DC Universe Online Q&A: Marv Wolfman
We chat with the acclaimed comic-book writer on his recently announced involvement with the upcoming MMO from SOE.
Comic fans anxiously awaiting SOE's upcoming DC Universe Online have another reason to hope that the upcoming game will be doing right by its source material today with the announcement that Marv Wolfman is part of the creative team working on the game. The acclaimed veteran writer will be lending his considerable talent to writing story arcs, quests, and in-game events for the ambitious MMO. We got the chance to talk to the seasoned writer about how he joined the team and his approach to the ambitious project.
GameSpot: OK. So first question, how'd you get involved?
Marv Wolfman: Oh, well I've been writing games for a couple of years now. And obviously I've been at DC since the '60s, in one capacity or another, and the combination seemed to make sense. Plus, I live out here in LA so that I can deal with a lot of the other people who are involved with the game as well.
GS: So what games have you written for?
MW: Most I can't talk about because they're not out, or they've been put on hold or--you know how things are. The only one I can talk about--and unfortunately, because it didn't come out great, but it was Superman Returns.
GS: Oh, OK.
MW: Yeah, it wasn't quite the game we expected. But these things happen when you're doing movie tie-ins and such.
GS: Of course, the bigger question is, how familiar are you with MMOs? Do you play? Did you do research once you got tapped for this?
MW: Well, I've been playing games for years. I mean, you could joke and say starting with the Atari. But I currently have, for instance, a PlayStation 2, I have a Wii and an Xbox 360, and there are games constantly on all of them. So I've been playing for a long time. In terms of the MMOs, I started with City of Heroes when I first started, I mean, like, within a week of it starting, and I've played Warcraft.
GS: Ah.
MW: So between the two of them, I've played the, you know, some big ones. I haven't played all of them, I just don't have the time when I'm playing the other stuff. But, as I say, with City of Heroes I was on it for five, six, seven months, something like that, and Warcraft on and off.
GS: Yeah. Well, those pretty much cover a lot of ground, so you should be pretty good.
MW: Yeah, that's what I think. And my wife works over at Blizzard, so we have a very game-oriented family here.
GS: So tell us about your role on DCUO.
MW: OK. First off, the overall story was conceived by Geoff Johns. Geoff came in working with everyone over at Sony and DC, and came up with a really incredible overview story which fits in with all the different types of characters DC has, from the superheroes to the detectives or the tech characters, the gods, the magicians. You know, all of the different genres of characters that DC uses on a regular basis--somehow managed to come up with an overarching story for it that allowed you to keep building on to it. My job is to take Geoff's rough outline of where it can go and start to bring it down to playable games and very specific events, and create much more of a tight-knit storyline coming from that one. So it's moving it to the next step and individualizing the play and the games.
GS: How different is the experience for you from writing for comics and the comic world per se? Because, as you said, you have to make this game-friendly.
MW: Absolutely--
GS: As opposed to the crazy stuff you could do in a book.
MW: Well, the big difference in a game--not an MMO in this particular case, because you actually have a storyline, but in a lot of games that I've worked on--is that this stuff is not always linear. And also you don't have a situation where--I'm sorry--you have a situation where levels can be dropped at the very last minute, which--and the story may be dropped as part of it. In an MMO, which is a continuing game that keeps building, that doesn't happen to the same extent that it allows you to actually tell a story. The story is clear from the very beginning. So, in that case, the linear type of storytelling I've done in comics or in animation or in TV or on other places, books, comes in handy. But the main thing is that being a game player myself, I know what I like. I know that parts that keep me excited when I'm on an MMO, because there's also a lot of running around and such like that. So, what you try to do is really come up with intense storylines within it. It's not just going out and you're given the mission where you have to beat up a monster or something like that. These have actual story purposes. The events mean something. You'll know what they mean. They're not a random type of "Oh, let's just keep you busy."
GS: And how challenging is it--given the game's "timeless setting" is probably a good way to explain it, because it's not quite completely in sync with DC continuity--to create content? It's almost like it's set in an iconic moment in DC continuity. Does that force you to change your approach, in a way?
MW: Well, not really. What it allows you to do is to incrementally make the changes. DC continuity is constantly changing. By having someone like myself and Geoff Johns and Jim Lee involved, as well as some others, it means that we're plugged into what's going on. So as we come up with the new stories, as we come up with the new concepts, we can determine the difference between, say, a storyline that may last three months in a comic, or something that's going to last a year and a half. And the ones that are going to last a year and a half, or are the big-event type stories, we can easily plug in and make sure our continuity mirrors what's going on at DC.
I think it's important that a game like this is being written by the guys who are actually there and who are going to take the time to make sure that it fits in with the continuity as best as you can. And failing that, in some places, definitely the characters will be exactly right. So you don't get that a lot in a lot of the games. You get them altered in order to fit into a different type of scenario. Here it won't be.
GS: So, speaking of characters, because of the somewhat timeless state of the game, do you have carte blanche to grab whoever?
MW: I don't want to say that I have carte blanche, because that means that I could just go in there and say, "Hey, I'm using Congo Bill," and everyone's going to look at me like I'm insane.
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