Fight Night with Dan Elektro from GamePro
Magazine!
July 6th, 2000 9:00 PM Eastern/ 6:00 PM Pacific
Edited Transcript By: ]{OMBAT from The Kombat Pavilion.
If you want to ask Dan anymore questions, feel free
to e-mail him at
danelektro@gamepro.com
Dan Elektro: I thought there'd be, like, four
people! Hi, everybody.
I am a fast typist so I will do my best to keep up
with
everybody. :)
PainGame: Dan, who is your fave
character?
Dan Elektro: Okay, fave MK char? Tough to
choose, depends on the game.
Raiden in 1, Kitana in 2, Scorpion in 3, Reiko
in 4
Cornell: Who was your favorite character? (In any of the MK Games,
of course)
Dan Elektro: My overall fave character is
Raiden. Something to do with electricity, I figure. :) And I love his screams. I
used to collect all the interpretations of his babble from the first game--"I'm
a Frito Lay!" "I am from L.A.!" Loved hearing those guesses.
:)
MethMaker: Dan, what is your take on the Reiko/Shao Kahn
ambiguity?
Dan Elektro: Explain Reiko/SK ambig
pls
MKJohn: Reiko is supposedly Kahn.... and i believe
it!!!
CCShadow: The Reiko/SK thing is that they are the same person,
according to the Gameboy ending for Reiko.
Dan Elektro:
Reiko is Kahn? I don't buy it.
QuanChi: Yes, in MK Gold Reiko puts on
Kahn's helmet... Don't you think that's weird?
]{0MBAT: It's true, look
at the Game Boy color ending.
Dan Elektro: Oh well.
Reiko could be just a pretender to the throne, yo.
MKJohn:
well dan how did you crack the DULLARD code?
Dan
Elektro: How I cracked the DULLARD code--big answer, I'll get to
it
in a sec
Blaraka: Dan works at EGM?
Dan
Elektro: Funny, Blaraka. :)
AceMaster: Dan how is it
like working for the greatest video game
magazine in the
world??
Dan Elektro: It's awesome and stressful and very
rewarding at GamePro.
A lot higher stress than you might think. But it's
the
best job I've ever had.
PainGame: Dan, have you ever
worked anywhere else?
Dan Elektro: I did time at a lot
of smaller game mags--Flux, GameSport, Critics' Choice, Digital Diner...some
you've never heard of. Took me three or four years to get here.
:)
D'Arque Bishop: Dan, is there any more information concerning
the rumour that Microsoft is buying Midway? If so, how do you believe this will
affect the quality of the PC ports, not to mention the existence of ports for
consoles other than X-Box?
Dan Elektro: Microsoft is NOT
buying Midway last I heard, but it was a reliable rumor for a while. Even my
friends at Midway didn't know for sure--one asked ME to find
out!
kwizard: How does it feel to work for the ONLY video game
magazine that doesn't have a vendetta against Mortal
Kombat???
Dan Elektro: We catch heat for liking MK so
much. One year we put it on the cover 3 times--that's a lot. to be honest,
though, 4 got old fast. We have a coinop and nobody plays
it
PainGame: How does it feel to be a celebrity
here?
Dan Elektro: A celebrity here? Pretty cool.
Flattering as hell. :)
Scott-MK5org: So is it true you look good
in Bunny Ears ;-)
Dan Elektro: I don't look as good in
bunny ears as Kerri Hoskins looks in bunny ears. :) The legend
grows...
Scott-MK5org: haha, btw dan she never emailed me, get on her
butt for me:)
Dan Elektro: I will rattle Kerri's cage.
I'm sure everybody'd rather talk to her in a Fight Night soon, yes? She said she
was interested.
]{0MBAT: Let's get on to the Dullard
code.....
Dan Elektro: Okay, Dullard code. I cannot take
total credit for it and I never have. I share it with a friend named Carl
Elston. Carl called me the day after MK for Gen came out and said "I have this
code, nobody knows what it does".
So I sat there all damned weekend and just
went through all the flags, totally systematically, writing down any
discrepancies. I got all of them but one--and it took me seven hours. Pain in my
ass. I faxed the results to GamePro Monday morning and Scary Larry called me,
because he didn't believe it was on a production version of the game
The
DULLARD code was almost certainly leaked by the programmers themselves--but I am
happy and proud to say that when it broke, only my description was anywhere near
complete. So I didn't FIND it so much as DECIPHERED it.
Blaraka:
Do you know who Doug Perry is?
Dan Elektro: Doug Perry
used to work at Future/Imagine/Next Gen, right?
Blaraka: Yeah, he told
me that you still owe him that $20 from last year's E3
Dan
Elektro: I hereby know NOTHING about bumming $20 from Doug Perry. :) I
don't know if we've even met--I recognize the name but would not recognize the
face!
Blaraka: If you had $20 and were in San Francisco, would you visit
the Imagine offices and pay Doug Perry his cash you owe him?
Dan
Elektro: Blaraka, you're going to have to take this Doug Perry thing up
in email, because I do not owe him money. I have never even met the guy.
Blaraka: that's ok...I'll go by their offices and pay the man myself and
tell him that it was from you...cool?
Dan Elektro: No
comment. :) You really should lay off the crack, tho.
Guest60814:
why is mortal Kombat looked down on? Street fighter has made like 400 games most
are exactly the same moves and characters
Dan Elektro:
MK is looked down on because SF allows more technical combos overall. I used to
hate SF and loved MK only. I've spent more time with SF people now so I
understand the appeal of each. And I suck less at SF now than I used to, so
that's something....
PainGame: Aren't you sick of all the
SFs?
Dan Elektro: I'm not sick of all the SFs, to be
honest. Each one has offered just enough innovation to keep me interested. Major
Mike is our big SF guy, so we lock friendly horns sometimes. :) And Air Hendrix
can take anybody with Liu Kang in any MK game...
pikascsa: how does
street fighter survive but mk die
Dan Elektro: How does
SF survive and MK die...if I could answer this, I would work at Midway. Again,
SF is always percieved as a "deeper" game, and MK was "the bloody one." Or as
one SF snob pal put it about MK1, "I don't like playing a game that I can beat
with jump kicks." True--you can if you want. But why rob
yourself?
D'Arque Bishop: Dan, from MKII on forward, MK arcade
games released in "increments", with beta, incomplete versions being released
and the game being slowly finished over time while gamers played In at least one
case, gamers had to relearn finishing moves because of one such upgrade. Do you
believe this to be a strength or flaw in the MK series, and
why?
Dan Elektro: Regarding the releasing of arcade
games in waves, this is kind of a standard thing in coin-ops. There's always an
update chipset around the corner. There were 4 versions of the original MK, but
most didn not have sweeping changes, and v1 was a complete game to begin with,
so nobody really noticed it much. I think releasing beta code only hurts the
game. It sure hurt MK4--they had a "false start" which killed a lot of the
business.
By the time they got V3 out, anybody who wasn't a diehard MK fan
had already left. Kind of a shame.
MKJ: what is your favorite MK
game?
Dan Elektro: My fave MK game: II, even though it's
slow. I like Kitana's "inflatality" and I like the music quite a bit. The stage
fatals were a great surprise. I wish it were faster--I wish someone would make
MKII with a turbo option or something. :) 3 was a drag, 4 was fun for a while
but I ultimately went back to II.
e_mortal: How will mk5 stand
up to what we have seen in the other ones....ie what u had mentioned no one
playing mk4
Dan Elektro: What do I know about MK5?
Nothing. They are being really really REALLY quiet on this. I think The Grid
will wind up being a nice break for Ed--he needs to clear his mind and come back
fresh. The poor guy's been doing one type of game for eight years straight, for
cryin' out loud. When I was interviewing John and Ed for MK3's home launch, they
both were polite but seemed tired. When I asked what else they'd like to do,
their eyes lit up and they said they wanted to make a Star Wars game. It never
got made, unfortunately, and Sega beat them to the license. But I would have
liked to see that game...
MethMaker: What do you think Midway
needs to do to revive the MK series?
Dan Elektro: What
Midway needs to revive MK: Time. Time without hype. Keep it low-profile, let it
breathe a bit, let people look forward to it again--even "whatever happened to
MK" would be a good thing and bring it back when there's some space between
major releases. But the pre-hype on MK4 (which GamePro admittedly fed,
massively) was not helpful to the series' health.
AceMaster:
Whatever happened to Scary Larry and Johnny Ballgame????
Dan
Elektro: Scary Larry once said that I got my job at GP because of the
DULLARD code. He was kidding. I got here through sweat and tears. :)
Scary
Larry got married, had a kid, and left GamePro to spend time with his family. I
am honored to have taken over the responsibility of the April Fools' LamePro
section in his absence.
Johnny Ballgame went to incite, which recently
folded, so he's going to pop up soon doing more celeb interviews.
]{0MBAT: Do you think gun control laws affect crime rates at
all? Would you say they lower or increase crime?
Dan
Elektro: Wow, do you really want me to answer a gun control question?
Not much to do with MK...
]{0MBAT: I asked because the media partly
blamed last year's school shootings (such as Columbine) on games like MK, and
partly blamed guns, I saw a lot of parallels between the two and I was wondering
if you felt the same way.
Dan Elektro: I'm personally
for gun control but I do NOT think games can be blamed. Same thing with horror
movies--you've got to be imbalanced before you pick up the controller if you
wind up acting on the fantasy. I use games as a frustration release--99% of us
do. But the 1% that don't get the difference between games and life screw it up
for everybody.
Kiara: We need to get GamePro down in this
country. The only ones we have is N64 Gamer, Hyper, and a whole lot of PC Game
magazines
Dan Elektro: There are several GP world
editions, Rapidesh. Where are you? There's a Greece, Turkey...lots
Kiara:
New Zealand.
Dan Elektro: I have no idea when GamePro is coming to New
Zealand. :) Drop me a mail and I will try to find
out--danelektro@gamepro.com
Kazuaki: Whaddya think of
Tekken?
Dan Elektro: I have never liked it. Honest. I
tried from Tekken 1 and T2 and T3 did nothing for me. Tekken Bowl on PS2, that's
funny... :)
PeterParker: Is there any word yet of when Mortal
Kombat Conquest will start again for a second season?
Dan
Elektro: I have no info on MKC, Peter--sorry
No one asks
anything, and Dan replies...
Dan Elektro: I have heard
rumors of a third MK movie but again, nobody's made any official statements or
announcements. Boba Fatt works in the movie biz and he keeps me informed.
:)
Kiara: How do you feel about girls asking you questions about
MK?? Do you find us threatening??
Dan Elektro: I don't
find girls threatening in the least. :) I have had my ass handed to me a good
many times by female fighting fans. Eternal Champions...holy cow, I got WHUPPED
by a lovely lady one day.
MethMaker: Dan, what do you think of
the introduction of weapons into MK?
Dan Elektro: I
thought the weapons were a good idea, and I like using them...but inevitably
picking something up costs me the match. There's got to be a different way to
make it work so it's not a hazard to use one.
D'Arque Bishop:
Dan, now that John Tobias, Dave Michicich (sp?) and John Tsui (and maybe others)
have since left Midway, what effect do you believe this will have on MK in
general, and MK5 in particular, especially seeing as Tobias was the one behind
the storylines?
Dan Elektro: I am far from "friends"
with Ed or John or anybody else on the MK team, but I was really sad to see John
leave. Essentially they left because it was a matter of creator rights. John got
his start in comics (he pencilled some early issues of NOW Comics' The Real
Ghostbusters, now available in quarter bins everywhere--I found them one day and
sent them to him because he didn't have any himself...[text got cut off...who
knows what he was saying?] characters just as well, and maybe there's a cool
plotline lurking in Ed that he's wanted to try out, you know? Certainly with MK
Myth and Special Forces it seemed like John was eager to tell new stories with
his characters.
D'Arque Bishop: Dan, now that John Tobias, Dave
Michicich (sp?) and John Tsui (and maybe others) have since left Midway, what
effect do you believe this will have on MK in general, and MK5 in particular,
especially seeing as Tobias was the one behind the
storylines?
Dan Elektro: I think you don't need a whole
lot of plot for a fighting game. MK5 will survive without John, but nobody's
going to deny his massive contributions to setting up the universe.
JeffJ: What do you think of MK: Special
Forces?
Dan Elektro: I played a little of MK: Special
Forces. Sad. Wanted it to be so much better.
PainGame: Do you
know anything about the whereabouts of Tobias?
Dan
Elektro: Where has Tobias gone? Not sure. I have been meaning to ask
him and see if he's got any new projects we should be tracking. 3 top guys don't
leave Midway to go hang out on the couch, you know?
MethMaker:
Dan, do you think there needs to be an overhaul in the combo system? It seems
that once you master it, the game is over simplified with all
players.
Dan Elektro: On MK combos, all I can say is at
least they're not Killer Instinct. I hated that game--you either loved it or
hated it, because you either knew the combos and you didn't. I think a bigger
problem is balancing the AI so it's fair, rather than a combo overhaul. But
that's me.
MDX: What do you think Ed Boon can, or will have to
do, to get Mortal Kombat back into the spotlight? After a 3 game strike list,
MK3, MK4 and MKG4.
Dan Elektro: What Ed needs to do to
get MK back in the spotlight is either make the ultimate fighting game with
every aspect gamers have ever wanted--sort of like Unreal Tournament did for
first-person shooters--or start completely from scratch. A prequel would be
neat.
MKJohn: Who was the best returning character in MK Gold? I
think it's Baraka!
Dan Elektro: I was happy to see
Baraka come back for MK Gold, but I have to admit, he always struck me as a
cheezy bastard. At least the people I played against used him as such. One jump
and you're sliced to bits. Yay?
MethMaker: Did you like the funny
fatals? Personally, I thought that was where the MK series started to decline,
it was like the flipside of everything I love about MK
Dan
Elektro: I didn't care for the funny fatals too much. I thought MK2 had
really good fatals, but MK3 went goofy. Consider the pressure they were
under--the Senate is calling them out by name as purveyors of filth and
violence. I think I'd cave a little bit too.
Sea SeRpEnT: Will
the next issue of GamePro mention MK5 or MKSF at all?
Dan
Elektro: No mentions of MK5 in GP soon, but MKSF was delivered to us so
late in the schedule that we're already building our October issue (!) so even
that might not get a review.
D'Arque Bishop: Dan, you bring up
what I think might be an interesting point, IMHO. A lot of times a comment that
is brought up about a character is that it's "cheap". Is there such a thing as
"cheap" characters, or do you believe that a cry of "cheapness" is meant to mask
one's inability to overcome a character's strengths?
Dan
Elektro: That's a hell of a topic. Are some characters "cheap?" No, but
I will say that some are unbalanced. That's a testing thing, not having a wide
enough scope of players to test the game. It all depends on the player. Some
players will cry "cheap" because they suck--we all know it. But sometimes it
does seem like you can just hammer someone with one or two techniques, and
that's no fun.
Sea SeRpEnT: Dan, do you think their should be an
MK Gold game for the PC.... since the MK4 version for the PC
sucked??
Dan Elektro: I don't think Midway should bother
making an MK Gold version for PC. The market's too small. I want to see one true
all-encompassing 4-volume MK disc. It won't happen because Acclaim still owns
the MK1 and 2 home rights!
PainGame: Dan, DO you watch
rasslin?
Dan Elektro: I used to like the old 80s
WWF--all the mass media stuff. Leaping Lanny Poffo was awesome, and Rowdy Roddy
Piper...can't get better than that. :)
Kazuaki: How good was the
saturn version of MK/MKII compilation, dan?
Dan Elektro:
The Saturn MK compilation was not nearly as good as it should have been. Acclaim
rushed it out because they had the rights, no other reason--"let's make money."
Slow loading, slow action, missing frames of animation...yikes.
D'Arque
Bishop: On the other hand, have you ever played the PC MK/MKII compilation, and
why do you think it never got a wide release?
Dan
Elektro: I have the MK I/II for PC and I think the problem was it was
on DOS at the cusp of the world going to Windows. If they'd done a proper Win95
version more people would have gotten into it--but again, Acclaim didn't want to
bother.
Sterolizer: Hey you do all the reviews for MK GamePro,
right? Are you going to do a review for Mortal kombat: Special
Forces?
Dan Elektro: I don't do all the reviews, not
hardly. We have a staff of about 8 or 9 people who share the load. Not sure
who'll do MKSF.
Guest49187: How do you like the idea of new
**Test Yours:** in the next MK game?
Dan Elektro: I
would personally love to see Test Your Might come back. Even if it's the same
thing they did before, that's like old school Track and Field fun, banging
buttons.
mdx: What do you think about the tag format that is
being used in the latest fighting games.?
Dan Elektro: I
think the tag format is a fad, mdx. I think it's fun but the SF thing is getting
out of hand. One tag, I can handle. MvC2 is fun but they lowered the character
res to get teams of 3, and it's more confusing than anything. I say, give each
character enough depth that their arsenal will be enough.
MKJ:
Hey Dan, what do u think about Mortal Kombat Conquest?
Dan
Elektro: I don't even watch MK Conquest. Hard to believe, I know...but
I still have scars from MKA. I liked the first movie because it was fun, it was
quick, it was lightweight and had lots of smackin' in
it.
Kazuaki: what your fave MKT, PS or N64? and why?
dan.
Dan Elektro: I liked the MKTrilogy for PS a lot
more. Better music, more comfortable controller. I can't stand the N64 controls
for fighting games. And I don't mind a little loading time--it's worth the wait,
as they say. :)
PainGame: Dan, What game do you love that you
just can't say it out loud?
Dan Elektro: I have lots of
guilty game pleasures but I'm not afraid to own up to them. Magical Drop II and
III are ones you might not expect. And dammit, I'm good at those. :) Other
unconventional picks are Bust-A-Groove and Guitar
Freaks.
Sterolizer: Dan, what exactly do you
do?
Dan Elektro: I am the features editor, I am the
ProNews editor, and I write as many reviews and previews as humanly possible.
One issue I answered the mail and I hope to do that again. I already do stuff
like chats and email so I guess it's only natural. :)
Sterolizer: So what
ties you in to this chat, what do you do for Mortal Kombat besides makeing giddy
Scott up there famous
Dan Elektro: Why am I at this
chat? Pretty much the DULLARD thing, plus I've been following MK for a long time
and I have an outline for a book that I would very much like to write. A history
of MK--not move lists, not combos, but the whole soap opera from the Universal
Soldier origins through the Senate and the mass market and the ultimate decline
of the series. I think the story should be told.
But otherwise, I think I'm a
cheap and easy guest to get to show up. I'm definitely merely a warmup act for
Fight Night 2000. :)
Agent X: Do you think MK5 could be played
over the internet?
Dan Elektro: Agent X, if MK5 *can't*
be played over the Internet, there's gonna be trouble. Midway has their
tournament system in place already and they are really pinning their hopes to
it. Home consoles are all going broadband in two years--Sega's got an upgrade
soon and Sony's planning for cable/DSL only. MK5 will have to have some kind of
online component when it arrives.
MKEmpire: Hey Dan, hire me at
GamePro. I work for food.
Dan Elektro: You'll work for
food? You'll fit right in here. We like food. :) I do have an article called "So
You Want To Work At GamePro" if anybody wants it--drop me a note at
danelektro@gamepro.com and I will be happy to send it on. It's kind of all you
need to know if you want a career reviewing games.
MKJohn: Do you
like a lot of people think MK went downhill after MKII?
Dan
Elektro: Yeah, I hate to admit it, but I think MKII was the last
glorious MK game. Maybe I just listened to too many other people. But MK3
felt...weird. MK4 was more of the old fire again, but MKII still has this
aggressiveness about it--they were trying to shake people up with shocking
scenes and stuff. I admire that, and the character balance is pretty good.
MethMaker: What do you think MK5 needs the most, the single most
thing that would dramatically improve the series?
Dan
Elektro: The single thing MK5 needs is balanced gameplay. Gotta give
the characters a sense of balance. If you can inject life and a sense of fair
play into the AI and the character balance, then gamers will come back,
regardless of their preferences.
PainGame: Dan, who do you think
is the biggest MK babe?
Dan Elektro: The biggest MK babe
has to be Kerri Hoskins as Sonya in MK3/4. Oh yes. :) Tho the original
Sonya--Elizabeth Malicki?--was sure cute too.
MethMaker: What do
you think of gods like Raiden or Fujin fighting in MK? Do you think having gods
fight takes away from the desperateness of the tournament?
Dan
Elektro: I think having Raiden fight in MK4 was cool, and I suppose
Fujin had to be there to balance him out. But it's supposed to be a tournament
for mortals. Hence the name, yes? :) Even Shao Khan only stepped in when Goro
failed--and good old fashioned shadow conspiracies are fun. It worked in
MK1.
D'Arque Bishop: One thing I noticed about the PC ports of MK
by Midway is that they have a problem with future technologies. Win95 MK3 is
extremely garbled in fullscreen, Win 95 MKT won't run on vidcards less than a
year or two old, and MK4 won't see a 3Dfx Voodoo 3 as being GLide compatible.
Why do you think Midway tolerates these blunders?
Dan
Elektro: I think Midway tolerates software blunders (esp. on the PC)
like the stuff in MK3 because a) it was the best they could do with an emerging
OS, b) they can patch it and c) they have to answer to the stockholders. Also,
much of what you talk about is technology they weren't even aware of--there are
all new chipset things that came up after MK3 PC came out. Guess their crystal
ball wasn't working, you know?
Sterolizer: Dan I'm sure someones
gonna ask you this so here it goes: Who are your top favorite characters, and
top five most hated characters...just out of curiosity of
course.
Dan Elektro: Top five fave chars, in no order:
Kitana, Raiden, Scorpion, Reiko, Sonya. Bottom five: Sub-Zero (blasphemy!),
Sheeva, Stryker, Quan-Cheezy, and a player to be named later because I can't
think of another one I really dislike.
Sterolizer: How about Nightwolf
for one of your worst charcters, I mean he dresses like a prick (indian) and has
no good moves......I like being styker becuase of his gun
Dan
Elektro: Okay, yeah, NightWolf makes a fine fifth lame character. No
disrespect to Sal Divita. :)
Kazuaki: Have you ever liked the mk
soundtracks? Which one is your favorite if so?
Dan
Elektro: Kaz, I like the MK2 soundtrack. Nice depth. I have the CD of
that. That's way better than the dance track by the Immortals!
MethMaker: Do you think the arenas need more activity in them, like
in MKII?
Dan Elektro: I think it would be nice to have
more interactive levels, yeah. I missed that from MK4 but they really had bigger
problems to solve. We had a few, they proved it could work, but yeah--hidden
areas, breakaway walls or quick traps would be nice.
pikascsa:
[They should] just remake MKII.
Dan Elektro: I'd like to
see MKII remade, but I'd be afraid it would be seen as the ultimate "Oh, they're
out of ideas" problem.
PainGame: What do you think of
Pokemon?
Dan Elektro: Pokemon? I really enjoyed it,
actually, more than I should have. But I think it's dying. Gold and Silver for
GB will probably be the swan song, and the movie ain't gonna do squat. First
Pokemovie sucked.
]{0MBAT: Dan watched the Pokemon movie,
lol
Dan Elektro: I went to see the Pokemon movie in the
THEATER. I was the only one above 4 feet without a child.
Sea
SeRpEnT: Ed and others say that MK5 well not be like the original MK's, if so...
is this a bad thing or good thing? Because if it changes so much. people might
not reconize it... what do you think?
Dan Elektro: If
MK5 forges new territory, great! I saw more power to them. It's clear that the
bulk of gamers do not what what MK is, or has become. A radical change would be
a good thing. As long as it stays a fighting game, I'll be there. I don't want
to see, you know, Mortal Kart Racing. :)
MDX: A new idea, or
style of gameplay is what I think Ed needs to come up with to make MK the hit it
once was. But new ideas aren't easy to come up with. What do you think about
this Dan?
Dan Elektro: New ideas are never easy to come
up with--not if they're good ones. That's why I think The Grid is a good mental
break for him. Ed and John once told me they felt like they were in a Mortal
Kombat factory, riding this wave until it reached the shore, and then they'd
catch another one. I don't think either person expected it to last quite so
long, though. Time away from the MK world will give him perspective and new
fire.
Guest49187: Will MKII ever come out for PSX?? it would make
millions!!
Dan Elektro: Unlikely. It's a dream of mine.
But MK Trilogy was "supposed" to be the answer for fans looking for old MK
games. Feh.
PainGame: Ever written for a
fanzine?
Dan Elektro: I have never worked for a fanzine,
no. I've worked for mags that were so small they could be considered fanzines :)
and I wrote some FAQs, but nope. I do have a personal website where I have some
goofy crap but that's not a fanzine.
MethMaker: Do you think MK
should go full tilt and go full 3d, and maybe institute a jump button, or stay
in the relative 2d gameplay it has?
Dan Elektro: I think
MK should go full 3D. Try it, see what happens, because 3D graphics on a 2D
plane didn't work out so well.
JeffJ: can't u hook up a reg
modem through the us ps2
Dan Elektro: PS2 is being built
with broadband in mind. Sony will not make a regular modem--but some third
parties say they will. Haven't seen any of that technology working yet, though,
and Sony's network is at least a year away.
Scott-MK5org: Dan,
what do you think of your rivals EGM :)
Dan Elektro:
What do I think of EGM. Hmm. :) Much is made of the rivalry, but in all honesty,
we respect each other. The staffs see each other all the time. Competition
doens't have to be personal, you know? We tease them, they tease us, but we're
all in the same boat. It's friendly but it's still a rivalry. Of course it's
easy to say that because we currently outsell them. :) (gotta get that shot in
there, I suppose)
kwizard: Dan, do you feel as though gamepro represents
more of the real gamers while other magazines such as EGM, represent the more
corporate side of video games?
Dan Elektro: EGM and
GamePro both cater to the same audience. GamePro gets billed as the "kiddie mag"
because we have cartoon characters and lots of colors. But I don't use a cartoon
character because I'm ashamed of what I write, you know? Look at the
masthead--you can figure out who most of the people are. DAN Elektro, Major
MIKE, JAKE the Snake...you get the idea. :) If anything, I think GamePro gets
accused of being corporate more than EGM.
MDX: Do you think you
can get GamePro to publish an article about thelife of a videogame programmer,
including daily tasks and school reccomendations??
Dan
Elektro: We did a series of articles on programmers some time ago
called "The GameMakers." This was actually before my time, but I know we did a
profile on Tobias. It's something I still kick around reviving, either as a
feature or a column. I'll revisit it.
MethMaker: Dan, what do you
think about the skimpy clothing of the females, do you think there should be
more realistic representations of women, or stay with the same theory: Sex
Sells?
Dan Elektro: The "sex sells" thing is okay by me,
and I'll tell you why: It's the same thing as comic books. They're idealized
representations. Being bus