Everyone"s heard of Texas tall tales, but when the crew at Mesquite-based id Software talks, it"s rarely with exaggeration -- and people listen. id CEO Todd Hollenshead, Doom 3 Lead Designer Tim Willits, and id"s Director of Business Development Marty Stratton were especially candid in our interviews for the April 2004 exclusive cover story. They didn"t flinch when asked whether the company has changed in the wake of violent video game scrutiny, how they felt about John Romero"s legacy, how Doom 3 will measure up to Halo 2, and why they were crazy enough to mess with one of the most beloved franchises in gaming history in the first place. The first half of the interview was full of inside information and the second half delivers more of the same. Read on!
GP: A lot of the media attention on game violence has fallen on id -- lawsuits were filed and dismissed and you"ve been in the crosshairs. Has all the media attention and blame changed anything about the way you guys do stuff here?
MS: No -- I would say not at all. Todd is very well versed in all of that. A significant part of his job during the lawsuits was working with our attorneys on that kind of stuff. We"re members of the ESA, and we"re very active in the ratings system -- Todd"s on the ESA committee that works with the ESRB to perfect the ratings system, to make it better, to make it more effective. To that extent, we"re as involved as any company in the industry as far as making responsible decisions about ratings and that kind of thing. But from a design perspective, we"re a company that makes action games, and that"s what our fans want. Our fans are young adults and adults, and just like any good action movie, you put yourself in the line of fire, and that"s what games are all about. I don"t think we"ve backed away or changed anything we do here on any of that. It"s good entertainment, and we deal with things like the rating system as responsibly as anybody else.