{"id":14236,"date":"2011-11-20T13:54:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-20T18:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=14236"},"modified":"2011-11-20T13:54:48","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T18:54:48","slug":"desert-bus-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=14236","title":{"rendered":"Desert Bus Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you who missed it, here is the interview:<\/p>\n<p><table class='nomargin' cellspacing='0' width='100%' cellpadding='0' align='center' border='0'><tr><td><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A1IGyyh1T90\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen class=\"embed\"><\/iframe><br\/><small><a href='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=A1IGyyh1T90'>Link (YouTube)<\/a><\/small><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I appeared between <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kevin_Murphy_(actor)\">Kevin Murphy<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Scalzi\">John Scalzi<\/a>.  I felt like a poser. Before the interview I had to remind myself, &#8220;This isn&#8217;t about you. This is about helping sick kids.  Go on the show and act like a moron if you must, but stop worrying!&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t take the advice, of course.  But it was nice of me to offer it. <\/p>\n<p>Since you guys were nice enough to pose questions, I&#8217;ll answer a few that didn&#8217;t make it into the interview:<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>How was it to transition from righting in computer code to writing in English as a job.<br \/>\nBy Havok4 &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:14 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Personally liberating, financially debilitating.  Protip to other coders who want to write: Be careful what you wish for.  We make a lot more than they do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can you drop some hints about your upcoming book?<br \/>\nBy Mathias &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:15 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My big regret in the interview is how poorly I explained the book.  Let me try again:<\/p>\n<p>The inspiration for the book came when I was playing World of Warcraft. When you begin as an undead, there&#8217;s a guy there in the crypt, welcoming you back to the land of the living.  I thought it would be funny if, halfway through his welcome, he realized you weren&#8217;t the person they were trying to resurrect. <em>Oh.  Sorry, this is really awkward, but we didn&#8217;t mean to bring you back. Actually, I have no idea who you are.  Would you mind terribly if we just&#8230; you know&#8230; put you back? Yeah. We need the magic for reviving someone else.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So the protagonist is a WoW-styled sapient corpse. <\/p>\n<p>These are not spoilers.  This all happens on page 1.  After this, it get complicated. <\/p>\n<p>The book was originally going to be titled &#8220;Gilbert is Dead&#8221;, but amazingly that title is already taken.<\/p>\n<p>Editing is perhaps a third of the way done.  If all goes VERY well, the book will be available before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are you ever going to change your picture?<\/p>\n<p>What is your current GotY?<\/p>\n<p>What game are you currently playing?<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a backlog, if so, what games are in your backlog?<\/p>\n<p>By Cody Bauman &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:19 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Eventually.<\/p>\n<p>I am having a very hard time picking GOTY right now.  Should it go to the most polished? (Portal 2.) The most delightful surprise? (Deus Ex: Hoodoo Convolution.) The one with the most hours of entertainment? (Minecraft, for the second year in a row.) Or should I disqualify Minecraft because it won last year, and give the &#8220;most hours&#8221; honor to Skyrim?  Hard to say.<\/p>\n<p>Skyrim. <\/p>\n<p>My backlog is: <a href=\"http:\/\/rampantgames.com\/frayedknights\/\">Frayed Knights<\/a>. Minecraft final. In recent months I&#8217;ve also played <a href=\"http:\/\/spacepiratesandzombies.com\/\">SPAZ<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.terraria.org\/\">Terraria<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you encounter the other SW members for the first time?<br \/>\nBy Woothorn &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:20 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think I met Randy in a game of Left 4 Dead. He introduced me to Josh.  I believe those two met in Star Wars: Galaxies. I also met Rutskarn in L4D and we talked shop regarding blogging, creative writing, him not shooting me and me not hogging all the medkits. When Randy left the show, I suggested Rutskarn.  I met Mumbles through Randy and Team Fortress 2.<\/p>\n<p>I have never met any of them face-to-face.  I MIGHT get to meet some of them at PAX East this year. Fingers crossed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What formats (paper, different ebook libraries) are you planning on publishing your new book in?<br \/>\nBy Peter &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:22 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Everywhere I can. At the minimum it will be on the Kindle and available for print-on-demand. <\/p>\n<p>The autoblography is going to be available first.  I&#8217;m not expecting an autobiography to sell particularly well.  People that don&#8217;t know me won&#8217;t want it, and people who do know me have already read it.  The version for sale has a bit of cut material, and has been more meticulously proofed, but is basically the same thing.  I&#8217;m just putting it up to get a feel for how the publishing process works.  I&#8217;m sure to make a few mistakes, and I&#8217;d just as soon not make them on my massive (to me) 120k word investment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you first end up working with the escapist? What was it like going from providing steady content to occasionally sending in what is essentially a freelance article?<\/p>\n<p>Why did your biography only include the parts of your relationship with your wife where you were crappy to her? Have you been sufficiently hassled for that decision?<\/p>\n<p>By Fishminer &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:25 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Susan Arendt approached me to make comics. <\/p>\n<p>In my autobiography, I left out all the bits where she was just as foolish and awkward as I was.  It didn&#8217;t seem right to air her failures in my story.  This had the side effect of making her look like a saint. I can live with that. <\/p>\n<p><strong>1) When will you do that Deus Ex review?<br \/>\n2) When can we expect to read your take on Skyrim?<\/p>\n<p>By Irridium &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:29 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1) I&#8217;m waiting to see if we do Deus Ex on SW.  I&#8217;d rather talk about it, THEN write about it, as opposed to the other way around.  <\/p>\n<p>2) Not sure. I have a lot to say about it already, both good and bad.  But The Book Is The Thing right now. <\/p>\n<p><strong>What languages did you used to write code in?<br \/>\nBy The One Who &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:33 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I know that hip young rock-star coders are using Java and C# these days, but I&#8217;m an old-school C++ guy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you could pick the next game over the objections of any cast member, what game would you pick for Spoiler Warning?<\/p>\n<p>Also, what do you believe is a fitting punishment for Rutskarn&#39;s punning?<\/p>\n<p>By Emlyn &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 3:59 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Deus Ex: Hubris Revelation<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the great thing about punning:  The deed is its own punishment.  He&#8217;s already known as &#8220;the guy who makes the puns&#8221;.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.homestarrunner.com\/sbemail46.html\">I figure the guy already shovels crap for a living, so his tolerance for pain&#8217;s gotta be through the roof<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Have you re-visited Champions Online since it went free-to-play?<br \/>\nBy Woothorn &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 4:08 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Briefly. I still think that what I really want is the combat from Champions Online with the everything else from City of Heroes. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you recognize Adam Jensen&#39;s voice actor as&#8230; uh, was that dude&#39;s name &#8220;Antonio&#8221; in AC2?<br \/>\nBy tengokujin &#8211; November 19th, 2011\t 4:09 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nope. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you who missed it, here is the interview: Link (YouTube) Yeah, I appeared between Kevin Murphy and John Scalzi. I felt like a poser. Before the interview I had to remind myself, &#8220;This isn&#8217;t about you. This is about helping sick kids. Go on the show and act like a moron if [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}