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everybody I'm Steve from gamers Nexus thought net and I'm joined by Warren Spector who previously worked at origin now you're working on System Shock three is that right yeah I just signed on with other side entertainment who was working on underworld ascendant a spiritual successor to that game and they got the rights to System Shock and so I signed on there's no way I'd pass up an opportunity to work on a new a new system shot game for crying out loud absolutely not and what's what's sort of the state of progress on that where should people go looking to find out more the state of progress is its me alone in a room writing concept Docs so don't go looking just yet but keep your ear to the ground and we'll have steps talk about soon very cool with origin systems this was obviously one of at least from our perspective and media was one of the driving companies in the early day of games Wing Commander came out of origin Ultima you've worked with Chris Roberts Richard Garriott what was that time like working with that you know the the original team origin was an amazing place I signed on there and and thought I was going to teach all those guys what interactivity was all about cuz I came from tabletop role-playing and it took me about two weeks to realize I knew nothing you know but the most amazing thing about it was you know we we actually thought we were gonna change the world that we were doing things that that no one else was doing I mean games that had an ethical dimension or cinematic qualities or you know the the first real-time 3d first-person fully texture mapped world anyone had ever seen I mean it's it's crazy what we were doing and you know I don't want to say that origin changed the world but if you look around games certainly have and I think we were a little part of that oh it's I think you were saying earlier in your talk here at ECG see one analyst was saying a hundred billion dollar industry now yeah it's insane I mean if if you had told me that that we would be that big I would have said you were nuts and you know it's it's received wisdom who knows if that that particular analyst is right but if it's true we really are bigger than movies and music put together which is kind of incredible yeah it's crazy and looking back at sort of the the roots of origin as we know with Altimas one of the titles you worked on right I think I worked on more Altimas than Richard Garriott did I'm not sure so what what were some of the stories back then what are some things you picked up along the way working on Ultima well the the biggest thing I learned was that games don't have to be about killing stuff when I played Ultima 4 it was it was kind of mind-blowing it was about virtue and and what's right and wrong and that was one of the reasons I really wanted to work at origin to work with Richard Garriott who was kind of the pioneer of that sort of game that's that's probably the most important thing I learned and then the other thing was we really did try and do things that other people weren't doing you know I've got a kind of a philosophy that we're still a medium in progress and every game should have something that no one in the world has ever seen or done before and that was never really expressed at origin but it was definitely part of our ethos so it was a pretty amazing path I thought I was gonna retire from the place and get get the gold watch and everything but that's not the way the game business works unfortunately right yeah well it was acquired by EA were you there during the acquisition yeah I was I was there at origin when EA acquired us so you were employed 26 yeah I was I was the 26th employee of the company which you know sounds sounds like well that's not so early but we we got up till I think it was 350 people so I was I was one of the old-timers back then what are some of the game mechanics or story elements that you feel were new when you guys were working on it well I'll tell you a story I was working on a game called well it was Ultima 6 it was called Ultima 6 and I was watching one of the testers play one day and he was in a place in the game where you needed a magic spell to succeed to keep going and it was a place where there was a portcullis between you and a lever that would open the portcullis so he came up on one side and he didn't have the spell necessary the telekinesis spell to flip the lever so I was sitting there going yeah you're you're screwed buddy you're not making any progress now and what he did was he had a character in his party named sherry the mouse and the portcullis was simulated and I used the term very lightly it was simulated just deeply enough that there was a gap at the bottom and he had sherry the mouse go under the portcullis go to the lever and flipped the lever raising the portcullis and that was a solution to a problem that Richard and I didn't plan and he came up with he was the only person in the world who ever did that and I fell on the floor and at that moment I said I'm gonna do that on purpose for the rest of my life it was remarkable but that kind of thing happened all the time there because you know nobody knew what they were doing we were making stuff up as we went along creating genres and and advancing the state of the art and role-playing and all that I mean it was it was just an amazing amazing time yeah I think when we were talking with Richard Garriott he was talking about how he started working with the punch cards when he was first programming and tile graphics were like a new thing and sort of spawned out of ultima yeah so it's very innovative company I think well we were all about that you know we why make a game you already know how to make or why make something that's just like what other people are making that's that's pretty boring you know I the one of the questions I always ask myself is do I know how to do this and if the answer is yes I don't do it I do something different you know and that was very much you know what origin was all about let's do stuff that other people don't do that let's try the the hard stuff that we don't know how to do it was like I said it was just amazing I have to throw this one in for the audience have you did you ever work on Wing Commander or any of those games yeah I was rich chris roberts producer on Wing Commander and I've always been this kind of crazy combination of creative and management and I I tried to exercise my creativity on Wing Commander but Chris had such a clear vision we we argued a bunch but he he won most the arguments I I said if I win three out of ten arguments with chris Roberts that's a good day and so I kind of stayed out of it and managed the project but let him handle the creative sure so System Shock three keep an eye out for that in the future and otherwise more information the article link in the description below you can find out more about Warren's talk today at ECG C but thank you for your time Warren we'll see you around