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Following are a few questions that everybody and myself would like to know about Steve Stringer and Activision. They are centered around what Activision does, what Steve does there, and two games produced by Activision. Heretic2 and Hexen2 are discussed of course, as well as the partnership between Raven Software and Activision. For those of you that don't know who Activision is, you have probably been under a rock for the last four or five years.
Hopefully this interview will tell you more about the company.
- Cracker

Cracker: Tell us a little about what Activision does, and how long the company has been together. Briefly describe the history of Activision...e.g. How and when the company was started. How the company has grown, and the games that Activision has published. Also if you can the steps to publishing a game, up to distributing the game to stores. I know a lot of info.:)

Steve: The history of Activision is really broken into two parts; old and new. In the early '80's days, the name—and fate—of Activision was synonymous with Atari. When Atari crashed, so did Activision.

In the late eighties/early nineties, Activision came back from the ashes. A new management team bought the company, lost all but a dozen or so people, and moved the company down here to LA. Starting with Pitfall: The Myan Adventure and Return to Zork, we started building our expertise in modern game development. Then there was MechWarrior 2, the title that really sent us into the stratosphere. The game was a phenomenal success and paved the way for our current business.

Since then, we've grown substantially into one of the largest and most successful publishers in the industry. We have publishing operations world wide and have built relationships with some of the finest developers in the industry, many of whom, I'm proud to say, I've had the pleasure of working with.

As for the steps involved, a typical project starts with an original idea (sometimes we get a license and we have to shape a game around it). We seed early development to flesh out the idea on paper. If the idea sounds compelling, we proceed to an early prototype stage where we test the idea and see if there's something viable. Then we proceed to hone the core gameplay mechanic and push through production. A typical production is anywhere from a year to 24 months (Heretic II was the former) and costs many millions of dollars.

Simultaneously, we plan a marketing campaign putting together the elements that will support the launch of the title. Sometimes we miss the mark on this, but the amount of work is considerable. We can easily spend as much in marketing a title as it costs to make it. There are marketing teams for each territory, pretty much, we sell into around the world. In some cases, as with Germany, we modify the game somewhat to make it more appealing to that market. This takes a lot of coordination and effort, but we have been very good at shipping all versions of the game worldwide, all languages, within a few weeks of the primary versions' launch.

Meanwhile, the sales force in all territories is hammering their accounts to tell them how great the game is. In many ways, the retailers (BestBuy, CompUSA, Wallmart, Babbages, EB, etc.) are our actual customers in economic terms. We also arrange with them to buy shelf space, end caps, displays and palettes. These are all coordinated months in advance, so you can see why there's so much pressure to hit ship dates.

Our PR machine works throughout production working to get coverage in the online and print pubs. Preview copies are sent out en masse and interviews are arranged. Once or twice during production, we'll go on a road show and hit all the major pubs in San Francisco and in New York. This is a never ending process that takes up a huge chunk of our time, but it is well worth the effort.

As the production nears completion, we bring QA into the loop and start intensive testing. We have people looking at the game all through production and at the major Alpha and Beta stages, but full QA starts near the end. We go into bug closure mode when we feel the game is feature-complete, and work for weeks to get the game as clean as possible.

When the game is ready, we call Code Release and send disks to manufacture. This typically takes a week or two and is a very quiet, anxious time for the team. The game ships out of our warehouse and hits the store shelves and then the fun begins. The big payoff is having people like you enjoy the game.

That's it in a nutshell. This is, of course, grossly simplified. Game production and publishing involves literally hundreds of people around the world and takes something on the order of a hundred man-years to create. Coordinating all these resources, from conception to long after code release, frighteningly enough, is my job.

Cracker: When did the partnership between Raven and Activision start? Also describe how and why the partnership took place.

Steve: In late 1996, we secured a deal with id to publish Hexen II. From the first moment we saw screenshots and builds of the game, we knew that Raven had an extraordinary ability to create beautiful games. They had a strong franchise in the Heretic/Hexen universe, and an expertise and maturity as a production company. This particular partnership made a lot of sense for both sides, both economically and pragmatically. It was just a great fit.

Cracker: What is your title/role at Activision. How long you have been with the company. And how you were involved in Heretic2/Hexen2.

Steve: I am a Producer in Activision's StudioX, meaning I work with external production teams. But this wasn't always the case. I came into Activision's internal studio (there was no external production at that time) as an Associate Producer and worked with a very talented team on the ill-fated title, Planetfall.

We worked for 18 months on Planetfall, but we were trying to do too much. The adventure game market was shrinking rapidly and the technology we were developing was too expensive. So we canceled the product. In retrospect, it was the right move. I'm an avid believer in the fact that putting out a non-competitive product only hurts the team members in the long run.

That's not to say the decision didn't hurt. I left the internal studio and spun out into the fledgling StudioX. My first titles in this department were the Quake Mission Packs 1 & 2, each produced by Ritual (formerly Hipnotic) and Rogue. Then came Hexen II and my first project with Raven. Since then, I've code released, I think, over 20 titles (not including localizations) on both the PC and Console. I've also gotten several titles through the early stages of development (including Quake 2 and a few console titles that haven't been released yet).

My role has lately shifted solely to product development at Raven. In the future, I'll be responsible for the product flow and will be producing all the titles coming out of the teams there.

Cracker: How do you think the reaction of Heretic2 has been? Speaking along the lines of the fans and the reviewers. Also your take on the not so great reviews.

Steve: The response has been amazing. Everyone who has seen or played the game has raved about how tight, clean, and fun it is. Hats off to the Heretic II team for doing such an incredible job creating a project.

I am concerned, though, about the lack of awareness about Heretic II outside the Core group. We've had a hard time reaching these people. Of course, having fans go out and sing the praises of the game doesn't hurt, so I thank those people who have--and continue to do so--gone out to post on Usenet, written letters to editors, etc. Every bit helps.

Cracker: Along the lines of the above question. The Hexen2 community, and the Heretic2 community have some of the strongest ties of any other game out there. Why do you think that those communities have stuck together so closely? In good times, and in bad? Also, does ties like that add to the possibility of things like mission packs or addons?

Steve: You guys are where it all starts with us. What does that mean? It means that the message boards and the Community are critically important to us. You are our front line of fan-dom and give us immediate feedback, praise…and flames when warranted. I'm impressed at how tight the group is, and, most importantly, how mature and, dare I say it, well mannered you guys are for the most part.

Let's talk about the bad times, though. The Hexen II boards went negative rather quickly. Despite our efforts to support the Community and stem the tide, we couldn't stop the firestorm. Most of us, myself included, switched to passive mode on the boards simply because it was too depressing to try to respond to the same rants over and over and over again. I literally reached a breaking point last year where I couldn't bring myself to log on.

So what did we do? We went off-line and printed the rants. Literally. We printed them and spread them out on a big conference room table. We sorted them, categorized them, and distilled them to several key feedback points. This feedback went directly into our design for Heretic II. I think the game is vastly better because of the constructive feedback we received from the Community.

Since then, we've tried our best to support you guys within the realities of creating products in a big company like Activision. HexenWorld is an example where we tried to make a product outside those realities. Heretic II is an example of what can happen when we hit on all cylinders within those realities.

Cracker: The "tech support" for Heretic2 has been superb, do you think that is adding to the appeal of the game?(Other than it kicking ass.)

Steve: The game shipping in a relatively bug-free state has made supporting you guys easy. It has been a very deliberate effort on our part to go forth and support online. I can't speak to people's individual experiences since every one is different, but shipping a clean game and quickly addressing the problems that have inevitably popped up has resulted in very favorable buzz and reviews.

Cracker: There have been a few reports of problems with such things as; Co-op crashing bugs, a few animation bugs, and little quirky things. I know the joystick bug has been fixed, what kind of fixes will be in the Enhancement Pack?

Steve: Wow, that's a big question. What's in the EP? A whole ton of stuff. The highlights are a new female player model, full Aureal 2.0 support, more deathmatch maps, more skins, etc. As for fixes, we've been able to address most of the problems people have experienced.

Cracker: O.K., here is the big question, have you played Heretic2 DM with any of the fans?:)

Steve: Ridiculous amounts. I'm completely addicted to DM, and I play any time I get a chance. You may seem me in DM as Ferris on some of the sites. Thanks to all of you who have put up servers, by the way.

Cracker: What do you like most about Heretic2? SP,DM, the third person view, or the graphics?

Steve: That's like asking which of your kids you like best. Each is compelling in its own way. I've now played SP all the way through without cheats for the pleasure of if three times, now. This doesn't include the hundred or so times I played throughout production. DM is addicting as hell.

But I'd have to say that the core gameplay mechanic is the single most compelling aspect of Heretic II. The depth of animation and agility in Corvus, his connection to the environment, and the way there is constant motion and kinetic energy pouring out of the screen keeps me coming back again and again.

Cracker: What do you think about possibly making an Internet only game that is highly optimized for net play, that would use maps, and mods made by the users? There are plenty of DM freaks out there that would kill for that. It would also, in a way, give thanks to the creative people out there that make maps and things for us to play. ( Thanks to O-O-O{SK} for the question)

Steve: As a fan, it sounds compelling. Having a highly optimized gaming experience that transcends connection speeds is the holy grail of multiplayer gaming. Lord knows, developers all over the world are trying. However, there are no plans to do this outright. Raven is a relatively small shop with only 3 teams, each of which is hard at work on a major title. Plus the fact that the economics of this type of game are just not attractive yet; the target audience is just too small to justify the expense. However, I do keep an open mind to this sort of game. We're just in a holding pattern as far as committing to something like this.

Cracker: I live in Wisconsin, so I have had the privilege of taking a tour of Raven Software. Does Activision allow tours for people that are lucky enough to live in LA.

Steve: That's the first time I've been asked. Unfortunately, no, we don't. We're a public company and deal with any number of titles under strict non-disclosure. That said, I have to tell you that I think people would be sadly disappointed. This is actually a pretty boring place on the surface. The offices are of the bland-corporate variety, and most of us spend the day typing on the computer or talking on the phone--when we aren't playing games, that is. =)

Cracker: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to privilege me with your answers. I would also like to thank Raven and all of Activision for all the great games.

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