On SWG Warcry they were lucky enough to get an interview with Star Wars Galaxies Producer Haden Blackman! We got all kinds of insights into the life of a producer as he gave us a timetable of just one day in his job. We even got a few hints on what else is up with SWG! Here's the interview by Warcry's Tark:

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Recently I had the opportunity to interview Haden Blackman a.k.a. Shug_Ninx from the SWG Team... Read on to hear what all Shug had to say! [Tark]As Producer for LucasArts, exactly what is your role in the creation and delivery of SWG? [Haden Blackman] Please note that my title is just "Producer." :) I'm responsible for making sure that Star Wars Galaxies lives up to the expectations of LucasArts (the publisher), fits within the Star Wars franchise, and satisfies both Star Wars fans and gamers. I work closely with Lucasfilm to help define the Star Wars content in the game. But Star Wars Galaxies really couldn't be built without my counterparts at SOE, John Donham (Producer) and Rich Vogel (Executive Producer), who manage the team. Basically, right now I'm just trying to fill whatever holes exist - so, writing the manual for example, or providing Star Wars-specific text. I also try to spend at least two hours in the game every day. [Tark]Could you give us an example of what a typical work day is like for you? [Haden Blackman] There's no such thing as a "typical" day. :) Let's see, today (1/14/03) went something like this: 2 AM: Stop working on the manual and go to bed. 9 AM: Roll into the office, starting answering e-mail. I typically have several dozen unread e-mails in my inbox by the time I get in because the Development team is in Austin and has two to three hours to send me e-mail before I can respond. :) I also take a few minutes to draft a description of Keren, one of the cities on Naboo. 10 AM: Meet with Marketing folks to go over proposals for an "Art of..." book. The layout looks great; now, we just have to organize all the assets... 11 AM: I spend the next hour jumping between finishing up e-mails, a phone conference call re: some press opportunities, and actually playing game (fortunately, I have two machines that I can flip between). 12 PM: A lunch meeting with other Producers. 12:30 PM: Interview with a potential company hire. 1:00 PM: Return to the game for a few minutes, just to run around Tatooine and take a few missions. It's my way to blow off steam. Periodically, I switch back to e-mail to address anything urgent. The testers have started a thread on how many missions players should be able to accept, so I digest that before moving on. 2:30 PM: Fill out some legal paperwork. 3:00 PM: Talk to Rich Vogel about the "Issues of the Day." We go over a few optimization issues, the current server status, PR plans, and anything else on the radar. 3:45 PM: Answer these questions. :) 4:15 PM: I'm trying to gain new skills with my Artisan character on our internal server. I plan to spend most of the afternoon killing creatures to obtain credits and some valuable resources, then go about crafting some basic items. That should take me a few hours, especially since I'll be switching between e-mail and the game. 5:00 PM: I have about six e-mails minimized on my desktop that I still need to finish. I'll try to get those sent before the end of business. 6:00 PM: Tonight, I'm actually leaving around 6 to give a friend a lift home, but most nights I'm here until at least 7 (6-7 becomes a quiet time around these parts as everyone turns to LAN games - it gives me a good chance to catch up on older e-mails that still needs responses). 6:40 PM: After the lovely drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, I'll be sitting down to update my ever-growing "Consolidate Feedback" document, which basically includes all my notes, concerns, issues, suggestions, etc. about the game (I have an afternoon phone call with John Donham tomorrow, and I want him to be able to review my comments before that meeting). 7:30 PM: After dinner, I plan to turn back to the manual; I'll write until around 1 AM or 2 AM, then go to bed. [Tark]There are few people in the community that are familiar with your other jobs, Comics and writing. Could you tell us a bit how you ended up working for DarkHorse on Star Wars themed comics? BTW, who do I have to kill for an Autographed copy of "Star Wars: Jango Fett - Open Seasons TPB"? [Haden Blackman] Well, I started out as a writer. After college, I wrote two books - The Field Guide to North American Monsters and The Field Guide to North American Hauntings, both of which were published by Random House (and are available on Amazon.com!). They are pretty fun, tongue-in-cheek books, but they required a huge amount of research and the ability to distill all that information into something that's (hopefully) entertaining. Anyway, the skills I developed writing those two books were evidently useful to LucasArts, and the company hired me to work on Behind the Magic, a Star Wars reference project. The circle of people who work on Star Wars stuff isn't that large, so I eventually ended up meeting and becoming friends with guys like Peet James and Dave Land at Dark Horse, and eventually Dave asked me to write him a story for Star Wars Tales, preferably tied into something we were working on at LucasArts (so, I did a story about a character from Starfighter). Since then, I've been really fortunate to continue to work with Dave and Randy Stradley on a few other projects, including the ongoing Republic series. [Tark]Do you think your experience with the comics industry has helped in any way with regards to SWG? [Haden Blackman] Well, I think writing for games (I worked on Starfighter, Jedi Starfighter, Battle for Naboo, and some other titles as a writer and/or voice director) has helped me write comics, actually. In games, you need to convey a lot of information very quickly and concisely, but hopefully with some character and flavor. It's the same with comics. Both are also rely heavily on visuals to tell a story. In terms of Star Wars Galaxies specifically, the comics stuff has kept me sane - it's a good change of pace from writing something like a manual. :) Also, it keeps me immersed in Star Wars and in touch with another group of Star Wars fans, which is helpful when we're trying to evaluate SWG and decide if it feels "Star Warsy" enough in some places. [Tark]Customer service is a very important way to provide "value" to the consumer, and promote confidence in the associated product. Has LucasArts decided to change the SOE general policy for CS? There has been some community grumblings that SWG will use strong handed CS tactics, due to the SOE/Verant influence. Do you see this as a problem of perception? [Haden Blackman] SOE and LEC are both committed to providing the best possible customer service for Star Wars Galaxies, but we need to do so in a very sane way. As these games grow, CS becomes a much more difficult task, and we recognize that. Part of providing a good CS experience, though, will definitely be managing expectations. Gone are the days when GMs regularly appear next to you to help you out. Instead, if you have a problem in SWG, we'll offer an automated help system as our first stab at addressing problems, then we'll direct the problem to CS. Only in rare instances will a CS rep need to enter the game to help you. We also plan to have CS reps that help everyone, regardless of which server they are on, and separate the roles of "GM" (a person who plans and hosts live events) and a CS rep (a person who deals with any in-game problems). We'll have automated reporting tools, too - we're trying to do everything we can to make it easier for a player to report a problem and have it resolved quickly. [Tark]How does LucasArts plan on advertising the game? Will they hit the various entertainment mediums? Movie trailers, magazine ads, comic ads, etc? Just how much of an advertising blitz should we expect? [Haden Blackman] Star Wars Galaxies is a long-term proposition. Initially, we'll be advertising in publications that we know gamers and/or hardcore Star Wars fans read. After we've built the community, we'll hopefully start branching out to other sources. I wouldn't call it a "media blitz," but we'll certainly take advantage of any opportunities that arise. [Tark]Has George Lucas taken part in any of the decisions for SWG? If so, how often is he called upon to make those decisions? [Haden Blackman] Fortunately for LucasArts, and Star Wars Galaxies specifically, Lucasfilm Licensing has a dedicated team to help us through the approval process. I've been in constant communication with our key contacts at Lucasfilm since the project's inception. They've approved everything from our choices in playable species to our starting worlds. George Lucas has been consulted on anything that might tread into Episode II or Episode III material. So, when we decided that we wanted to include Naboo as one of our planets (a decision that was made well before the release of Episode II), he had to weigh in on this and give us a seal of approval. Honestly, though, Lucasfilm Licensing exists so that George Lucas doesn't have to be involved with every single decision we make in terms of game design. Well that is all the time we have folks, I would like to thank Haden, the SWG Team, and LucasArts PR for making this Q/A Happen!

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Also, thanks to Warcry for letting us read! The article speaks for itself, so no need for me to ramble on. Let them know what you thought of the article HERE -Kenti