First comment ! WOOT !

Yes, but back to what you were saying about the sans-culottes movement...

anyways gratz on the interview I'm just listening to it now.

the picture they have up of you makes me think you hate me and everyone else, but you come off as the nicest guy in the world in the interview.  Goo prevails!

Your voice is very soothing.

You do have the NPR voice, and also you side like an older version of a friend of mine.

I thought it was interesting that GregK mentions Dreamfall on a sidenote about dialog in the transcript of the podcast. What'd you think of the game? I thought the dialog was good, but it needed a lot of editing. One thing is having realistic dialog, but the other is making it boring like real life with lots of "by the way"s in between and such.

In contrast, the interviewers style is horrible!  Sounds like he's talking at you and not to you - atleast at the beginning.

Kudos for succeeding despite that.

You sound like you have been on Gamespot all your life.

Very interesting interview, Ron. I see snippets appearing that I already read in some other interviews, like the bit about EA starting up a satellite independant company, and I think these things can not be said enough. Hopefully people will pick this up, because it really does seem like a step in the right direction. And is it me, or is there a raised interest in your person in recent times? Could these be the foreshadowings of good things to come?

I also concur on the soothing aspect of your voice. If my cats were here, I think they'd all curl up and sleep at the bass of my speakers.

Flat-out funniest first line I've heard in ages. HAHAHAHAHA!

By all means, I (and many others) hope you get to finsh off the series properly one day, but please please do not reveal any "Secret" (if there is one). Half the magic of why Monkey Island is still alive today is because of this elusive secret, keep it a secret :)

Wow, you are not grumpy at all!
Listening to your voice is like...well, after some minutes i felt like i was in peace with the whole world.

And Animal Crossing got mentioned, very nice interview.

It's good to see more interviews with designers appearing who are voicing concerns about the game industry, like Gamasutra's recent interview with Chris Crawford and Eurogamer's interview with Warren Spector. People like this, Tim Schafer and Ron are the true "greats" of the industry. But with the exception of Wil Wright, they don't seem to get listened to very much.
Instead we get to hear developers and publishers talk about how fantastic everything is, how much emotion their games supposedly evoke in players, how feature Blah Blah Blah offers so many new gameplay opportunies,  and what a fantastic time it is to work in the games industry right now. But perhaps there is shifting trend going on, where people are more interested in reading interviews like the one with Ron rather than all the self-congratulary hype.
Or is it simply a matter that once a designer gets a publisher, he can no longer speak his mind so candidly?

I love gamespot for trying to introduce more interesting features to their site that are not top ten lists. I wish more designers spoke openly. I hope this series continues and that it can be a replacement for the icons show in g4 tv which now has nothing to do with videogames.

15th (or 16th) comment!!

wOOt^16

And a great interview. Not the least grumpy though....

I'm glad you were the first developer for this new series on GameSpot. I think you helped Greg prove his point that a podcast about a developer talking about real issues can be an appealing thing. I found it very interesting and better than any print interview I've ever read. Thanks again for helping GameSpot with their new feature.

you celebrity, you!
this is the 18th comment!!!
too much ytmnd, really ^_^

I really enjoyed the interview, I didn't expect to hear as much actual discussion as I did, as opposed to the usual self-promotional interviews that most people do. Thanks for sharing your opinions and ideas through GameSpot!

Hi Ron,

Thanks for doing the interview on Gamespot. Apart from it being a very informative and fun conversation to listen to, it also made me aware of this site.

I have a question about the interview: Concerning the Wii, you first said something along the lines of not seeing yourself jumping around the room playing games, which is more than understandable. A little while after that though, you talk about the Xbox 306 controller, and how it's too complicated for people who don't play games, and that you think it has to be a lot more simple and easy to pick up, while still being able to provide a lot of depth. To me, this is exactly what Nintendo is trying to do with the Wii and its controller. The question is then: do you have any other ideas of how the user can interact with games more easily and intuitively? And do you think that the Wii controller is still a step in the right direction?

About your voice, everyone's right. Man, it was like listening to Bob Ross talk about the games industry. Except that you're alive, and aren't talking about happy little peeks and pokes.

Great stuff, thanks!

Mr. Rogers!

New RPG/Adventure to top Monkey Island! Yay! Sign me up!

And like they've saying, you've got an amazing voice, I look forward to hearing more ^^

Agreed. I really hope Rob finds a publisher soon so we can get some details.

Special guitar?!?

Yes, we need a publisher

If you were suddenly given the capital required to develop this magical mystery title with an actual studio (let's assume you ad-hoc one for the duration of the project), where would it be?  Not really "where would your number one place be".  More "Where would it actually end up being?"

Thanks.  BTW, great interview; really fun :D

thank you, that was great! i finally know how to pronounce "gilbert" :)

my sole complaint: no monkey island music...

Very entreteining! ... here is a sugestion, next time .. bring a monkey .. that will REALLY make things flow!

.. and if the interviewer ask you "how its like to try make point clicks in today market flooded by fps's and mmo's?" the monkey is trained to bite him. and you just say "like that".

keep up the good work

Well, that was enjoyable although I'll have to listen to the beginning again as I'd decided to listen to it on my MP3 player whilst mowing the lawn yesterday, and by gum, it just so happens, the first part was completely drowned out.

Not that you wanted to hear that, but whatever, good work Ron.

And here you go again, Ron - "I should probably write it down and give it to my lawyer to reveal on my death." :/ Just spill it out - you will not be able to make another MI game. [I know how pathetic my statment is, but hey, I'm just an antoher desperate fan of MI...]

I don't know the scope of your new project, but from the sound of it, have you considered approaching Nintendo? You mentioned in the article that one of the things that is scaring publishers off is the fact that its a relatively low-budget title. Nintendo execs (Iwata?) have made comments recently about making profitable games with low budgets (Nintendogs, Brain Age, etc). Given the RPG/Adventure description of your game, it seems like it might be a good genre fit for the DS. That lawyer game is getting a sequel on the DS (I think) too and that's basically an adventure game. ^^ Just a thought.

Thanks for making great games.

Dylan

Just finished listening to the podcast.  Really great interview!  It was interesting to hear your views on how the game industry has changed over the years.

Ron, why is it that we have GameSpot and all those game companies in the bay area but you can't even find one decent computer/video game store in this city that carries something as simple as tetris or mario kart ds??? wtf is wrong with this world?!

I think your fears about the Wii controller can rest easy.
Even though Nintendo's showing people breakdancing like idiots in their advance press, you do not actually have to do the Electric Boogaloo to use the remote for the Wii.
I loved the interview. Kept me awake at work, and that's no small feat.

Interesting Interview! Got to know how much games industry has taken over and influenced a lot many people and changed over the years. Listening via your podcast service had a great impact on me too, even i m developing a taste for video games now. :-)

great site with good look and information...i like it

Great podcast. Thoughtful and insightful answers.  I really enjoy your writing here as well.  It's now on the favorites. Get to blogging to satiate my leech-like tendencies.

Now I'm putting a voice (and a face) on your prose.

Has anyone ever told you that you sound just like Terry Jones from the Monty Python's ?

Great interview! :) I enjoyed your insight, thanks for doing the interview.

Now I'm putting a voice (and a face) on your prose.

Has anyone ever told you that you sound just like Terry Jones from the Monty Python's ?