|
|
|
MEDFIELD —
As a player, Curt Schilling earned a reputation as a big-game pitcher: driven, always prepared, capable of taking on tremendous responsibility.
He’s no different as the founder and driving force of 38 Studios, his Providence-based entertainment and IP-creation company. Since its founding in Fall 2006, Schilling has acquired another strategy game developer, Big Huge Games, and grown the company to 400 employees “in the worst economy of our lifetime,” as he says.
“38 Studios benefits Medfield and Massachusetts,” he says, “and it will continue to benefit the region, as we add 500-to-2,000 jobs and it grows into the multi-billion-dollar company we imagine it will be.”
To create 38 Studios’ first game, “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,” Schilling partnered with best-selling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, artist popular comic book artist and "Spawn" creator Todd McFarlane and computer role-playing game pioneer Ken Rolston.
Schilling took a few minutes from his characteristically intense preparation for the launch of “Reckoning” — which arrives Feb. 7 — to have a rapid-fire conversation with us about his company, gaming and, of course, politics.
Q. What kinds of games do you like to play?
A. I like fantasy games, military simulations. Strategy games.
Q. How did you get into gaming?
A. I’ve always been a gamer. In 1979 or 1980, my best friend’s dad brought an Apple home. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Q. So you’ve been playing for a long time. Did you play a lot when you were playing ball?
A. That’s all I did. I had a laptop that I would bring with me on road trips. I’d rather be in a hotel room playing a game than be in a bar with people I wasn’t supposed to be with doing things I wasn’t supposed to be doing. It kept me going. It kept my marriage going.
Q. Did you have teammates who were gamers?
A. As I got older, it became more prevalent in the clubhouse, especially with the younger players. These days, everyone’s got an iPad, an iPhone, a smart phone — the iPad is more popular than the pencil.
Q. Did you guys play games with each other?
A. Sure, we played console games. We played a lot of Madden [NFL]. But mostly we’d go off and play games that suited our interests. J.D. [Drew] liked buck hunting. I liked “World of Warcraft.”
As a player, Curt Schilling earned a reputation as a big-game pitcher: driven, always prepared, capable of taking on tremendous responsibility.
He’s no different as the founder and driving force of 38 Studios, his Providence-based entertainment and IP-creation company. Since its founding in Fall 2006, Schilling has acquired another strategy game developer, Big Huge Games, and grown the company to 400 employees “in the worst economy of our lifetime,” as he says.
“38 Studios benefits Medfield and Massachusetts,” he says, “and it will continue to benefit the region, as we add 500-to-2,000 jobs and it grows into the multi-billion-dollar company we imagine it will be.”
To create 38 Studios’ first game, “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,” Schilling partnered with best-selling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, artist popular comic book artist and "Spawn" creator Todd McFarlane and computer role-playing game pioneer Ken Rolston.
Schilling took a few minutes from his characteristically intense preparation for the launch of “Reckoning” — which arrives Feb. 7 — to have a rapid-fire conversation with us about his company, gaming and, of course, politics.
Q. What kinds of games do you like to play?
A. I like fantasy games, military simulations. Strategy games.
Q. How did you get into gaming?
A. I’ve always been a gamer. In 1979 or 1980, my best friend’s dad brought an Apple home. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Q. So you’ve been playing for a long time. Did you play a lot when you were playing ball?
A. That’s all I did. I had a laptop that I would bring with me on road trips. I’d rather be in a hotel room playing a game than be in a bar with people I wasn’t supposed to be with doing things I wasn’t supposed to be doing. It kept me going. It kept my marriage going.
Q. Did you have teammates who were gamers?
A. As I got older, it became more prevalent in the clubhouse, especially with the younger players. These days, everyone’s got an iPad, an iPhone, a smart phone — the iPad is more popular than the pencil.
Q. Did you guys play games with each other?
A. Sure, we played console games. We played a lot of Madden [NFL]. But mostly we’d go off and play games that suited our interests. J.D. [Drew] liked buck hunting. I liked “World of Warcraft.”
Q. Did you ever think of developing a baseball game or sports games?
A. Never. I never saw a baseball console game that was as good as the real thing. I like baseball simulation games, games that simulate general manager strategy. As a kid, I played ATBA [a baseball simulation board game where the gamer acts as a team’s field manager, managing actual Major League Baseball players or invented players]. Now, if I had to recommend a baseball game, it’d be Out of the Park [a baseball simulation computer game where the gamer acts as a team’s general manager, managing actual MLB or invented players].
Q. Do you play with real players or fictional players?
A. Fictional. I know all the real players, so I didn’t want to do that.
Q. How does computer gaming compare with physical sports?
A. They’re both definitely competitive. I believe in the “10,000 hours” theory: that in order to be world-class at anything, you need 10,000 hours worth of practice. I want to play games that I’m good at, but I don’t want to spend 10,000 hours practicing. I competed my whole life; for me, I want gaming to be entertainment.
Q. Tell us about “Reckoning.”
A. It’s a single-player, role-playing game for all consoles. It’s the first game set in this universe [Amalur]. The overarching theme is the quest for immortality; in gaming, you die all the time, so this is very different. At the beginning of the story, you die and pass through the Well of Souls, where you are reincarnated and returned to the world. So you are the only person in the world without a predetermined fate.
Q. So what kinds of adventures do you have?
A. I don’t want to give too much away. But I will say that because you can make your own fate, everybody wants something from you. In this world, there are these people called Fateweavers, who tell people their fate, so they have an interest in you. If someone’s bad, they want you to change their fate; if someone’s good, they want you to help protect their fate. There’s also a deep, philosophical part of the game as you go through it. You ask, what does it mean to live forever? What does it mean to be able to make your own fate?
There’s 40-to-50 hours of gameplay in the main storyline, and another 200-to-300 hours in the sidelines, which is a great value. And we’ll be selling modules, so the Amalor universe is expandable.
Q. The same creative team is also producing “Copernicus,” which I take it will come out later. What’s that about?
A. “Copernicus” takes place in the same universe as “Reckoning,” but is set 2,000 years later, when everyone has access to the Well of Souls. There, the question is, what would you give to live forever? How much is immortality worth to you?
Q. This all sounds great. When does “Reckoning” come out?
A. We’re having a midnight launch party at GameStop in the Stallbrook Marketplace in Bellingham on Feb. 7. R.A. Salvatore and I will be there signing game boxes at 11:30 [p.m.], so it’ll actually be Monday night, Feb. 6.
Q. Who do you like in the Republican primaries?
A. I want the candidate with the best chance to win in November. I want the best possible man in the White House. I just don’t know who that is yet.
Q. Thanks for your time, Curt.
A. Hey, thank you, man.
Contact Medfield Times editor Brett M. Rhyne at brhyne@wickedlocal.com or 781-433-8353.
