Greg Zeschuk Interview

Eurogamer has slapped up a three-page interview that they conducted with Greg Zeschuk during E3, in which they quiz the BioWare co-founder about the progress they’re making on Star Wars: The Old Republic, why it’s unfair to compare their recent games with Baldur’s Gate, the possibility of seeing motion control and 3D support in the company’s future games, and more.

Eurogamer: Quite a few MMOs have been released in the last few years, but none of them have toppled the mighty World of Warcraft. Why do you think that is?

Greg Zeschuk: I think MMOs are actually very hard to build. They’re technically challenging. It’s a challenge just to build enough content to satisfy players. Secondarily, you can’t just come with the same game reskinned and tweaked a little bit. You have to come with something different, a different experience.

We don’t think so much about the competition as much as making a great game fans will love. You don’t have to go beat WOW. If we can capture even a part of that level of success, we’d be extremely happy. It really comes down to flawless execution.

People always say, ‘Aren’t you scared of competing?’ Well, we always compete, with everyone, all the time. We spent the last 15 years competing with ourselves after Baldur’s Gate. Everyone always compared our games with that first one, and now they’re comparing Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

…

Eurogamer: But it’s down to the likes of you to make those games… Does looking at these new technologies immediately generate ideas for you?

Greg Zeschuk: Absolutely. Not so much the motion controller options, but let’s say something to do with digital acting. So I play the shooter part of Mass Effect with a controller, then I have to do a dialogue with my hands.

Eurogamer: Or a love scene…

Greg Zeschuk: You never know! What excites me most is the high level of immersion that’s going to be available. The same goes for 3D – the level of immersion is going to increase – and we have ideas for that. From a developer’s perspective, you want to lead, but you don’t want to lead too far out in front and take a giant risk.

Mass Effect 3 – now with romantic motion control support!