[Interview] Jim Lee vs. DC UNIVERSE ONLINE
Jim Lee sat down with us and answered a few questions about DC Universe Online.
Published: October 12, 2010
During the panel, you said the character customization is very deep. Does this mean that we'll be able to create superheroes that aren't actually in the game yet? Is it possible for players to go down a darker creation path and possibly create Wolverine?
Jim Lee: It would be irresponsible for us to allow such a thing to occur. [general laughter]
Speaking as an executive of the company... You know what? There are so many different combinations of things. We certainly don't have a three-claw option - you might get two claws, one claw. The goal of creating characters is not to allow people to go in and create their favorite non-DC Universe character. The goal really is – you can create things that look like your favorite characters, whether they're in the DC Universe or not, but the goal is not to give you the tools to build something that looks exactly like it. I think some other games do that, or have done that, and that's fine. Really, it's the DC Universe online, and we want to have that consistency in the game. And it's not to say you can't come close, but we didn't want to give it to you as an option. If you squint while you're playing, maybe you can see the characters as you want to see [them].
If you were to add them later in either content patches or expansions, would you add the assets to the character creator?
Jim Lee: There's nothing in the character creator that actually creates assets that are definitive parts of existing costumes. And if they are, it's because a character has a Roman shield and you want to use a Roman shield. Even the goggles and stuff - they're not necessarily Catwoman's goggles that are in the game. The jacket is not like Wonder Woman's jacket. It's something that resembles Wonder Woman's jacket - that kind of thing. Even the capes... I dunno if there's a Batman cape, per se, but there's a scalloped-type cape where you have that kind of fringe, but it doesn't look exactly like Batman's.
We've seen Metropolis and Gotham. Do you have a favorite location or character or event that's in the game that might surprise?
Arkham Asylum is pretty creepy and eerie in the game. The idea was that it was this very old insane asylum. It was actually an old house that eventually was converted into an insane asylum, so it has areas of it that look like sort of a Victorian mansion. And it has other areas where you can see, maybe the '60s and '70s, there was some sort of health reform where they were trying to convert mental asylums and make them cleaner and safer places, and you have that kind of look. And you can see how that degraded over time, so there are all these different kinds of errors of mental institutions that are kind of cobbled together in Arkham Asylum, and it's just creepy. It's a creepy place. I don't know if you've ever been to a real mental asylum, but it really captures that spirit very well. Like the little flecks of blood on the tile - that kind of stuff. Not anything huge or gross, but there's little touches here and there that really kinda give it a very nuanced, subtle look. I thought that environment came out really nice.
Jim Lee: It would be irresponsible for us to allow such a thing to occur. [general laughter]
Speaking as an executive of the company... You know what? There are so many different combinations of things. We certainly don't have a three-claw option - you might get two claws, one claw. The goal of creating characters is not to allow people to go in and create their favorite non-DC Universe character. The goal really is – you can create things that look like your favorite characters, whether they're in the DC Universe or not, but the goal is not to give you the tools to build something that looks exactly like it. I think some other games do that, or have done that, and that's fine. Really, it's the DC Universe online, and we want to have that consistency in the game. And it's not to say you can't come close, but we didn't want to give it to you as an option. If you squint while you're playing, maybe you can see the characters as you want to see [them].
If you were to add them later in either content patches or expansions, would you add the assets to the character creator?
Jim Lee: There's nothing in the character creator that actually creates assets that are definitive parts of existing costumes. And if they are, it's because a character has a Roman shield and you want to use a Roman shield. Even the goggles and stuff - they're not necessarily Catwoman's goggles that are in the game. The jacket is not like Wonder Woman's jacket. It's something that resembles Wonder Woman's jacket - that kind of thing. Even the capes... I dunno if there's a Batman cape, per se, but there's a scalloped-type cape where you have that kind of fringe, but it doesn't look exactly like Batman's.
We've seen Metropolis and Gotham. Do you have a favorite location or character or event that's in the game that might surprise?
Arkham Asylum is pretty creepy and eerie in the game. The idea was that it was this very old insane asylum. It was actually an old house that eventually was converted into an insane asylum, so it has areas of it that look like sort of a Victorian mansion. And it has other areas where you can see, maybe the '60s and '70s, there was some sort of health reform where they were trying to convert mental asylums and make them cleaner and safer places, and you have that kind of look. And you can see how that degraded over time, so there are all these different kinds of errors of mental institutions that are kind of cobbled together in Arkham Asylum, and it's just creepy. It's a creepy place. I don't know if you've ever been to a real mental asylum, but it really captures that spirit very well. Like the little flecks of blood on the tile - that kind of stuff. Not anything huge or gross, but there's little touches here and there that really kinda give it a very nuanced, subtle look. I thought that environment came out really nice.
