My Ramblings

Recently, I had the opportunity to conduct my first interview with an industry personality, I've been in the industry for nearly four years now. The interview in question was with Eric Caen, president of Interplay Entertainment about their DSiWare title Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble. The interview itself was a fantastic experience, I had a lot of fun doing it, in hindsight I may have asked some ridiculous questions or done something that was ridiculous which is probably the only negative I can draw from the experience. The team is very dedicated to the Legendary Wars franchise and with good reason, it seems like it can really work. If the game does well enough I'm personally interested in seeing how the World War I aspect plays out if they choose to explore that setting, having just finished a World War I history course I'm really interested in seeing how it will work.

There were questions I wanted to ask about the company itself but didn't, I'm fascinated with businesses in Interplay's position and their goal to return to the glory days. I'm also into the finance aspect of the gaming industry so its another reason why I'm following the company. While I have few gameplay/business ideas, from personal experience I believe the company going forward should work on the community side of things. There are people who feel burnt by Interplay for what ever reason be they fans or game developers (apparently), a good community manager can really help with extending the olive branch to both groups. On That Gaming Site, I can speak of many instances where a single action gained us a viewer/fan for life be it through Twitter, Facebook, or the site itself, engaging with the community through their joys and sorrow really means a lot to people especially when it is sincere. The problem with most PR initiatives in my opinion is they simply aren't geared towards the consumer in a way that makes them feel involved, doing this works wonders on not only your image but long term loyalty and with good reason to boot. It's not about the numbers but the experiences people gain on a day to day basis.

Getting involved can help with sales as well, I still remember a few instances where certain Twitter moments earned us some Amazon Associates commission simply by telling users of a good deal or helping them find one. Any good webmaster will tell you something a website should aim for is the ability to bring people back to a website and to keep them there for as long as possible. Further community interaction on the main site, a blog, ability to track games, add to a personal library, etc are all fantastic methods if explored properly. If Interplay is able to deal with these issues properly I think they will see much success in the long run.

Having been an industry outsider during Interplay's turmoil in 2004 I didn't know much about the Caen/Titus era. I have since then however heard much about it included some very interesting "accusations" for lack of a better term. After completing this interview and talking to Eric a few times since I can say many if not all of these are very unlikely/untrue. I haven't had a chance to talk to Herve Caen yet although from some basic research I've done about Interplay I can already tell many of these are baseless and largely started by Fallout fanboys looking for someone to blame. Regardless, Interplay's success will be enough to silence many of these critics in my opinion as no other means will.

I think that just about sums it up, my first interview was a fantastic experience and one that I will never forget. I met some very nice people in the process who are very passionate about their company and its future success. I will most likely add to this later when I'm not as tired!