Trip Hawkins started his career as one of Apple Computer's earliest employees in the Director of Marketing position, and has since gone on to lead a rollercoaster career of ups and downs, from being the founder of Electronic Arts, to the founder of the ill-fated 3DO. With such an illustrious history, it seems only natural that Trip would be the currently the chairman, CEO, and founder of mobile phone games company Digital Chocolate. Games on Deck got a chance to sit down with Trip on the first day of this year's Game Developer Conference. In this first part of a two part interview, we talk to him about his company, his thoughts on the mobile and console games industries, and the future of digital distribution.
Games On Deck: I personally feel that games are the end result of what happens when the end product of the developer meets with the actions of the player. What are your thoughts on this?
Trip Hawkins: Absolutely. I feel exactly the same way. Clearly a big difference between games and other entertainment media is that it's interactive so suspension of disbelief occurs in all media. You read a book and you have to convert Arabic symbols into imagery in your head and project yourself into that situation and identify with the characters in that story. As human beings we have a tremendous capacity to do just that. But obviously most media are passive and you're cast more into the role of an observer. So what's really neat about games is that you're the principal actor, or at least that's usually the role in which you're cast. Not only is it more exciting because you are there, it's also a lot more dynamic because there are countless decisions that you get to make as the player. You get to be the hero and lots of games have themes of omnipotence of omniscience, so you have to be all powerful and all knowing. It's pretty cool, you know?
GOD: Based on this philosophy how do you look at games?
TH: Of course I've done a lot of different games over the years on different platforms. The way I see mobile... I think the reason people consume media isn't so much about the content it's really more about the social contact they get to have because of it. So if you see a movie or read a book you want to talk to somebody about it. If you're playing a game you're going to have much more fun if you're playing it with someone. So what we're finding especially true with the mobile phone is that people are adopting behaviors besides just making phone calls. They start doing SMS messaging and showing people crummy pictures they took with the camera and, you know, changing their ring tone. It's kind of charming, in a way, to see people tolerating these first generation technologies that are, frankly, low fidelity and somewhat cumbersome. It's not that simple to triple tap a message on your cell phone, yet everyone's doing it.
GOD: Why is it that people are putting up with these things?
TH: I think when these phones first appeared in Japan that a lot of people made the mistake of thinking, "Ohh it's just a Japanese thing, and they're stuck in all these subway cars all the time and they need something to do." The reality is that there are some very fundamental human needs being served, and there are certain things being adopted everywhere around the globe. It really comes back to the social benefit of the platform.
I think there's a lot more excitement for the industry as we go from thinking that we're just entertaining people that are trying to kill time, and we start thinking of the gameplay experience having social value. You know the public just has much, much more demand for that, and you see this being mirrored on the internet. Things like MySpace and Facebook and all the social community activity. Obviously World of Warcraft is reaching an unprecedented audience size for an MMO. Casual web games on the internet are becoming a bigger deal with a bit more of a social dimension there.
So between the internet and mobile you can tell were in the era of social computing. Mobile has a lot going for it as a platform because everybody has one. It's far more prevalent than PCs or consoles. Everybody always has it with them. So if you're looking for social contact it's always available to you.
Of course with mobile it doesn't have to be simultaneous real-time. I mean, admittedly if you and I want to play an MMO together we'll schedule time to do it from our PC on our broadband wire line connection...
GOD: ...through your LiveJournal...
TH: Yeah!
Where mobile fits into the scheme is that: I have a mobile lifestyle. You have a mobile lifestyle. If we're friends I still want to be connected with you, I want to do stuff with you, I want to compete with you, I want to share things with you. But my gameplay session may have to come in five minutes here and ten minutes there, or a half hour there. It's not going to line up perfectly with you. I play mobile games with friends of mine that are several time zones away. It's just yet another factor.
I'll get up, I've got this sports game that I play, and I usually play in the morning when I'm reading the sports page. I know that's not at all when my friend in Boston is playing it. He's busy at work, you know? But I can see what he did the last time he played, and I know he's going to see what I did. I'm thinking of him even while I'm having this separate gaming session.
That happens to be a game about making predictions about what's going on in the sports world.
