Author, director painter and game designer Clive Barker

In July, we sat opposite writer-director-painter-game designer Clive Barker in a midtown Manhattan hotel suite for an interview. What began as a discussion of his horror-themed first-person shooter Jericho—developed by Mercury Steam and published by Codemasters for release Tuesday October 23rd on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows—quickly evolved into a wide-ranging hour-long conversation about art, censorship, his love of working in multiple media and the current state of horror movies. Today, in Part I of our four-part Q&A with Barker, he talks about the explorer who inspired Jericho, his plans for games in the series, and his thoughts about Roger Ebert's critique of videogames.

Where did the idea for Jericho come from? Where did it begin?

From two sources. A long time ago I found some books by a guy called Wilfred Thesiger, an Englishman, who was the first man—the first white man—to cross the Rub' al Khali [part of the Arabian Desert]. The word means "the Empty Quarter"; the emptiest place on the planet. Thesiger crossed in the '20s and then again in the '30s, and it was thought to be basically impossible. Even the Bedouin, who obviously were very familiar with it—this was their country, their land—went only in extremis. If they really, really had to, they crossed it.

[Aside to another man in the hotel suite.] Thank you, baby. This is my husband, David.

It's a pleasure to meet you, David.

And just a little aside on the Thesiger thing: I decided I wanted to use this image of emptiness and I used it first in a book called "Weaveworld," which I wrote back in the '80s. And maybe five or six years later, I was going through HarperCollins—which has these big, old offices which they've had since the 19th century in London—and I saw this incredibly old man hidden by piles of books, just pulling them down slowly and very, very, very carefully inscribing them. Nobody was with him and I thought, "I know who that guy is—that's Wilfred Thesiger. I swear that's Wilfred Thesiger." I went in and it was, and he signed a book for me and it was great. I had always wanted to go back there. I thought it was a very—it was just deserts, eerie places, and after the success of "Weaveworld," I wanted to go back to that and put something really villainous into the Empty Quarter.

The Halo 3 Steaktacular! Medal

In hindsight, this bet was doomed almost from the beginning. Just one day after we announced our wager with Microsoft games platform strategist Andre "Ozymandias" Vrignaud about whether or not Sony would announce a $399 PS3 SKU before Thanksgiving--he said yes, we said no--we got a call from one of our best non-Sony sources. Our source informed us that the Playstation group had placed an order for a large number of 40 gigabyte hard drives, making it very likely that a $399 SKU would ship in advance of Black Friday. Whoops.

Our gleeful anticipation of that succulent steak dinner--made even more theoretically delicious by the thought of winning yet another bet with a Microsoft employee--was instantly transformed. First into the bitter taste of hubris, then, over the weeks that followed--each bringing with it more and more signs that Vrignaud would ultimately be proven correct--a multi-course meal that we'll refer to as The Five Stages of Grief. Now that we are far enough into the final stage--acceptance--we can finally say publicly and without reservation: Andre, you were right and we were wrong.

Furthermore, there's no need to for you to launch a Steak Watch count-up clock on your blog; having carefully studied the psychology of welching, we'd rather avoid the mental damage that can ensue from proceeding down that path. So at the earliest mutually convenient occasion, we will sit, and tasty cuts of gloriously charred beef will be consumed in honor of both the $399 PS3 and your superior foresight and wisdom. And please, don't even think about reaching for the check. This one's on us.

 

Note: This Q&A with Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe originally ran on Level Up in three separate installments, from October 16th-18th 2007. We now present it here in its entirety, under a single permalink, for easier printing, emailing and archival purposes.

1. EGO...trip: "Genius" tag freshly applied, Level Up ponders sending resume to Kyoto
2. MMO...deathmatch: World of Warcraft vs. EVE Online. Round 1--fight!
3. CAN...videogames be important, asks the professor? The answer? Maybe?
4. HEH...EA's team of ninja satirists takes aim at videogame blog Kotaku
5. THE...thorny issue of game industry swag and freebies, considered
6. RND...Soapgate scandal threatens to consume the 2008 presidential election