Back in October, the man behind "Gears of War" surprised many by departing from the company that made him famous. Simply stating that he was taking "a much needed break," Cliff Bleszinski set out to chart a new course in his life. Speculation has often centered on Bleszinksi breaking free and starting his own studio.
So what's he doing now? According to a VentureBeat interview with the game designer, it doesn't seem like he's doing much of anything.
"There are some days where I sleep until 12:30, and I do absolutely nothing," said Bleszinski. "I watch CNN and read Reddit and walk my dog and drink coffee and check on personal projects and investments and just hang out. There are other days when I'm on NeoGAF and Kotaku and writing down game design ideas and considering this or that other thing."
His days aren't all lazy, though, as the man has put a lot of thought into whether or not he actually wants to form his own studio, as many expect him to do. While Bleszinski is considering the option, he says the burden of being responsible for over 100 employees (and, indirectly, their families and livelihood) pushed him in another direction. At the same time, he clearly wants to continue developing big-budget games, as the thought of 16-hour days and seeing projects through on sheer will-power would be significantly draining.
Aside from thinking out loud about his life's direction, Bleszinski had some interesting thoughts on his recent hobby and its relation to video games: football.
"The other thing about football is that it taps into this tribal nature that everybody's had since the dawn of time. 'Fuck those guys! I bleed red!' 'Why?' 'I don't know. I was just born here, so fuck those guys!' People go insane for their local teams," he said. "They want to be part of something. It's this crazy mob mentality."
"That's the key to something I want to consider getting more into in the future, which is creating something that creates that local loyalty on a digital scale," he went on to say. "You have your North Carolina versus South Carolina or New York versus Jersey. Can you create those rivalries somehow in a digital space that we're all hardwired to believe in?"
It's a pretty interesting concept. When we think of the Internet (and the digital revolution in general), we think about how it breaks those kinds of barriers down. Geography doesn't mean as much when you interact with others digitally. It's about freedom and openness.
Video games, however, foster intense competition all the time. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from Bleszinski's musings.
