Except poor Mike Wilson. He gets the standard letter begging for an interview. . . and with companies like Epic, ThirdLaw, Monolith, Ritual, Terminal Reality and 3DRealms in the G.O.D. stables. . you KNOW Mike Wilson is a very busy man. So I get the response that says "Sure, Steve. . no problem, I'll do an interview and while I'm at it. . how about I send you some G.O.D. games to give away on your site too" . . . wow, what a great guy!! I send the requisite "Gee, thanks Mike. . your tha man. . smooch smooch" letter back and wait for the interview. . .  and I wait. . . . I have a few e-mail problems in the middle of all this, so I mail everyone making sure no interviews are lost. . . Mike responds politely, "nope. . . didn't send any e-mail to you". . . So I continue to wait. After a few weeks, I am a little worried about poor Mike ( lotsa interviews have come and gone. . ) still no interview back. 

So I decide to clean out the old Interview folders one day, and I notice. . . . I don't have record of ever sending Mike Wilson's interview to him. . "OH SHIT". . . I begged an interview, the guy gleefully commits to sending me free games. . and I forgot to send his interview. I am now M-O-R-O-N of the Century. Here comes the ass kissin' BIG TIME, Maybe I can salvage this interview. So I spend hours on the phone telling Mike What an attractive man he is. . . butter-butter, stroke-stroke, he falls for it. . and agrees to let me send him the questions and he'll do them. LORD, if only the story would've ended there. . . . . 

I received Mr. Wilsons timely response ( with E3 so close, ya know he was crackin' ass to do this for me ) this morning, only to find his interview scrambled. . . garbage. . . kaput!! How can this be?? I have a fresh Win2000 install, Office2000 Premium. . . what can be the problem??? Who knows. . . . I have to ask Mike to copy and paste the damn interview into NOTEPAD and send it to me. 

So the next time you think someone is being a jerk by not submitting to an interview. . . they might have been treated to the ol' Hypothermia shuffle and forever SCARRED No longer willing to ever do interviews!! So remember that the next time you read an interview, what these guys go through for us. Thanks Mike. . . .

Before and After

1.) How'd you get started in the Games game and/or who was your inspiration?

I was lucky enough to have a friend in the original id Software crew, 
when they were still in Shreveport, LA, working at Softdisk. I got to 
know the other guys casually though late night D&D sessions. (including 
John Carmack's campaign featuring his character, Quake) Anyhow, I kind 
of followed their progress through the Keen games and Wolfenstein 3D, 
and then got a chance to get involved after DOOM II came out and DWANGO 
was born. I moved down to Houston to help get DWANGO off the ground, 
and was later hired by id to head up their marketing and distribution 
efforts. That led to Ion, Ion to g.o.d. I guess John Romero was my 
inspiration he was the only one of the crew that really radiated how 
much fun he was having being in the industry. He still enjoys his work 
more than most developers I know.

2.) What's the most outrageous thing you ever did ON the job?

Man that should be a top ten list. I guess it was when I was still 
at DWANGO, but I got a topless pizza delivery girl to go around to each 
of the id offices, knocking and delivering pizza. I remember the 
priceless expression as Carmack saw her crossing the common area and 
doing a major double take, trying not to show his surprise. It was 
hilarious she was gorgeous, and it was like one of those candid 
camera setups.

3.) People you admire in the industry. ( please limit your answer to 2 people and 
    EXCLUDE me, that's a given. . )

I admire John Carmack quite a bit he compromises nothing and pursues 
what he's passionate about and nothing else. He is truly without 
peers in his area of expertise. And he's a complete workhorse. Other 
than that, I think Mark Randel at Terminal Reality. He's completely 
underrated, and has about 1/10th of the ego of his contemporaries.

3.) What's the most annoying thing to deal with as a GameGod.

Being referred to as such. ;) That's a silly name for me I don't even make games.Only the                      creators can be GameGods, IMO.

4.) Does your WIFE still nag you to "Get off that damn computer before I break it" now that your a famous GameGod??                                          

Um, yes. My wife and my daughters. Right now, in fact. But I'm glad they do, whatever they pull me away to is generally vastly more rewarding :^)

5.) Tips you can give GameMaker-Jedi in training

Make damned sure your biz guy knows what he's doing. And then make sure you have a very                      good attorney who agrees. Also, if it ain't in the contract, it ain't an agreement.

6.) Drink of Choice

Absolute/Soda w/lemon.

7.) Tunes of Choice

Pink Floyd, well above all others. Then, after the ten mile gap The Doors, Alice in Chains, The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Alanis Morrisette, Dave Matthews. Kid Rock is my favorite new artist. (even though he contends he's not a new artist)

8.) Babe of Choice

My wife

9.) The real answer to no. #9 for the married guys who had to say their wives.

Madonna (only in her 40's, though I never liked her before)


and the bonus question

Since we hang out together all the time, and are fantastic friends, share something with everyone              that most people don't know about you.

Hmmm. I still haven't graduated college? I'm one french class away from 2 degrees (PR and Marketing) but I have been for about 6 years now and it's not looking likely that I'll get around to completing that. LSU listed me in their 'who's who of alumni' for a couple of years until I demanded that they either send me a diploma or stop advertising w/me. ;)

There is simply not enough that can be said about Mike Wilson and the kind of guy that he is. It's funny though how in Question #3, Mike answers "That's a silly name for me I don't even make games.Only the creators can be GameGods, IMO. " But I think what Mike is overlooking is the fact that it takes a great person and a great team to get such a fantastic group of game developers under one roof like he has. . . So as much as he may hate to admit it, What Mike Wilson has done with G.O.D. has made him a GameGod to many of us. . . simply by bringing us the best and the brightest.

Head on over and see what the G.O.D. group has going, and if your at E3 this year. . . give Mike a Hug, he needs one ;^)