Planet GameCube interviews Henk Rogers

[THATinkjar]

Planet GameCube posted an interview with Henk Rogers last week, the man who helped to bring Tetris to the masses. You can read the fairly interesting interview here.

My choice quotes (and the reason for the thread, I suppose):

PGC: What are The Tetris Company's primary goals when you make agreements with companies like Nintendo?

HR: We choose partners that we think can move the IP forward, in other words make Tetris a better game. So we have two kinds of licenses: ones that makes us money, and one that helps move Tetris forward, and Nintendo is one that actually does both. On the ones where the licensee is just in it for the money, we tell them what to do. We have a minimum bar that we create every year, called the Tetris Guideline, and that guideline is the minimum spec for which someone has to create Tetris. And we raise that bar every year. Part of what we do in the guideline, for example, is dictate which buttons do what. And that's so we don't have a situation where some licensee decides to make rotate and hard drop backwards. Because that's a killer thing; we want to make sure that the gas pedal is always on the right and the brake is always on the left so that players can move from platform to platform without having that kind of disaster. And it used to be that way, by the way. If you go back in time, the Sega version and the Nintendo version were completely different. So the first thing we did when we took over Tetris, was for example to create a system of rotation that could be used by players from the Sega camp and the Nintendo camp, in fact from every camp. So that's how we ended up with "super rotation" (Editor's note: this feature is often called "infinite spin" by players and in the press), just to give you an idea.

This is probably the stupidest thing I have read in a long while. I realise they have to protect their interests, and preserve the IP (which you could seriously question after some dodgy entries in the series), but Henk sounds so cold and calculating and misguided.

PGC: How is Alexey Pajitnov (the creator of Tetris) involved with The Tetris Company?

HR: Alexey is involved; he has the final say. Basically we have a three-member committee that decides if we're going to change the rules, and Alexei is one of the members. So when there's any change to the guideline, Alexey and I and the other person get together and we decide whether it's a go or no-go. And that's how we raise the bar, we change it little by little.

Is it me, or does this sound like overkill? The game is Tetris. The game is finished. You can improve it, like Tetris DS has, but you can't change it. The game is done. You are just milking it now, you're not raising the bar.

This guy really irks me.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow, and I thought Koji Igarashi was bad. Not even close.

Jeez, it's a game - you don't die in it. Variety is the spice of gaming, not motor vehicles. Or is somebody campaigning to make it an illegal offense to game while under the influence? Whoa, I'm tipping over, better stop before I smack my head.

[Ed Oscuro]

Cross-posted finally, 'cuz I thought this was interesting.

HERE and HERE

Carry on.

[THATinkjar]

Cross-posted finally, 'cuz I thought this was interesting.

HERE and HERE

Carry on.

You love me No, seriously, spread the word like there is no tomorrow. The interview made me feel a little sick. I'm sure behind closed doors this is the language of upper management at developers and publishers (more so the latter), I don't like to hear this spouted in public. It doesn't make for good reading! It makes me feel used. It devalues the game.

[Ed Oscuro]

Personally I think the CV Dungeon crowd (at least a few of them) are going to latch onto the fact that I compared him to Igarashi in terms of awfulness

Yeah, I think the motivation is right (making sure the game is quality), and there is definitely an issue with people trying to make a fast buck off Tetris. It seems to me that there's some confusion between the agenda and how they're publicizing that agenda.