Instead of listening to relatives this festive season, why not listen to me talk to some brilliant people from the world of games? Just pop a woolly hat on and they won’t even see the earbuds. I know: you’re welcome.
I’ve had a great time recording One-to-one this year. If you don’t know, it’s an in-depth interview podcast where I spend about an hour learning about the lives and careers of some well known people. The whole point is to take time to get to know people.
One of the conversations that stands out from this year was talking to Ken and Roberta Williams, the creators of the original video game powerhouse Sierra Online. It stuck out because these two, they don’t really talk to the gaming press – in fact, they’ve been completely absent from games for decades.
But there, all of a sudden, they were, on their boat no less, Roberta Williams clanging around in the background with dog bowls feeding their pets. It was so remarkably unremarkable, the scene, like talking to two family friends, and the two of them were candid and friendly – nothing at all like their heady legend suggested they might be.