Interview Dan the Man 30 Jan, 2003 / Comments: 18
Here's your second chance to ask Dan Pettit some questions. (Bumped from two days ago)
We finally landed the big one, the one we Mojo updaters dream of night after night: an interview with Dan Pettit! (Yes, that Dan Pettit. Yes... that Dan Pettit). Dan has worked at LucasArts for a while, including being the lead tester on Curse of Monkey Island, and some sort of producer on Jedi Knight II, but more important than that, he has appeared in a large percentage of our polls for no reason at all.
For this interview to be any good, we need your unique off-beat questions to make up for our overused trite ones. So, please help us out and leave some potential questions in the comments section of this post.
2) Why Dan? Why not Daniel, Danny, or Dan?
3) Have you ever considered stealing not yet published material and selling it at twice the retail cost?
4) Is finding elusive bugs in video games as arousing as it sounds?
5) Would you kill your son or daughter if it meant putting an end to all disease, hunger and poverty in the world and creating a global Utopia?
6) What, do you think, is your finest quality?
1)Why don't you drop all your mainstream crap that's draggin' you down, and just run out, and you know, become a rock star?
2)Late at night, when you're busy "testing" (believe me, I've been a tester, I know what really goes on), and nobody's around, do you ever, like, sneak into one of the programmer's cubicles, turn on the computer, and fix some bugs/optimize some algorithms yourself? You really should. You should also install those cute little programs that make the Windows icons run away from your mouse. That would be really fun on, like, the last few days before code complete.
3)Do you read/drop by on/stalk Mojo and/or other fansites? Do you ever report your findings back to big broth... I mean, LucasArts?
4)Do you happen to have a mnemonic for how to spell your last name? I keep thinking Petitt or Pettitt or Petite or something, and it makes me want to kill myself.
5)How accurate really *is* time.gov?
6)LOL@telarium#1.
7)What do you want to say to people looking to enter the game industry? Are we in for unpaid overtime, no benefits, and lack of job security? Is there any reason AT ALL (besides our boyhood/girlhood dreams of making/playing games for a living) to work there? How do you recommend we try? Should I just e-mail every e-mail address I get a hold of? Seriously, there are like tons of companies out there. Can you give me a rec?
Quantity over quality, and laziness over that. That's my motto.
8. What does he do?
What is your favorite LucasArts game, and why?
What's the color of your t... car!
By the way, LOL at your first question Telarium!
2: When (if ever) did you become aware that you were the patron saint of Mojo? And what did you think about it?
3.37: Since you used to test games, what advice would you give to people who want to break into Quality Assurance at a company like LucasArts?
4: Why can't I get a job at LucasArts?
Why did it say "WHO IS DAN PETTIT?" right at the bottom of the mini mojo8 site?
http://www.mixnmojo.com/museum/minimojo/
..I never got an answer to what was going on there.