Eurogamer has interviewed Samwise Didier,
Warcraft artist and
icon, and the man who's pretty much defined the look and feel of Blizzard since even the early days. There's a lot of great stuff for Blizzard fans in this one -- I had no idea that an early build of
The Lost Vikings had about 20 Vikings in it instead of the three we know -- and Samwise talks about his influences, including the way that Blizzard makes twists on standard genre conventions.
But the guy still stays incredibly humble, and acknowledges that as great as Blizzard's art is, the thing that really brings people back to these games is the fun factor. It's the humor and the enjoyment that Blizzard fans love, and Samwise's (and all of the other Blizzard artists') art make it that much better.
[Via
WorldofWar]
Tags: art, blizzard, eurogamer, icon, interview, lost-vikings, samwise, samwise-didier, starcraft, the-lost-vikings, warcraft
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Interviews
Mar 24th 2008 at 3:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KateJaneway Mar 24th 2008 3:46PM
*giggles* I think every nerdy person I know owns that t-shirt, or a variation on it! ^_^;
Jonas M Luster Mar 24th 2008 3:48PM
There's an "i" missing in his last name in the title.
mbree13 Mar 24th 2008 4:34PM
Wth is that on his neck? Is that a beard?!
Salty Mar 24th 2008 4:23PM
WoW, he's the ultimate business nerd hybrid. He's got the IT guy jeans, a Dimebag Darrel hair-do and his anime t-shirt is TUCKED IN.
RogueJedi86 Mar 26th 2008 4:38AM
What anime shirt? They're just blue flames.
Milktub Mar 24th 2008 4:27PM
I'm trying to imagine 20 Vikings in "The Lost Vikings" ... would you still control all 20 at once?
wyrd Mar 24th 2008 7:18PM
How could you? and would each of the 20 offer a unique ability? that would make for some awesome levels!
Perseus Mar 24th 2008 5:04PM
sam's the man
censorman Mar 24th 2008 6:17PM
Yeah. Definitely a killer dork. Long live Samwise.
MechChef Mar 24th 2008 7:05PM
Maybe I'm shallow, but going off looks alone, the first thing that popped into my head is "watches a lot of anime pr0n."
I'm sure he's a decent guy though.
woez Mar 24th 2008 8:02PM
the was a great Vice magazine "don't" where they said something like "did you ever notice how the people who wear fire on their clothes are the ones most deserving to burst into flames?".
I'm sure Sammy is a great guy, the fire is just a little eye-searing.
Zali Mar 25th 2008 9:06AM
Well, I can't say I have that shirt or one like it but his work, and the work of his team impress the hell out of me on a daily basis. Funny how people how a couple people comment on what he looks like in this picture, this visual, when the only visuals you need to see on this guy are in the art work surrounding the Blizzard Universe.
I can't say that I would play this game if it was just stick figures and blue and red circles and boxes no matter how fun the game is. Not to the extent that I do. The flash games he talks about are good for a half hour... not the 2000+ hours I played this in the last 15 months. (Yea, I know! I AM the guy in the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." Best. Episode. Ever. [Are you allowed to mix South Park and Simpson references in the same post?])
The point is about the impressive and unique quality of the art coming from Blizzard. Not his shirt. Maybe a few people can make some comments about the art. Or, I don't know, is that just crazy talk?
Zali Mar 25th 2008 9:02AM
Now, about his shirt. Call it geeky or whatever. But I'll bet that if Bill Gates were getting started today, he'd have a shirt like that. Heck, he might have one like that now.
This guy is the art director for a very profitable company and would bet that he could probably walk into any game developing company and pretty much demand a salary and get what he wants. To put it in perspective, the Phoenix Suns has revenue's around $132,000,000.00, with general operating costs around $40,000,000.00 plus $48,000,000.00 for players salary.
Blizzard, on the other hand has about 2700 total employees and had reported revenue's at around $1.1BILLION. Now, I couldn't really find out all that much about their operating costs but I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to run a high end data center and the costs involved since I have to sit through budget meetings for our companies data center, which is a fairly decent size.
I doubt this guy demanding $100 million, five year contracts, like Shaq, but I'll bet he gets paid fairly well for his efforts. Point is, I'll bet he can afford any shirt he wants. If he wants to wear blue flames, who are we to criticize?
Maybe I'll get a shirt like that so someday I can have a job where I get to color pictures all day and work for a company where you don't get fired for playing video games on the company network.