Interview: Bill Kunkel — The Game Doctor - Page 4

BK: Kent really put in the time on that book, too. I know he spent a lot of time talking with me and I was probably just a minor source. You know, when I was writing comics for DC and Marvel, everybody there wanted to write novels, movies, or TV, thinking those fields were "classy". The grass is always greener, but I'd rather be a top notch game journalist than a third-rate novelist. Not that I want to pre-condemn Steve's work but it does have that Michael-Jordan-Wants-to-Play-Baseball vibe to it, you know? The comic wants to do Shakespeare, the great actor wants to get belly laughs.

RF: At least two of those guys you mentioned are kind of old school by today's standards (Meston and Beniek). Would it be accurate to say there's really no new talent worth a damn at this point?

BK: I can't say that, quite honestly, because I simply don't read enough game magazines or hit that many sites. My game-related work — except for the classes I teach on game design and some consulting — is almost exclusively for Running With Scissors and the Postal franchise. And from that point of view, we not only don't see much talent among game reviewers, we don't see any guts. We literally get email from the reviewers with the link to a review where they rave about Postal 2 or one of the add-on games then apologize in the email (and sometimes even in the review!) that they could only rate it a 6 or a 7 because, well, you know, you're not supposed to notice that Postal 2 is actually an excellent game.

RF: But will it be an excellent movie? I'm interesting in seeing it.

BK: And because Postal is the only franchise the company has, the whole industry can dump on it and pretend their games aren't far more violent. As for the movie, you've probably heard that Uwe Boll is the director. I can only say that Dr. Boll has promised that Postal 2 is, indeed, his favorite game and he sincerely wants input from Running With Scissors. I suspect it will be funny, violent, and sexy. At this point, there isn't even a finished screenplay, so it's way early to tell. You know how Uwe casts his movies?

RF: With a blindfold?

BK: Sort of, actually. He waits 'til about a month before he's going to shoot and he sees who's not working. Next thing you know, he's got Ben Kingsley or Burt Reynolds signed to some generally inappropriate role, but he gets those big names and they make his money back.

RF: That's amazing! I was wondering how he pulled that off with BloodRayne.

Article Author: Rob Faraldi

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