Everyone in the civilized gaming universe knows who American McGee is. If they didn't know him from his work with id Software since the days of Doom, then they knew him through his first PC game title, American McGee's Alice. Most of us "old timers" have been around since the very beginning of American's career in the gaming industry and been amazed at just how resilient and resourceful American has been.

Most of you know we like to get a little touchy feely with our interviews here, and focus on the personal side of our friends in the game industry. We caught up with American at his new company Carbon6 and thought we'd throw a bunch of our patented "Hypothermia" questions at him....being the cool MoFo that he is, he obliged us with this interview.

True to Hypothermia form, I have a funny story to go along with this interview, and some of you might get a kick out of this as well...

I have met most of the id Software crew, ( past and present ) between 1997 and now. Whether it was at QuakeCon or seeing the gang at E3... over the last 5yrs I have been fortunate enough to meet many other developers in the gaming industry as well. But for some reason, the people that have been with id Software ( at some point in their career ) are some of the best people on the planet. Say what you will about their games or projects... the people themselves are the coolest people you could ever meet ( must be something in the water ). 

American McGee is the same guy that, 4 years ago would stand there patiently listen to us babble at QuakeCon even though you could tell he had better things to be doing. Today... many changes, and much success later...is still the same guy. With all the hype that surrounds the gaming industry, the cool friends, the cool parties, magazines that proclaim him one of "The Next Gaming Gods"... American McGee is still the same guy that had time to hang out for a few minutes with incoherent, rambling fans.

Since so much has changed over the last few years, and I am not just a big mouth, obnoxious fan anymore ( I am an big mouth obnoxious fan with a website now )...I thought it would be fun to visit Mr. American McGee and poke a little good natured fun at him about his success in the gaming industry.

First of all, Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. We do our best to make you feel "at home" during our interviews, which shouldn't be too hard since...well, you really are at home, this interview is being done via e-mail

1.) You are like the KING of "Lemons into Lemonade" stories, for those of us who have been  around since the beginning of America ( bad pun )...what's the secret. You've had a pretty hard road, but you have remained remarkably focused, is that natural or is there a secret?

I think my past has allowed me to keep a good perspective on where I’m going in life. Mostly I put those events behind me, focus on the moment, and try not to get too distracted by where I’ m headed. If the events of my life have taught me anything its that very little in life matters as much as doing what makes you happy despite what other think. I try not to worry about the things I can’t control and work as hard as I can to affect the things I can.

2.) When I first heard the title "American McGee's Alice" when the game was announced. . . I thought "EGO". I remember you riding a little wave of criticism over it at first. Once I played the final product, I finally understood ( whether it was intended or not ) that this was in fact "American McGee's Alice", and that is what impressed me. Was it hard to take the heat on that one ( I remember it was a decision made at the time by EA )?? Ultimately, would you go that route again??

The criticism was minor, understandable, and bearable. The most painful aspect of the “name on the box issue” manifested itself in the relationship I had with the development team. A number of the group felt (and rightly so) that a single person taking credit for the work of an entire team was unfair. What the public thought of it… it was mixed. I have lots of fans and an equal number of people who dislike me just for the sake of disliking me. The truth is that only my close friends know enough of me to pass that sort of like/dislike judgment on me. Others are simply wasting thought and emotion.

As for whether or not I would do it again… we’re always weighing the plusses and minuses. There are some projects where I think it would make good business sense to do it again and others where it doesn’t make sense. It’s going to totally depend on what the project is. I’m certainly not for putting my name on every game we create.

3.) O.K. I'll be the first to say that even as a kid, I have always hated Alice in Wonderland...as an adult, with children, I have learned to hate it even more. American McGee's Alice was amazingly different, the gameplay was awesome, the storyline was great and it kept me LOCKED from beginning to end in the game world you created. The appeal for many of us was the Dark - Tortured version of Alice you brought to the table. Where the hell did all that come from.... are you in therapy??

I’ve been asked this question before and I’ve tried to answer it as best I can but never really felt satisfied what my response. Trying to explain what internal mechanism is responsible for the type of art you create, music you appreciate, clothes you wear, etc, etc… isn’t easy for anyone. It requires that you step outside yourself, examine the environment that wrought you, the core of your personality, and the stimulus that drives you. I’ve done this and found that I’ve just always been a little twisted… that from an early age I was marked ‘odd’. Partly because of my upbringing, partly because of who I inherently was, and partly because of the social pressures I’ve been exposed to my entire life.

No, I’m not in therapy in the traditional sense. I have been but I’ve learned to be a pretty good self-therapist over the years.

4.) Staying with the Therapy theme here, please indulge me on this. I want to put these notions that American McGee is a twisted bastard to rest. I have a few "Ink Blot" tests that I believe will help people realize that you are, in fact, not some bizarre game developer that enjoys transporting poor children’s stories over to the Dark Side ( Dark Side® LucasFilms, all rights reserved )

Please view the following images and give a brief description of what you "SEE". (...please remember there are NO WRONG answers....only really stupid ones. )

1.) A Puzzle Piece 

2.) A Tropical Isle

 3.) The Demon of Evil Music

 4.) Your Mom 

5.)  What does a Gaming God / Movie Mogul / Sex Symbol drive?. . .really, if I popped into the Carbon 6 parking lot...what kinda cars am I going to see??

The next time I see one of those I’ll ask him. If you looked in the garage you would find two Acuras. A ’01 CL Type-S and a ’97 NSX-T. That’s mine and Dave’s cars respectively. I got over the evil fast car fascination a long time ago.

6.) Speaking of Carbon 6, give me some background Bro... c'mon, you weren't just dying to hang out with Dave Taylor again were you?? What kinda stuff will we see out of Carbon 6 “ENTERTAINMENT"... ( I am stressing the fact that it isn't Carbon 6 GAMES ). Fill us in..

No, I wasn’t just dying to hang out with Dave again because we’ve never really stopped hanging out. Dave has always been one of my “permanent friends” and one of the people I most enjoy having in my life. We do a good job of understanding and making up for each others weaknesses and strengths. We have very similar philosophies about life, work, and the world in general. I think our working together again is going to help us both do great things over the next couple of years.

Carbon6 will hopefully surprise a lot of people. We’re a true hybrid based on very entrepreneurial philosophies and abilities.   The real question is what won’t you see. We’ve got roads into every kind of entertainment and plan to fully exploit each and every one of them to the fullest.

7.) I'm not going to pry into your "relationship" status ( very much), we just wanna know, does the whole "I have my own Entertainment Company" help you score with the chicks??

That doesn’t work really well with the “chicks” I dig. And my relationship status is healthy and happy.

8.) The flipside to that coin. Being as well known as you are now. . . you got like Rock Star friends, the media and people like me bug you for interviews and such. Do you ever just wish you were plain ol' Tokay again, kicked back at a LAN talking trash with your old Clan mates?

Believe it or not I can actually say I have fond memories of the days when I was “just” an auto mechanic. There was a certain satisfaction that came from laying your hands on something broken and repairing it. And there was an relatively immediate reward… with games we have to wait for years before we know if the fruits of our labors are tasty or not.

I can’t say I wish to go back but its not an unpleasant thought to entertain.

9.) While we are visiting the "Tokay of yester-year" in the way back time machine....Holy Hell man, did you ever think doing Tech Support for your neighbor at that little company called  id Software would ever lead you to where you are today??

No. I’ve been incredibly lucky in the sense that so many supportive, creative, and brilliant people have surrounded me throughout my career in the games industry. Every day that goes by I marvel and am thankful for my position in life and where it’s taking me.

10.) It's actually pretty funny. . but most people perceive "PRESSURE" as trying to create a "HIT". Whether it be a hit Game, a hit TV Show, hit Song, hit Movie and so on. But truth be told...isn't there more pressure being in your shoes right now with successful games like Alice already under your belt, is the pressure greater now to continually "top" your last project.

I can’t say I’m feeling any sort of pressure. We really like what we do on a daily basis and it’s all about having fun. If the fun went away I guess I’d start feeling that pressure. Alice’s success only makes me want to dream bigger, create cooler stuff and more of it. If anything it’s removed a lot of pressure by helping me to feel like realizing a vision isn’t as hard as it seems. You just apply yourself and make it happen.

O.K. Moving along to the easy, frivolous stuff....

11.) When you aren't working... be honest, what do you like to do???

Since Dave and I moved to Los Angeles we’ve had a hard time doing anything BUT work. Before we started Carbon6 I used to go out to the clubs in San Francisco a LOT. That was my social network, my escape from reality, and my house of worship. The music scene there really helped me to grow up and grow wise in a lot of different ways.

These days when I have time I spin (house, trance, breakbeats), write, read, dabble in photography, study everything from movie making to psychology, watch (and study) movies, cook, work on the house, read scripts, walk, work out, relax, etc, etc.

12.) Is it still Coke and Cheetos like the old days?? Or had success spoiled you rotten??

It’s never really been Coke and Cheetos… except for when I was seriously poor and could only afford Spaghetti-os and ramen noodles. My penchant for good food was probably one of the biggest money drains ever. I’ve recently discovered that I don’t need to pay other people to make good food for me though… I’ve take up cooking in a big way and have been having a great time, eating good food, and not spending a fortune on it. Dave doesn’t mind having a food slave around either. 

13.) Firing up your MP3 Player....what are a few on the playlist??

Listening to the new Sandra Collins - Cream CD as I write this. In the car today it was an old Sasha and Digweed - Northern Exposure 2, and just started listening to the new Deadsy over the past few days. I listen to everything from movie sound tracks to electronic, rock, hip-hop, rap, classical, etc. The only thing you won’t find me listening to –ever- is country.

14.) Hollywood types date other Hollywood types... since you will soon be a big Movie Making Mogul...or whatever, who would be in the short list of Hollywood types you'd be interested in.

I’m not interested in “Hollywood types”.

15.) I know people in the gaming industry scope out other games, FROM A PLAYERS perspective: Xbox.... GameCube..... PS2...... you playing??  What are you playing on that big fat ass HDTV??

  From a player’s perspective…

PS2 is by far my favorite console and has my favorite lineup of games. I go through times where I don’t turn it on for a week and then times when I can’t turn it off to save my life. Recently Metal Gear had me in one of the crack addict modes. Been holding off on buying SSX Tricky because I know it’ll do the same thing.

Xbox I think will eventually win just because of sheer horsepower, but they need to get some actual gameplay into their games and TRASH that controller. I can’t believe they shipped that fat ass piece of @#*!. Do you hear the emotion in my voice? Damn that thing sucks.

16.) Same question.. we're talking PC Games now. . .

Haven’t been playing any. Hard to believe huh? Was addicted to Diablo 2 like everyone else in the universe. Haven’t found the replacement to that and haven’t really been looking. It takes a LOT of time to get a new company off the ground so I’m doing everything I can to minimize distractions… even if they are related to our biz.

17.) I gotta buncha PC Hardware junkies that visit regularly . . . what's in your Personal Gaming / Work Machine??

My favorite work machine when it comes to writing, art, video editing, etc is what I’m writing this on - a Ti PowerbookG4. I bought this thing wanting to get onto osX. The fact that it looks and feels so much like NextStep and is UNIXy had me really excited. I love this machine, the interface, and the fact that whenever we present projects on it people immediately think we’re 30% cooler than we actually are.

The PC I use on a daily basis is the same one I’ve been using for the past… 3 years. Is that right? Jeeze… It’s the P2-400 I bought when we started work on Alice. I wanted something that would be a good baseline for the consumer machines we were shipping the game to. Just haven’t found any need to replace it.

18.) One final question, I am sure you get it all the time now that you are a big celebrity, but what the hell...I'm in charge of this interview dammit!!! Can I have your autograph???

Sure.

Carbon6 Entertainment has five projects currently in the works right now, the most notable being their game based in the world of Oz. Although the game is still in development stages there has certainly been a lot of buzz and speculation around it already. There is Concept Art that can be seen HERE.

On a personal / funny note, they say everyone is connected somehow through the whole "Six Degrees of Separation" thing. You know: where there is somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody....blah blah blah. That theory is fine...as long as the somebody isn't me posing with no shirt on, in the same Quake's Sexiest Male 1997 contest with Paul Steed and American McGee... ugh...TEH HORRER!!! Those are six degrees that can stay lost.

Seriously, one of the coolest things about doing what I do, is having the opportunity to be here ( a few years later ) and be able to interview someone I respect as much as American McGee. 

I know I speak for everyone when I say...I can't wait to see what Carbon6 has up their sleeves.