The Mark Hamill Episode

[Psykoboy2]

Click here (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20090813.mp3) for more than you thought you'd ever know.

It's Mark Hamill.

I mean, really...come on. What more could you possibly need to know?

[Savok]

*worships Hamill*

[Suave Peanut]

Right-click, save link as... waiting....

[Savok]

Holy mother of it's 90 minutes long

[Psykoboy2]

Yeah, we were told 30 minutes, but Mark makes his own rules.

[cppcrusader]

I love the fact that he ran into the problem of "Simpson's did it." while writing a Simpson's episode.

[Savok]

I'm listening to it now, he just rambles on and on about anything... god he's awesome.

[Sandman]

I have to listen to this later...too busy at work now.

[Xerxes]

I love real celebrity geeks.

[Abyssion]

*keeps refreshing on iTunes* I can't wait to listen!!

[astranoir]

Now that I have finished listening, my life is somehow emptier. What an awesome interview, guys!

[opsin]

Nice. Been looking forward to this one.
He does such a great turn as the Joker, and after watching Comic Book The Movie my opinion of him brightened so much.

[Savok]

Just finished listening. I was disappointed when I saw it was going to have such a narrow focus but Hamill just talked about whatever he wanted and it was glorious.

My god the knowledge in that man's head.

[Superman's Dead]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! Of all the fucking weeks for my laptop's adapter to die! Stupid muted school library computers...I can literally feel my soul dying for every second I am not listening to this.

Congrats, guys.

[SenatorSpacer]

Hell yeah! Downloading now!

[Shjinta]

Wow.. he's quite the guy. He seems so humble and nice. Scott were you nervous? I'd be shitting bricks. I love how he goes on about all these kinds of things. Awesome interview.

[Psykoboy2]

I was nervous, yes. Although, after he did all the talking really, I became less and less so.

[Zecon]

I'm looking forward to this, and I'm not even really a fan of the Star wars movies (I have nothing against them either). I really enjoyed his work in the Batman animated series...
And Jay and silent Bob strike back. :D

[Psykoboy2]

I'm looking forward to this, and I'm not even really a fan of the Star wars movies (I have nothing against them either). I really enjoyed his work in the Batman animated series...
And Jay and silent Bob strike back. :D

There's not even a mention of Star Wars from him. I think I say the phrase "Star Wars" near the end when talking about his work with the Muppets, but that's it.

[Shjinta]

I was nervous, yes. Although, after he did all the talking really, I became less and less so.

Yeah hes got a lot to talk about. It's awesome that he gave you so much information. Also awesome that he went on for longer than 30 Minutes.

[fishbang]

Just finished listening. I was disappointed when I saw it was going to have such a narrow focus but Hamill just talked about whatever he wanted and it was glorious.

My god the knowledge in that man's head.

It's funny, we're often told quite sternly and directly by the agents and pr managers of the people we're interested in interviewing that the scope of our questions should be narrow and the length of our interviews should be modest. They also want an advance list of the questions we'll be asking so they can screen for gotcha-journalism or some such.

We have always been willing to comply, but in every case I can remember, the first act of the interviewee has been to immediately ignore all of the rules we had previously sworn to uphold and dive right into whatever questions or topics they damn well please.

All the better for entertainment, I suppose.

[roguebaboon]

Wow i feel like an 11 year old all over again.

[Xerxes]

I like how he just rambles on but I still sit and listen. Last person tried that, I had to raise my voice and out ramble them. Poor grandmother. But I mean she didn't do the voice of the Joker.

[Rogue_hunter]

That's awesome that it was only supposed to be 30 minutes, and he stretched it out to 90. I gotta burn this for the guys at my comic shop. Great job!

[J Arcane]

It's funny, we're often told quite sternly and directly by the agents and pr managers of the people we're interested in interviewing that the scope of our questions should be narrow and the length of our interviews should be modest. They also want an advance list of the questions we'll be asking so they can screen for gotcha-journalism or some such.

We have always been willing to comply, but in every case I can remember, the first act of the interviewee has been to immediately ignore all of the rules we had previously sworn to uphold and dive right into whatever questions or topics they damn well please.

All the better for entertainment, I suppose.
I loved how he had to stop in the middle of talking about the game to make sure he hadn't already given away a bunch of stuff he wasn't supposed to talk about yet.

The resulting convo about the silliness of press hype was one I agreed with quite a bit, and it was interesting hearing someone on the creative side of things find it just as odd and pointless as those on the consumer side.

[Ravenlock]

Listening now - he's a hell of a rambler, but it's fantastic! :D

Had no idea he had lived in Pittsburgh. I wonder if I was living here at any time when he was. I'll just assume that's true. ;)

[Cactaur]

I'm not seeing it on iTunes yet, has it propagated across or is the problem on my end (other than the fact I'm using itunes).

[Ravenlock]

I also haven't seen it on the iTunes feed, and just got the .mp3 directly.

Did anybody else flinch a little when he said "Obviously you don't have to be a gamer to know what would be fun to do in a game"?

I mean, as a voice actor of course he's not tasked with input into the game design or the plot or any of that, he's just there to be an awesome voice actor, which he is. And besides, Arkham Asylum is actually looking like a pretty awesome game. But I couldn't help but wonder if some of the explanation for 100 crappy licensed titles was hiding in that innocent statement. ;)

[Doogie2K]

Did anybody else flinch a little when he said "Obviously you don't have to be a gamer to know what would be fun to do in a game"?

I mean, as a voice actor of course he's not tasked with input into the game design or the plot or any of that, he's just there to be an awesome voice actor, which he is. And besides, Arkham Asylum is actually looking like a pretty awesome game. But I couldn't help but wonder if some of the explanation for 100 crappy licensed titles was hiding in that innocent statement. ;)

I don't think that's necessarily wrong, because we have our preconceived notion of what "games" look like in certain genres, and it's good to get fresh perspectives. It's also true that what's "fun" in a game is, at times, pretty obvious (e.g. killing zombies). That being said, we also have gained a certain understanding over the years of what works and what doesn't, so we're probably a bit better equipped to say what is a good idea and what is a bad idea. I dunno, I think that's an interesting question to explore.

Of course, the main reason for shitty "game of the movie" adaptations is because those fuckers need to be churned out in six to twelve months, depending on how early certain facets of the film are set in stone, when the average dev cycle for a good game is more like two or three years.

[Ravenlock]

Of course, the main reason for shitty "game of the movie" adaptations is because those fuckers need to be churned out in six to twelve months, depending on how early certain facets of the film are set in stone, when the average dev cycle for a good game is more like two or three years.

True that. Movie adaptation games seem to just be screwed 8 times out of 10 due to time constraints, end of story. Exceptions like Spider-Man 2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are, as we all know, extremely rare.

I'm sure a huge part of the reason we've gotten a surprisingly high number of non-movie-based licensed games that actually turned out not sucking in the last few years (Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Riddick, Ghostbusters, hopefully Arkham Asylum) is that they were developed as games on their own schedule rather than being tied to somebody else's release date.

[Savok]

Knowing what's fun in a game is a no brainer, it's making it work that causes trouble.

[Doogie2K]

True that. Movie adaptation games seem to just be screwed 8 times out of 10 due to time constraints, end of story. Exceptions like Spider-Man 2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are, as we all know, extremely rare.

I'm sure a huge part of the reason we've gotten a surprisingly high number of non-movie-based licensed games that actually turned out not sucking in the last few years (Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Riddick, Ghostbusters, hopefully Arkham Asylum) is that they were developed as games on their own schedule rather than being tied to somebody else's release date.

Don't forget 007: Everything or Nothing. I loved the Bond Moments, and how they semi-forced you to do awesome things rather than just shoot dudes up for eight hours.

Actually, it was an interview with the late GRiN on Giant Bombcast that set me onto the timing idea, and specifically how reliant they are on the studios giving them certain information, because it was something they mentioned as a big problem they had with doing licensed movie games like Wanted and Terminator: Salvation, and something they weren't going to have a problem with when they worked with their own IPs (which were never announced).

[inmostlight]

I'm not seeing it on iTunes yet, has it propagated across or is the problem on my end (other than the fact I'm using itunes).

No idea about iTunes, but it's not showing up on the Zune feed I use, either.

[Straximus]

I'm trying to figure the delay out. While I was dicking around, it popped into the XML feed. Not sure why, but you should have it on iTunes and Zune now.

[Xerxes]

http://www.mrrl.org/blogs/wordpress/readerseye/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/manwholaughs.jpg

Wow... Now that's a joker.

[Dostoyevsky]

Good job guys! Just had to turn it on and let him go! Hah.

Now I'm even more hyped for Arkham Asylum.

Edit: I just got to his rant on story in movies. Insert loud applause here.

[Karak]

Hahahaha. He is great. And after seeing Harrison Ford in his brain dead interviews its nice to see someone from the same thing really let it go. He is awesome.

[lucklesswonder]

I started laughing when Mark mentioned The Man Who Killed Batman. I had said something similar in the questions thread.

[Zecon]

There's not even a mention of Star Wars from him. I think I say the phrase "Star Wars" near the end when talking about his work with the Muppets, but that's it.

I noticed, Good god can that man talk.
It's nice to see someone like him really passionate about movies and theatre.
It was awesome to hear about Batman Beyond Return of the Joker,
one of my favorite movies of all time.
I'm really looking forward to hearing more about this "Black Pearl" movie that might be done. Though it sounds very watchmen-like.

[Zecon]

No idea about iTunes, but it's not showing up on the Zune feed I use, either.
It's up now, listened to it this morning.

[Sandman]

Wow. He talks alot. I forgot the last question Scott asked about 8 minutes in or so. Good interview though. Mark Hamill is awesome.

[Doogie2K]

Man, you weren't kidding. Wind him up and let him go. You almost didn't need to ask any questions. ;) Some good stories in there; great score on the interview.

[Iron Past]

I feel so validated that he liked my question! Though I'm not an actor or singer or anything.

Great, great interview. I love it that he had nothing but good things to say about fellow actors, even if he didn't care for a certain performance; more than that, he seemed very genuine about it. And I was already excited for Darksiders, this doesn't make the wait any more bearable.

[cppcrusader]

Wow. He talks alot. I forgot the last question Scott asked about 8 minutes in or so. Good interview though. Mark Hamill is awesome.

I think Scott only ended up asking around 3 questions. What's a little freaky is that Hamill covered pretty much every one of our questions naturally on his own.

[Count Elmdor]

Wicked interview, as always. How do you guys land such high-profile guests?