On December 14th of 2010, at 7:00 pm (in Europe), the TF141 Media crew got ready for an interview in Stockholm, Sweden, being interviewed by the now-defunct Video Festival president. It was freezing cold and Pierce was desperately trying to find a way to drive our out-of-gas car. Of course, though, that never happened, because IT WAS OUT OF FUCKING GAS. After about two tries, though, we just took a bus. Which also sucked. We had to walk the entire way.
So, joining me for the first half of the interview was Pierce Sanders, Derek Carter, Michael Sinclair, and Finn Smith. It felt more like a chatroom, but this certainly wasn't a one-person review. So while we're talking, October Smith was in the other room, the lass frantically trying to copy down EVERYTHING we were saying. She did it, though, and I owe her $100. Something like that.
[We enter the room]
President (his nickname will be El Pres): And so, with us tonight are some of the creative minds from New Vegas, which won Best RPG here tonight! Please welcome the crew of TF141 Media!
Pierce: Hey, everybody. Pleased to meet you.
Alec: It's great to meet you, Mr. President.
El Pres: What a pleasure it is to meet you aswell.'
Derek: So, what should we start with?
El Pres: Tell us about making New Vegas, and can we expect anything in the later years?
Alec: I'll start. Well, making New Vegas was the hardest project we had actually ever worked on. We had gotten a word from one of the execs from Obsidian that they wanted to involve us in something bigger than just designing backgrounds and weapons. Pretty soon, they told us that they wanted us involved in progression for some of the main quests. We had decided on following the 'Caesar's Legion' storyline, and had some involvement in the independent storyline. We had a ton of people join the TF141 Media crew, from around the world. Most were from Europe, but we got some other interesting countries, like Austria, Russia, and even the Philippines.
Michael: As for actually expecting something? Well, Interplay had decided to take over the production for the big multiplayer Fallout, which should be called something like Fallout Online. I think that they had taken control of the project, let it slide away from Bethesda. They chose Bulgaria's Masthead Studios, who do seem nice enough, but I don't think they have the EXACT same experience like Bethesda had.
Finn: They mentioned that they wanted to involve us in the maps again, along with weapons and animation.
El Pres: Can we expect anything else big from Bethesda that you'll be involved in? Or anything related?
Finn: Well, Bethesda mentioned they wanted to involve us in storyline progression and map design for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Alec: Some involvement in the script...
Derek: And it appears that the people who made Red Faction: Guerilla want to involve us in their next game, Red Faction.... uh, Armageddon. This is new for us, since we've never had involvement in a shooter.
Alec: But there was Resistance 2, right?
Pierce: Yeah, we were involved in the game's multiplayer system.
Derek: Ah yeah. We also should be brought back to do Resistance 3, if there is one.
El Pres: This question was from one of the watchers of the show: [grabs paper] What was your favorite project?
Finn: [chuckles] Wow, I haven't been asked that question. Who wants to share?
Pierce: I'll go first. Well, personally, my favorite involvement in one of the RPGs we've worked on was New Vegas. Getting to develop the story into Caesar's Legion was really good. We would stay up for nights on end just writing up more ideas, to further the script. We had to make a lot of references to Roman mythology. I also had a real fun time helping with the DLC for Fallout 3, Operation: Anchorage.
El Pres: What about you, Alec?
Alec: For me, personally, was working on the DLC for Fallout 3, Point Lookout. I think that the plot in Point Lookout was really good, and being able to make a completly different "wasteland" for the game I got really excited about, so we took up the chance to help develop it. I also did enjoy working with Fallout 3's mission in Raven Rock, you know the real twist about the President.
Finn: I'm going to have to say mine was working on Elder Scrolls 4.
Alec: Really?
Finn: Yeah, I mean the involvement that I had in the world of the Elder Scrolls, in the gates of Oblivion, was a chance I really enjoyed taking. There were all kinds of stuff we had to accomplish for it, having to follow it through with Shivering Isles.
Derek: Mine's working on the Fallout 3 download, The Pit. The idea of another wasteland with SLAVES was an incredible idea to me. And working on the New Vegas story was really cool aswell, I enjoyed writing about the assassination of the president. Yeah.... I'm not a very good person.
Michael: I liked working on everything. That's all I'm gonna say.
[brief chuckles]
El Pres: Well, I have to say that the game was really popular amongst fans. You mentioned that a huge part of working with Fallout 3 was making the PAL import.
Michael: Ah yeah. When I had gotten a message from Simon Jacques that we were in charge of changing the region to PAL...
Pierce: Photographic Analogue Line, for those nerds on there.
Michael: I freaked. That would earn us a hell of a lot of money, and it was one of our big breaks, sans working on New Vegas and the DLC.
Derek: Yeah, working on that was a real bitch.
El Pres: [laughs] Yeah. You guys mind another fan question?
[shake heads]
El Pres: This one's from Tommy of... ooh, France!
Alec: I've always wanted to go there.
El Pres: The question is: "Where's the TF141 Media OFFICIAL studio?"
Michael: Well, Darrin Garcia and Myles Davis wanted to bring the official location somewhere in Great Britain. However, that was vetoed because a good half of the Media people had voted for Belgium, since we were all from there. So, Emile Christ, one of the head strategists, used her ever-awesome veto power to turn it down.
El Pres: Another question by... John from New York.
Derek: Finally, someone from the Big Apple!
El Pres: Question: "Have you been associated with anything else besides video games?"
Alec: Well, there's a lot of things, actually. First of all, Rachel Davis, brother of Myles, obviously, had formed her own recording studio in the UK with Alice Thompson and Gregg Cross. They called it "Atlantic Recordings".
Finn: We had done some test recordings from several bands. Some of the particularly big bands we had done was with Judas Priest. We had also helped mix and record an entire album for Gemini, which helped us earn big bucks, and the band Oasis had spent a couple of days there.
Pierce: There's a United States recordings somewhere in San Diego. It's called "Pacific Recordings".
El Pres: Because of the change in Oceans, right?
Derek: Precisely. You gotta have an attractive name.
El Pres: Well, I'm dying to ask: do you have an official website?
Alec: We're THINKING about it. That's not to say that we won't go through with it.
El Pres: How did you all meet one another?
Michael: Uh... Finn better answer this one. He and Alec are some of the originals.
Finn: My pleasure. That's actually a very good question, Mr. Pres. Well, for starters, I knew Alec and Vincent Blake from college. We had similar interests: production, drawing, writing, and girls. When Alec had come around for the idea of our own studio, we seemed pretty game with it. Around that time, we had met Darrin Garcia and Michael here, and Finn's girlfriend Emile also got into it. They all seemed game about the idea of getting signed to a much more popular company. We're actually pretty unique when you think about it: one independent company being paid by ANOTHER independent company.
Finn: As the years progressed, we got more members, including the very patient Caesar Vancen, one of our head editors.
El Pres: If I may interrupt, wasn't he supposed to be here tonight?
Derek: Couldn't make it.
El Pres: Oh. Well, send him my thanks. Sorry, Finn, this is good.
Finn: No problem. Anyways, our first big project I think was either Elder Scrolls 4 or Fallout Tactics. We had applied for design jobs under Bethesda, and they seemed to like our work. Pretty soon, as the years progressed and the favorable responses to Elder Scrolls skyrocketed, we soon became involved in big, big games. We're kind of freelance, but we mostly earn our pennies from Bethesda.
El Pres: What if you had to replace someone?
Alec: Please don't put that picture into my head.
[laughter]
Alec: Umm... well, replacing the president of TF141 Media, Caesar, would be massive. That would mean someone else would have to step up to the job, and, believe me, Caesar is one of THE best presidents you could have. The lack of one of the head editors would also mean... yeah.
Derek: Not to mention the fact that we're all like blood brothers. Over the years, everybody's gotten to know eachother like siblings. It would be very hard to replace one of us.
El Pres: One of the fans, Johnny from Portugal, asked: What was your first new-generation game?
Alec: Sonic Adventure 2.
Pierce: Something like Halo.
Derek: Halo.
Michael: Super Mario 64. Awesome game.
Finn: Does Ocarina of Time count? You know, that Zelda game?
Alec: Yes indeed.
to be edited later
Derek: So, what should we start with?
El Pres: Tell us about making New Vegas, and can we expect anything in the later years?
Alec: I'll start. Well, making New Vegas was the hardest project we had actually ever worked on. We had gotten a word from one of the execs from Obsidian that they wanted to involve us in something bigger than just designing backgrounds and weapons. Pretty soon, they told us that they wanted us involved in progression for some of the main quests. We had decided on following the 'Caesar's Legion' storyline, and had some involvement in the independent storyline. We had a ton of people join the TF141 Media crew, from around the world. Most were from Europe, but we got some other interesting countries, like Austria, Russia, and even the Philippines.
Michael: As for actually expecting something? Well, Interplay had decided to take over the production for the big multiplayer Fallout, which should be called something like Fallout Online. I think that they had taken control of the project, let it slide away from Bethesda. They chose Bulgaria's Masthead Studios, who do seem nice enough, but I don't think they have the EXACT same experience like Bethesda had.
Finn: They mentioned that they wanted to involve us in the maps again, along with weapons and animation.
El Pres: Can we expect anything else big from Bethesda that you'll be involved in? Or anything related?
Finn: Well, Bethesda mentioned they wanted to involve us in storyline progression and map design for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Alec: Some involvement in the script...
Derek: And it appears that the people who made Red Faction: Guerilla want to involve us in their next game, Red Faction.... uh, Armageddon. This is new for us, since we've never had involvement in a shooter.
Alec: But there was Resistance 2, right?
Pierce: Yeah, we were involved in the game's multiplayer system.
Derek: Ah yeah. We also should be brought back to do Resistance 3, if there is one.
El Pres: This question was from one of the watchers of the show: [grabs paper] What was your favorite project?
Finn: [chuckles] Wow, I haven't been asked that question. Who wants to share?
Pierce: I'll go first. Well, personally, my favorite involvement in one of the RPGs we've worked on was New Vegas. Getting to develop the story into Caesar's Legion was really good. We would stay up for nights on end just writing up more ideas, to further the script. We had to make a lot of references to Roman mythology. I also had a real fun time helping with the DLC for Fallout 3, Operation: Anchorage.
El Pres: What about you, Alec?
Alec: For me, personally, was working on the DLC for Fallout 3, Point Lookout. I think that the plot in Point Lookout was really good, and being able to make a completly different "wasteland" for the game I got really excited about, so we took up the chance to help develop it. I also did enjoy working with Fallout 3's mission in Raven Rock, you know the real twist about the President.
Finn: I'm going to have to say mine was working on Elder Scrolls 4.
Alec: Really?
Finn: Yeah, I mean the involvement that I had in the world of the Elder Scrolls, in the gates of Oblivion, was a chance I really enjoyed taking. There were all kinds of stuff we had to accomplish for it, having to follow it through with Shivering Isles.
Derek: Mine's working on the Fallout 3 download, The Pit. The idea of another wasteland with SLAVES was an incredible idea to me. And working on the New Vegas story was really cool aswell, I enjoyed writing about the assassination of the president. Yeah.... I'm not a very good person.
Michael: I liked working on everything. That's all I'm gonna say.
[brief chuckles]
El Pres: Well, I have to say that the game was really popular amongst fans. You mentioned that a huge part of working with Fallout 3 was making the PAL import.
Michael: Ah yeah. When I had gotten a message from Simon Jacques that we were in charge of changing the region to PAL...
Pierce: Photographic Analogue Line, for those nerds on there.
Michael: I freaked. That would earn us a hell of a lot of money, and it was one of our big breaks, sans working on New Vegas and the DLC.
Derek: Yeah, working on that was a real bitch.
El Pres: [laughs] Yeah. You guys mind another fan question?
[shake heads]
El Pres: This one's from Tommy of... ooh, France!
Alec: I've always wanted to go there.
El Pres: The question is: "Where's the TF141 Media OFFICIAL studio?"
Michael: Well, Darrin Garcia and Myles Davis wanted to bring the official location somewhere in Great Britain. However, that was vetoed because a good half of the Media people had voted for Belgium, since we were all from there. So, Emile Christ, one of the head strategists, used her ever-awesome veto power to turn it down.
El Pres: Another question by... John from New York.
Derek: Finally, someone from the Big Apple!
El Pres: Question: "Have you been associated with anything else besides video games?"
Alec: Well, there's a lot of things, actually. First of all, Rachel Davis, brother of Myles, obviously, had formed her own recording studio in the UK with Alice Thompson and Gregg Cross. They called it "Atlantic Recordings".
Finn: We had done some test recordings from several bands. Some of the particularly big bands we had done was with Judas Priest. We had also helped mix and record an entire album for Gemini, which helped us earn big bucks, and the band Oasis had spent a couple of days there.
Pierce: There's a United States recordings somewhere in San Diego. It's called "Pacific Recordings".
El Pres: Because of the change in Oceans, right?
Derek: Precisely. You gotta have an attractive name.
El Pres: Well, I'm dying to ask: do you have an official website?
Alec: We're THINKING about it. That's not to say that we won't go through with it.
El Pres: How did you all meet one another?
Michael: Uh... Finn better answer this one. He and Alec are some of the originals.
Finn: My pleasure. That's actually a very good question, Mr. Pres. Well, for starters, I knew Alec and Vincent Blake from college. We had similar interests: production, drawing, writing, and girls. When Alec had come around for the idea of our own studio, we seemed pretty game with it. Around that time, we had met Darrin Garcia and Michael here, and Finn's girlfriend Emile also got into it. They all seemed game about the idea of getting signed to a much more popular company. We're actually pretty unique when you think about it: one independent company being paid by ANOTHER independent company.
Finn: As the years progressed, we got more members, including the very patient Caesar Vancen, one of our head editors.
El Pres: If I may interrupt, wasn't he supposed to be here tonight?
Derek: Couldn't make it.
El Pres: Oh. Well, send him my thanks. Sorry, Finn, this is good.
Finn: No problem. Anyways, our first big project I think was either Elder Scrolls 4 or Fallout Tactics. We had applied for design jobs under Bethesda, and they seemed to like our work. Pretty soon, as the years progressed and the favorable responses to Elder Scrolls skyrocketed, we soon became involved in big, big games. We're kind of freelance, but we mostly earn our pennies from Bethesda.
El Pres: What if you had to replace someone?
Alec: Please don't put that picture into my head.
[laughter]
Alec: Umm... well, replacing the president of TF141 Media, Caesar, would be massive. That would mean someone else would have to step up to the job, and, believe me, Caesar is one of THE best presidents you could have. The lack of one of the head editors would also mean... yeah.
Derek: Not to mention the fact that we're all like blood brothers. Over the years, everybody's gotten to know eachother like siblings. It would be very hard to replace one of us.
El Pres: One of the fans, Johnny from Portugal, asked: What was your first new-generation game?
Alec: Sonic Adventure 2.
Pierce: Something like Halo.
Derek: Halo.
Michael: Super Mario 64. Awesome game.
Finn: Does Ocarina of Time count? You know, that Zelda game?
Alec: Yes indeed.
to be edited later
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