Curt Schilling: Three-time World Series Champion. Founder of 38 Studios. Bigger MMO Nerd Than You.

By Steven Crews | July 19, 2010 | | Filed under: Features, Interviews | Tags: 38 Studios, Curt Schilling

The MMO Gamer: Morbid curiosity, what did you play in EQ, and what are you playing now?

Curt Schilling: My main in EQ was a Shaman. And then I ended up four-boxing an Inquisitor, Berserker, Cleric… and I can’t remember the fourth.

My main is always a hybrid. In WoW it was a Hunter I leveled to 70 first, and then a Shaman that was eventually the guy who became my main.

The MMO Gamer: So if you let the main tank die, your guildies still yell at you over Vent, Curt Schilling or no Curt Schilling?

Curt Schilling: That’s exactly right. When you don’t button mash correctly in a 40 person raid, it doesn’t matter how many World Series rings you wear.

The MMO Gamer: I’m sure just about every player out there has had that fantasy at one time or another… “One of these days, I’m going to win a hundred million dollars in the lottery, and then I’m going to start up my own game studio, and do things the right way!”

Is that you? Living the dream of jaded gamers everywhere?

Curt Schilling: This is where you and I and everyone who reads this are probably exactly alike:

I played the games the same way you played, finding broken features, looking at encounters going, “Why didn’t they do this? This sucks. Why isn’t this better?”

I did all those same things, in all the different times and places you did them. And then I had the “I want to start a game company” vision, which we all have.

I’m part of the one half of one percent that actually acted on it. And less than one tenth of a percent that had the capital to actually do it.

It’s an insanely capital-intensive venture to begin with. If you want to do it right, it’s more expensive than you could ever imagine.

The big thing is, I still to this day am doing it the way I want to do it, and doing it what I believe is the right way, but that has nothing to do with the game.

I’m leading the vision, and helping create the culture, and then building an environment for the most insanely talented people in the world to do what they do best, and I don’t get in the way and muck it up.

It’s unfortunate that the less involved in game design I became, the better our game got.

I do believe I know games, well enough to know the difference between good games and bad games. And I do believe I have some decent game design ideas… but when you understand how it works, it’s an art.

Every discipline is an art. And when you understand that these people are the best in the world at what they do, it makes it easier for you to not get involved.

I’m the Chairman and Founder of the company, when I send out an email people read it differently. But I’ve never taken it like that, I’ve always just assumed it was sending out an email like all the other designers.

Then I found out that people were listening to my emails and acting on them, and I’d get pissed… “I want mounted combat on flying pigs!”

And then we’d have a design meeting a week later where they’d show me the specs for it. And I’m like, “No, I was kidding!”

The MMO Gamer: [laughing]

Curt Schilling: I realized early on, that I can help make this company put out the best game ever by being less involved in making the actual game, and being more involved in putting these people in an environment to succeed.

The MMO Gamer: Interesting. I’d have thought someone with that kind of capital invested would be looking over everyone’s shoulder saying, “Shouldn’t have done that! Shouldn’t have done that, either!”

Curt Schilling: That is the absolute quickest way to blow your money.

If I was a great game designer, maybe that would be the thing for me to do. I’m not. If I was a great artist, and I had a vision like Todd McFarlane, it would be the thing for me to do. If I was an engineer, and I knew how to build a platform, it would be the thing for me to do.

I don’t do any of those things. And I would be stupid to pass off like I could. My goal is to not be the dumbest guy in the room in all respects, to know what they’re doing, what the money is going to and what they spend their time on doing, but more importantly to empower these people.

We’re not making my game, we’re making our game.

And our game is being made by the people who drove EQ 1, 2, WoW, DAoC… all of them, since Ultima Online. Our UI designer was the lead UI designer for World of Warcraft. Our lead platform engineer on the game side built the platform for Blizzard.

Who am I to tell them how to do things?

You get all of these brilliant people in the same room, and if I don’t have an ego, none of them are allowed to have one. Todd doesn’t, R.A. Salvatore doesn’t. They come in and they’re part of a team.

If Todd, and R.A, and I are all part of this team, there’s no single member of it who can stand up and say, “Do it my way.”

The MMO Gamer: You brought up a couple of interesting points in those answers I’d like to follow up on.

First, you just said a very dangerous word in this industry: Art.

I have a lot of conversations with people in your position, and designers, producers, etc., about whether or not games can ever rise to the level of “real art,” or if they should even be trying to in the first place.

What are your thoughts on that, with regards to Copernicus?

Curt Schilling: I think it’s a byproduct of achieving something, and it’ll happen organically. If you set out to create a game that’s a piece of art, I think there are very few people on the planet who could actually make that happen.

Part of that is the definition of “art.” What is art to a game designer is code to a graphic artist. What is art to a graphic artist is just concept drawings to a designer.

So, it’s a dangerous definition.

But for us, we have R.A. and Todd as visionaries. I would argue that R.A. is a modern day Tolkien from the fantasy writer perspective.

You’re going to live in a world that was envisioned by R.A. Salvatore, and brought to life by Todd McFarlane’s artistic vision. I’m a fantasy geek, and that fires me up. How do you not get excited about that?

So, it will probably be art to some people, yes.

The MMO Gamer: The second thing you mentioned… Since we can’t talk about Copernicus itself, you said you know the difference between good games and bad games.

So, could you give examples of your opinion of a great game, and a failure?

Curt Schilling: As a gamer? A great game, Plants vs. Zombies.

For an MMO, World of Warcraft at launch. Fantastic game, great execution.

A game that I didn’t like, a bad game… let me think… Tabula Rasa?

The MMO Gamer: Richard Garriott is going to put a hit out on you.

Curt Schilling: Listen, the game’s gone. It doesn’t exist anymore. It was in development for seven years. I don’t have to say it for it to be true.

Age of Conan, also, was a bad game.

Both of those, I bought both of them, I played them, I wanted them to be great. I want every game out there to do well. I love great games.

But I’m a consumer, I spent my money, and I don’t feel I got my money’s worth. And when I don’t, I’m a jaded consumer.

We’re not getting an increase in hours per day, there are still only 24. My gaming time is limited, and I don’t want to spend money and play games that suck.

[At this point, Curt’s PR people asked us to wrap things up.]

The MMO Gamer: I have to round out the interview with this last question out of tradition… even though we’ve basically just spent our entire conversation already answering it:

Why do you make games? Why do you wake up every morning, go to work, and do what it is you do?

Curt Schilling: I don’t go to work every morning. That’s probably the answer to the question. I still have yet to have a real job in my entire life, because I love what I do.

I am the Chairman and Founder of a game company because I have a passion to produce something that A), can change people’s lives, B), can change the world.

The MMO Gamer: Thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it, and we hope we can do it again some time.

Curt Schilling: Very nice to meet you.

38 Studios is currently working on an unannounced MMO project, codenamed Copernicus. Stay tuned to The MMO Gamer for further coverage in the days and weeks to come.