we can’t resist taking broad potshots at our society’s obsessions and foibles as we create the various towns and people our rangers meet along the way.

The residents of the wasteland are rebuilding society from scratch, and because they don’t know much about the past, they’re pretty much making it up as they go along. Just about every form of society is being tried out, from theocracy to meritocracy to dictatorship to democracy to the-one-with-the-biggest-gun wins. What could be more fun than poking every one of those systems with a sharp stick?