Every once in a while someone asks me to give her or him some pointers on how to score and conduct interviews with game makers. Most PR folk are actually hot to talk to you about their game, how it came to be, and how it stands right now. That’s because - and that’s unlike non-creative jobs, I guess - game makers usually feel an insane amount of pride in their product and just can not wait to talk about it.
It gets easier if you’re a well read publication. In that case it doesn’t even matter if your interview style is the worst in quite some time. Softball interviews are expected - what “MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood” fabricated, however, is a whole new level of bad interview.
Interviews are your questions, their answers. Simple as that. Can’t do much wrong here, except for asking the wrong questions or not following up on cues. Jon Wood is above all this. He doesn’t just ask the questions, he answers them.
Jon’s Question:
How are you planning to address communication issues in both scenarios and open world RvR play?
When asking the question, I referenced the Battlefield series which makes use of quick-choice orders and phrases that help in communication).
Jeff’s Answer:
Jeff told me that putting in RvR Strategic Messaging or Strategic Commands is something that they’ve been thinking about. He actually told me that this idea is higher up on his list of things to do (which he told me are actually on a white board in his office) than the voice chat that we talked about previously.
I don’t think I have to count the ways this is bad style. Very bad style. But it gets better:
Jon’s Question:
Are you finding that there are a large number of players who aren’t understanding that there are types of advancement (influence, renown, etc) that go beyond simple leveling from rank to rank?
Jeff’s Answer:
By way of answering this question, Jeff told me that this, like any new game, is going to take players a while to learn. As people move through they game, they’re learning this and he expects that as the game begins to age, it will all become just natural to the players.
Jeff gave me the example of how Ranking vs. Renown Ranking plays into armor sets. This has resulted in players complaining that RvR Renown gear is too weak. When the team went to investigate this issue closely, they noticed that there was a bit of a mis-interpretation of the design.
Here’s what happened. Jon couldn’t decide between writing an article with quotes (or wasn’t capable of doing so) or publishing an interview. Here’s a tip, Jon - interviews place the interviewee first and should leave any analysis to him. You’re not a commentator, you ask questions. Articles focus on something you write about and you, your thoughts, your analysis. Mixing the two is really bad style.
And there you have it, folks. If Jon Wood can score an interview with Jeff Hickman, so can you. If he can get it published, so can you. Get cracking.
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