Jeremy Pope happier making games that focus on player interaction
When you work on titles like Grand Theft Auto III and Max Payne, you’ve clearly been exposed to a healthy amount of videogame violence but it was this experience that prompted a change of heart for former Rockstar producer Jeremy Pope. Speaking to Games Industry, Pope explains that it wasn’t easy telling his family he was working on titles that were vilified in the mainstream media.
“I would visit my grandmother… and have to explain what I do for a living, I didn’t feel so great about explaining to them that I was a part of ‘that game’ they’ve been hearing about,” Jeremy explains. “I think that’s what sort of planted the seeds of me wanting to work on different types of games.” Pope founded Rally Games with the ambition of focusing more on players interacting with each other. “What we’re focused on at Rally is really trying to push things on the social end. I think about what it is I enjoy most about games and it’s always interacting with other people, it’s multiplayer.”
Pope is keen to point out he harbors no ill will towards Rockstar or its titles. “I definitely want to make a point of saying that I actually love Rockstar’s games and I think that it’s unfortunate that their games were specifically called out and targeted by the media, because their games — and we all know this — are really masterworks,” he said. Pope is not alone in wanting to shun violence in videogames; it seems like there are developers who want to make AAA games that don’t rely on violence. It still feels like seeing Triple-A games that don’t feature violence as their core component are a ways off, though.
Former GTA Producer: Why I’ll Never Work On Violent Games Again [Games Industry Biz]
