MixMasta
04-26-2003, 12:04 PM
OK, we all know that recently, well, actually, most of all the issues of OXM have totally sucked. But June's issue might just turn a few heads. Check out this interview from Bungie with Frank O'Connor(Executive OXM Editor!)
Part 1
Interview with Frank O'Connor
By SketchFactor
Friday, April 25th, 2003, 12:45 PM
New Halo 2 information is coming... Next month's issue of OXM features an exclusive look at the game and what you can expect to see at this year's E3 show. From the awesome cover created by our own Mehve to the new tidbits of info, the anticipation level is extremely high.
We invited Mike Salmon, Editor in Cheif, and Frank O'Connor, Executive Editor, to visit our humble home to see first hand what we've been up to. After some top secret debriefings and a little Halo 2 multiplayer (drool) we sent them away to work their magic.
Once the dust settled from an unfortunate encounter with our intoxicated and belligerent Webmaster, I sat down with Frank to get some insight into their visit.
Hey Frank, how's it goin!? Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is you do?
I’m the Executive Editor of the Official Xbox Magazine, which means I do whatever I’m told by a cabal of evil unmatched in modern media. Mostly writing, assigning and editing articles. I’m in charge of news and features, but I get to do lots of other things to, as you’ll hear more about later.
Do you guys really sit around and play games all day? Describe a typical day at the office for us.
We only play games (during the day) if we’re writing about them, or taking screenshots. A typical day involves me rolling in here around 8:30, finding a coffee, trawling the news websites and answering email. Then I start writing and editing and taking screenshots and on a typical day, a software company will show up and show us a new game.
The office is tiny, so there’s a lot of noise and huddle and interaction with the other staff.
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the job?
Well my favorite parts are the parts anyone would love: Traveling, seeing new games, meeting strange and fragrant new people, making fun of them the moment they leave, and forwarding pictures of terrible things from the internet. Also, on quiet days, I like to make up particularly heart-wrenching emails about orphans with consumption.
I'm sure getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse at some of gaming's hottest titles is a blast. What is the most memorable game feature you've worked on? On the contrary, what game have you had to write about that you just couldn't stand?
Halo 2 is definitely up there. In large part because I was so looking forward to it. Many, many years ago however, I was invited to see Super Metroid on the SNES in Japan, and the game was demoed to me by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gumpei Yokoi! And it hadn’t even been announced. I nearly soiled myself, as you can imagine. Plus, I was younger and easier to impress.
I was lean and taut back then, like a tiger. Or maybe a young Tom Jones. The worst game? Wow. There have been so many. Games are like movies you know, MOST of them are mediocre, average or bad. But seeing a game early means you have to appreciate that it’s not finished, and that it could get better. Maybe the worst games to see are just genres that you could care less about. For me, Strategy (not realtime) and “Bemani” or Dance Dance Revolution type games are high on my -blam!- list.
Working for a game magazine seems like a really cool job. What advice would you give to any aspiring game writers out there?
Get a college degree in something useful, like English LANGUAGE (not lit) or Journalism. That said, there are plenty of people in the industry with totally useless degrees. But get one anyway, not only will it help you get a job, but you’ll get paid more to start. For our line of work, a vast, working knowledge of games is a must. Oh and most people can’t write. Just like most people can’t draw. Luckily, a crack-team of editors will fix your shizzle, for nizzle.
There's a lot more that goes into a game magazine feature than just the words. Can you give us an idea of how everything comes together and the roles that your teammates play?
Halo 2 is a convenient example. There’s a lot of political drama before fingers ever hit keyboards. We call, we email, we beg and we plead. Nothing is handed to OXM on a platter. In fact, Microsoft is very careful about which magazine gets which exclusive. They argue internally about this stuff too.
Once the feature deal is secured, we start arguing about assets. “We need a zillion screenshots and access to everyone on the team,” is usually our first request. That is filtered to Bungie as, “They want a polaroid of Jones and some pizza when they get here.”
Then there’s a bunch of arguing and more deal-making to get sausage on the pizza. Meanwhile a whole other drama – the cover illustration - is being played out between Bungie and our art director. A magazine cover is a pretty thing, but hamstrung by things like logos and barcodes and disc info. We had to work with Bungie to get an illustration that worked for both of us.
Then we (in this case, me and Mike Salmon, but Rees, Reyes and McCaffrey all pitch in) show up. They show us AMAZING SECRET AWESOMENESS THAT WE CAN NEVER WRITE ABOUT and the stuff we did write about. Then they kicked us out onto the rain-slicked streets of Seattle and we went back to our hotel and started writing furiously. Because of the E3 deadlines and timelines, we only had a couple of days to get this feature from conception to production. But it was all worthwhile. And to be honest, pretty typical.
One thing I would like our readers to know is that OXM is tiny. Seriously, some people think we have a staff of thousands and all we do is fly around the world eating foie gras and washing our butts with champagne. There are four writers, two art staff and a disc guy. We work super hard. Except me. I’ve fixed it so I can loaf around taking credit for other people’s work, and basically flirting with PR chicks by Instant Messenger.
You were one of the first journalists in the world to get into Bungie Studios for an exclusive look at Halo 2 and the cool stuff being planned for E3. What was that like? Can you share the highlights of your visit with us?
The visit was stressful for everyone. The fact that I have an appalling case of Tourette’s Syndrome By Proxy probably made it harder. As I unleashed yet another stream of random profanity and nonsequeter obscenities, the Bungie guys just sat there smiling and nodding.
Seeing the game though. That was the highlight.
Part 2-Next post!
Part 1
Interview with Frank O'Connor
By SketchFactor
Friday, April 25th, 2003, 12:45 PM
New Halo 2 information is coming... Next month's issue of OXM features an exclusive look at the game and what you can expect to see at this year's E3 show. From the awesome cover created by our own Mehve to the new tidbits of info, the anticipation level is extremely high.
We invited Mike Salmon, Editor in Cheif, and Frank O'Connor, Executive Editor, to visit our humble home to see first hand what we've been up to. After some top secret debriefings and a little Halo 2 multiplayer (drool) we sent them away to work their magic.
Once the dust settled from an unfortunate encounter with our intoxicated and belligerent Webmaster, I sat down with Frank to get some insight into their visit.
Hey Frank, how's it goin!? Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is you do?
I’m the Executive Editor of the Official Xbox Magazine, which means I do whatever I’m told by a cabal of evil unmatched in modern media. Mostly writing, assigning and editing articles. I’m in charge of news and features, but I get to do lots of other things to, as you’ll hear more about later.
Do you guys really sit around and play games all day? Describe a typical day at the office for us.
We only play games (during the day) if we’re writing about them, or taking screenshots. A typical day involves me rolling in here around 8:30, finding a coffee, trawling the news websites and answering email. Then I start writing and editing and taking screenshots and on a typical day, a software company will show up and show us a new game.
The office is tiny, so there’s a lot of noise and huddle and interaction with the other staff.
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the job?
Well my favorite parts are the parts anyone would love: Traveling, seeing new games, meeting strange and fragrant new people, making fun of them the moment they leave, and forwarding pictures of terrible things from the internet. Also, on quiet days, I like to make up particularly heart-wrenching emails about orphans with consumption.
I'm sure getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse at some of gaming's hottest titles is a blast. What is the most memorable game feature you've worked on? On the contrary, what game have you had to write about that you just couldn't stand?
Halo 2 is definitely up there. In large part because I was so looking forward to it. Many, many years ago however, I was invited to see Super Metroid on the SNES in Japan, and the game was demoed to me by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gumpei Yokoi! And it hadn’t even been announced. I nearly soiled myself, as you can imagine. Plus, I was younger and easier to impress.
I was lean and taut back then, like a tiger. Or maybe a young Tom Jones. The worst game? Wow. There have been so many. Games are like movies you know, MOST of them are mediocre, average or bad. But seeing a game early means you have to appreciate that it’s not finished, and that it could get better. Maybe the worst games to see are just genres that you could care less about. For me, Strategy (not realtime) and “Bemani” or Dance Dance Revolution type games are high on my -blam!- list.
Working for a game magazine seems like a really cool job. What advice would you give to any aspiring game writers out there?
Get a college degree in something useful, like English LANGUAGE (not lit) or Journalism. That said, there are plenty of people in the industry with totally useless degrees. But get one anyway, not only will it help you get a job, but you’ll get paid more to start. For our line of work, a vast, working knowledge of games is a must. Oh and most people can’t write. Just like most people can’t draw. Luckily, a crack-team of editors will fix your shizzle, for nizzle.
There's a lot more that goes into a game magazine feature than just the words. Can you give us an idea of how everything comes together and the roles that your teammates play?
Halo 2 is a convenient example. There’s a lot of political drama before fingers ever hit keyboards. We call, we email, we beg and we plead. Nothing is handed to OXM on a platter. In fact, Microsoft is very careful about which magazine gets which exclusive. They argue internally about this stuff too.
Once the feature deal is secured, we start arguing about assets. “We need a zillion screenshots and access to everyone on the team,” is usually our first request. That is filtered to Bungie as, “They want a polaroid of Jones and some pizza when they get here.”
Then there’s a bunch of arguing and more deal-making to get sausage on the pizza. Meanwhile a whole other drama – the cover illustration - is being played out between Bungie and our art director. A magazine cover is a pretty thing, but hamstrung by things like logos and barcodes and disc info. We had to work with Bungie to get an illustration that worked for both of us.
Then we (in this case, me and Mike Salmon, but Rees, Reyes and McCaffrey all pitch in) show up. They show us AMAZING SECRET AWESOMENESS THAT WE CAN NEVER WRITE ABOUT and the stuff we did write about. Then they kicked us out onto the rain-slicked streets of Seattle and we went back to our hotel and started writing furiously. Because of the E3 deadlines and timelines, we only had a couple of days to get this feature from conception to production. But it was all worthwhile. And to be honest, pretty typical.
One thing I would like our readers to know is that OXM is tiny. Seriously, some people think we have a staff of thousands and all we do is fly around the world eating foie gras and washing our butts with champagne. There are four writers, two art staff and a disc guy. We work super hard. Except me. I’ve fixed it so I can loaf around taking credit for other people’s work, and basically flirting with PR chicks by Instant Messenger.
You were one of the first journalists in the world to get into Bungie Studios for an exclusive look at Halo 2 and the cool stuff being planned for E3. What was that like? Can you share the highlights of your visit with us?
The visit was stressful for everyone. The fact that I have an appalling case of Tourette’s Syndrome By Proxy probably made it harder. As I unleashed yet another stream of random profanity and nonsequeter obscenities, the Bungie guys just sat there smiling and nodding.
Seeing the game though. That was the highlight.
Part 2-Next post!