Lex Fridman: belief

Transcript context

…It broke me. Now, meanwhile, as far as the outside world is concerned, you’ve disappeared off the face of the earth, but you were actually working on a game. The following is a conversation with Jeff Kaplan, a legendary game designer of World of Warcraft and Overwatch, which are two of the biggest, most influential games ever made. He is genuinely one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever met. In the many conversations I was fortunate enough to have with him, including while playing video games, he was always kind, thoughtful, hilarious, and still and forever a legit gamer, through and through. Of course, he’s always quick to celebrate the incredible teams of creative minds he has gotten a chance to work with over the years, and they are truly incredible. Blizzard has created some of the greatest games ever made, games that to me personally have brought me thousands of hours of fun, meaning, and happiness, from Warcraft, to StarCraft, to Diablo, WoW, Overwatch and more. So for that, a big thank you to Jeff, to the entire Blizzard team, and to every creative mind in the video game industry, giving their heart and soul to build video game worlds that we fans get a chance to enjoy. This was a super fun, inspiring, whirlwind conversation, pun intended, with one of the most beloved gamers and game designers ever. Full of memes, lulz, wisdom, emotional rollercoaster moments, and of course, Blizzard video game lore. Jeff left Blizzard in 2021, and has been secretly working on a new video game called The Legend of California that I got a chance to play with Jeff. It is incredibly beautiful. Set in the 1800s Gold Rush era of California, it’s an open world online multiplayer game, part adventure and action, part survival. Sometimes creating a feeling of loneliness and desperation, and sometimes just awe watching the sun rise over a beautiful landscape. It’s unlike any game that Jeff has ever worked on, and it’s a game that I genuinely can’t wait to play with all of you. You can wishlist it on Steam. Join the alpha later in March, I think, and early access is on the way. This is the Lex Fridman Podcast. To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description where you can also find links to contact me, ask questions, give feedback, and so on. And now, dear friends, here’s Jeff Kaplan. You were first a legendary video game player, in particular in EverQuest, before you ever became a legendary video game designer on World of Warcraft and on Overwatch, which I think is a wild journey to go through from gamer to designer. But first, let’s go way back. When did you first fall in love with video games? I was lucky. I was born in that golden era of coin-op. So, I literally remember the first time seeing Pac-Man. I was with my Uncle Ronnie, and he just kept feeding me quarters. I think he wanted to play, but was too scared to, so he, you know, his little nephew, he was just giving him quarters to play Pac-Man. I remember being at my brother’s graduation in Philadelphia, and they had an Asteroids machine in the lobby. That was one of the first coin-op machines I had played as well. And my brother and I would… we would try to get the high score, and we’d finally get it. But we had to go to bed early ’cause we were little kids. And then in the morning somebody else had like beat our high score. And then, you know, I grew up in Southern California in the ’80s. I was born in ’72. So, you know, I was a kid with that skateboard BMX culture where we’d ride two towns over. We knew all the pizza parlors and liquor stores and arcades, and we just lived in that coin-op phase. That was, that was where the love started. And then you started to see things like Pong. You’d go over to a friend’s house, they’d have Pong, and it was just mind blowing, like, we’re playing this thing on the TV and it was so much fun. Atari was a big thing at that time as well. But the big one for me was actually Intellivision, because my dad was an executive recruiter, and one of his clients was Mattel. And he said, “Hey, I… They gave me this thing,” and he would get discounts or free games. And my brothers and I just loved Intellivision. Like, we would just play it endlessly. And the comparison was always like, “Is this game close to what’s in the arcades?” And it was just such a golden era. And I think the, the big moment where it really blew open and kind of hit the next level was when the NES came out. And that, like, NES with Super Mario- … Was kind of gaming at the next level at that point. And I have, like, warm, fuzzy memories even thinking about it to this day. I remember we played Super Mario for weeks, my brothers and I, and then I had a friend come over, and he showed me all the secret stuff- … in Super that I didn’t know existed at the time. And it’s… it was like suddenly, the world opened up more and games could be more. And then there was, like, a big PC gaming push that hit me. My parents ran their own business. Like I said, my dad was an executive recruiter, and they bought an IBM. And this is, like, when it was DOS before MS-DOS existed. And I was so disappointed, because, like, other kids had the Amiga or the Commodore- … which, you know, they were better for gaming than the IBM at the time. And my mom, she really encouraged my brother and I. She bought Zork. You know, it was just Infocom word games, and where your imagination would take you. Like, Zork holds a place in my heart I think few games will ever touch.…

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