And instead of talking about Fallout, given that several years ago you worked in New Vegas, what do you imagine today a new stand-alone expansion set Bethesda universe?
I've thought a lot recently. Given adherence to real environments, I feel comfortable only in areas that I know personally, for this all my thoughts about Fallout tend to be associated with the west coast and the Midwest. I think it would be interesting to go back in the Boneyard to see what worked (and even more interesting, what did not work) in the most central part of the New California Republic after all these years. However, given that the Midwest has not been considered in the time of Fallout Tactics, I guess Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland could be all of the wonderful (and sometimes painful) memories of the industrial past of America in the 20th century. I rather less certain for what concerns the themes and story to tell. I think the post-apocalyptic environments have been widely discussed since Fallout 3 came on the market. I speak not only of the nuclear apocalypses, but of all those pandemics and disasters that leave 99% of the company late or significantly alter what remains of humanity. I think it's much harder to tell stories with these environments that engage the player with other interesting topics. In my opinion it's not really possible to tell original stories with those environments. The plot and the setting must connect perfectly with the themes you want to deal with.
The nuclear apocalypse is a fear of generation of Tim Cain [the principal designer of the first Fallout], a little less than mine and I think for the younger generation is something quite distant. We also explored extensively these issues recently. I think there are elements also scary and exciting idea that the society of the 21st century does not collapse quickly, but will continue to degenerate slowly as they age. One hypothesis less apocalyptic and more dystopian. Dysfunctions that we can see today on the news but magnified and accelerated by the passage of other decades. I think these fears are interconnected to our thoughts today and more interesting to explore. But to be honest I continue to be interested for future environments that are neither optimistic nor pessimistic: worlds where humans have suffered numerous catastrophes but they made it and have adapted to the new conditions of life. For how fragile our existence, we are masters of adaptation. We do not need a world plagued by war and darkness to explore the ways in which we can face the challenges of the future.
