New York Times Q&A with Dan Houser

10
Nov
2012
By Chris | 10th Nov 2012 at 09:15 GMT in GTA V | 5 Comments

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Rockstar VP of Creative Dan Houser sat down with The New York Times for a little Q&A session recently, the article doesn't talk so much about GTA V but nonetheless is a pretty interesting read regarding how Dan works and what he and Rockstar want from their games.

The whole interview is definitely worth the read, but here's a couple of interesting bits. Asked what he wants people to get out of the games Rockstar makes:

Obviously, we want them to be entertained. We want them to be stimulated, questioned, amused, all of the other higher and lower things one gets from entertainment.

[...]

We have a vision for what we think interactive entertainment can become, and each time we get closer to realizing those ambitions.

Asked about how certain TV shows have tried to capture the feel of a city, Dan revealed that he doesn't even watch TV, preferring to avoid it for "professional reasons".

I haven’t seen “Treme.” I never even saw “The Wire.” One of my weird disciplines is that I don’t really watch a lot of those shows, if they relate to what we do. I only watched a tiny bit of “The Sopranos.” No “Boardwalk Empire.” No “Breaking Bad.” Wherever it’s too close to crime, gangster, underbelly fiction, and it’s supercontemporary, I decided, for professional reasons, I have to avoid it.

And one final tidbit on what's left to do with Grand Theft Auto V now...

We are editing, fixing, removing, replacing, adding, avidly. It’s the equivalent of, if you wrote a book, and you had two million spelling mistakes. And you had to do them by hand, in a language you didn’t understand.

Head on over to NYTimes to read the full interview. Also remember that on Monday we should have a few more online previews of GTA V which might give us a little more info, while the GI exclusive was very thorough, they didn't necessarily cover every single detail they saw. Of course the big thing you're all currently waiting for is the release of the second trailer on the 14th November, there's a countdown to that on our homepage.

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BlackListedB 10th November, 2012 @ 09:29 - Permalink

Remember one comment the Housers mentioned some time ago, they expressed that it's time for games to inspire movies, not games based around or inspired homages to film and TV, and I believe this points that out as well, it's basically the premise of a strong narrative that Rockstar have opted to follow since the PS3 and Xbox 360 came out, they wanted a more serious, grittier story in not just GTA but most all their projects, MP being as good an example as any

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TUN3R 11th November, 2012 @ 17:01 - Permalink

What a load of BS, every GTA was more or less based off a movie or several...

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BlackListedB 11th November, 2012 @ 17:23 - Permalink

In the past there was ode to or homage to TV and movies/cinema; Scarface in particular, Miami Vice as far as TV, but that's not BS in the slightest, it's the earlier days, the formative days of Rockstar North and Rockstar Games, what he's saying is that will no longer be the operational modus operandi of thinking there at Rockstar, and I liken it to how Michael Schenker of UFO and MSG or Tom Sholtz of Boston operate as musicians, both of them have said on record that they don't allow outside influences to influence their art, they don't pay attention to the Billboard charts or what's trending/trendy, or the latest roster of popular artists, that infects the actual art in a negative manner, I concur to a degree there, but I also wouldn't swear off TV and cinema! That's somewhat foolhardy

I recommend Mr. Houser check out the AMC Walking Dead series since it's one of cable's best shows at the moment, but he could always get the DVD package whenever, so.....

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Gta_Player_Gino 11th November, 2012 @ 22:50 - Permalink

Alright. It's me Gta_Player_Gino here, and I am here to tell you guys how crazy this game is going to be. If you guys happen to stumble across a few details here and there about this game then great! Fine! I have recently discovered that this game is going to be featuring a "Real Economy" and characters live their own lives. As well as a bigger map than RDR and GTA IV combined. That's big if you ask me! Plenty of area to drive around, and fly around! But long story short, the vehicles in this game are going to be insane and I'm sure the gameplay will be it. That's it, feel free to respond to me at any time, and I will most likely reply back.

Gta_Player_Gino

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BlackListedB 14th November, 2012 @ 06:40 - Permalink

That's basically what's been reported, no leaked inside info in what you stated, but let me add, The ideas you're hitting on as new improved AI are all taken from and inspired by Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption, what we have read so far indicates the AI for peds works basically the same, but making or taking GTA to the best iteration thus far, for dynamic optional Open/Virtual World events throughout the game, they sound pretty realistic on paper, but in the game, the technical aspect will limit just how real a virtual environment there actually is.

Although I think 360 and PS3 have a good life from software we've already seen for both, they still date back a half decade!!