Back To Meet The Devs

1. What is your name and/or nickname?

Dave "Crowley" Javier, also known, from time to time, as the Sausage King of Dereth.

2. How did you come to work at Turbine?

I got an interview at Turbine at the end of the summer of 1999. I'd just graduated from school, I was coming off a very weird summer, I needed a job, and my friend Justin (good buddy from college, works on the Weenie Team here) told me Turbine was hiring content people to help fill out this world that thousands of people were going to come flooding into. During the interview we talked a lot about my experience as a GM for multiple role-playing games, thoughts on fiction and storytelling, and overall design philosophy. I get the feeling Turbine has gotten a lot more selective since I got hired, so I feel pretty lucky to be here.

3. What other jobs have you had?

Nothing gaming-related. Summer internships at a non-profit in Los Angeles, tech support during the school year at college.

4. Do you work on anything else besides AC (and can you tell us about it)?

Not at Turbine, no. I've got a few ventures going outside of work, most notably subversive comic books.

5. If you could add or change one thing in AC, what would that be?

Allegiance wars and dueling functionality would make me a very happy designer. Oh, and I'd retroactively remove Tuskers from the start of retail.

6. What's the most amusing or embarrassing death you've had or witnessed in AC?

Most embarassing? Probably when I got whacked on the beach at Mayoi by an Azure Gromnie when I was level 18. I got blasted with acid from behind and I had no pants on because I was looting a corpse. Totally embarassing. Cardell was watching over my shoulder and couldn't stop laughing.

7. Are you in an allegiance and do your allegiance members know you're at Turbine?

At one time I've belonged to some of the largest allegiances on Thistledown. No, they didn't know, or at least didn't tell me they knew. But I'm not a member of any allegiance right now.

8. Have you played any other MMORPGs and are you looking forward to any upcoming ones?

I played UO during its early days. As for upcoming MMPs... I can't really say anything has caught my fancy. The game I'm most looking forward to isn't quite an MMP -- Neverwinter Nights.

9. What's the current in-office LAN game?

People play lots of different games. Counterstrike is a big favorite, and we've struck up an inter-company friendship with a bunch of the people at Valve. People have been playing Starcraft some, as well. But these days when I play cooperatively, Ken, Cardell and I have started working as a team on Darktide. We have our own little gang of thugs, whose names I cannot reveal.

10. Favourites:

Music: Jane's Addiction -- "Nothing's Shocking" is as close to perfection as an album has ever gotten.
Film: "Animal House" or "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." I also have to mention "Gamesmaster, Gamesmaster, What Have You Done?", which is an appallingly funny 45-minute semi-underground film by, for, and about role-players. It's got a cult following.
Food: A stuffed-crust spinach, mushroom and pepperoni pizza from Sicilia's in Providence.
Sport: Football (American, that is)
Computer Game: The sentimental favorite is "Ultima 7: the Black Gate," because it had that incredibly engaging storyline and it really pushed the technology envelope for its time. I thought the mouse-driven interface was the coolest thing ever.

11. What was the first computer game you played?

Good Heavens... probably some CGA version of King's Quest on my older brother's friend's computer.

12. What would you like appreciative fans to send as gifts?

I think it'd be a bit embarassing, unless I knew them well. But candy for the office is good.

13. Did you get your pre-patch Greater Shadow Armour in time?

Hell no. I even gave my patron the one measly cracked shard I'd collected.

14. Fasten and then zip or zip and then fasten?

Fasten, then zip. More prudent that way.

15. Because of the lead- and asbestos-lined walls at Turbine's offices, you all survive the apocalypse - who'd get voted Supreme Leader?

David Bowman, our design director, because he can probably beat us all up with his judo style, and would probably do a good job negotiating with the inevitable tribes of nuclear mutants.