PCG:
First off, perhaps you could tell me what your job is as Activision's creative consultant for the Dark Reign project.
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Ron Millar:
I am basically telling them what's good and what's not. I'm using my experience from the past games I've worked on and then applying it to Dark Reign.
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PCG:
Are you currently working on any other projects outside of Dark Reign?
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Ron Millar:
Currently no, not right now though James Anhalt and I started Redline Games and are planning on doing stuff in the near future.
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PCG:
You were a designer at Blizzard before becoming a creative consultant for Activision. How was that experience?
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Ron Millar:
I started at Blizzard five years ago when they where a small company and have worked on almost every single one of their games all the way up from Nintendo, Sega, and PC. Also, Warcraft wasn't the first thing I did. I worked on Blackthorne, Lost Vikings and a whole slew of other games. But the last things I worked on while at Blizzard were Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo.
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PCG:
Because of your history in the creation process of best-selling titles, do you think there is any added pressure in making Dark Reign a success? Do you feel that people are now expecting you to create another miracle because of the input you had in previous titles such as Warcraft 1, 2, and Diablo?
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Ron Millar:
(laughs) They probably are but I don't feel any pressure. I just keep doing what I think is right and it always seems to be the right thing to do. I really don't feel any pressure at all because I enjoy doing what I do. And if I make a mistake. . .oh well! I'll just keep going, make another and turn it right back around again. I think so far I've done pretty well because of knowing what I want. It's really just primal. I say to myself, "Hey, I think people will like this. Let's put this in!"
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PCG:
Do you think there are too many strategy games out there, making it a risk to release another considering that many gamers may feel it's just a rip-off or copycat title?
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Ron Millar:
No I don't think that's the case at all. I think if you put out a good game people will play it. I suppose there is a danger in flooding the market but if you do something well, people are going to play it. It's like in the movie industry, there may be a whole slew of movies and every once in a while you get a movie that's done very similar to another but done very well and people go see it. It's been this way in the video game industry for many years. For instance the platform games have been going on for years but every once in a while someone comes out with a good one and everyone goes out and buys it because it's good. I also think that the real-time strategy genre has just come into full bloom right now causing a danger of saturation, so I guess only the best will succeed.
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PCG:
So what enticed you into pursuing a career in the video game industry rather than becoming a stock broker or something?
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Ron Millar:
I've always been into computers and video games ever since I was a small boy. My father used to, as a hobby, fix old arcade games back when Pong first came out. So I was about five when I got my first exposure to it and ever since then I've just loved computer games. It's a pretty long story but that's where it started. Then, all through high school I just loved making games and not just computer games, but also board games and all the role playing games. It's all kind been in my blood.
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PCG:
How did you get your start in the game industry?
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Ron Millar:
Actually, I got my foot in the door by chatting with some friends over the modem and got my first job at Virgin many years ago. . . which I got fired from (laughs) but am grateful for because after that I moved to Silicon Synaps which then became Blizzard.
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PCG:
Do you have any words of advice for the young gamers that want to break into the game industry?
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Ron Millar:
My words of wisdom are just stick to your dreams and don't let anyone talk you out of them. I had a lot of teachers and different people telling me that I would never make it sitting by a computer playing games. I was like, "Yeah, yeah, whatever," and I didn't listen to them. So the most important thing is that if you believe in something, just go for it!
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