Multi Part Interview with Hall of Fame Game Developer Mark Cerny

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3178907

1Up.com has a great interview with Mark Cerny up on their site. He was recently introduced to the Video Game Hall of Fame, and it is well-deserved. I first became aware of him during the PS1 when I was a huge fan of Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games. Mark was quite instrumental in the Crash Bandicoot and Spryo series then later the Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank series for the PS2.

Or course my first introduction to Mark Cerny was to Marble Madness, which he developed at the age of 17. Although I had no idea who wrote the game, because developers were anonymous back then. His latest work is on PS3 including some of the level design on God of War IIII.

Interesting stuff if you're a video game junkie.

 

I kind of disagree with that. There are people that have been in the video game industry for over 25 years going back to the Atari days. A select few of them have launched a ton of new technology, franchises, or game genres. It's a pretty small group of people in the video game Hall of Fame. I think just a few get in a year, and I normally am familiar with their work. I am a light gamer (certainly compared to my teens through mid-twenties), and I read game sites occasionally.

I thought Mark Cerny in particular has a pretty robust and diverse history in the video game industry. For those into games, it's interesting listening to a major player talk about his career path from Atari to Sega to contractor for some major franchises.

Chefs have a hall of fame. So do musicians, and country even has its own hall of fame. Actors have lifetime achievement awards, as do writers, and even a number of scientific branches have similar awards. I view video games on par for artistic and entertainment value as books, movies, and TV, so I think it's fitting that they have a hall of fame\lifetime achievement award.

 

My bad. I took it as a dig that the industry shouldn't have that kind of award or that the industry isn't worthy of it. You didn't state that. I inferred it.

I read recently that Roger Ebert doesn't count video games as art. He has gone on quite long diatribes against the industry. I think there's a wide swath of the population that thinks of video games as silly nonsense with no merit whatsoever. I was arguing against that line of thought. I think the industry has come a long way, and modern games are technological marvels. They are quite entertaining, beautiful to look at, can connect people across the world, and tell amazing stories. I am surprised by people being surprised at the thought of this industry having a hall of fame when they wouldn't bat an eye about a band or actor achieving the same status.