Meet the Fallout 3 devs - Jonah Lobe Jonah " KamikazeKangaroo " Lobe INTRODUCTION AND FALLOUT RELATED : Who are you ? Hey , my name is Jonah Lobe and I am a character artist working here at Bethesda . I ' ll be working on creatures . . . I ' ll try not to mangle any old favorites you might have . I don ' t have too much say about the actual concept artwork , since I ' m pretty much a grunt here , but I like giving my own personal twists . To the questions . . . What ’ s your job at Bethesda ? Guess I answered this . Well How is Fallout going ? Is it developing as how you imagined and planned in the beginning ? What ' s Fallout ? Ohhhh you mean the slight Oblivion mod we ' re making . You ' ve heard of it ? It ' s going great ! You ' re gonna love it , even more than horse armor ! ! Name your worst fear about Fallout 3 ? That I ' ll got shot by a particularly enthusiastic fan of the franchise , just for working at Bethsoft . Which one is better in your opinion : Fallout 3 or Oblivion ( you can PM me this xDD ) Hmm I loved Oblivion , but the way things are shaping up , I ' m gonna have to go with F3 . What is stronger - in your opinion ofcourse - a Deathclaw or a BoS dude ? Oh , a Deathclaw . I got a very , very special , scratch - proof place in my heart for those big guys . If you were allowed to put yourself as a char in fallout 3 . . ofcourse saying nothing about the game itself . . what kind of person or thing would you want to be ? I ' d be a Deathclaw . I ' d divide my time between wandering the wastes , decapitating people and meditating on how [ censored ] I am . Will we be able to push mutated cows around , aka brahmin tipping ? The Brahmin - tipping minigame has been in the works for the past 4 years actually , but we ' re having trouble getting the physics just right . I can ' t even count how many times I ' ve done field research on the matter . In the past week . Are you able to play Fallout 3 ? Oh yeah , definitely . I bounce into the game a couple of times a day to check out my work in - game . What is the worst point of Fallout 1 in means of gameplay mechanics for you ? That ' s like saying " what ' s the worst part about God ? " Which kind of quests do you find interesting in Fallout 1 - 2 ? Well combat was so graphic in that game , I couldn ' t NOT like the bounty hunter - esque ones . What previous projects have you worked on at Bethesda and elsewhere ? Previous projects . . . none , really . I came straight from an art major at a college in upstate NY , came back down to DC ( where I ' m from ) , worked at home to brush up on my computer animation skills ( before that I was a pen - and - ink artist ) , and eventually - after applying to Bethesda three times over two years - managed to land an interview and bum - rush my way in . How long have you been playing Fallout , and how would you describe your feelings towards the franchise ? It ' s been a while since I ' ve played Fallout , but God what a game . I rarely think that excessive gore and violence are great things - there ' s enough of that in the world - man , it really had it ' s place , and the game probably would have been far lamer if they hadn ' t executed it the way they did . If you were magically teleported in a world that is exactly like the world Fallout 1 & 2 depict what would be the FIRST thing you ' d do ? In all honesty ? I ' d probably find the nearest vault , make them let me in , and spend the rest of my days enjoying clean water and dental hygiene . 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 . As for inspiration . . . why , the original fallouts , of course ! Well , actually , since I ' m not any kind of dev and I ' m just a lowly artist . . . I ' d have to say other artists are my personal , constant inspiration . I recognize that I might not be answering this question quite the way you ' d like , but I ' m a creature - creator , so I figured I ' d answer your question from that angle . CGtalk , ZBrushCentral , 3DTotal , Conceptart . org . . . these computer art websites constantly supply me with ideas . I guess when I create a creature , I try to concentrate most on personality . Is the creature constantly angry , silently predatory , mindlessly rabid , cold and calculating . . . or is it just an animal , like any other animal ? I try to have its character traits reflected in its appearance , and not just it ' s face . . . I concentrate on proportions , coloring , equipment ( claws etc ) . I also constantly divorce myself from the idea that this creature exists just to eviscerate the player . . . I want to be able to picture this thing doing it ' s thing on a daily basis . . . Since we ' re talking Fallout , I remember playing the game a long time ago and wondering what Deathclaws did in the wild , away from humans ? Did radscorpions stay motionless in their cooler caves , their massive claws tucked in tight while their soft , pale brood squirmed on their backs ? What was it like being a supermutant living with other supermutants ? I mean , those [ censored ] ers weren ' t evil , even if they always wanted me dead . Yeah , I think of this kind of thing a lot . I should probably stop talking now . I want to start by asking a question of the Dev . Crew . Something I haven ' t really seen answered here , even in Todd ' s moving speech . That question is this : Many of the TES : fans felt it a depature from the norm they had seen . Many Fallout fans feel that F3 is going to be , to quote one of my readers , " the mentally handicapped sibling " of the Fallout Franchise . I ' m pretty sure you guys know all of that . I also know that , Beth , as a company , is going to take the franchise in the route they thing best . Now my personal stake in this is different . I ' m a fan here , not just an outside set of eye ' s like I am with so many other games . While there are many questions , I think i ' ll just pose my most important one ' s now , and see how it goes . Let me preface this by saying that I joined the Bethesda crew a few months before Oblivion was released , so I only got to playtest it for a while before they put me to work making monsters . On the one hand I was floored by the graphics , recorded audio , all the new gimmicky things Oblivion introduced to the TES series . I was also immediately addicted to the gameplay , I was impressed with the game mechanics , and I thought it " felt " fantastic . On the other hand , visually and conceptually I felt let down , since I thought that Morrowind was one of the most visually creative games I ' d ever seen . Here was a concrete world , much like our own , but with art , architecture , clothing and culture that was utterly alien . I was entranced completely , and everything felt truly impressive and realistic . Oblivion didn ' t do it for me . In terms of graphics and gameplay , it was farrrr superior . The vision was what was lacking , in my mind . Of course , part of this had to do with the different setting within Cyrodil , but still . However , in no way do I think this is indicative of where we ' re going as a series . . . I think perhaps we got so wrapped up in making it truly FUN that that became somewhat of a priority ? I could go on for a while , but let me get to the questions . 1 . What is your " Vision " for F3 ? By that I understand the " Best we can make it " . But at this point what are you shooting for ? Classic Fallout ? Or will this be a new vision under the same franchise ? 1 . I ' m just a lowly artist , but for my own part , I want the same look and feel of the creatures . . . just more realistic . In terms of overall game . . . I think we are doing our best to capture the spirit of Fallout . That ' s why we purchased the IP , not just make our own game . . . we ' re in love with Fallout . 2 . How much freedom are you shooting for as far as dialog options , quests , factions , feats , stats , ect . go ? 2 . As much freedom as possible , of course . 3 . Do you take a " Fan - first " Perspective to development ? Meaning , are you fans of Fallout , who now get to work on it ? 3 . Absolutely . It ' s a lot of fun , it ' s a lot of pressure , and there ' s a lot of pride when something new gets added that is just SOOOO very Fallout - appropriate . Anything involving nasty laughter , a disturbed , stomach - churning " ohhhhhh . . . " , to shocked silence . . . yeah , that ' s Fallout for me . 4 . How shocked are you that I , as a Vault Dweller , am currently writeing to you from the future ? 4 . I ' m only shocked that you ' ve made it that far . Am I still alive ? 5 . In all reality , everyone knows that Beth . will probably assemble the finest team possible to put this game togeather . Do you ever sit in a round - table room , dress in medievel garb , and discuss spreading the holy word to the heathens ? 5 . Of course we do . The problem is , everyone took all the good garb , so I ' ve got to wear the retarded sheep outfit , and a cow - bell . That cow - bell gets annoying , I tell ya . 6 . What is going to be more important to you for F3 ? Freedom of choice , or the over - all story ? 6 . I ' m gonna be a douche - bag here and say both . Yeah , I know I just ruined that game , but hey . Although I will say this . . . I think the main story in Oblivion could ' ve gotten amped up a bit , since ultimately you could complete the main quest at your leisure . . . which is fine usually , but in a " demons - are - invading - through - rapidly - spreading - warp - gates " kind of story , you ' d imagine there ' d be a certain sense of urgency . I think we learned a lot from Oblivion , and I believe that a lot of the criticism we got - particularly in the forums , but like someone said earlier ( Fizzbang ? ) , mainly from ourselves - is being addressed very consciously . Ok I ' ve got to get back to monstering , I ' ve spent way too much time on this post . . ! What gets you in the ' zone ' to create / design the many beasts that you do ? To get in the zone ? My iTunes and a whole host of high - resolution pictures of creatures - elephants , blind snakes , tiger beetles , horseshoe crabs , iguanas , dog ' s with mange - generally do the trick . What ' s your fav medium ? Outside of 3D work , I love pen - and - ink illustration ( I want to be this guy ) , and I ' ve just started to teach myself how to paint digitally . What kind of education do you devs have and has it in anyway helped you as a game developer ? I graduated from Skidmore College in upstate NY , with an art degree . As an artist , it definitely helped in refining certain techniques . . . but in terms of computer animation , after I graduated I lived at my mom ' s house for 6 months trying to teach myself more advanced modeling / texturing / rendering techniques that would get me a job . Lo and behold , it worked ! As cheesy as it sounds , this has definitely shown me that whatever your goal is , achieving it is just a matter of sweat . And I can get very sweaty . . . Ok , yeah , next question . Also , I wanted to answer one more question someone had about what tools the artists use . We use Max and Photoshop primarily , and at least for me , since I do lots of character artwork , I ' m big into ZBrush , so I use a Wacom tablet for that . Which I ' m using right this moment , actually , so I should get back to that . It ' s been a pleasure ! How is the work - environment ? Is it competitive or co - op ? Do the different teams talk together ? Very cooperative , and yes , they do . You kind of have to when you ' re all working on one cohesive project . I really dig the people I work with . What do you have on your desk ? Do you have any figurines or maskots ? Books ? Well , I ' m an artist here , so I got lots of strange things in my cube . . . let ' s see . . . I ' ve got a glass - faced box with various large insects mounted ( HUGEEE horned beetle , scorpion , other cool things ) , a dog skull , a few random pewter figurines , a Star Wars Walker AT - ST , A book on bugts , 2 " Spectrum " fantasy art books , a bubble - blowing bottle , a cool tri - faced golden mask my friend just got me from Italy , a sword from Toledo , a crab encased on clear plastic , a Far Side calendar , personal artwork on the walls , an Albrecht Durer etching , a Utagawa Hirshige painting , various pieces of art , an alligator skull and a Skidmore mug . How do you survive sitting your ass on your chair for about 8 hours and in front of the screen ? It ' s not the sitting on my ass that bothers me , since most computer - game junkies can do that . . . it ' s the fact that there are no windows in sight . It ' s like sitting in the bat - cave . And I either go lift after work or play soccer . Ohhh and GChat and Facebook are lifeee savers . WORK RELATED : Could you tell us a little bit about your job ? Im very interested in all phases of development and im just curious about your Enviroment Artists position . What exactly do you do ? You mentioned my name as well , so I figured I ' d go ahead and answer the question . Basically , I do the same as Megan , but as I am a character artist , I don ' t get a chance to touch environmental stuff at all . . . rather I ' m limited to monsters and creature creation . . . which is actually completely fine by me , I loves that stuff . I basically create 3D monsters and such , and UV Map them and then texture them . I do the whole process with rigging and animation in mind , so I try to keep in mind how the creature will move , etc . It ' s fun , I basically create horrific digital puppets ! By the way , Megan is ridiculously good . Kamikaze . . . How did you enter the biz ? ( and do you do the rigging , or just modeling and / or textures ) ? I took some classes on computer animation at school ( I was an art major at Skidmore College ) , I made a 5 minute long computer - animated short for my senior thesis ( and 4 other large pen illustrations ) , and yet I found after graduation that that wasn ' t enough . So I basically crashed at my mom ' s place , spent like 4 – 6 months teaching myself computer modeling and texturing and rendering , pushing myself with each project I did , and then , coupled with a paper portfolio of drawn artwork , I submitted that to Bethesda Softworks . It was the 3rd time in 2 years I applied to this company , but this was by far my best contribution , and it worked ! I do just modeling and texture work . . . I ' m just a monster monkey . Hahah no I did not do the supermutant , I did the giant ant ( of which there are no pictures , sorry ! ) . I understand that there ' s been controversy over the look of the supermutant . . . but I personally really like it , and the person who did it ( I ' ll leave names out for the time being at least ) is an extremely formidable artist . . one or two screenshots doesn ' t do it justice . . . the amount of detail is fantastic . . . further screenshots will hopefully sway ppl ' s opinion ' s . Do you just design creatures or do you design bit ' s and pieces of armor for them as well ? Any thongs - wearing female bimbos designed , evar ? If you do design armor - do you research armor design before or do you apply you reality - feel and mix it with ' dang , that looks gooood ' ? I ' m asking because especially with full body armors and armorsuits I find myself often wondering how this could actually work out . The range of motion the armor offers often doesn ' t seem to fit that there ' s a person inside that has some thick plating around arms , legs etc . especially the area of shoulder and groin . Well and helmets , too , I guess . Actually one of my first assignments for Fallout was to create the supermutant armor . However , given that the armor is not so much real armor as it ' s scrapped parts thrown together , I didn ' t do much research in that regard . I agree with you on the regular armor thing though . . . armor in videogames usually looks ridiculous and unplausible , and while at times cool , is at other times completely overblown and ludicrous . Also , do the environmental artists get to think up the monster , and then it is added to the story and the game , or does someone else think up the monster and then you make it from their concept ? ? The lead artist , concept artist and others go through many reworkings of a certain creature , after it ' s placement in the game has been figured out well ( so it ' s not just : is this thing cool ? it ' s also , " does this fit the look , feel , story ? ) Then the drawing is handed to me , and they say " ok make that " and I start modeling ! I definitely try to take movement into consideration , and it ' s really really fun to invent a whole skeletal and muscular structure to something that is completely fictional . What do you do when you know full well that there ' s work to be done , but you just can ' t get yourself to focus on it ? See what you guys are doing . No , just kidding . Bethsoft ' s electric shock treatment took care of that after the first month ! I love work now ! I want to work all the time ! I ' m always inspired . Do you guys have regular workhours or is it going overtime all the time ? Pretty regular at the moment . . . but when I ' m not done with a monster , I come in on the weekends . And does it get bad towards the finishing of the product ? Yes , yes it does . If it gets crazy towards the end of finishing a product - which job usually takes the brunt and who can take it more easy ( e . g . programmer , graphic artist , pr ) ? I ' d say QA gets the worst , but programmers have plenty of late nights too . At what point during game making do you go from oh god will we manahe this to oh my god its ALIVE ! ! ! ! What if any milestone makes that happen for you ? I feel this all the time at work . All the time , new features are coming up and online , aspects of the game I didn ' t even know we were implementing . . . for me , as a character artist , it ' s seeing my creatures get animated , slapped with some kind of AI and have Wolfric ( who , yes , looks remarkably like Harvey Keitel on chemo ) do the sounds for them . Every time I see that I go " DAMN I love this job . " Have you ever worked on a game and wondered afterward . I hope no one ever knows I worked on that ! Oh I recall one monster I made for Shivering Isles which verged on utterly embarrassing . . . perhaps it wasn ' t that bad . . . perhaps it was worse . You mom / dad buys a copy of fallout 3 after its out . . . How would they react to you working on it ? My mom would NEVER forgive me ( she works in human rights ) . My dad ( a journalist ) would just shake his head and say " Jonah , this is disgusting . " But what do I care ? I love my job , who cares what my dad thinks ? It ' s not like he ever supported ANYTHING I ever did . DID you dad ? ? NO YOU DIDN ' T ! You just said ' try harder next time ' and ' not good enough ' and ' Why can ' t you work hard , like your brother ? ? ' . Well , you know what , dad , I ' m NOT my brother , and I ' m NOT YOU . STOP TRYING TO CONTROL MY LIFE ! I HATE YOU ! Whoa . Blacked out for a second . What number am I on ? . Do any of you support GNU / Linux , or free software in general ? Oh I ' ve been known to download plenty of free software in my life . We ' ll call em " learning editions " of extremely expensive programs . Kami - Kang , what are your favorite genre of monsters ? I don ' t have a particular favorite genre of monsters . . . the typical id Software demon - machine fusion is a cool design , but overused and somewhat nonsensical ( also , take a look at the new Doom and Quake games . . . does it strike anyone as strange that the Quake monsters are - in design - virtually identical to the bio - machine bestiary in Doom ? And , even more perplexing , why do the marines look like they have pretty much the exact same technology ? ? ) . So yeah , while that kind of creature is definitely eye - candy and fun in the extreme , I ' ve been getting real tired of it . I prefer making monsters that look like basically super - predators . . . they could possibly exist in the real world , and have their own daily cycle of activity . . . but they ' re just terrifying in the extreme . Strong creature design to me ( pulling titles off the top of my head ) include : Mimic , Starship Troopers ( horrible , horrible film . . . but I still own it ) , Lord of the Rings , the Host , all the creature designs in King Kong . . . also , Gonarch from Half Life 1 was really cool . . . some of the zerg in Starcraft . . . yeah that ' s all got . Have / did you ever wanted to work on any other game projects , like the Deus Ex sequel , or a sequel to any other favourite games you ' ve played ? Ohh yeah definitely . Since I ' ve been employed here , that feeling has subsided substantially , but in late high school all I wanted to work on was Doom 3 . Then in like sophomore year of college I was all about working on System Shock III . Starcraft was always a wish of mine , but in retrospect , the creatures are too small for me to do work that I knew would be appreciated . . . plus Blizzard has made moves toward more cartoonish , exaggerated creatures , and I ' m not particularly saavy with that . WORKING AT BETHESDA : Are you guys humans ? ? Don ' t let the third nipple and vestigial tail fool you , I ' m as human as the next guy . Are you developers Jedi Knights , Sith Lords , or opponents of everything Star Wars ? After the new Star Wars , forgetaboutit . Also , I saw George Lucas give a talk 2 years ago at Siggraph . . . and that man . . . he ' s got . . . SOMETHING alive that lives right under his chin . It ' s actually extremely distracting , and he doesn ' t have the decency to grow a beard over this massive goiter - thing that just sits there and jiggles . Oh , and he ' s a really boring speaker . Do you guys and girls need to go to rehad after creating a game ( to get rid of the coffee habit ) or do you go cold turkey ? Once you ride the black horse , you ' re in the saddle for life . Will you be sending the first hand - printed copies of the finished Fallout 3 to the original creators ? Along with some booze and a hooker of course . We ' re trying to get ahold of some depleted uranium as a kind of special edition thing for them , but it ' s harder to get than you ' d think , no matter how deep you dig in your backyard . Cookies ? Well I ' ll say hello . Hello ! Soft - baked cookies are the BEST kind of cookies . . . but ohhh I do love Oreo ' s and milk . . . and girl scout thin mints . . . mmmm . So far , half a bag of Sour Patch Kids . Christ , socrates , it ' s not even noon . ( note : Socrates has a habit of sucking off the sugar coating of sour patch kids and making a bigger and bigger ball out of the gelatinous remainder . . . only God and Ron Pearlman knows what he plans to do with it ) . FAN RELATIONS RELATED : and how to get into the industry by any means necesary : 5 Say bethesda decided YOU should write up the answers to the first Q & A session . . Do you . . A contract plague . B suffer an unfortunet life threatening shaving accident . C Tell them that so and so . . anouther dev realy wanted to do it and types far better . . . then hide . D whine for days but do it anyway . . then whine for days after . E Do it because they trust you . . and your paid extra . F Exclaim . . . YES SIR ! ! ! ! Then do your best . G jump at it like a room full a ferrets on a mars bar . 5 . If I had to do a Q & A session with people on the forums . . . I think I ' d feel like the Mars bar . . . not that you guys are in any way ferret - like , but you get the idea . Absolutely not , I wouldn ' t do it , that ' s like the people in the horror movie who tell their one friend to " go check out what that sound was . " " What ? [ censored ] that , I ' m not going out like that . " What do ya ' ll play on " game night " ? Is it more of a competition ? If so , who ' s the reigning champion and at what game ( s ) ? I don ' t do game night , I do soccer night . A bunch of us have spearheaded a really fun neighborhood pickup game every week in the area . If I ' m 50 , 000th person to say " Oblivion with guns " do I get a prize ? You get a night out with Yours Truly . I ' m warning you though , I don ' t put out on the first date . . . unless I ' ve had a beer . And it only counts if you say " Oblivion with GunZ . " Do you guys ever hunt around on the mighty Internet for reactions and discussions concerning Fallout 3 , other than on this forum ? Oh sure , but never too hard . . . Fallout fans are a rare breed , and can be highly toxic . Handle with care . Getting the job ? I don ' t think previous experience is necessary , truly . What matters is " how badly do you want in ? " and " are you actually good ? " I ' m making monsters now for a living because - and I won ' t exactly describe how I went about it , lest I incite a wave of people inappropriately trying to claw their way in to game companies - I scrambled at the door for a while , and when that didn ' t work , I tried the windows . . . Seriously , previous experience is not needed , as long as you ' re sure of your own dedication and passion . For me , I found the key to be just NOT GIVING UP . If they say no one day , work on your craft , come back later with something better to show , and go for it . The saddest thing is when people just kind of give up before they ' ve begun , saying to themselves " I don ' t really have what it takes , I shouldn ' t even bother , " or when they try once , get rejected and throw in the towel . All I will say is , don ' t worry about getting that towel sweaty . Get it dirty , grimy , get tired , get depressed . . . but GET THE JOB . I ' m not sure that last bit even made sense , but I felt like Al Pacino in " Any Given Sunday , " and I decided to chase that feeling . Who knew " neutral " would be such a difficult Karma state ? Maybe I should just pick a side and stick with it , just to make things a bit easier ? Heheh you ' re probably right , it ' s probably best to just hate us ! Easier , at least ! About games : For the devs , what is your favorite console and / or PC RPG and adventure game of all time and why ? I think maybe Baldur ' s Gate II . God I loved that game . What is your favorite type of game to play ( RTS , FPS , RPG etc ) I really like FPS ' s , and I used to be a Counter Strike monster . . . but after a while I got fed up with the people who play it . . . all the stereotypes are true . I love RTS ' s , like Starcraft , which I think visually and stylistically was one of the coolest games to come out in a while . I ' ll never again play another Diablo clone . . . that kind of game is the crack of gaming : addictive and fun as hell , but after a while you realize you ' ve lost all your friends , you haven ' t showered in a week , and no matter how much you offer him sexual favors , for some reason the Arch - Angel Tyrael won ' t give you anything arch - cool . What ' s important to you in a game and how much so ? On scale of 1 to 5 a . Graphics - 3 . 5 b . Mechanics - 4 c . Story - 4 d . Humor - 4 e . Reality - 5 ( has to be realistic WITHIN the setting , not necessarily realistic by today ' s " factual " setting ) f . Artificial Intelligence - 3 . 5 g . Freedom to go your own way - 2 . 5 ( something like Half - life , which is extremely linear , can still be done in a way such that you don ' t notice you have no choice ) h . bonus features for fans - e . g . hidden stuff , easter eggs etc . - 2 i . overall Feel / Fun - factor - 5 ( trick question ? ? C ' mon , it ' s gotta be 5 ! ) j . Multiplayer - 1 ( it ' s great to have it , but it ' s not in any way necessary . . . depending on the game ) k . Modability & Ease of modding - 3 ( I don ' t mod anything , soooo ) l . Support from the developer ( regarding patches , new features , add - ons ) - 5 What games are you looking forward to on the horizon ? Oh , and even though I ' m busy , I wanted to answer just one question from the original list from this thread . . . what game I ' m looking forward to . Bioshock man , Bioshock . Gonna be hot . System Shock 2 was one of the best games ever , in my humble opinion . Sound design , immersion , story , everything . . . one of the few games that truly stuck with me . What ' s the last game you bought ? Did you like it ? Actually I ' ve been playing Planetside 2 for about a year now , and I ' ve got to say . . . besides the graphics and various gameplay mechanics , it might be one of the MMO games with the most potential that I ' ve ever played . I ' ve been extremely tempted to purchase other games , namely " Stalker , " ( although I heard it doesn ' t end all that well , and that it kind of falls off after a while ) , but I ' ve decided that I ' ve got too much on my plate outside of work to afford another addiction . So I ' m holding out for Bioshock . Have you tried Titan Quest ? Oh , absolutely not . . . I got a friend here who was ( not sure if he still is ? ) really into it , and it seems too fun for me to get into . My goal is to NOT get addicted to games right now in my life . . . I want to put that off for a little while , at least until my current projects are done . Even though you ' re all probably RPG fans , do you ever get the urge to play random and seemingly pointless shooter / hack - n - slash games like Unreal Tournament , Diablo [ II ] , Blood , etc ? ? I play pointless shooters allll the time . Counterstrike was my addiction for years . . but man . . . Counter - strike players tend to be some of the most horrible people alive . It ' s like a smorgesborg ( ? ? ) of racists , sexist , homophobic mouth - breathing 13 - year - olds . Which other FP RPG have you enjoyed besides Oblivion ( or the TES series in general ) ? I ' ve gotta go with Morrowind . It ' s the game that made me want go get in here . Did any of you devs ever get a game as a gift or something like that , and you didn ' t think you would like it ? However when you played it , you actually started to like it and it caused you to delve deeper into those type of games ? Not really , but my current addiction is Planetside . I got talked into trying it out , and I ' ve been playing for more than a year now . Just got to Command Rank 5 today . It ' s a proud day for the Lobe Family . PERSONAL INFO AND PREFERENCES ABOUT THE REST OF UNIVERSE : Is there a better way to ask " what do you need " than " what you be needin ' " ? " Watchuwant ? Whatchawantttt ? " How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood ? I once chucked a woodchuck . I laughed about it , but it failed to appreciate the irony . Favorite quotes ? Remember : Only by eliminating feelings of jealousy and competition can you become as happy and healthy a person as that smug bitch Rebecca . Curiously the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias , as it fell , was , " Oh no , not again . " Many people have speculated that if we knew * why * the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now . When placed in water , the drunken volunteers fared even worse , and the alligator markedly better , Sawyer said . In addition , the alligators far outperformed their inebriated human counterparts in the following areas : lunging , biting , crushing , dismembering , and swallowing . Favourite lost character and babes ? My favorite lost character stopped being Locke a long time ago . . . I admit , I haven ' t seen season 3 hardly at all ( waiting for them to come out on DVD ) , but Season 2 to me felt like all the characters stopped growing and just stayed more of the same . . . Locke ' s such a stick - in - the - mud , he ' s no fun and he never explains himself . I liked Eko , he was badass . My favorite though , has gotta be Kate . Why ? Because she ' s hot , and I really like super - athletic girls like that . Ok , real reason ? She ' s REALLY hot . Like superhuman hot . She ' s in the same category of hot as Laura Prepon ( Donna from That 70 ' s Show ) , Jessica Biel , Scarlett Johanssen and Barbara Walters . I fully understand that I ' ve lost any potential of being regarded as a respectable member of a professional development team , but once I start talking about any of the aforementioned females , I lose all sense of propriety and manners . Oh well , it was nice while it lasted . . . Same thing with Gwen Stefani and Jessica Alba . I feel the same way about Jessica Alba . . . yes , she ' s very beautiful in like every way , but I just don ' t find her appealing . . . I mean , don ' t get me wrong , she ' s a full 10 / 10 , and she seems cool , but she just doesn ' t have that certain " what the french call : ' I don ' t know what ' " that makes me fall head over heels in love . Also my girlfriend worked at a spa a couple summers ago , and Jessica Alba came in , and apparently she ' s very very skinny , which I don ' t like . I know what you mean about Scarlett Johanssen , but once I saw " Lost in Translation " I knew that I ' d propose to her the second I ever saw her . And as for Barbara Walters . . http : / / www . timallen . com / gallery / img / friends / 300 / barbara . jpg Are you saying that does NOTHING for you ? ? heheheh Books vs games Oh , also if I could throw in my 2 cents in regards to the book vs . video game thing , I ' ve got to hand it to books . In a huge way . I ' ve got a friend here who firmly believes that video games are a superior art form than books and movies . While I agree that games have an enormous potential , true story - telling - and everything that comes with it - is championed by books ( and perhaps movies as well ) . It ' s so easy to confuse entertainment with art , and so hard to separate " making your own story " to reading another story . In a game , yes , there is a main quest , and a large story , and in playing the character , you ' re creating your own small stories . But in books and movies , there are real reasons WHY characters do what they do , and this ties in to all kinds of motivations and their natures , etc etc . When something in a book happens , it happens for a reason . The author could ' ve gone any way , but they chose that way . What ' s more , we get insight into characters through just a few words , and real authors are able to write powerful stories through the artful play of carefully placed words and - at times - sparse description . Not that I ' m a fan of Hemingway , but he comes to mind in this . " A Song of Ice and Fire . " Fuckin awesome . Great stories , great intrigue , plot and character development , sense of timing , themes , ambiance , etc etc . I just don ' t believe the same degree of storytelling and such can exist in a genre that is primarily entertainment - based . What ' s more , video games are composed by a team of people . . . and no one person can fully control and orchestrate and love the characters in as complete and thorough a way as a gifted artist or actor can . And with that I ' m going to inexplicably stop typing . Wiliam Gibson ? I love me some William Gibson . Haven ' t read anything but Neuromancer , would anyone recommend any 1 book by him or another author , in the same genre , that truly blew them away ? Neuromancer or Wintermute ? And yeah , Shodan is the Queen . What ' s your favorite alcoholic drink ? Lately , when I ' ve gone to bars with my girlfriend , we ' ve taken to ordering one drink in particular . For her it ' s ok , but for me . . . it ' s like teetering on a knife - edge between 007 Pimp and flamboyant crossdresser : dirty martini . Oh , and in terms of beers , I ' ve gotta stick with either Dos Equis or Moosehead ( Canadian , fantastic beer ) . Whats your favorite beer / liquor / mixed drink ? Beer = Moosehead Liquor = any top shelf vodka Mixed drink = used to be vodka - cranberry , but after a world - spinning night of debauchery in Baltimore , which involved inappropriate behavior on a kitchen floor ( dirrttyyyy ) , stepping over my friend passed out in his boxers on the bathroom floor to get to the toilet at 4 AM , the fight I had all night with the apartment wall on my left hand side ( bastard wall kept running into me , and sometimes the floor did too ) and not being able to leave the city until 4 PM the next day due to the extreme likelihood that I would projectile vomit . . . it ' s no longer my beverage of choice . How did you guys spend memorial day weekend ? shrimp on the barby ? stuck in traffic ? satanic mass ? I had a crazy busy weekend . . Girlfriend was in town , so Friday went to a place called the 18th Street Lounge ( very classy bar / club with live jazz and an open rooftop area ) and met some friends , then Saturday we went to a DC United Game ( didn ' t actually go in , just tailgated the entire time with a bunch of people ) , went to a BBQ afterwards . Then Sunday she and my cousin and I drove to Shenandoah to go meet some friends for camping , and then went on hikes and drank beer and made hamburgers in the dark . I also may or may not have gotten frisked by a park ranger that night . And not in a smooth , sexy way . The GOOD news is that I took some friggin AWESOME pictures of a couple crazy huge centipedes , some kind of nasty water bug , a big cool looking spider and the hugest , most BEAUTIFUL , HUGEST moth I ' ve seen in a long time ( It was like a night butterfly , butterscotch - colored with crazy lookin beautiful fake eyes on the wings . . . I ' ll try to upload a pic tomorrow if ppl are interested ) . ANDDDD I saw 2 black bears ! ! ! One was on a hike and we saw it climbing a tree and watched it a bit . . . and then on the drive out , a bear crossed the road . . . sooo cool , I ' d never seen a bear in the wild before . So yeah , ( generally ) a good weekend . Given that several of you devs have a literary background , is T . S . Eliot British or American ? American . Little known fact : T . S . Elliot is actually Ben Affleck ' s pen - name . Man can ' t act to save his career ( Daredevil , anyone ? ) , but he does write a good piece of literature . Sweet or sour ? There ' s actually a box of Lemonheads on my desk right on my right . . . so . . . I don ' t know . S - sour ? Who killed Kennedy ? Jason Bourne , I thought ? What sort of music do you listen to ? Everyone always says everything , but truly . . . everything . Bands of choice at the moment include : TOK ( reggae ) , Amy Winehouse , Clipse , Sufjan Stevens , Damien Marley , Damien Rice , Twista , Nightmares on Wax , Sparklehorse , The Go ! Team , Grandaddy , Citizen Cope , any instrumentals , Jay - Z , Portishead , Al Green , Mike Jones , Sigur Ros , Afrocelt Sound System , Tego Calderon , Cee - Lo , The Secret Machines , Radiohead , Paul Simon , Beatles , Beck , Budo , Spoon , TV on the Radio , Tool , Metric , Sublime , Strokes , Andre 3000 , Elliott Smith , The Dismemberment Plan , Esthero , Ratatat , Keane , Le Tigre , Brian Eno , Blur , Kamikaze Hearts , Royskopp & 8MM . I hope I ' m being specific enough . Which Max do you prefer , Mad Max , Max Payne , or Max from Sam & Max ? Max Payne could circle - strafe the crap outta Mel Gibson . . . I doubt Mel even knows how to Bunnyhop . Novelist At the moment , George R . R . Martin Artist Soo many to choose from ! ! Just check Zbrush . com , close your eyes and put a finger somewhere on the screen . Traditionally , I ' d have to say Hokusai . Cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez Comic Book Writer Jhonen Vasquez and / or Masamune Shirow ( Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and GitS I ) Actor I hated him for years and years , but after seeing the Aviator , DiCaprio ' s got my vote . Actress So often this question isn ' t " can she act " but " how much do you love her ? " I ' m going to have to go with Amy Smart or Jessica Biel . Movie Pan ' s Labyrinth , The Shining ( so much better the third time around ) , Pulp Fiction , V for Vendetta , BBC ' s Blue Planet series , The Aviator , Shawshank Redemption , Run Lola Run , Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade , Se7en , Silence of the Lambs , Lost in Translation , Fight Club , Anchorman , Lord of the Rings , X - Men 2 , The Big Lebowski , Aliens , Anything with great special effects , really . Band At the moment . . . er . . . TV on the Radio Television Show Daily Show . Or The Office .