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Steve Jackson Interview
heartless_ writes "Gamergod.com has an interview with Steve Jackson, the man behind the table-top company of the same name. SJ Games publishes, among other things, GURPS, Munchkin, Frag, Chez Geek, and Pyramid Magazine. The interview goes into Steve's opinions on the MMOG market, as well as possible involvement in the MMORPG market with his company." From the article: "GG: Does the idea of a 3D MMORPG strike you as a project you want to be a part of, and if so, in what capacity do you see yourself? SJ: (a) Heck, yes. (b)Top-end design and community work / play-test, until I learn the tools to get involved with level design. GG: Given that your claim to fame has been open ended systems, what genre of MMORPG would you most likely use to break into the industry? SJ: To nobody's surprise, I'd like it to be as open-ended as the theme allows. I think that will help get, and REALLY help keep, players."
Car Wars was such a great tabletop game. It's always dissapointed me that its transition into computer games died so early. By all rights it should have been a massive series of hit games.
Autoduel was released by Origin Systems way back in the Apple II days, and despite a bunch of bugs, was great fun. That was the only computer game that really carried the feeling of the Car Wars universe. Deadly highways where you could fight with deadly armaments or run using evasive munitions (oil, mines, spikes, etc..). Arena combat where you could get your tires shot out and your car totally disabled and you could still jump out and try to run for the exit on foot.
The whole courier, bounty, pirate system in Autoduel is the same theme that makes Elite/Privateer and other space games so great.
I really think Autoduel could have been what GTA is today if they had kept releasing games with that same open ended formula that Autoduel helped pioneer.
I wonder if Auto Assault will come close, and I wonder if SJ will be kicking himself as hard as I'd like to kick him if it does do well.