Ever read an “interjú” before? Well, this is your big chance. The guys over at HC Gamer, a gaming site from the country of .hu, have posted one…

HC.Gamer: You started your career as a level designer at id Software. How did the decision come to leave them and found your own company, to make your own games?

American Mcgee: I did not leave id, I was fired.

Yeah, I just go straight for the jugular there. It always strikes me as odd how people dance around the subject of my “departure” from id. You would think by now that everyone out there who has followed any of the goings-on at id would realize that very few people have ever left that company voluntarily. I’m not embarassed of the fact that I was fired. Hell, when it happened, after an initial period of reasonable shock, I was quite *happy*.

I recently read an article which made mention of the “retirement” of Adrian Carmack from id. To be honest, I had no idea that he’d left in the first place. The article stated that the public version was that he’d taken a voluntary retirement. Makes sense. I mean, how many demon skulls can a guy draw? As it turns out the truth behind his exit was a lot messier. Seems that the vicious internal politics at id finally caught up with him and the other owners “squeezed him out.” Part of their effort to remove him apparently included tracking the hours he worked and eliminating profit dividends (quarterly employee bonuses based on internal review).

Sounds familiar. Same thing happened to Romero. Same thing happened to just about everyone who was let go from id. I wonder if any of the remaining owners see a pattern emerging. I wonder if they care.

The truth is that every firing has had some merit. Everyone that was let go was suffering some form of burnout. I imagine Adrian’s case is no different (although I could be wrong). My problem was that, even though I knew I was burned out, I couldn’t fathom the idea of walking away from such a secure position. So I stayed on, limping along, suffering various abuses, until the owners mercifully ended it.

Funny thing about all this… Adrian *really* hated me. The entire time I worked at id he projected this grudge towards me that to this day is still a mystery. When I was fired I waited until after receiving my final check to ask him, “What did you have against me?” He responded that there wasn’t enough time in the world to explain it. Oh well.

Hey Adrian, the good news is that there is life after id. You might have to learn how to draw something other than demon skulls though.

Read the full Bad Day LA interview here.

Alex Petraglia over at Primotechnology.com has posted a lengthy and informative interview that covers topics from my past, such as Oz and Alice, my present project, Bad Day LA, and a range of other subjects. Worth a read. A truly impressive Bad Day LA concept art/screenshot gallery goes along with it.

McGee’s most current and prolific venture is a title called Bad Day LA. The game, scheduled for release this year, is currently being developed by McGee at Enlight’s studios in Hong Kong. Ever wonder what happens when the most self-indulgent city in the United States gets hit by every natural (and unnatural) disaster ever conceived? McGee banked heavily on the nation’s fear obsession, a condition we have both the government and media to thank for.

In other news, McGee has hinted at a possible movie tie-in for Alice since the game was released in 2000. Those plans are finally officially confirmed. The movie will be directed by Marcus Nispel (the 2003 rendition of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and star Sarah Michelle Gellar as the title character. If all goes according to plan, the movie is on track for a 2006 wide release.

We caught up with the man and myth himself to answer some questions about his past, BDLA, and the future of the industry. Read on.

Continuing this morning’s BDLA posts… John Keefer over at GameSpy has posted his preview thoughts…

GameSpy: Bad Day L.A. Preview
American McGee likes to go against the grain. From his Alice game in 2000 featuring a wonderland on crack to his unfulfilled vision of Oz gone bad, his contrarian views on culture and conventional perceptions definitely cut across the comfort zone of the average person. None of that seems to bother McGee, as he continues to play in the dark, much the way Tim Burton has done in his movies.

John’s understated preview belies the somewhat rambunctious discussion that inspired it. I felt a little uneasy after showing John the game. He didn’t laugh out loud during the preview and didn’t make any immediate comments afterwards. Instead, when I was done, he ushered Sibel (our PR person) and myself out of his office and to some chairs in the GameSpy reception area. Suddenly I felt like I had done something wrong.

I flashed back to when I was in elementary school. I sat outside my house on the front steps with a friend of mine. We were cursing. I can’t remember what we were cursing about; we had only recently discovered these “bad” words and were having a great time playing with them. Suddenly my mother was standing behind us. She startled us badly. We turned to her and she smiled. “Uh-oh”, I thought. I could see “Uh-oh” written on my friend’s face as well. “I have a present for you American”, she said sweetly. Fear was replaced by happy expectation. My friend asked, “Do you have one for me too?” My mother grinned even wider, “Sure. If you want one.” She then asked me to close my eyes and open my mouth. I obliged. Next thing I knew liquid dish soap was being squirted into my mouth. The last I saw of my friend he was flying across my front yard screaming. He wanted none of this “present”. My dirty mouth had been washed with soap. I spat and burped bubbles for an hour.

Over lunch John and I discussed the game, its inspirations, content, and my hopes for its impact on people. John made several interest points about the concept and was generally positive in his views of it. But there was one issue where he took clear exception: foul language. See, every other word out of our main character’s mouth is either four lettered or four lettered with an “ass” attached to it. John’s strong opinion was that this content does nothing to help the game’s message and it doesn’t do much to help the comedy. If anything it could be seen as a comedic crutch and could seriously limit the mass-market appeal.

So now we’re playing with the idea of bleeping the offending dialog. John and my mom will be happy. Will you?

Jason Ocampo over at GameSpot has posted a nice preview article of BDLA. He says…

Bad Day L.A. Updated Impressions – French Terrorists, Zombies, and More – Bad Day L.A. Previews for PC at GameSpot
Admittedly, it’s a bit difficult just trying to describe Bad Day L.A., because we’ve never really seen anything quite like it. It takes the basic concepts of an action game and combines them with a level of edgy humor that’s rarely seen in games these days. Will it be controversial? No doubt. Is it funny? We must admit that we laughed quite a bit throughout the demo. And when you get down to it, the game’s absurd and politically incorrect humor will likely touch a chord with an audience out there.

You know, I’ve been trying to come up with a term to describe what it is we’ve created here. So far my favourite is: Chaos Control. BDLA isn’t “just” a 3rd-person shooter. In fact, compared to other 3rd-person shooters it falls short in the bells and whistles department. This certainly isn’t a feature-list driven game. So can we invent a new sub-genre? 3rd-person Chaos Control game. That sounds right.

Idle Thumbs is a gaming site written by people who are “…not cynical burnt-out industry veterans, or self righteous Japanese import snobs who want to show off how hardcore they are. We don’t believe replacing perfectly fine English words with French italicized ones is indicative of a higher intelligence. We’re also not “like The Onion, but for games”. Please. Our articles are real.”

Basically they are worth reading. Especially since they are running a cool Bad Day LA interview:

Idle Thumbs: American McGee’s Interview
Satire in games is nothing new. Just take Grand Theft Auto, with all its outrageous talk radio, Ammu-Nation outlets and pop culture parodies. Yet social commentary in games is usually in the details, not fused into their central premise. Bad Day LA’s satire isn’t merely decorative, it’s what the game is all about. – An Interview by Marek Bronstring

“Touch the poop to pick it up.”

Is this government serious? It seems that the US is doomed to fight un-winnable wars. First the war on drugs, then the war on terror, now the war on porn.

FBI forms anti-porn squad

Last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a
new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a memo from FBI
headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the
top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and, by extension, of “the
Director,” Robert Mueller.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support
staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography
— not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is
marketed to, consenting adults.

“I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,” said one exasperated FBI
agent, speaking on condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is
not regarded as career-enhancing. “We must not need any more resources for
espionage.”

This is typical of an administration fueled by supposed “Christian Values”, whose base of power is made up of the “righteous right”. A recent article in Harper’s illustrated the hypocricy of that notion:

Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.

And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.

Where are the wars on poverty, AIDs, illiteracy, or hunger? According to the United Nations Development Program, the cost of providing the most basic needs that go unmet around the world–for food, shelter, clean water, primary education, basic medical care–would be $80 billion a year. The U.S. military will spend five times more than this sum next year alone.

Does the world really need anti-porn squads or government representatives who spend their days trying to put illegal sales controls on video games? This all falls into the same catagory to me: Political WMD. Worthless Media Distraction.

You know, a Declaration of Revocation is what the US needs.