Pre recorded Bash: BF2's producer Gordon Van Dyke

[rudedog]

This was pre recorded with Jock and GaretJax
BASH is pleased to present Battlefield Bad Company 2's producer who comes to us all the way from the home office of Digital Illusions CE (DICE) in Stockholm Sweden, it is none other than the legendary Gordon Van Dyke.
http://bashandslash.com/images/stories/webcast/bash126.jpg (http://bash.podbean.com/2009/11/06/bash-126-bfbc2/)


Gordon is on BASH to talk to us about all the awesome tech going into his new baby, BFBC2.

This is a wide-ranging interview and we cover a lot of ground. With me to help cover that ground with Gordon (aka "Lex Luthor") is BASH regular, Garetjax from codtv.tv.

Among the interesting personal facts that Gordon drops our way is that he was a former competitive player (hence the "Lex Luthor" tags), but get this...he was also a PC modder. And his mods are the reason he got to work at DICE. I'm sure his street cred with our community just shot straight up, huh?
Of course we asked about BFBC2 as well.

We go into depth on the Frostbite gaming engine.
We talk about the possibilities of modding the game.
We talk about the potential for competitive BFBC2 play.
We of course talk about the fact that BFBC2 will have dedicated servers.
The PC beta is also discussed.

Thanks to all the folks who helped make this cast happen: Gordon at DICE, Matt Pruitt, Jino T. and Kelly E. at EA. Thanks guys.

- Source BashandSLASH (http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=783&Itemid=69) to listen click the image.

[triphammer]

Nice cast... While I wasn't happy with all the news.. it was great for him to talk to the community and give some info.. and LISTEN. Jock has a good grasp of the community needs and wants.. and brought up stuff that needed the right person to listen to. It seemed like Gordon was listening.. which is the most important thing to me.

[Misnomer]

I am far from giving DICE a free ride on this one, the history of BF2 and the oddity that is BF2142 are just a little too much to overlook, but...

GvD's statement at the end of the podcast and the way they handled the forums for BF2 Patch 1.5 have really encouraged me. They still have a long way to go in meeting their dates for patches and developing better ways to get those to the community, but simply recognizing the amazing amount of feedback available today from all forms of communication is a step beyond the moronic PR and community management of Activision and Ubisoft.

He also had a good explanation for no mod tools, but I hope we can at least look forward to a map development kit like in Far Cry 2. If they leave enough dvars unlocked and an unranked mode with all "perks" unlocked, this could work for competition....but the blight that is ranking might do the same thing to this title that it did to 2142.

I am not sure how this should be handled, but if you guys are serious about it you should follow GvD's suggestion and get to the BF2 and 2142 communities and read their forums. They have a long history with DICE and competition on their games. It is a different world than BF1942 and COD gamers are now in the backyard of the people who stuck with BF as their home series. Think how you would feel if the demands of GTA players overrode yours in a Call of Duty game. Let's get together to make a document about what is truly necessary for clan support (like Rudedog's guide) and competition....and send it to DICE as many times as it takes to be recognized.

They will likely not agree with everything on our list or even be able to put it in, but perhaps with some explanation there will be a future for our brand of gaming.