Meet the Fallout 3 devs - Mark Lampert Mark " Wolfric Tugmutton " Lampert INTRODUCTION AND FALLOUT RELATED : What ' s your job at Bethesda ? I handle all sound design and voice work for the studio ( casting , recording , editing , etc . ) , as well as interacting a bit with anyone we hire to compose the music . What prior projects have you worked on ? Prior to Fallout 3 , I did sound design and voice for Oblivion ( I came aboard here in early 2005 ) , and before this I worked for Ion Storm in Austin , Texas where I took care of all the voice needs for Deus Ex : Invisible War , as well as an assortment of voice , sound design and a little bit of music for Thief : Deadly Shadows . There have also been a small assortment of 3rd party projects here at Bethesda to which I ' ve contributed a bit of voice and sound design when I have the time to do so . What have you drawn on for inspiration in developing Fallout 3 ? Books , movies , music , etc would be fine , if you don ' t want to name any games . Fallout 1 and 2 are obvious sources though you probably already assumed this , and not surprisingly the inspiration for those games as well . . . films like Mad Max and The Road Warrior . How long have you been playing Fallout , and how would you describe your feelings towards the franchise ? I played Fallout 1 and 2 in college over a long period of time , and I recently re - played a big chunk of the second to properly refresh my memory on the basic feel and function of things . Like most of you , it ' s still one of my all - time favorite games , and I ' d have loved to see the franchise continue . I certainly didn ' t imagine at the time that I ' d be part of that effort , so it ' s very exciting . There are lots of moments where I kind of pause to enjoy the surprise that I feel when I realize that I ' m actually working on this game . I ' d hate to feel jaded about it . Considering that much of the game will probably be in a wild wasteland , do any of you spend much time hiking , camping , etc , and if so where ? I ' ve only lived here for just over two years now , so I ' m still digging around and finding places to go hiking , but there ' s a large national park not too far from where I live that I frequent . Mostly I ' ve gone there to do a little bit of field recording , but I definitely like to be outside for just about any reason at all . My favorite hiking and camping spots are in the hill country of central and west Texas , though . It ' s just my favorite climate and landscape of anywhere I ' ve lived , and my family made a lot of camping trips around there when I was younger . One of the very best was in Big Bend national park in the far western part of Texas . The part I remember the most was how utterly quiet it was when I stepped out of the family van . We lived in NE Houston at the time , and after a while you sort of take the low din of city noise for granted , and when it disappears it ' s almost like you ' re in a vacuum . Really amazing . About the only thing you could hear was the wind , and it made you suddenly very self conscious of your own voice because it carried so far and so easily . But if I can ' t get out to a more remote area like that , I ' m fine with any good patch of grass where I can lay out in the sun and completely zone out for a good while , logging some good daydreaming time . Have you played the Van Buren Alpha ? If so , what were your feelings on it ? I saw a little bit of it at the desk of one of the other devs , but I haven ' t experimented with it myself . For one thing it was completely unfinished , and working in this industry I realize how unreasonable it is to try and form some sort of final opinion about an unfinished project . I think it was cool to see where they were going with it , though I can only imagine what the real end result would have been . Games go through enormous changes , sometimes even toward the end of a development cycle . In particular , I ' d have liked to hear what new audio aspects would have been involved in the game compared to the previous releases , and it certainly wasn ' t at that point , yet , so there ' s nothing to really evaluate . Also , do you have a favourite sound / piece of music / anything from the previous Fallouts ? Some of the sounds that I like best from the first two Fallout games are simply those that you hear often which instantly remind me of the game again if I hear them now - - entering and exiting combat ( the little mechanical sound of the thingy at the bottom right of the screen ) , the player scratching his head ( for some reason that happened a lot ) . The music was great overall , but one of my favorite pieces was in Fallout 2 in the town of Redding . I thought that snippet of player piano that would fade in and out from time to time really set the mood , as well as made it feel ghostly . I know there are many funny ' audio ' stories , for example slicing melons to get some sword - hitting - flesh sound and all that sort of stuff , so go ahead , post some ! I ' ll refrain from discussing any work thus far on Fallout 3 , but as for Oblivion , there were certainly a few Foley ' d sounds that worked out nicely . One was the sound of movement in heavy armor . This was assorted pieces of metal and air conditioner duct work , all thrown together in a canvas bag and then shaken . I also like to add some element of voice components to certain sounds to make them a little more ' organic ' sometimes . When you take the sigil stone from the tower in the Oblivion realms in order to send the whole thing crashing down , you can hear my voice in the background during all the chaos . It ' s just a long , low roar that I pitched down a bit further , soaked with reverb and then mixed in at a low level so it wouldn ' t stand out too much . The best sound in Fallout is when you critical hit on a pigrat ' s skull . I have no idea how Mr Deenen made that sound , but it actually sounds like he took a paper bag , put a raw steak in it and hit it with a sledge hammer . Heh , I remember that . A lot of the critical hits were pretty visceral , and they somehow didn ' t get old . It always felt very satisfying , and you immediately knew that you ' d really dealt your enemy a powerful blow . There was one time in Fallout 2 where I was having trouble with one of the slavers , and I strolled up behind him ( we weren ' t in combat at the time ) and gave him a double - barrel shotgun blast to the back of the head . I was at point blank range and scored the critical hit , wiping him out in one shot . His buddies came after me and killed me the first time through , but it was still very satisfying . . . if not just for having the option at my disposal . As far as Foley sound using meat , I ' ve tried to avoid that so far in my career . It always seemed like really expensive way to make a sound . I do , however , want to record the sound of macaroni and cheese being stirred in a pot . Talk about ghastly . Maybe keep your ears peeled for that one . What is the one indispensable item in your office when it comes to making FO3 ? I don ' t think there ' s much in here that I don ' t absolutely need at some point or another , and about seventy - five percent of it is always in use during every day . . . programs , hardware , you name it . WORK RELATED : top 5 voices you ' d love to have in studio living or dead . ( aside from Orson Welles , William Shatner and Teddy Roosevelt ) That ' s a great question . Here are my top five picks , in no particular order : - Sam Elliot on IMDB - Helen Mirren on IMDB Stephen Russell on IMDB There are also a host of other folks that I ' ve worked with on previous projects that I ' d love to get the chance to record again at some point - - Tiffany Grant , Sue Birch , Ken Webster , Betsy Ames , Gray Haddock , Terri Brosius , Robert Graham , Laura Bailey , Christopher Sabat , and plenty more . - Are you voice editor ? - If yes do you go out and record voices ? - How about NPC dialogs ? Are you responsible for their recording sequence also ? - Does Fallout 3 feature " Mature " related voice ? Like curses , etc . in previous games ? - How do you make non - human creature voices ? For example how do you make Pigrats if there are any ? I handle all of the voice recording , editing and post production . Direction of the voice is usually done by myself and a lead designer with occasional exceptions . Recording has taken place at a studio in the area for past projects , though at this point we bring the voice actors here and recording everything under our own roof . As far as the tone of the voice and the language used , the designers will write whatever is appropriate for the situation and characters . I put together the non - human creature type sounds in really any way possible that sounds good in the end . Like most sound designers , I like to start with animal recordings whether it ' s from a library or something I can go record myself , then heavily edit and manipulate those recordings in order to create something new . I also like using my own or someone else ' s vocal recordings as part of creature sounds , too , not to mention pure sound effects and field recordings . The trickiest thing is to make the creature sound memorable in some way , or at least readily identifiable to the player once they ' re familiar with the game . It can be difficult when there are a large number of fantastical creatures for which to create sound , so I just have to spend time looking for good source material that ' s unique . One final thing for you : Is it possible for any mature game to posess extremely mild language ? Is there a limitation for this ? I see no reason why not . Getting a ' mature ' rating could apply to any number of factors other than the kind of language used , really . You probably can ' t say anything , but do you feel this too harshly limits the amount of dialogue availiable in - game ? And does it cut down on the creativity of the quest writers , who know that some of their better ideas may not be able to be implemented due to the large amount of dialogue required ? As a modder who specialises in quests for Morrowind , I know that some very simple ideas can actually take a lot of dialogue : one simple " escort these two guys here " quest actually took thirteen different lines of dialogue in order to cover all the possible outcomes of the quest , which if it was all voiced could add up to a lot of space , particularly if you made all your quests equally as complex . It ' s definitely not ideal , but nothing ever is . We work with what we ' ve got , and if small but significant improvements can be made for each new project then that ' s great . I don ' t expect to ever work on a game ever where we all look around after it ' s done and say , " That all worked out perfectly and there ' s nothing else I would want to add . " Never going to happen . We could always cram in more and more dialogue if there were no limits . Fizzbang and Co . might have more to add on this , but while there are all sorts of sticky situations that arise when we start bumping our heads up against a size budget , the writers also show off their creativity under this roof in how they work around those constraints . Same goes for the audio engine - - there are always endless features and abilities that I wish I had at my disposal when implementing sounds , but instead I find clever ways to fake this or simulate that , and the ends always justify the means if the player digs what they ' re seeing and hearing when they play the game for the first time at home . A Lamborghini isn ' t going to win you any races if you don ' t know how to shift , know what I mean ? When in the process of making a game do you start localization ? This guesstimation for the sake of translation - you have a key what a certain foreign language on overall will increase / decrease in size or it ' s real guesstimation by guts ? Maybe asking some people around the office who speak foreign languages that will be target for localization to translate some key phrases from time to time to double check ? Luckily for me , one of our producers heads up the localization effort at some fairly early point in the project . Localization is an absolutely huge task when you include all the details . Simply enormous . It ends up involving a lot of people here and overseas , in addition to QA here and overseas in each language / country involved . We estimate based on generalities and from the past experience of our own localized projects , plus those of the folks we work with . There are probably good numbers out there at this point to work with since games have been crossing borders and oceans for a while now . When you " choose " voice - actors - do you have certain voices , dialects in your mind from the beginning of do they evolve while working with the actors themselves ? I think you mentioned somewhere that you had some favorites among the actors - so I guess you have a little black book with actors already or do you go over agencies to find what you ' re looking for ? As usual , it ' s a bit of both . It ' s best , though , if you can give the voice actor a general direction in which to go and then let them take the voice and performance there . Nitpicking to get a very specific result isn ' t much fun for anyone , unless you ' re thinking " I want Actor X " and are able to cast that very person . But the more I work with folks that I ' ve recorded before , the more familiar I am with their abilities and ranges . So there are a few people I can just ' plug in ' to roles early on because I know they ' ll nail it , and if they ' re already coming in then we can experiment and try out some other ideas just in case something works out . I also go the other route you were wondering about - - I talk to the agencies and describe what I ' m after and let them send me demos , and there are voice demos direct from the actors to listen to , as well . So I ' ll hear a demo of a guy who does a deep , scratchy " good ol ' boy " kind of voice for a particular commercial , political ad or narration , and I ' ll ask him to come audition and see if we can adapt that for some character . But I ' ve also learned not to rush people through auditions and to let them take a crack at several characters some ideal I had in mind doesn ' t work out on the first go . People can sometimes surprise you with something you weren ' t expecting , so it ' s worth spending a little time trying to find it . How many hours a day do you work on the game ? Generally eight , but there are always exceptions sprinkled here and there that go anywhere from a ' little bit ' over that to ' way ' over that . When voice recording and editing is going on , my days get much longer for extended periods of time , and the last six or so months of a large project mean long days six and usually seven days a week for just about everyone on the team . I also work on the game outside of the office in terms of field recording , though I don ' t keep track of that time as I often do it sporadically . With the exception of field recording , I ' d expect this answer might cover most of the folks here , and the QA team works crazy hours through longer portions of the project . It takes an enormous amount of work to complete and ship a game . Is it just me , or is Wolfric tremendously focussed on his work ? Not that I don ' t appreciate his insight into the making of . . . There ' s ' focused on work ' and then there ' s ' has no life ' , and I probably bob around between the two quite a bit . But I ' m lucky enough to be doing something I enjoy . " When in doubt , work ! " Without giving anything away , have you encountered moments in the creation process where you were giddy at the thought of Fallout Fans seeing what you have created for the first time ? Oh yeah , fairly regularly . Most of the time it occurs when I see some new piece of art or a character that someone is working on and it gives me something to work with in terms of getting started with any corresponding sounds . I get excited about it myself because I can ' t wait to see it go into the hands of the world and level builders and see what they do with it all . New programming changes get me excited , too , because the work the coders do is often invisible but of course very far reaching . Toward the end of a game ' s development cycle when aspects of the game are being tweaked and tuned , code adjustments behind the scenes can really do wonders for a game , to say nothing of all the work they do as a whole just to keep the whole thing running smoothly in the first place . There are countless instances of seeing something in the game , getting really excited about it and thinking about what it ' ll be like for people who are coming to the came with no prior knowledge of it to experience it for the very first time . Are there moments where you have felt the opposite imagining FO Fans seeing what you have done ? Yeah , of course . I haven ' t seen anything which makes me think , " Oh , they ' ll hate that , " but only that I don ' t know which way it ' ll go . A lot of the time I ' ve found that if there ' s something standing out so much that it makes me concerned , chances are that there are already a bunch of other folks on the team who feel the same way , and it ' s either already in the process of being changed or will be soon when everyone makes their thoughts known . We are all both creators and judges the whole way . Do you find it more difficult to design sounds for certain types of games ? My experience so far is that a traditional fantasy game probably poses more challenges in terms of keeping the magic components of the game sounding fresh and not all like a synthesizer with all the keys pressed down ( though if that works , great ! ) . I tend to enjoy doing sound design for games which involve some degree of machinery or other mechanical , noisy items . There are a lot of things in our own world which serve a good raw material for those sorts of things - - recording assorted gizmos around your home or on the street , then taking them into a mutlitrack editor and having fun with all the possibilities of editing and manipulating those sounds in order to produce something unique . There ' s a lot of fun to be had . One thing I really like about a fantasy game , though , is that a lot of the sounds are often very natural - - walking through the grass , sounds of the forest with wind in the trees , rain , crickets at night ( assuming we ' re talking about an Earth - like world , I guess ) and things like that . If there ' s a good example in our world that you can get access to , it might be something as simple as going an recording it . What software do you use ? ( DAW , Samplers , etc ) What equipment ? ( favourite voice recording mik ? synths , other stuff ) My main workhorse is Steinberg Nuendo . Any recording is done in this program , and I use it for just about everything - - sound design , voice editing , mixing to video , etc . I use a lot of the WAVES plugins as well as assorted other 3rd party and individual plugins , and for softsynths and other gizmos I ' ve got a bundle from Native Instruments ( controlled with a MIDI keyboard controller ) . Quick and simple edits , batch processing and things like that are usually done in SoundForge . Hardware setup is fairly simple . Voice is usually done with our AKG C414B - XLII , ( in the past we ' ve recorded at another studio where an AKG C414 - ULS and Neumann TLM - 103 were used ) and I run this mic into a TC Electronic Gold Channel mic pre - amp . The rest of the processing that I do ' to tape ' is achieved with plugins inside Nuendo . My A / D interface is an RME Fireface 800 . For field recording I ' ve got the excellent Sound Devices 702T recorder , and a small assortment of good mics ( AT - 822 stereo , AT - 835b shotgun , Crown PZM - 30D ) . How is the work - environment ? Is it competitive or co - op ? Do the different teams talk together ? Being the sole member of the audio department , I certainly can ' t say I have any competition . In terms of other disciplines here , I end up working with just about everyone to some degree , and it ' s one of the aspects of audio that I really enjoy . There ' s already a lot of good communication here during the development process , and I notice that most of the time people only seem to do more of it as time goes on - - they can see that the end result is improved . For me , the best way to work with people is face to face . A lot of times if I ' ve been working on a single sound or aspect of the sound design for a long period of time , my ears start to really need a break . I often use that time to leave my office and stroll by the desks of some of the artists / animators to see what they ' re up to , and it ' s very common for me to find something I wasn ' t previously aware of - - something that gives me an idea , or perhaps just gives me a short heads up on a piece of art or animation that will require some kind of special audio attention . I could always just work away in my cave and wait for that asset to make its way to me , but I always get far better information by simply talking to the person that created it . It might be that I ' ll say , " That ' s great ; I ' ve already got the perfect sound cooked up for that , " or they ' ll say , " Let me just adjust this one thing here and then we can make this work better with the sound as whole . " It saves time down the line and the end product is a lot better . The same goes for spending time with other people in other areas of the team to get a quick idea of what they ' re working on or what ' s on their schedule , because the chances are always good that it ' ll involve my work in some way . Most of us each lunch here at the studio each day , and I like to float between different tables from one day to the next , because aside from getting to know people a little bit better , I get to hear about what their work involves . Even though I may not do any coding myself , it still benefits me to learn a little bit about what the different coders are doing . I honestly feel like a lot of bugs are avoided this way when we can both clear up our understanding of how some game system works ahead of time . Anyway , what was the question ? Ah , yes . . . it ' s very cooperative here , from my perspective . Seeing as you do all the audio stuff yourself , do you sometimes wish you had another person to work with so as to decrease the workload on yourself ? Was having only one guy in the audio department a budget decision or a practical one ( in terms of game development ) ? I ' m the first in - house audio engineer at this company to my knowledge , though Bethesda has been around quite a while . Other folks on the team in years past would take care of audio needs for older projects , coupled with 3rd party audio companies . I can ' t speculate as to any particular reason that there ' d only be me except that it ' s all worked out so far , so if it ain ' t broke . . . etc . In terms of sharing workload that might get out of control , we ' ve contracted with a 3rd party company a little bit in the past , so I go to them first when things are overflowing . Either that or I contact an individual when it ' s something more tedious like voice editing as that takes a long time . But as far as working by myself , the only thing I really miss is not being able to compare and contrast with colleagues . You learn a lot from others doing the same work as yourself - - they may have a better technique for something or have a trick for doing X , Y or Z , and then there ' s the virtually priceless resource of past experience . There ' s also an upside , though , and that ' s that I end up getting resourceful when in a pinch , so somewhat unknowingly I end up with my own ' bag of tricks ' for later use . How much contact do you have with the voice actors ? Do they ever improv some lines that you like and have to go back and edit the animation / text ? Only a couple slices of glass separate us when we ' re recording , so anything can be changed on - the - fly when appropriate . It ' s usually myself and the lead designer reading along in the script and directing as we go , and if the actor ad libs a line or has their own take on it that they want to try , we can decide right there whether to hang on to it or not . I always record everything , so on certain lines we may even keep an alternate take as a backup and decide to sub it back in later on , though that doesn ' t usually happen too often because of the sheer volume of work that needs to get done . The lipsync animations are generally created as part of an automated process that analyzes the audio file , so it ' s just a matter of re - generating that data if a line is changed . Piece of cake . Like . . . WORK PART II . . . DUDE ! : I know this is kind of like asking a magician to give up his tricks but what ' s the strangest process you ' ve ever had to go through to get a sound you wanted ? This is actually going to be difficult to answer without giving something away . I will say that in past games I ' ve had to get inventive when working on things as seemingly simple as footsteps sounds . For one thing , it ' s often the case that recording the sort of footwear on the surface that you want doesn ' t end up sounding the way you want it to . One pair of shoes I have ended up with a lot of leather squeak noise from where the shoelaces would rub against the shoe material , so those were no good , so I found an older pair which were fairly silent . I also found that I had to record this stuff while wearing shorts , because there was too much noise from my jeans as I walked , too . As for a suitable surface , a solid wood floor didn ' t sound good because I wanted something hollow . So I ended up using a wooden palette ( such as you ' d see a forklift using to move stacks of boxes with ) which was split in a few places and thus had a nice woody crackling sound to it when you stepped in the right places . I used that and then mixed in some extra woody kind of noises from a library , pitching down here , time stretching there , and all that sort of thing until it all sounded pretty good . For a metal footstep , I ended up walking on a piece of an I - beam and later mixing that with the sound of walking on one of the forks of a hand - operated forklift . The hand - operated forklift was a very solid metal sound , and the I - beam had a slight ring to it , so the two together worked well . Strangely enough , none of these footstep sounds ever saw the light of day as that project was canceled before it came to fruition , so they remain in my ' toolbox ' for future use either as the footsteps they were originally intended to be , or perhaps for use with another sound in some unexpected way . It ' s one of the things I enjoy about doing audio work - - the ends always justify the means , so everything is up for grabs and there really are no set rules . More recently and unrelated to any project in particular , I ' ve been experimenting with building my own contact microphones . You can find plans for this kind of stuff online , though I end up making mine a little more robust and with an XLR plug since it ' s likely to be feeding either my mixer at home or our field recorder here at work . I ' ve built the contact mic but haven ' t had the time to experiment with it other than ensuring that it works , though I have a few ideas to start with , in addition to building a second one and using the two in such a way to get a sort of stereo effect . I also want to try an extension of this and build a housing for a single contact mic where it would become a hydrophone , or mic for use underwater . If it works well , what would I use it for ? Who knows , except it might at the very least be interesting , and any decent results can always go into my sound library for future use . How would you make a sound of dust devil ? I ' d keep it very simple , actually . Mostly a ' sand on rock ' sound from the spinning dust , and then a dash of some sort of vocal - like sucking sound , like wind blowing through a window that ' s just cracked open a little bit . I don ' t think it would need to go much beyond that . Wolfric - You mentioned earlier that you worked for Ion Storm during the development of Deus Ex 2 . How was working for them , and more specifically having Spector as your big boss ? We all heard the stories of how different the Austin office was to the excesses of Dallas ( although I guess by that stage Romero was already long gone ) . Was it a cool place to get your start in the industry despite being a little more low - key ? It was really quite an opportunity for me to get my start with a studio like Ion , and like I mentioned before , I think I was really in the right place at the right time as far as getting the job . It was a pretty sizable studio when I started there , so there were quite a few people who ' d worked on big titles that I ' d played in earlier gaming days . For one thing , a lot of the Ion Austin folks were ex - Looking Glass , so that ' s a big piece of gaming history for you right there . There were also a number of people from Origin since they were also out of Austin . A lot of talent under one roof , and I was lucky to get to hang out with a lot of those people in and outside of work . Austin as a city is a particularly tight community , and I would frequently see work colleagues at various peoples ' parties . With that kind of social overlapping and close knittedness ( if that ' s a word ) , I found people very approachable . I learned an enormous amount from my two audio colleagues there , and a lot of that knowledge is still used in my work each day here . I think the tools and techniques they used were solid , so I see no reason to change them just yet , other than continuing to develop my own techniques and skills as time goes on . They were a big initial boost for me , and after that there ' s no substitute for learning by doing . Oddly enough I didn ' t see Warren Spector too often in my day - to - day work , though his office was just down the hallway . Naturally he ' d address the team at regular team meetings and interacted with the leads all the time , but my main focus there was on the voice work ( at least initially ) , and producers on the team were the ones I was most in touch with . There was , however , a month long stay in Hamburg , Germany where I was overseeing the German voice recording of the Deus Ex 2 , and by coincidence Warren was also passing through the area to handle press for the game there . So the locals from the publishers office there , Warren and myself all got to go out to dinner one evening , and it was a really good time . Though we didn ' t work together one - on - one per se , he was just as approachable and open to discussion as anyone else on the team . A really good guy . So as for a place to get my feet wet for the first time , Ion Austin was probably just about perfect as far as where I was at the time . A really good cross section of talent in a great city . Naturally I always wish I could have been there for Deus Ex ( I only got to hear stories from development ) , but that ' s the way it goes . I certainly can ' t complain about Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 being my first professional projects . What ' s your background prior to Bethesda - - what led you to sound design and game - related audio ? I apologize if this has been addressed already . . . ( I looked , really I did ! ) Very nice job incidentally , I ' m assuming you mixed the teaser . . . very very teasing ( as some have said ) . I got into music a tad early around age four ( I used to sing the chorus to Men At Work ' s " Land Down Under " in the tub , apparently ) and my parents bought one of those fancy new personal computer things around age eight , so I got my feet wet with such titles as " Mickey ' s Space Adventure " and " Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood " . A couple of years later my dad borrowed a copy of a game called " King ' s Quest " from one of his colleagues , and my older brother and I ate it up . This soon led to Space Quest , which soon led to Police Quest ( I was clearly on a quest of some sort ) , and the rest is history . So if you skip ahead a bit I was into music and had been playing guitar for a while now , and my gaming streak was in full force . At some point I started messing around with picking the games apart when I could and replacing assets . A few games allowed you to dig into their directories and replace sounds or otherwise manipulate the game . I learned how to hex edit with stats - centric games like Darklands and Jagged Alliance , and that eventually led to me getting interested in computer science for college . I studied that my first year but later transferred to a different college where they had a recording / music production 4 - year program , and so I really got to put my two big interests together in unexpected ways . My foot in the door to the game development world came when Ion Storm was looking for an audio intern to handle their voice recording needs for Deus Ex 2 . I ' d just graduated and really wanted that job even though it would only be a few months in duration , so I job hunted as much as I could but politely pestered Ion Storm for several months until it resulted in an interview and ultimately getting the gig . Like with a lot of new jobs , things moved pretty quickly there as we were busy right from the start . I started taking over directing of the voice bit by bit , later started doing small sound design tasks and helping with other projects . I was there until the studio closed down , and right around that time I found that BGS had a spot open for someone who ' d been doing exactly what I had . It was a definite case of right place at the right time . The work I do has expanded quite a bit since starting here . I do much more field and Foley experimentation than I used to , and over time I ' ve learned a lot of sound design tricks and ideas that I wouldn ' t previously have thought of . The same goes for the voice work . I ' ve just learned a great deal from doing more and more voice recording , and I think the voice actors enjoy their work even more as a result of us all being on the same page , so to speak . Naturally there are always new challenges , and I get stuck in a rut or run out of ideas just as much as the next person . I think that ' s one reason why it ' s good to check out what other folks on the team are working on , because it ' ll give me an idea for something , or perhaps I can put aside what I was working on in order to tackle a new task and then return to it later when I ' m feeling fresh again . Rinse and repeat . General question for the fancy word writing types : is there a big board in the office / writer ' s pit keeping tabs on the general amount of [ censored ] ery / [ censored ] ery / or otherwise inappropriate language being stuffed into the dialog trees ? I don ' t contribute to the writing of the dialogue myself , though I might suggest minor changes here and there during voice recording sessions . But most of the time it ' s something that the lead designer and I ( along with the voice actor ) agree on . Sometimes you have to hear the written dialog as it ' s translated through the actors to really get a feel for how it ' s going to sound , because it might come across differently from what the writer heard in his or her head at the time they wrote it . It certainly applies to profanity where it makes sense in some context but not in another , and when you hear it spoken as it ' s really going to sound in the game , we might feel as though it ' s gratuitous and doesn ' t sound natural . So the lead designer or myself might suggest an alternate line right there , or the actor might even suggest , " This would probably sound more natural if I said _ _ _ _ _ _ instead . " But this doesn ' t apply just to profanity . Sometimes a line is just difficult to say because of the choice of words and needs a quick rearrangement so that it can ' flow ' . So we re - write it on the fly without changing the meaning , intent or emotion . This kind of thing happens in the film world all the time , if not more often . A classic example that you ' ve all heard would be when Han Solo is about to go into the carbonite freeze and Leia tells Han , " I love you , " to which he replies , " I know . " Apparently the original reply was that he loves her , too , but Harrison Ford felt it wasn ' t what Han Solo would say , being the kind of character that he is . So he suggested the change to Lucas who gave it the thumbs up , and there it is . Anyway , to summarize all of this , the game ' s dialogue goes through many stages of filtering and re - writing before it ' s really considered ' finished ' . From when the designer is writing it in their cube for the first time to when it ' s re - read the next day and changed , to team reviews in a meeting room , our QA department playing the game and finding a logic problem or aesthetic change that needs to be made , to the voice recording sessions and even after that . There will always be a small amount of lines that we ' ll make changes to even in the final weeks of a project if it ' s still feasable to do so . The material that you fans hear upon playing the finished game has been discussed , listened to , re - worked and hammered over many times before it reaches your ears ! It ' s all part of the process , though , because we all take a lot of pride in the games we make , so everyone wants each and every little detail to come out just right . In an interview Ken Rolston ( lead designer for Morrowind and Oblivion ) said the following to the following question . Taking the bolded part of the answer , would you agree with that assessment of the constraints of Fully - voiced dialogue , and if so how would you think that game companies may overcome those constrains in the future ? What he said is true , but it ' s still not anything to back away from as there are ways to create a fully - voiced project where everything is good . The main thing is to organize early and always plan ahead , because recording time is a sort of point of no return in regard to the work it takes to re - do dialogue that doesn ' t work or we don ' t like , not to mention potentially costly . So you save it until the latest point that you can to avoid re - writes and re - recording . I like to cast very early , and we typically end up doing some early recording anyway ( making it necessary ) , so it ' s a good time to get a feel for where we are , how the cast works together in the game , and how everything will be on a much larger scale when we do the big recording push somewhere down the line . Fully - recorded voice does end up causing issues with disc capacity , but everybody in game development has certain limits that they need to fit into , just like the sound effects I produce for the game . I get this much space , art gets this much , animation this much , etc , so you do whatever is necessary to make it work in the end . Could be that a more efficient compression algorithm is the solution , or perhaps there are redundant lines here and there which could stand to go . There also has to be a little bit of extra space built into the whole estimate to allow for localization since translations might come out about 15 % longer across the board , or maybe the files themselves are actually a little longer because the dialogue was spoken more slowly . Who knows . Plan and estimate , plan and estimate . It ' s just one of many challenges along the way , and I think the work required to pull it off is absolutely worth it . I also don ' t think that every game out there requires it . I loved the non - verbal , modular languages that were put together for some of the non - human races and robots in KOTOR , or the purely non - verbal but still emotive deliveries in Wind Waker . It ' s not always going to make sense to do full voice in every game , but for the kind of work we do , I believe it does and it ' s worth the trouble . On a somewhat related note back when Baldur ' s Gate was released it was to memory on 5 CDs , given the limitations of space that are being found on DVD ' s do believe that multiply DVD ' s will soon be required for ( many ) games . Such as Blue Dragon apparently requiring 3 DVD ' s . Given every game throughout the history of gaming requiring more and more space ( I remember thinking how crazy it was that King ' s Quest III had three 5 . 25 " floppies , and I remember how frustrated I was when I had a 3 . 5 " double density drive and the 3 . 5 " high density disks were becoming more ubiquitous ) , I guarantee it . I don ' t know how that ' ll work with consoles , but since consoles now have their own hard drives on which to store content , the same concept probably works with those , too . Kilo , mega , giga , terra , etc , and on and on we go . The scale of things will continue to change though the relative amount of enjoyment will be the same . Always has been . For instance , as weapon ideas are fleshed out - a bolt action rifle perhaps - does Wolfric hunt down accurate wav files while Soc programs hit / miss % ' s and so forth or do you disperse and return with a ' rough ' and plan out the operation and implementation against the rest of the game ? Secondly , do you find yourself in the crunch already ? Have there been times that a detail you really thought could have been more fully fleshed out needed to be left for later tuning only to get finalized and forgotten by your lead ? Or is it all being refined constantly in a less modular fashion ? For the assorted sounds of a conventional small arms weapon , I always start with realism where I can find it , but I usually finish with something a bit more sexed up , simply because it ' s what sounds good . I also like to add extra mechanical detail to something like a gun shot here and there , giving it some extra touches in terms of the bolt / slide working with each shot , the cartridge being ejected and that sort of thing . I like those bright , precise kinds of sounds , so I like to add them in for style ' s sake . I ' ve learned to refine things I ' m not happy with as soon as I notice that I don ' t like them as they are . If I put something off until later because there are other priorities , I have to make sure that I document exactly what I wanted to change , as well as make sure I review that list later . But for me it ' s always better just to give something the attention it needs right then and there so that you can iterate , come back and have another listen with fresh ears and see if I ' m happy with it or not , yet . Having said that , being under pressure can also yield good results . I think ' crunch time ' is inevitable and inescapable in game development just as it is in any kind of work where you ' re all concerned about getting it ' right ' . There ' ll always be a weekend afternoon here and there even during regular hours where I ' ll want to come in and work on something for a few hours , because I often end up really happy with the work I do on those days when no one else is around . As far as a long crunch period , I think the initial transition is the most difficult part . Once I ' m sort of in the groove then it ' s manageable . That end - of - the - project kind of crunch can also be sort of exciting , too , because you can start to see the end in sight and there ' s a lot of new material going into the game in a hurry . Things start to really come together and you can see this beast of a game you ' ve created take its final shape . It ' s a very big silver lining . WORKING AT BETHESDA : Do you share brainstorming lunches with your co - workers , or do you flee them for lunch as often as you can ? I tend to float from group to group in our cafeteria during lunch when I ' m eating here . With one group we generally discuss games and / or our own projects here , as well as any topics that are related . With another group we don ' t talk much about games at all as that discussion revolves around personal happenings , news , politics , things going on around the area that we do outside of work ( shows at clubs , movies , restaurants , etc . ) . I also like to spend some of my lunch time just being outside in the sun when it ' s nice out . I find that I do better work when I ' ve had a little bit of time to get outside . . . you ' ve gotta take a break once in a while . It ' s something that I miss with studio sound work because you ' re usually in what feels like a very insulated environment , regardless of how the rest of the development studio is set up . It ' s just the nature of the beast . Are you in a cubicles , individual office , or an executive suite ? I ' m in an individual office since I ' m usually making a lot of noise and also needing to have a reasonably quiet place in which to do this . This is especially true during voice recording so there are no distractions for the folks on the mic , as well as nothing that could cause us to lose a great take . When you ' re reading along in the script and really listening critically for hours on end , you really get sensitive to sounds that normally wouldn ' t be a problem . It ' s funny because it doesn ' t sound like it would be , but it can be pretty tiring because you don ' t realize how much you ' re concentrating . A few of my favorite local voice actors make the sessions a bit lighter in that regard , because they always hit all the lines and the whole thing ends up being a lot more fun . I always look forward to those sessions . Editing is another reason to require a quiet , individual office as it ' s very fatiguing on both the eyes and ears , and I can guarantee no one else is going to want to listen as I work . What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you in any workplace ? I ' m a clumsy person but have somehow managed to avoid knocking over anything expensive so far , but the most embarrassing things that go on around here for me is when some aspect of the sound isn ' t working as it should in the game . There are a number of factors that can cause problems with the audio ( could be audio system code , could be an AI bug , could be a design script that ' s not working correctly , and it could definitely be the sound file in question ) , but regardless of what it is , I always feel like people are looking directly at me before anyone else . So if it ' s something that ' s really standing out like a sore thumb , I try and work with whoever I need to in order to get it fixed in a hurry before too many ears take notice . Do you believe that men and women like different games ? Do you also have a gender perspective when making games / put special effort in making a game interesting to both men and women ( if you would answer yes to the question preceding this one . . . ) ? I ' m sure there are plenty of studies about this very thing which have come to light in the last five to ten years , but yes , I do think that in general men and women go for different games . ' The Sims ' has a very significant female fanbase , I hear . I don ' t know any numbers , but I ' m willing to bet that Elder Scrolls games have had good crossover potential , too . Actually there was on girl I met at a party who was seriously into Oblivion . So , you know , there ' s one . As far as what the aspects of a game are that would attract a female audience in significant numbers , that ' s probably covered in detail in a more scientific study somewhere , but I tend to think it falls along the general lines of ' this game is about creating and building ' , and ' this game is about conquering and destruction ' , and the former is going to be more interesting to a female audience . That ' s purely my speculation , though , and this post will no doubt bring some of the ladies here out of the woodwork to tell me all about how they love to score a critical on that damn pigrat ' s head just to hear the sound . I say right on . When creating post apocalyptic characters , do you maintain good hygiene , or do you go completely method in regard to showering ? If not you , who is the most " method " at Bethesda ? Sorry mate , I ' ve never heard the term ' method ' in this context before . Guess I ' ve fallen out of favor with the Slang Lords . But I can see what you ' re getting at , and for the record I continue showering regularly while working on the games here . Nobody else would appreciate my ' methodology ' if we had to be in the same room . Being that Washington is apparently on the sea , or close to it and since I live on the seacoast too I wonder how is the sea out there ? Do you ever see it ? Is it possible to go swiming anywhere near durig the summer and did you ever try sailing ? I ' ve been to the coast very little since moving here a couple of years ago . I did go to Rehoboth , Delaware one weekend , and that was about a three or four hour drive if I recall correctly . I wasn ' t that thrilled with the water and beach there at the time , but it could be dependent on seasons or even be different as you go up or down the coast . I grew up mostly in Texas , so we made a lot of trips to various parts of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico , and there ' s some pretty nice water there when the weather is good . Texas also has a lot of excellent lakes and rivers around the Austin area . . . crystal clear and cold , excellent for tubing ( or ' toobing ' as we all insist on spelling it there ) . But I want to go back to the coast around here this summer again and spend more time checking out other beaches . By the way Wolfric . . . ever tried to spin some turntables ? Scratch a little and so on . . . ? Nothing beyond playing some records backward as a kid and being amused at the sound , then attracting my parents ' attention as I was destroying their needle and scratching up their LPs . It ' s fair to say that I don ' t " get " DJ ' ing beyond someone piloting a turntable or two and picking out what music is being played . As far as people who walk around with crates of records and consider themselves a musician , I ' d much rather see live music from an actual performer or band any day of the week . As Henry Rollins said , " You ' re a record player player ! " Has Mr . Rollins graced your recording studio for this development ? No , though that would be pretty cool . I could finally challenge him to that arm wrestling match he ' s had coming for a while now . . . and lose . that ' s a bummer . Speaking of the DC punk scene . What do you think of the new Bad Brains album ? I didn ' t even know they had a new album out , heh . Any plans for mr . Christopher Walken to join the tem ? Oh man , that would be so sweet . ( in Walkenesque ) " Ah . Good . You ' re . . . here . We ' ve . . . got a problem , you see . A . Big one . The controller chip on our water purification system . Well . It ' s given up the ghost , my friend ! It ' s dead , gone , ka - put ! Daddy wouldn ' t lie to ya , now ! " The number of cowbell references in the game would rise exponentially . " Five long years , he kept this water chip up his a - - . " About . . . TEA : Tea is available , all kinds of varieties ( green , black , decaf , full caf , etc ) . Bottled water is tough to come by but we do have a water cooler so there ' s always filtered water . I drink tea , Coke Zero and water . Not a coffee person and I get a little jittery when I have too much sugar . There is usually fresh fruit , mostly apples and bananas . Also a variety of cereals , chips , and yogurts . And ice cream ( I don ' t like ice cream much ) . No chocolate other than in ice cream . Yep , everything Lindsay said above . They really take great care of us in that cafeteria . I ' m a very big tea drinker , though I like coffee , too , at the right times . I bring my own tea just because I ' m picky about it ( almost a pun there ) . Otherwise I bounce back and forth between tea and the water cooler throughout the day . Part of it is because I love tea , and part of it is that it ' s a good way to give my eyes and ears a short break , as well as do some quick shoulder surfing with some of the other team members as I walk back to the sound studio . It ' s been a good way to keep up - to - date with where everyone is at since audio work entails some isolation . Anyway , if for some reason you want to know something about tea , you just ask . I keep China , India and Japan in business . What kind of tea do you like the most ? I ' ve always liked a iced peppermint tea . Sometimes a cup of rooibos and yerba mate or maybe chai if I need a little kick in energy . I generally don ' t like coffee unless I stayed up all night , which seems to be happening more often . Various greens and blacks , but never with anything non - tea added ( like mint ) with the one exception of chai once in a while . Favorite black teas are ceylon , assam and Russian caravan ( 50 % lapsang souchong + 50 % keemun ) . Favorite green teas are lung ching / long jing ( aka dragonwell ) , sencha , and hojicha . I love iced black tea and sometimes iced green tea . My mom constantly made a large pitcher of black tea and put it in the ' fridge , so I drank iced tea all the time growing up . I also lived in England for about the first five years of my life , so I drank a lot of black tea blends w / milk and sugar . I still prepare it that way once in a blue moon , but mostly I just prefer it as - is , just like the greens . Some good suppliers that you can order from on the web : Serendipitea , Stash Tea and Adagio Teas . Serendipitea is probably my favorite of the bunch , and Stash has the best Russian caravan blend ( they just call it ' caravan ' on their site ) . You use a press ? Used to a long time ago , but since found that I much prefer a simple , ceramic teapot w / a metal or nylon basket that can be removed . They ' re simpler , easy to clean and still look nice , plus you can find all sorts of different sizes . Regarding a French press , though , I love coarse ground coffee brewed in those things , though I rarely make it myself . There ' s a French restaurant in DC that I met some folks at for breakfast not long ago which served coffee from a press . Excellent ( of course , the coffee was good , too , which helps ) . Check out the ' Personalitea ' teapot from Adagio ' s website : http : / / www . adagio . com / teaware / index . html ? SID = e1f976d47592dd391083278ec73abe29 Great design and great price for its size . What the . . . huh . gif ? ? bowdown . gif Ohh great tea master , tell us unworthy and unclean the secrets of teah ! These are actually more common types than their names might suggest , believe it or not . Adagio also has a little book all about tea ( which they sometimes include in an order for free if you happen to order enough stuff ) which is actually one of the most straight - forward and clear pieces of information all about tea that I ' ve read - - history , types , process , things like that . People also confuse green teas with ' herbal teas ' ( which aren ' t actually tea since tea is a specific plant ) , or you ' ll see green tea bags on the shelf in the grocery that say ' green tea ' but actually have assorted other herbs thrown in there ( always check the ingredients ) which aren ' t mentioned . As one friend of mine described Tazo ' s " Zen " green tea , " It tastes like pickle water . " Well , that blend has lemongrass and something else in it , too , aside from the actual tea . They ' re not clear about what the blend actually contains , or even if it ' s a blend for that matter , and on top of it they mix it with other overly fragrant ingredients and then give it a name like " Zen " . Seriously , I enjoy black tea mostly and have tried that rooibos recently and found it really good . One thing that goes at my nerves is that people and waiters here alwas try to push me into taking milk with black tea and then I must explain to them that infact it does not go with milk at all . And they are like : but . . . wha . . . but its a black t . . . you must . . . milk . . . And then I shoo them away . But it also has its good points since then I can secretly look down on everybody . I like it either way . . . just depends on the mood , I suppose . What ' s interesting are cultural differences toward that sort of thing on a country - wide basis . Obviously the British are the perfect example of black tea drinkers who like it with milk . On the other hand , tea is an extremely common drink in Turkey , but you won ' t find anyone adding milk to it as they find the idea revolting . But I guess everyone everywhere has their preferences that they find no big deal but others find hideous because it ' s not common . Good fun . GAMING INDUSTRY , DEVELOPMENT AND OTHER GAMES RELATED : What is your favorite type of game to play ( RTS , FPS , RPG etc ) RPGs and FTPs probably top my list , but with a caveat regarding the FPSs - - I love the ' tactical shooters ' that were borne out of Tom Clancy ' s ' Rainbow Six ' series . I enjoy really looking at the area map , planning out a strategy and then having to commit to it . . . moving slowly along walls , careful room clearing techniques , and of course the constant tension that it can all be over in an instant . I also get to really absorb the environment as a result - - all the sights and sounds , or sometimes the lack of sound where you ' re really just straining to listen for an enemy ( something I always enjoyed in the Thief series ) . As far as other game ' genres ' , I ' m also a proud member of that tiny sliver of the gamer pie chart that enjoys flight simulators . I got into them around age nine or ten ( SoloFlight , anyone ? ) and continued to play them through college and into my professional working days . The only problem with these is that I really enjoy the super - technical ones , and particularly if it ' s a combat simulator that focuses around a single aircraft . I want a heavy , ring - bound manual that I can pore over , long flights between waypoints where I can noodle with the plane ' s buttons and switches while I enjoy the landscape , and then a very short but tense experience at the target . All this equates to a lot of time that I don ' t have so much of at this point , so that ' s why I ' ve gravitated to things like tactical FPSs . . . I can jump in , plan out and execute a mission and have a great time , then turn off everything and head back out the door again . Still , you ' ve gotta find time to really enjoy a long game that requires a lot of attention , so if I play a good RPG , it ' s probably the only one I ' ll focus on that year because I don ' t want to miss anything or not get to experience the whole game . What games are you looking forward to on the horizon ? I ' ve got my eye on Bioshock and GTA : IV at the moment , though both are still a good ways off . I ' m very curious to see how Bioshock is as a game and also if it ' s commercially successful , in the sense of attracting the attention of the community at large . It seems like it could either have the enormous positive critical response that System Shock 1 & 2 had in terms of atmosphere , story and RPG elements , but it also might be seen as " too out there " to reel in enough mass appeal to do well . Hard to say . But I ' m eagerly awaiting it in the meantime . As for GTA : IV , well , anyone who ' s a fan of the previous installments is anxious for this one . There are probably a handful of others that I ' m forgetting , but again , I ' d rather play just a few games all the way through than a bunch where I only have time to experience the first 25 % of the game . That ' s just me . What ' s the last game you bought ? Did you like it ? The last game I bought was either Civilization IV or GTA : San Andreas , but I can ' t remember which . They ' re obviously wildly different games , but I ' ve milked a great deal of time and enjoyment out of both . I still play GTA : SA quite a bit as it ' s one of those games like I mentioned above where I can jump in , have a blast for twenty minutes and then shut it down because there are other things I need to go do . I end up sort of making my own games up within the game because the world is so big and full of possibilities . I also played Crackdown on the 360 a hell of a lot not long after it came out . It sort of loses its appeal after you ' ve finished cleaning things up , but getting to that point provided many hours of absolute fun , so it didn ' t matter . A real blast . Other than videogames , what are your interests ? ( Board games , reading , music , etc ) I definitely read a lot , mostly non - fiction sprinkled with the occasional fictional work when I ' m ready for one , and I ' m an avid music consumer . My musical tastes are all over the map at this point , but live shows are at the top of my list . I could spend hours in a good record store . I do have a small group of folks that I get together with to play tabletop games with , and since one of them has the colossal assortment of games at his place , I just roll with whatever he and his wife are up for since there ' s no need to buy them myself . Other regular ' events ' outside of work are playing classical guitar , doodling around with music on my computer at home , and field recording . I also picked up my amateur radio license ( callsign : KB3OKS ) in the early months of this year and have been really enjoying it so far , even though operating from an apartment is less than optimal and requires some creativity . What is your stance on the opposition to sex and violence in video - games ? Limited and uninformed , I ' m afraid . My gut reaction is to leave everything in the consumer ' s hands decision - wise , but I don ' t think I ' ve actually thought it through in an unbiased manner . It ' ll go on my Thinking To - Do List , between Global Warming and Electromagnets ( I was out sick for the electricity / magnetism chapter in my college physics class , and I ' ve always regretted it . ) What is your opinion on violence and sex in video games and movies ? What do you think causes showing exploding brains in slow motion to be given an OK ( as long as they are not child brains ) , but nudity , prostitution or rape to be treatet as giant NONOs ? I ' m completely neutral on any sex and violence , because the context in which its used and how its used is what counts . A little or a lot of either is easily justified when it just plain fits the game ' s story , setting or whatever the case may be . If they ' re used gratuitously for the purpose of fighting for the spotlight , then it runs the risk of coming off as amateur and distracting to the game as a whole . As far as what gets a thumbs up or thumbs down by a ratings board , that can differ from country to country in significant ways . Personally I think the US is backward in that we allow more violence in our entertainment but nudity or sexual themes are still more taboo ( though not a bad as it used to be . . . that ' s worth keeping in mind ) . Again , though , it should at least make sense for the work in which its presented , working with all of the other parts rather than standing out by itself . It ' s not an easy answer because like everything under the sun , it ' s just not as simple as black and white . I ' m not usually a big fan of something that has gratuitous sex or violence as ends in themselves , but at the same time I think they have every right to exist . You don ' t have to watch it / play it / read it , and I certainly don ' t think the government needs to try and protect people from themselves . I ' m sure I ' ve seen movies here and there where it seemed like they were just trying too hard to be gory , and I thought , " Ok , this is really cheesy and I ' ve just lost ten dollars . " Of course a movie like ' Dead Alive ' is somehow different because it ' s so over the top , so gory that the whole thing is ridiculous and you ' re laughing the whole time . Everything is very subjective . Did I even come close to answering this question before I went off into the weeds ? I think a definitive answer will be difficult if not impossible to come by depending on who you ask . I never used bloody mess just because it gets cheesy and boring pretty soon to me . A gory death has much more effect if its sudden and rare then when every one is like that . I didn ' t choose it for the same reason . I wanted it to feel like an infrequent bonus that would still wow me rather than something that would be pretty cool the first few times and which I ' d then become desensitized to . KOTOR or NWN ? 5 . KOTOR , but I should point out that I never played NWN , either , so perhaps this answer doesn ' t really apply . Console gaming or PC gaming ? 6 . Both . No need to be exclusive . I used to be PC exclusive for a long time but I no longer care . There are excellent games on both , and if you only play one then you ' re missing something on the other . I do have preferences for certain types of games as far as which platform they ' re played on , but I ' m also more and more surprised as time goes on how developers managed to design a genre of a game that I once felt could only work on one platform to work on the other just fine . Things will always be changing . Favorite game genre other than RPG . 7 . Flight sims . I don ' t have the time to play them as I used to , but some of my favorite gaming memories were playing flight sims . It ' s a small sliver of the gaming genre pie , and I believe the fans that occupy that sliver are more rabid than you folks , no kidding . Good people . Just a question , noticing that the setting is quite similar ( post apocalyptic , 50 / 60s , . . . ) , what do you think of Bioshock ? I ' m anxious to see how it turns out and really can ' t wait to play it . It ' s a bit more far reaching in terms of style and setting , and I know next to nothing about the story , so they ' re taking a chance with it and that ' s good . I believe Eric Brosius is doing sound for this one , too , which is another reason I ' d like to play it ( he did sound design for the Thief series , System Shock and others ) . I was hoping you ' d reply Wolfric ; to me , Shalebridge Cradle is a shining beacon of level and sound design complementing each other perfectly . Did you know that Null , the designer of that level , worked on the Cradle and the Cradle alone for the development of Deadly Shadows ? It shows . That level ' s a damn labour of love , albeit twisted , demented , psychotic love . Yep , that ' s Jordan Thomas . We worked together at Ion Storm from when I was there until the day the doors were closed . I think he was the one who pointed me in the direction of Bethesda , actually , when we were all looking around . There ' s a great interview with Jordan exclusively on the Cradle from PC Gamer a few years back : http : / / gillen . cream . org / thecradle . pdf Some more good news - - last I heard , Jordan was working on Bioshock with Irrational Games in some capacity . I don ' t know if he ' s contracting or if he relocated and is full time at their studio , but he ' s got a hand in it , and that ' s probably a good thing . So it ' s he and audio man Eric Brosius both on the same project again . What PC games are you playing right now ? Still playing Civilzation IV here and there , as well as milking out every last drop of fun from GTA : San Andreas . I ' m always way behind whatever ' s come out recently , with the exception of Crackdown on the 360 where I was only about four months late . I also enjoyed playing DEFCON not too long ago - - small PC game based on the War Games SAC war room design . Extremely depressing to play as a concept , but a good way to enjoy a short game whenever you want . Which PC games are you looking forward to playing this summer ? Probably will continue to play Civ IV simply because I can start a long campaign and sit down every once in a while for a couple of hours . I find it difficult to spend time gaming like I used to as there are so many others things I either need to do or want to do in the evenings . I do more gaming in the cold months , though , whereas right now I ' d rather be outside and / or in a pool . Is the PC game genre still dying after all these years of magazines saying it ? ( No it ' s not rhetorical ) No idea , except sales numbers are definitely in the favor of consoles . No denying it . Still , developers continue to pump out PC - only games . . . Company of Heroes , Civ , probably tons of others that I ' m unaware of . There are so many games on the market right now it ' s ridiculous . There ' s just not enough time to play all of them , so I pick and choose very carefully . It ' s also interesting that the consoles out today are becoming more like small PCs . Technically they already are , of course , but there ' s more and more customization , more ability to upgrade than there was before . Online play , instant messaging , external hard drive . . . will there be a swappable video card next ? And if this continues , will there soon be another ' all - in - one ' console because people are tired of it becoming too complicated ? I think just about everything moves that way , really . I was shopping for a microwave the other day and saw a model that had a toaster built in to the front of it . Was there some need for that ? I guess someone thinks so . What camera view would you use ? IIRC those games were ISO . With a re - birth of a Syndicate game ? Probably the same , because that game centers around managing a small squad of agents . But I don ' t think it ' s absolutely required as I think someone could design it to work from any other perspective and still make it work . But I liked where they were going with the rotatable camera , building wireframes and other practical improvements in Syndicate Wars ( the sequel ) , though the first game was still my favorite by a small margin due to gameplay and general style . Crackdown was definitely inspired by Syndicate , and if it wasn ' t then I ' m surprised . That game is in 3rd person , but it makes sense because you ' re piloting a single agent the whole time . If there were some sort of sleek command system and camera switching in place , I think a Syndicate game could work like that . Worked ok for GRAW , I thought . Any thoughts on Civilization Revolution ? debut trailer / first screens / details emerging . I just heard about this the other day , actually . Very curious to see what form it takes , but even more interested in how it ' s received when released . It ' s a big bridge to cross for certain , and an enormous amount of data and detail to re - design . It ' d be great to see that game series reach an even wider audience if they pull it off . If you could be the head of Bethesda for the duration of one project and had an unlimited budget , what kind of game would be the result ? Some sort of re - invention of the Syndicate series . When playing a game with alot of text do you read it or click past to get back to the action ? If it ' s purely text , I read all of it - - don ' t want to miss important details or flavor . If it ' s text with voiceover , I turn off all subtitles so I can focus on the visuals and just listen . Try it with Oblivion or something similar . . . I think it ' s an amazing difference . You get to take in the voice as it is rather than speeding ahead and ultimately cutting off each line , and the subtle dramatic pauses and nuance in the speech have time to work their effects , as well as allowing you to look at the person you ' re speaking to and their surroundings . FAN RELATIONS RELATED : If you were walking out late at night , and met someone who said " I am the world ' s most rabid Fallout Fan . I have Google Maps . I have traveled far . Who . . . who are YOU ? " What would you say ? I ' d tell you the exact same thing , and then we could argue about who the bigger fan is , who traveled farther and all that kind of thing . It feels incredibly satisfying that you can almost feel the brains in the thick skull was splattered to ground with a huge blow that causes incredible pressure in the head . I hear there ' s a position open for a forensic investigator down at the coroner ' s office . Why don ' t you attend to forums especially to Meet The Devs ? ( complain ) I think we attend to the forums more than you know , but I tend to participate only in the " Meet the Devs " section , as that ' s the shallow end of the pool . . . the deep end being the " why Bethesda is a money - grubbing , soulless dark organization , full of incompetent monkeys bent on destroying the Fallout franchise and everything I hold dear ? " section . It ' s hard to tread water there for long Oh , also , we ' re working . In theory at least . hmm . . . i know questions about the game itself are . . . banned but what about the songs and all the voice actors ? might we please get a bit more info on those ? hmm ? Sorry , Cap ' n . Warhammer Online recently decided they would not have an online forum after seeing how poorly things have went for the WoW boards . Do you think it ' s a smart move ? I have zero input on this one as I ' ve never played a MMO of any kind . As far as having or not having a forum in general ? Well , games used to come out in years past before the internet was public and there wasn ' t a problem . We all survived and still had an excellent time , as well as building up some very fond gaming memories from those games we now consider classics . I think a gaming forum is great if there is one , and if not , so what . We all still get to play , right ? PERSONAL INFO AND PREFERENCES ABOUT THE REST OF UNIVERSE : On what kind of the street you lived as kids ? Was it somewhere in the city - just concrete around or some had luck to live somewhere with more nature ? Even if it were just parks nearby and such . We moved around quite a bit when I was growing up , but as far as the area I was in more than anywhere else , it was a large suburban area ( subdivisions within subdivisions , each with their own recognizable style whether because of house quality , style or age ) mixed with a great deal of trees and wooded areas . A lot of that has probably been built over by now , I ' d guess . Anyway , friends and I got a great deal of mileage from the woodland areas . The woods consisted primarily of tall pine trees , so in the more dense areas you had this neat effect of there being very little grass because of the lack of light and thick blanket of dead pine needles . It was easy for us to hack down the thin , small branches near the base of the trunks and create corridors of sorts through these patches of forest . So after a while we had this whole area that we knew our way through backwards and forwards , all centering around a huge crater that someone had dug out some time before - - perfect for building fires in . I don ' t know that we played any kinds of games so much as we just patrolled around with our pellet guns and backpacks of food and things to drink , making crude and disproportionate ' maps ' of the area , naming certain areas and marking them on the map , and otherwise just exploring . There was a particularly good day when we passed a pizza delivery guy on the way through a strip shopping center as we headed toward the tree line behind it , and he had four pizza boxes in his arms . He said that someone had called a bunch of pizzas to one store but that it was a prank , so he was giving them away . We took the top two pizzas and brought them back to our hang out crater area to eat . Another time in those woods I won ' t forget is when a friend an I piled into a one - man dinghy that he had in his garage . This thing was only intended to hold a single kid , really , and we were in there sitting on knees and sharing one paddle back and forth , along with our backpacks . We were slowly making our way down a long creek which eventually opened up and got wider and wider , deeper and deeper as it got closer to where it emptied into a local lake . My friend heard some sort of noise coming from under the raft and then I heard it , too . I said , " I think we ' re scraping the bottom . " Then I saw that the noise was actually a steady stream of bubbles escaping from a small tear in the bottom of the raft , so I said , " No , actually we ' ve got a leak . Let ' s head for the bank and get out . " The second I said that , the bottom of the raft completely ripped out and my friend disappeared into the water in front of me , and I sort of sank in after him . As it turned out the water was actually well over my head , so we grabbed our packs and swam back to the muddy banks . The deflated raft looked pretty pathetic floating down the water , so my friend grabbed a brick sitting in the mud and threw it at the raft in an attempt to sink it . For some reason this brick was tethered to a stake in the ground with a piece of string that he hadn ' t noticed , and it bounced right back and smacked him in the forehead . We decided it would be a good idea to just head home after that . Anyway , those were good times . I was lucky to have some woods to run around in during those years . I ' m sure it affected the kinds of games I enjoyed playing later on as I always gravitate toward the wooded areas or somewhere that I feel somewhat ' concealed ' and perhaps protected if I ' m walking around outside in a game where there might be trouble about . Anyone of the devs been ever interested in avionics / aviation ( as a major , school ) ? I have though about trying to switch to that - highly unlikely that I ' ll get in , but it will remain as hobby of mine Currently studying mechanicdesign , can ' t really describe it any better . I wanted to be a pilot when I was younger , actually . I still do , to some degree , though my eyesight is pretty poor ( I wear contacts ) , so that might be a hindrance . But I ' ve always been interested in aircraft and piloting in general , and it ' s the main reason I ' ve always liked flight sims . I annoyed my friends when watching ' Top Gun ' when I pointed out that the so - called MiG - 28 that the Soviet pilots are flying in the movie is actually the F - 5 , built by Northrop . Trivia time : Mikoyan - Gurevich ( MiG ) has a tradition of only assigning odd numbers to its aircraft models . Hence there ' s the MiG 15 , 17 , 21 , 23 , 25 , 29 , 31 and so forth . Do you have a good luck charm ? Nah . I just try and take responsibility for my own actions , keep my nose clean and otherwise try not to piss off the wrong people . It ' s about as good ' luck ' as you ' re going to get . If you bring a luck object into the picture , it ' s psychologically very easy to attribute any event to the presence or lack of that object . . . you ' re basically just making excuses . Do I like the idea of good luck charms ? Definitely , and in games I think a ' luck ' factor is a lot of fun . I like it because even if you ' re carrying some sort of object that brings you luck or your character has a great deal of it in general , it ' s still mysterious as to whether it ' s playing a part or not . I like the idea of that uncertainty and never really knowing . What is your favorite food of all time ? Pizza - - specifically something simple like a margherita pizza . No sauce , just olive oil , mozzarella , slice tomatoes and plenty of basil . It ' s the best . Once in a while I like pepperoni if it ' s good stuff , but most of the time I don ' t like meat on my pizzas . Those ' meat lovers ' pizzas that places like Pizza Hut ( a chain here in the US in case you don ' t know of this place ) like to push are the worst , unless you just really like grease . Anyway , as far as good pizza joints there are thankfully a number good spots to choose from in DC , two of which are within walking distance of my place . I give them plenty of business . Ok , serious question : What is your favorite flave of ice - cream ? Ah , that ' s an easy one : mint chocolate chip . How was the holiday ? Any aliens atacking ? ( Indenpendence day ) Holiday was great , and being in the middle of the week it confused my sense of what day it is . Today being Friday feels way too early , but then I ' m not complaining , either . I just enjoyed a combination of relaxing , working on some radio electronics stuff that I ' ve been putting together and a bit of gaming with Civ IV . Watched ' The Prestige ' that evening which was great ( big fan of Chritopher Nolan . . . it ' ll be fun seeing what he does over the years as he ' s a fairly young director ) , and later watched a little bit of the fireworks from the roof of a highrise . Best part about that wasn ' t the closer DC fireworks , but rather the almost even distribution of fireworks in the distance from all of the neighborhoods that ring the 495 beltway in this area . To the east - southeast it was almost like an unbroken line of them on the horizon . Very cool , like something out of an older videogame where the horizon is wrapping and repeating itself . Since a lot of people in the office seems to like coffee , what do you think of the Espresso ( I mean the italian coffee forumula that gives creamy , restricted , ultra black coffee ) ? It ' s great . I order it once in a while in a restaurant after dinner or at one of my favorite coffee hangouts in the DC metro area . There are a few regular espresso drinkers in this office , too . You should definetely visit Prague . The centre of the city is really beautiful to behold , and the beer is cheap and tasty ! I ' d very much like to . I ' ve been teaching myself German for a few years now and have had the chance to visit Germany and Austria on two occasions , and the next time I make it to Europe I ' d like to venture further east . A number of people have mentioned Prague in particular to me and recommended visiting . I ' ve heard the Maryland side of Great Falls National ( ? ) Park is nice , and I think it ' s not too far from Rockville . Despite meaning to get over there for a year now , I always seem to just stick with the more familiar Virginia side , so I couldn ' t tell you which is the more scenic . Great Falls is a nice place to hang out at , hike or picnic in . I recommend getting there early on weekends as it can get a bit crowded by 11am to noon . If you ' re doing the one of the more strenuous hikes , though , you ' ll have fewer folks around . Here ' s a local question for the developers : do you have any recommendations for ethnic restaurants in the general area ? A bunch of us get together once every month or so , pick an ethnic restaurant , and try it out . We ' ve had Burmese ( Myanmarese now ? ) , German , Indian , Irish , Bolivian , Turkish , Mexican . . . a few more I can ' t recall at the moment as well . I can recommend checking out : - Amma ' s ( in Georgetown in DC on M St . . . . a small veg . Indian place , upstairs ) - Faryab ( in Bethesda . . . Afghan fare ) - Dukem ( on U St . in DC . . . Ethiopian fare ) - Bangkok Garden ( in Bethesda . . . really good Thai and price is nice . . . very cheesy decor which I like ) What kind of industrial bands do you like ? My favorite band overall is probably Foetus ( Scraping Foetus off the wheel , You ' ve got Foetus on your breath , etc . ) Other favorites include Alien Sex Fiend , Pig , Chemlab , and Einstuerzende Neubauten . I second Einstürzende Neubauten . I was late discovering them , but am nonetheless glad that I did . An old friend of mine had been listening to them for a long time . Were you ever on a concert of any of the legendary rock bands ? Not legendary in the Led Zeppelin sense , but absolutely awesome in that my first show was Megadeth ( in Houston , TX at a place called the International Ballroom . . . more affectionately known as the I - Ball ) . Also probably the roughest show I ' ve been to , followed closely by a Rollins Band show . Anyway , the place was packed and everyone was having a great ol ' metal show kind of time as we were all smashed together at the front of the stage . It was really hot in that place , too , and some of the shorter members of the audience who were getting buried among everyone else were trying to fan down the cooler air toward their faces . I was almost completely dehydrated and really needed to get some water , but I didn ' t want to let go of my spot , either . A bouncer at the front of the stage was kind enough to give me a handful of ice cubes . The place really went nuts when they played ' Holy Wars ' , and I was getting smashed so hard as the crowd packed in that I was actually able to lift my feet off the ground underneath me . I remember noticing the next day that the white t - shirt I ' d worn had turned grey from all of the black t - shirts I was smashed up against the entire time . Really great show . This question is for all the Devs , though i ' d like Wolfric to especially share his thoughts since he ' s the audio guy and all : Have any of you bought or listened to the Beastie Boys ' new album " The Mix - Up " yet ( it came out today ) ? If so , what are your thoughts on it ? I picked it up and I love the album - - it has a very distinct jazz / funk style to it , but it also has hip - hop elements dispersed throughout . I ' m a big fan of The Beastie Boys , and I think this album ( which is purely instrumental , no lyrics at all ) was fantastic . Your thoughts on the matter ? I ' m not a big Beasties fan , but I ' ve always liked those guys . I did have a cassette copy of ' Licensed to Ill ' that I played like crazy when I was about six or seven years old , but that was actually the last album from them I ever bought simply because I ' m not a huge hip hop fan . The hip hop albums I do have are all stuff that friends introduced me to and struck a chord with me in some way . . . I rarely go seeking it out as I ' m usually looking for other stuff when in the record store . Some others I like are The Streets , Benjie ( German dancehall / dub ) and Deichkind ( German hip hop ) . There are probably one or two others in there that I ' m forgetting . I ' ll check out the new Beasties album , though , as it sounds interesting . They ' ve always been one of the more original and interesting groups in that genre by a long shot , in my opinion . Howdy ! Do you read magazines or newspapers ? Any web based ones ? What information sources do you prefer ? I like to read web based versions of newspapers . There are several web - based newspapers or news sites that I check in the morning and then periodically throughout the day - - BBC and Reuters for worldwide news , New York Times and sometimes MSNBC for news closer to home here in the US , and a few German news sites , too , such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung , ARD and ZDF ( television networks ) , and sometimes Der Spiegel . On the weekends I prefer to read the print edition of the New York Times . If I had the time to really digest a large part of the paper , I ' d read the print edition all the time because I find reading from the page to be far preferable to reading from a computer monitor . I end up reading the entire article , whereas when I read from the monitor I tend to only skim for details . I also like listening to different radio news programs when I can ( our local NPR station , WAMU 88 . 5 FM here in the DC area , gets lots of my attention in the mornings and after work ) . I rarely see the news on TV , simply because I think there are few news programs worth watching as opposed to reading . The BBC and PBS channels are pretty good ( BBC World , Newshour , Frontline ) , but the major domestic news programs typically give you very little news for the time you spend watching because they like to drag out the topics between long commercial breaks , and they don ' t usually go as in depth . Perhaps that was more information than you were looking for , but I definitely have opinions on this stuff . Devs , what are some of your favorites ? Any particular topics you gravitate towards on that front or is it a potpourri ? I listen to ' This American Life ' quite a bit , and there are still plenty of older episodes that I haven ' t heard , so it ' s great to just let it play at home while I do something else . Once in a while I ' ll actually catch the new episode on the weekend afternoons . I also really like ' Car Talk ' . Speaking of movies , I just rewatched my favourite film Apocalypse Now . What do the devs think of this film , and what are your favourite films in general ? Apocalypse Now is one of those few films that I can watch again and again without tiring of it . I can ' t say I watch it once a week , but perhaps once every few months , which for me is actually pretty frequent for a single film . I have a handful of others which also fall into that category of regular re - watching , and they are : - Heat ( 1995 , d . Michael Mann ) - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - The Big Lebowski - Cool Hand Luke - The Good , the Bad and the Ugly - Army of Darkness , Evil Dead 2 - The Insider - Das Boot As far as more recent stuff that I thoroughly enjoyed in the theater : - The Lives of Others ( original German title : ' Das Leben der Anderen ' ) - Wordplay - Children of Men - The Host - The Departed Clearly I ' ve missed quite a few things in between and after those , so there ' s also quite a bit on my unofficial ' to see ' list . What would you say is your favorite quote from that series ? It ' s hard for me to pick a single quote that hasn ' t been repeated to death at conventions the world over . But there are snippets here and there that always make me smile . . . the shot of the book ' A Farewell to Arms ' when Ash traps the possessed hand , Ted Raimi ' s line in ' Army of Darkness ' where he says , " You can count on my schteel ! " That ' s gotta be a favorite . I think another one I like to throw out once in a while is to hold some object up and say , " That ' s right , this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids , Michigan . " Also I think calling someone ' spinach chin ' is worthwhile . As you can probably tell , my sense of humor hangs somewhere in the realm of the stupid . The Matrix or Star Wars or LOTR ? 1 . Star Wars , then LOTR . I didn ' t care much for the first Matrix and never saw the follow - ups . MMORPG or Singleplayer RPG ? ( Single FTW ! ) 2 . I ' ve yet to play any MMOs and likely never will as I don ' t have the time . I think I ' ll always enjoy good single player games , RPG or otherwise . Your top 3 favorite movies . 3 . I can ' t give you a top three since I don ' t really rank them , but here are three very strong favorites : - - Heat - - Das Boot - - Sexy Beast Good ( Karma > 0 ) or Evil ( Karma < 0 ) 4 . Somewhat on the good side , though not extremely so . I can ' t help but be a good guy in RPGs ( I assume that ' s what we ' re talking about ) . I definitely have fun role - playing differing characters , but I always gravitate back to trying to do what I feel is ' the right thing ' . That said , I think anyone can be put in a situation to bring out their evil side no matter how good a person they are , and that ' s true in games as well . Check out some of the experiments of Philip Zimbardo , as well as the classic Stanley Milgram experiment in regard to persons of authority . Google his name and you ' ll probably find what I ' m talking about in no time . Bill Hicks or Pablo Francisco ? Bill Hicks - - there is no question . In fact , I don ' t see the two as even being comparable . I think Pablo Francisco is a real pro in what one might consider traditional stand - up , but Bill Hicks belongs to those rare group of souls who deftly dish out social commentary in a way that makes the audience think ( Lenny Bruce , George Carlin , probably David Cross , etc ) as they make you laugh . To me , that ' s a great comic . Despite the fact that everyone knows that Optimus Prime and Soundwave were the best of the best - which Transformers was your favorite ? I ' m surprised to be able to answer this , because I hadn ' t paid much attention to Transformers since watching the show on TV and having a bunch of the figures way back when . But I did have a favorite - - Dirge . He closely resembled Starscream , but his overall color scheme was much darker . But the reason I thought he was cool was the sound of his voice in the show . If I remember , it sounded like they vocoded it with a synth playing a minor chord ( how appropriate ) , and it just really grabbed my attention at the time . Thunderchild : Big Train [ censored ] rules ! Any of the devs know this show ? fans of british comedies , like big train , league of gentlemen , smith & jones , little britain , etc . ? I ' ve seen a few sketches from Big Train via YouTube and would love to see the entire episodes at some point . Some friends of mine are very much into Little Britain so I end up watching the DVDs with them from time to time , too . I lived in England for about five years when I was very young , so a lot of the comedies and sketch shows at that time stayed with me because my parents would watch them - - Monty Python ' s Flying Circus , Are You Being Served , Fawlty Towers and a few others . And why not a question : Which of Liam Neeson ' s movies would you recommend ? Rob Roy is one of my favorites . Excellent sword fights . What ' s your favorite Sci - fi novel ? I don ' t read that much sci - fi these days , but I always liked Philip K Dick ' s stuff best ( though not all of it ) . I really enjoyed Radio Free Albemuth as far as the novels , and Autofac from his short stories . Not currently . Until recently I had a roommate who had a 360 and a massive HD TV , though most of the time he was playing Oblivion ( I think he got to about 275 hours last time I checked , I kid you not ) . But I ' d bring console stuff home from work and play it on there once in a while . Anyway , I might buy a 360 at some point , but not any time soon . I ' ll probably just check stuff out here at work here and there . What ' s the specification of your computer at home ? I can barely recall as I don ' t think about it that much . . . I kind of got tired of having to think about building a new machine every three years , reconfigure everything , work out the kinks , sort out driver conflicts and all of that exciting stuff which I had more patience for when I was fourteen . Anyway , it ' s a P4 3 . 2GHz , 1GB of whatever kind of RAM , and the vid card is a 9800XT . I built this one about four years ago , so it was the bee ' s knees when I assembled it . But I ' m not playing the latest and greatest on it , and it handles all of my audio needs just fine , so I ' m not planning to build anything new or otherwise upgrade any time soon . What kind of sport do you like most ? ( I love basketball ! ) I ' ve never liked any team sports , but the one team sport that I can watch is soccer / football , mostly because the game never stops and they don ' t flood you with commercial breaks and constant , mindless commentary . I think that ' s one reason it ' s not as big in this country , because advertisers haven ' t yet found a way to cram in twenty - five minutes of commercials for every hour . But in general , I ' d much rather just do my own thing . . . weight lifting and running , swimming , scuba diving , rock climbing . . . something where it ' s either completely independent or involves a few friends . Which graphic card brand do you prefer ? ( of all time ) It seems like the ' crown ' has changed heads a few times , so I ' m not going to swear loyalty to any particular brand . I ' d prefer the one that ' s not only powerful , but isn ' t the size of a 5 . 25 " drive . The size , power requirements and heat output of those things is getting ridiculous , and consoles aren ' t free of that problem , either , as they use a lot of the same architecture . I watched a video the other day of folks building their PCs in aquariums filled will mineral oil for the sake of heat dissipation . Have you been in the army before ? No , though I actually get that question a few times a year since I sport the hair - do and happen to own a few olive green shirts . Maybe I secretly hope to be in the Army one day or something and just don ' t know it . If I were to join any service , I ' d take whatever path would put me at the controls of a jet aircraft . Being a big flight sim fan , I ' ve got this ego trip going where I ' m convinced that I could fly and safely land any plane where the pilot suddenly nodded off , got locked in the bathroom or whatever else . I tell my girlfriend that when we get on a plane , too , just because it always makes her laugh . " I could land this thing in an emergency , you know . " Not only that , but there ' s a guy out there I used to hang out with in the 7th grade who to this day still owes me one dollar because he bet me that I couldn ' t land the space shuttle in the simulator at NASA in Houston , TX . Well , I landed that thing safe and sound and the virtual astronauts aboard walked away happy that day . He , on the other hand , performed some sort of panicky and out of control areal ballet before crashing the shuttle near the base of the control tower ( so at least he was heading in the general direction of the runway , I guess you could argue ) . I never got that dollar . . . How many cups / pots of coffee do you drink on an average work day ? Four to six cups of tea , I guess , though not so much in the Summer months as I switch to ice water . I hit the espresso machine now and again . And who has a Trabant ? I don ' t think anyone here does , but a friend of mine who grew up in the city of Rostock in [ former East ] Germany had a ' Trabbi ' with her family when she was younger . The Trabant is seen briefly in a really good film about the fall of the Wall and subsequent reunification called " Goodbye , Lenin ! " What is your favorite drinking - game ? Can ' t say that I ' ve ever had one , really . Who ' s the worlds hottest actress ? Franka Potente . If you had to choose a profession that didn ' t involve computers , what would it be ? Travel / nature writer , maybe doing outdoor field recording at the same time in some capacity . What ' s your special animals ? Do you mean a favorite ? I ' m a ' dog person ' all the way . We always had a dog when I was growing up , and I can ' t wait for the day when I have a house and can have a dog again . For now I have to visit and play with other peoples ' . Do you read any of Bill Bryson ' s stuff ? I read Notes from a Small Island and A Short History of Nearly Everything , both of which were great . I ' ve re - read A Short History of Everything a couple of times now as it ' s my favorite of his . I haven ' t read his others , so there ' s lots for me to dig into if I can ever get to those books in my queue .