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Interview #1 - An Outsider's View On rm2k Interview #1 - An Outsider's View On rm2k
By Tycho McKorley
This was my first shot at interviewing somebody. Some things went well and others didn't go as well. It was quite a learning exeperience. Essentially, my goal was to get an outsider's opinion on the possiblity of creating amateur games.
Jace Edge is a member of a Final Fantasy message board. He likes video games and he showed some interest rm2k. Tycho McKorley is the B*B staff member who conducted the interveiw.

Tycho McKorley: Tell me a bit about yourself. Tell me your interests, ect.

Jace Edge: I'm easy going, funny, and like long walks on the beach (joke).

Tycho McKorley: *laughs* And on a scale from on to ten (ten being the highest) how interested in video games would you say you are?

Jace Edge: What do you consider to be 10? Is it like every day come home play until sunrise?

Tycho McKorley: Sure.

Jace Edge: I would say about 6 or 7.

Tycho McKorley: Do you plan to pursue any sort of career related to games?

Jace Edge: Yes, if I can... Either that are marine core. Big difference huh?

Tycho McKorley: *laughes* I suppose. Now, why do you think you'd like to pursue a career in games? Is it because you admire the work done by the pros or do you just think it might be something fun to do?

Jace Edge: I think I could have made most of the games better. Like, I can think of ways a game could have been better. And, everyone usually agrees that with that change the game would have been that much better.

Tycho McKorley: could you give me an example of how you think you could make a particular game better? What sort of change to said game would you make, etc?

Jace Edge: In FFX they focused more on the way the graphics were and not enough on the story.

Jace Edge: In FFIX, I feel they brought Necron the last boss out of absolutely nowhere. They should have never had a final boss that had nothing to do with the story.

Tycho McKorley: Well that goes without saying.

Jace Edge: If Garland came back somehow... if I had time I could come up with a reason. It would have been better that way...

Tycho McKorley: So, it sounds to me that you're mainly interested in the story development side of video games, correct?

Jace Edge: In a way but you still have to have some graphics. I mean, who would play a game on PS2 with Super Nitendo graphics?

Tycho McKorley: Agreed

Tycho McKorley: Well, this leads into my next little round of questions (I promise that I'm almost done).

Jace Edge: umm I'm not done yet...

Tycho McKorley: Okay, go on for a bit and then I'll ask more questions.

Jace Edge: There is such a thing as too much story. Take Xenogears- extremely good game. However, there wasn't enough playing. You had to have great patience to beat it. The whole second disk was talking.

Tycho McKorley: *shudders*

Jace Edge: Talking about enemies that you should have fought against and not read how you fought against them.

Jace Edge: Go on

Tycho McKorley: Well, game play is important. Anyway, you're obviously have your own ideas about how certain games should have been made. How familiar are you with the amateur game creation community?

Jace Edge: Not very familiar at all I'm afraid.

Tycho McKorley: Well, the amateur game community is full of regular old gamers who decided to take the next step in their video game hobby. They have decided to create their own games. The section of the amateur community I'll be talking to you about for the rest of our time is the "rm2k community."

Jace Edge: Wish I could that. It would be badass.

Tycho McKorley: Have you heard of rm2k?

Jace Edge: No, I haven't.

Tycho McKorley: Rm2k stands for "RPG Maker 2000." It's game-creation software that allows you to create SNES-quality RPG's (approximately). What do you think of that?

Jace Edge: I'm familiar with RPG Maker on Playstation. It wasn't easy to use though...

Tycho McKorley: yeah, this is a pc-oriented system. It's a bitter better I believe. I will admit that I'm no expert on the PSX RPG Maker.

Jace Edge: Okay, good. It wasn't that it was too hard, it was too time consuming. (sound familiar guys?)

Tycho McKorley: well, creating a game by oneself is quite a task. That's what community games are for (when several people work together on one).

Jace Edge: Yes, that's good because I have great ideas for games but I'm not familiar in any way with making a game.

Tycho McKorley: Rm2k game creation isn't limited to just creating games, however. There are a ton of composers who create original music and spriters who create original sprites for games. So, you don't necessarily have to create a whole game. Do, get what I mean?

Jace Edge: That's cool. I get it. Can I tell you something?

Tycho McKorley: Yes, you may.

*pointless blabbing on both of our parts goes here*

Tycho McKorley: well, any closing remarks?

Jace Edge: I like it but if I were going to create a game I would need a team of people, right?

Tycho McKorley: Well, most games are created by a single individual. But graphics, music, and other such resources are oftentimes taken from myriads of different sites that host resources for games.

Jace Edge: Yes, that's what I meant.

Tycho McKorley: Do you have any opinions on what a community of amateur game creators would/should be like?

Jace Edge: I would have fun if given the right group of people. But if I were surrounded by like people who want to make kiddy games I would probably throw a fit.

Tycho McKorley: Well, thanks for your time Jace. I appreciate your comments.

Jace Edge: You're welcome.