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The Gav Thorpe Interview - Dysartes & Gav Thorpe | |||||||||||||||||
About GavWhat's it like working at GW?It's good. It's hard to think what else I might have done for the last eleven years, although I'm sure it would have been something in a creative field. Like most jobs, there's days when you get home and are glad of it, and others where you're buzzing with thoughts and ideas. The best part is being able to work with some very talented people, and the opportunity to exorcise the demons of a frustrated artist through the skills of others (I originally started to study as an illustrator in my youth, but concluded after a couple of years that I was, contrary to me desires, a bit rubbish). I can honestly say that I've never had six months go past without some new kind of challenge, be it creative or to do with working with the other guys, particularly the Games Developers. There's always something going on somewhere, and as someone who likes putting a finger in as many pies as possible, I find plenty to divert myself (displacement activity? me?). How many games do play a week? (All games systems)? Probably only one or two a month, unless I cram in a play test or two (and not much of that lately, either). It's something that I've become increasingly aware of. It's important that you retain the perspective of what you do as a job, and so sometimes you want to forget it all, switch on the PS2 and blow up zombies or whatever. On the other hand, you can become divorced from the hobby, seeing it only as a set ob abstract ideas, and I find it very grounding to push toy soldiers around and roll dice. It reminds me what is at the heart of what we do - the love of toy soldiers. I want to get some more of that back and, as I mentioned earlier, am going to dedicate more of my time to getting another army or two painted and fitting in more games simply for fun. In terms of non-toy soldiers games, I usually have a weekly appointment with a friend for board games (ranging from light hearted fun to brain-breaking Eastern Front insanity), and I also have a regular slot playing FIFA on the PS2 with my old boss Gordon Davidson. What is your favourite game system and why? Warhammer. It's just visually appealing, the gameplay is great and characterful, and nobody asks me, 'Are you sure that's how it works?'. I'm also a big fan of Epic, the scale of the battles is great, though I've yet to try out the new system properly. What is your opinion in the ongoing debate of slippers vs loafers? Slippers sound dangerous, while loafers appear to encourage laziness (something I'm definitely prone to bouts of). I own slippers (Christmas present, of course). Could you describe a day in the life of Gav Thorpe? Which day? The bulk of my time is working with the various teams on current projects, obviously most closely with Games Dev. This consists of attending project and design meetings, and also reading through manuscripts and laid out documents and providing feedback. It's mostly a consultancy role, because there's so much that you pick up here over time, you assume other people are aware of it, and that's what we have to avoid. The scope is actually quite wide, the bulk of it being the writing, but also I voice opinions on design, colour schemes, WD and all sorts of other stuff. People mistakenly think that I have some kind of say over these things, but only in an advice capacity - used to have staff when I ran the Warhammer team, but we decided it was better to have a proper manager to do that sort of stuff. Also, my experience with projects over the years, in conjunction with other old timers, helps us avoid pitfalls. The nature of the hobby and the business is always evolving, so it's a case of looking at what we've done in the past and trying to decide the best way to chart the future. Occasionally I actually get some time to do some writing, as with Storm of Chaos, although I'm supposed to be stepping away from the 'front line' these days, acting in the role I've just talked about rather than simply trying to do it myself! If you had the opportunity, would you like to go back and change any rule you have written? As I said earlier, it's easier to end up regretting too much and second-guessing. As a games developer you make decisions and you have to live with those decisions. Were they all correct? Of course not! Would hindsight make me change some of them? Definitely! The one rule that I was least comfortable with at the time was the Blood Angels extra movement. Originally a failed roll forced the unit to move forward during the movement phase, but not as a bonus. Jervis convinced me to turn it into the semi-bonus it is now, pointing out that players are more likely to remember rules that are of some benefit to them, and to forget those that hinder them (thereby forcing the opponent to remind them each turn). It isn't that they're deliberately cheating, it's just the way people's heads work! Anyway, I think it would have been better to stick with the rule the way I had it originally, so it's not so much change a rule as not change a rule! >best Elvis voice< Thank you very much, GAV | |||||||||||||||||
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