Flagship Studios Interview

IGN PC had the opportunity to sit down with ex-Blizzarder Bill Roper and ask several questions about his new game development company, Flagship Studios. Here's a little something to get you started:
Q: For some reason, I'm reminded of CCR suing John Fogerty because his songs sounded too much like CCR. Do you anticipate that kind of comparison? How can you distance yourself from the Blizzard model while keeping true to your own spirit?

A: The biggest comparison we want to have is to have people say we're making great games. That's always something people said and continue to say about Blizzard. I want people to look forward to what we're doing as much as they did the stuff in the past. The CCR stuff is interesting. That's his sound; unless he goes out and does something totally foreign, there has to be some level of familiarity.

We know that there's a lot of things that aren't technology tied or world tied and haven't been part of anything that we've done before other than that they're core development philosophies we have. There are ways that we make games, things that we think are fun, ways we want to reward players, ways that we structure and make the games. Out of that, especially if you're looking for it, you'll find similarities. Nothing that we've talked about or are working on will make people say, "It's just this." I think people can make those connections and see where the spirit is and say, "I can understand how this hearkens to that because the same guys made both things." I don't feel anyone will say we're just making another version of this game. Consciously and subconsciously that's in our every thought. We want to make sure people recognize this as a Flagship Studios game. This is the next big thing. We don't want to chase our success; we want to do the new thing.