Couple things. The latter part of the interview was a semi transcribing of the interview with almost no context. It read horribly in my opinion and some things didn"t come across well.
The famous comment was made in talking about the company, and how I viewed "stars" in this industry and dealt with egos. There is no one in this industry I"ll ever work with that"s 1/10th as famous as some of the men I suited up with, and that"s a fantastic thing when you ask people to check their egos at the door.
The other parts, the cocky stuff, is pretty much spot on but wasn"t really intended to come across the way it did and probably will.
It takes no effort to do things average, or at least minimal effort. I don"t show up in spring training hoping we win some games, or finish in second, you show up expecting to win the world series if the talent is present, which in both cases, 38 Studios, and the Sox clubhouse, it is.
There is no reason what so ever that this company cannot be the best in the world at what it does, none.
Sure there are a million hurdles and lessons to learn along the way, but so what. If you don"t screw up, don"t lose, how do you know what it feels like to kick the crap out of people and win?
I"m biased for sure, but after adding yet another superstar engineer to the team this week I look at our "roster", and I see what these people have done in other companies, I look at the leadership here and the culture, and I am in awe at what we"ve already done and the limitless potential of totally passionate and totally committed to each other team members can accomplish.
I"m banking we"ll shock the world, in a good way, and also that it won"t take a billion dollars to do so. I"m a gamer, a pretty hardcore (FROM A TIME STANDPOINT YOU RAIDING GEEKS!) gamer, I think I understand a lot of things that make games work and don"t work. There isn"t really a non gamer in the company. Regardless of whether a feature is great or not I know it"s beyond me, beyond me liking or not liking things. There are some fantastic features in MMOs that I don"t like, but that doesn"t make them less fantastic.
Are we aiming high? Absolutely. Are we making a "deep throw"? Yep. But we aren"t shooting for something impossible simply because other people think it is.
Oh and please no more "gameplay > graphics" comments here, please. Gameplay > every single other possible item ever thought of or created when you are making a game.
Gameplay is ALL that matters in the end because in that is everything you do to make it.