[bigsnappy]

Interview 1:
Pyranha Bytes’ Michael Rüve talks about the Gothic-fans

During an interview with Michael Rüve, managing director of Pyranha Bytes, PC Games asked him a few questions about the devotion of the fans as well as their critical attitude.

PC Games : How do you explain the enormous ability to suffer of the Gothic-fans, who have almost worshipped the third part despite the many problems. Fans who have chosen it several times as ‘Game of the Year’, and who have even taken the development of patches into their own hands.

Michael Rüve : Apparently it wasn’t that bad, the way it was made. Somebody once described Gothic 3 as a crude diamond, with respect to the technique. It seems others also saw it like that, and have gone over it with their polishing tools.

PC Games : At times JoWood and Piranha Bytes were quite heavily criticised by their own fans. Were there moments, during which you saw yourself pilloried wrongfully ?

Michael Rüve : In some cases, yes. But those were isolated opinions, which appear everywhere during some time. But usually not. We are no saints. But in the end, isn’t it better for the creator of a piece of work, when it is being exposed to justified criticism, compared to when just no person shows any interest for it ?

An English translation of the complete interview can be read here:
http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum...3#post16169033

Interview 2:
GameStar interview with Mike Hoge from Piranha Bytes (English translation):
http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum...&#post16225745

[Buckingham]

Thank you sir.

[Zero Cool]

Why they can't make international interviews? There are not only germans who love their creations

[Onisuzume]

Why they can't make international interviews? There are not only germans who love their creations

I think that +/- 90% of this forum would disagree with you.

[Darth Crow]

NOT TRUE. There are lots of other-than-german people in here!

[Maladiq]

The premise.

Why they can't make international interviews? There are not only germans who love their creations

The fallacy:

I think that +/- 90% of this forum would disagree with you.

Implying that 90% of the forum would disagree with Zero would be synonymous to saying that 90% of the forum would disagree that not only German love their creations, meaning that 90% of the forum would agree that ONLY Germans love their creations, denying thus the existence of even a single non-german fan.

I bet you that there isn't a single person in the WHOLE fucking world who thinks that ONLY Germans love gothic So chose your words carefully before writing anything.

[Stalagmite]

I'm not German or even European for that matter and I still think Gothic is the best RPG ever ffs. We'll see if Skyrimjob can beat it. Doubtful considering Beths reputation but hey at least it looks nice.

Someone needs to translate the page, but I like what's translated.

[ApocaliptioGod]

I think that +/- 90% of this forum would disagree with you.

do you hear yourself?

[NCONiall]

Just use Google Translate, it's not that bad, I mean it's understandable.

[Nisarg]

I gave up Google Translate ever since it translated "Björn Pankratz : Nein" To "Björn Pankratz: Yes"

[Hellbilly]

I gave up Google Translate ever since it translated "Björn Pankratz : Nein" To "Björn Pankratz: Yes"

Google translate is funny. Sometimes it does just plain wrong stuff like that, and sometimes it translates the exactly same words or the same sentence in wildly different ways.

Also, if people wanna see more English interviews... make 'em! Or encourage others to make them. You see, interviewers ask the interviewees if they'd be interested, the interviewees rarely whore themselves out asking "would you like to interview us?". So lack of English interviews signifies lack of interest, in English-language gaming media at least.

[Der_Jonn]

Why they can't make international interviews? There are not only germans who love their creations

So you think a German game mag should interview a German developer in English?

[ICFabian]

Here's the translation. I hope the original meaning is intact.

We begin this interview series with Michael Rueve, who has been the business director for Piranha Bytes since 2002. We'd be glad to hear your comments and questions about these articles.

PC Games: Michael, the fate of Piranha Bytes is entwined with that of Jowood. It was inevitable that conflicts with developers such as yourselves would reach the public. Today came the end for Jowood. Would you agree that Jowood kept itself busy with its own problems instead of the development of games?

Michael: During our collaboration with Jowood, from 2002 to 2007, I have dealt with six different board directors. Of course, each of them had their own visions as to how a firm's strategy should look like. Whoever has worked in a big company, in which the words "restructuring" or "strategy change" are tossed about by the management, knows how many resources that takes, and how it throws day-to-day businesses off balance. The fact that they've had to bear the brunt of substantial financial issues over the time really didn't make things any simpler.

PC Games: Your colleague, Michael Hoge, declared to the public at the dawn of May, in an interview about Gothic 3, that everything began when "the publisher forced us to release Gothic 3 before we'd finished it." Why didn't you refuse to publish the game, given its state?

Michael: As developer, you are contracted to develop a game - usually by a publisher. The product belongs to the customer. If he decides that enough has been done and the game is to be released, you - as developer - do not have a lot of options to go against that. You could only break the contract with all the consequences that brings. We've already seen the results of this, back in 2007. We had a lawsuit thrown against us, out of the blue. The odd thing is, the lawsuit wasn't only against us as a company -- which was bad enough -- but also against me and Michael Hoge as private persons. We won that lawsuit. But had we really broken the contract and refused to hand over the game, things would have ended differently.

PC Games: How do you explain the enormous strength of the Gothic fans, who, despite the third part's many problems, were near to idolising the game, and have, several times, chosen it the game of the year, even developed game patches themselves?

Michael: It seems the game wasn't as bad as people considered it. There was someone who even went as far as to call Gothic 3 "a diamond in the rough," once. People who saw things on the same level had a go at fixing the game with the tools they were given. It's really amazing what they created in the face of adversity.

PC Games: Jowood and Piranha Bytes saw their hefty dose of criticism from the fans. Were there moments when you saw yourselves as unjustly attacked?

Michael: Sometimes, yes, but overall, I'd say no. We're no saints. Isn't good, qualified, apt criticism better than general indifference, for any creator at all?

PC Games: The rights to "Gothic" are to return to you upon the end of Risen 2's development. You must surely have some rough plans for the day when this will happen -- what do you think?

Michael: Of course, we have some basic ideas -- but nothing concrete about what we'd really like to do, currently. We're hard at work on Risen 2 right now -- a team with no more than twenty people just can't deal with so many big projects at once. We'd spread ourselves far too thin.

PC Games: If you could work again on G3 - for a day or a week - what would you do first?

Michael: Let the matter rest. We made the last changes in 2007. From then on, the work was given to someone else, without our being able to see what other changes were being discussed behind the curtains. That was about four years ago. We'd only need time go get the hang of it again; a week -- but probably more than that -- would be insufficient. The game's as it is. The fandom has made many improvements, and has set things in order. In my opinion, the public opinion is harsher than it should be -- but it's in the nature of things to see the flaws emphasised more than the strong points. It wasn't meant to be a Gothic 1 or 2 -- ever! Even if the hardcore fans of Gothic 1 and 2 won't like hearing this -- there are many people who enjoyed Gothic 3 more than its predecessors.

[bigsnappy]

Thanks! On the front page I added a link to your post

[ICFabian]

Updated, with certain fixes from foobar. Thanks a lot =)

[Onisuzume]

Implying that 90% of the forum would disagree with Zero would be synonymous to saying that 90% of the forum would disagree that not only German love their creations, meaning that 90% of the forum would agree that ONLY Germans love their creations, denying thus the existence of even a single non-german fan.

I bet you that there isn't a single person in the WHOLE fucking world who thinks that ONLY Germans love gothic So chose your words carefully before writing anything.

Have you seen the ffing size of the german fora?

[Assassin of Kings]

Have you seen the ffing size of the german fora?

It's true that about 90% of the Gothic fans are German, but that doesn't mean that they don't acknowledge the fact that there are also fans of the game in different corners of the world or that they don't like its popularity to be extended. But since the magazine is German, it's normal for the interview to be in German as well.

I'm disappointed about Michael's last answer. It's true that some people like G3 more, but what disappoints me more is his attitude. I don't dislike Gothic 3 as it is, but they should have tried to make a sequel with the same features as its prequels.

[Larisa]

but they should have tried to make a sequel with the same features as its prequels.

They wanted more money. Which is kinda the sole reason a business exists.

[Kraszu]

G3 reputation system is a variant of joining the guild it isn't like they had made Oblivion or Arcania. Getting reputation in cities is also very Gothic like, but it was overdone in G3.

[Nigel52]

Thanks for translating the whole thing! As an American fan, I like to be able to read the interview.