Warren Spector Master Class interviews at The University of Texas

gauss

rockstar was convinced this hasn't been posted here before, which is a crime. These are 13 2-3 hour lectures/interviews conducted by Warren Spector for his class at the University of Texas. for all of you jokers that are self-styled Game Designers or would like to be, then these are required.


they're great for listening during work--just to have in a corner window or minimized, since the visuals are only occasionally necessary. Spector is very well spoken, and there's a really wonderful assortment of people he brings in and talks to. A really wonderful variety of viewpoints from all over the industry are represented.

so yeah, get these.

Warren Spector (creator of Deus Ex, Theif, Ultima and Wing Commander) talks to:
* 1. September 10, 2007: Warren Spector (Intro Lecture)
* 2. September 17, 2007: Patricia York (HR Director, Disney Interactive Studios)
* 3. September 24, 2007: Harvey Smith (then Creative Director, Midway Austin)
* 4. October 1, 2007: Hal Barwood (Game Designer, Screenwriter par excellence)
* 5. October 8, 2007: Matthew Bellows (GM, Floodgate Entertainment)
* 6. October 15, 2007: Marc LeBlanc (Designer/Programmer, Mind Control Software)
* 7. October 22, 2007: Mike Morhaime (President, Blizzard)
* 8. October 29, 2007: Tim Willits (Lead Designer, id Software)
* 9. November 5, 2007: Seamus Blackley (Talent Agent, Creative Artists Agency - also, “Father of the Xbox”)
* 10. November 12, 2007: Paul Weaver (Director of Development, Junction Point Studios)
* 11. November 19, 2007: Gordon Walton (Co-Studio Director, Bioware Austin)
* 12. November 26, 2007: Richard Garriott (Creative Guy whose title I don’t actually know, NC Soft)
* 13. December 3, 2007: Richard Hilleman (Guy With No Title - and proud of it - at Electronic Arts)

http://www.gameupdates.org/details.php?id=2265

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4064718/warren_spector_lecture

rawkstar

YES

If you work in a game studio, or want to work in a game studio you absolutely MUST watch these. Its probably the best 24 hours of video that just summs up the video game industry, and how it works.

Every single person comes in there with completely different ideas of what he/she believes makes great games, not only are their ideas different but even often CONTRADICTORY! yet all of them have been successful in one way or another. Highly recommended bunch of videos, you will do yourself a disservice by not watching them.

BoBo_the_seal

Nice! Thanks guys!

- BoBo

jerry

Wow thanks for bringing this under my / our attention. This seems like mandatory stuff although i never heard about these series. Will watch when my exams are done, no doubt.

Slainean

Surprised I never heard of this. I always like reading Warren Spector's interviews because he has interesting things to say, so this sounds good.

LoTekK

These were actually posted some time back, if memory serves, but the thread died out when UT pulled the videos. Looks like the Paul Weaver lecture is still incomplete, which is a shame. These are a fantastic resource, though, and it's awesome to be able to pick the minds of not only Warren Spector, but the rest of the lineup as well. Thanks for the reminder, though; I haven't gotten around to listening to all of them yet.

jpgourley

Thanks for putting these up. I can't wait to get through them all. =D

Unleashed

i uploaded these vids to my webspace a while ago, feel free to download/share the link(I supposedly have 'unlimited bandwith')

http://visupoint.com/files/Warren_Spector_Master_Class_Videos/

Kawe

Thanks a lot. This is amazing. Period.

Mark Dygert

I shall not watch your "videos" as I already know everything there is to know... about everything...

quickly starts downloading

Seriously, thanks! Those are awesome... oh so much to listen too. I can't say I agree with everything being said and he/they tend to ramble on. I kind of wish these types of people would write more books so their thoughts would be condensed and edited.

I might convert it over to MP3 as I'm not sure the video is actually needed since I find myself not even looking at, just listening.

Jeremy Wright

I've listened to about half of the first video and I'm really enjoying it. Thanks for sharing these!

Farfarer

Awesome stuff, cheers.

Been listening to these each afternoon at work

Spector.

RustyFranks

damn living in the country with slow interwebs >< only 22 hours to go i miss my internet in the city

oh and muchas gracias for these

bounchfx

wow, thank you very much!

pliang

Anyone who's taking up teaching should have them vids handy...

hobodactyl

Unleashed: Thanks, using your links Excited to start watching these!

Michael Knubben

Vig: If you've got some webspace, I'd love to have those mp3's. I'm on fairly slow internet, so gettting the vids on torrent is a bit overkill right now. besides, I'd love to listen to these again, and my morning commute into work is perfect for that.

Mister Sentient

A friend put me onto these. Thoroughly enjoying them. It's nice to hear from some of the older designers in the industry. The guys responsible for the games I played when I was a wee lad. Ah the memories come flooding back.

JasonLavoie

This sounds great, thanks

Swizzle

MightyPea wrote: »

Vig: If you've got some webspace, I'd love to have those mp3's. I'm on fairly slow internet, so gettting the vids on torrent is a bit overkill right now. besides, I'd love to listen to these again, and my morning commute into work is perfect for that.

Agreed.

TWilson

The guests are decent. Warren makes me want to shoot myself.

Harvey Smith, Matthew Bellows, and Mike Morhaime are super interesting to me so far.

damn listening to Tim Willits right now talk about dm3 ...I'm still such a fuckin fan boy of id.

Cody

RAWKSTAR WHY DID YOU NOT TELL US ABOUT THIS WHEN YOU WERE HERE?!!?! Or maybe you gave it to matt when he downloaded like half your hard drive. - btw, that metal band you played at the lecture is of my favorites now.

-great lectures!!!!

midorisabato

I didn't know these existed. As a freelance outsourcer I never get to be around any industry vets to learn from or hear their stories. Great stuff! Thanks for sharing

JasonLavoie

I gotta say after watching 3 of the lectures so far (I'm a student so a lot of this is awesome advice) the second video with Patricia York was awesome, well when she was talking about how they recruit new hires anyways... everything else was, meh.

The other guest, Harvey Smith, that guy is reallllyy interesting, a crazy life he has lived for sure.

I just wanna say thanks again, I've given this link to a bunch of classmates and hopefully it'll inform them as much as it has me so far.

PeterK

Jack, thanks for pointing these out, I've been enjoying listening to and watching them all week, I appreciate it very much. Hope you guys made out alright in the floods.

Slainean

TWilson wrote: »

The guests are decent. Warren makes me want to shoot myself.

I was somewhat surprised that Warren comes off as just another fan instead of the elder statesman I imagined him as, haha. He has a bad habit of mumbling and derailing his own train of thought, but he's passionate enough to keep it interesting.

Looking at the list of guests I'm pretty tempted to skip ahead but I wanna watch them all in order. I'm jealous that my school has never had anything like this.

gauss

glad people are watching this and spreading the word. as people over 35-40 have a sad tendency to disappear in our industry, hearing from the elder statesmen (Slainean, i would argue that an elder statesman need not be stately in his manner ) and especially spector pulling in people from his looking glass days is nothing short of profound.
the Seamus Blackley video is especially insightful and filled with juicy tidbits in seeming equal parts.

Peter--thanks, you're welcome, and we're doing well. back up and running within the space of a week in a different office.

rawkstar

Seamus is my hero...

vik

thanks gauss for posting this, and Unleashed for the mirrors. Warren Spector is a legend.