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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 31</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
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              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
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        <p align="center"><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">Mike 
          Wilson and the Glory of G.O.D.<br>
          </font><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"> 
          </font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jason &quot;<a href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <h3><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">The storm 
          subsided, and all was calm</font></b></h3>
        <h3>&nbsp;</h3>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>You left id to start ION 
          Storm with John Romero. Would you say you were more naive then about 
          what you were getting yourself involved in?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Uh... yeah. I went for one 

          reason... id had decided not to do self-publishing, and I was determined 
          to develop the g.o.d. plan, which Romero and co. supported. Within two 
          weeks of my leaving id, Eidos had changed the three-title deal to a 
          six-title deal, thus making the g.o.d. plan a LONG RANGE plan at best, 
          even if Ion delivered on time. It was a bad situation for me to be in, 
          but we were moving forward with it, trying to knock out those six titles 
          (funny in retrospect) while fleshing out Gathering of Developers. Then...uh, 
          oh... no products on time. Some owners want to cash out before they've 
          done anything (or before the world realizes that they aren't capable 
          of doing anything) and other owners don't want to fight with Eidos... 
          time to go. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Was it you who managed 
          to get ION that insane startup money from Eidos? How the heck did you 
          do that? :)</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Eidos wanted to be a player. 
          They were a two-bit new publisher formed from two failing companies, 
          and without a clue. Fortunately for them, they had Core and <b>Tomb 
          Raider</b>, which apparently was enough for a UK-based company to raise 
          bucketloads of cash. So, we had several publishers in the 'bidding-war' 
          for Romero's new company to join their roster and Eidos... uh.... won. 
          ;) Actually, they did win. Eidos is now a powerhouse publisher with 
          the strongest stock of anyone but EA and they have done a fantastic 
          job of hiring middle managers with skills. I think their marketing and 
          PR is second to none, (well, maybe one) and that they have picked up 
          some great products. (<b>Commandos</b>, <b>Final Fantasy</b> [<b>VII</b>, 
          for the PC], <b>Thief</b>). What people have to realize about Eidos 
          in this whole fiasco, is that they got what they wanted no matter what 
          happens w/ION. If 25M (and counting) is all it took them to go from 
          Domark status to Kings of Games and Breasts, that ain't bad. Kudos to 
          Eidos... I wish I had bought stock.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Would you do anything 
          differently now if you could?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nah, I'm pretty happy with 
          the way things went. I misunderstood the intentions of my partners at 
          ION, but hey... I had a fun year there and met tons of cool people and 
          got the hell out of there went things were obviously headed in the wrong 
          direction.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What's your take on ION's 
          current position? Do you expect them to stick around?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Can't understand why Eidos 
          doesn't just take them over, but then I don't know how the deal has 
          changed since I was there. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Would you ever sign ION 
          with G.O.D.? :)</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Note to the world: Warren 
          Spector's team from ION Austin is welcome. The rest of the key talent 
          there (at least when I was there) is now working at Third Law Interactive 
          on a game for us anyhow. I'm sure they have hired a lot of new talent, 
          but they seem to lose them faster than they get them. ION has served 
          as a great proving ground for all the other Dallas-based developers 
          to hire from. ;)</font></p>
        <h3>&nbsp;</h3>
        <h3><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">To G.O.D. 
          belong wisdom and power</font></b></h3>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>You left ION Storm and 
          started G.O.D. How did this come about? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've covered this for the 
          most part, but Ion basically told me I could take my g.o.d. plan (which 
          up until Oct 1997, they fully supported and funded the development of) 
          and go. They feared pissing off Eidos (and I would have too, had I been 
          hoping to sell the company to them as they were or had I known that 
          we'd ship no games in 1998) and that was my main job there. ;) Seriously, 
          the g.o.d. plan had no business at ION Storm the way things shook at, 
          and therefore, neither did I. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>I've just got to ask...the 
          name. You just like saying, "I come representing...G.O.D." or, "I'm 
          calling...for G.O.D." don't you. :)</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Other people seem to enjoy 
          it. I do think it's cool to have a name that's a joke in an industry 
          where the monkeys-in-suits (the publishers) take themselves oh-so-seriously.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Is your office *really* 
          in a church?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yep... it's actually sort 
          of coincidence, sort of NOT. ION looked at this space, Ritual looked 
          at it... it's just an amazing space in the coolest part of Dallas. Doesn't 

          really work for a development environment, but for what we do, it's 
          perfect. It's also an art gallery, which is cool.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Three titles from G.O.D. 
          (Railroad Tycoon II, Grand Theft Auto: London, Monster Truck Madness 
          64) are licensed sequels...was it a challenge acquiring these from their 
          original publishers?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We were doing <b>Railroad 
          Tycoon II</b> with PopTop back when the game was still called "Iron 
          Horse". Thankfully, just before E3 last year, PopTop managed to buy 
          the license for the name from Microprose for peanuts. I'm sure the name 
          changed raised the profile of the game, but it was the same great game 
          before then.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Monster Truck Madness 
          64</b> isn't actually a game we're publishing. It's being done by one 
          of our founding developers, Edge of Reality, and it being published 
          through our console partners at Rockstar games. Another of our founding 
          developers, Terminal Reality, did the <b>Monster Truck Madness</b> series 
          for Microsoft, so that's cool, too. The license itself was a similar 
          situation... EoR was doing a similar game anyhow, 4x4 Mud Monsters was 
          the name, and later they and Rockstar decided to license the name <b>MTM</b> 
          from Microsoft to get access to all the Bigfoot stuff and to raise the 
          profile of the release.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The <b>GTA</b> games are 
          a result of our deal with Take-Two/Rockstar...we have rights to pick 
          up our choice of their PC Titles, and they have similar rights with 
          console versions of our games. It's a cool arrangement that allows both 
          companies to focus on what they love and understand while maximizing 
          development resources and properties for the benefit of each other and 
          our developers. </font></p>
        <p>&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1">(<a href="index3.php">continued 
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    <td> 
      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Illustration &copy; 1999 Michael Krahulik. This interview is &copy; 1999 
        Jason Bergman &amp; Mike Wilson. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't try it...or we'll damn you. </font></i></p>
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