WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 Q&A with THQ’s Cory Ledesma

While at the event that let us get good look at what WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 is all about, we had the opportunity to chat for a bit with THQ Senior Creative Manager Cory Ledesma about some of the specifics of the upcoming title. What follows is a transcript of our talk:

Kombo: The WWE has been known in the past for having some pretty risque content (“two words for ya’,” some of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s mannerisms). With all of the online content and sharing that will be taking place, is there any sort of provision in place to keep people from going overboard?

Cory Ledesma: That’s a great question. We’ve done a couple of different things for that in particular; basically, what we’ve decided to do was that we wanted the community to regulate themselves, govern themselves.

So we’ve offered the ability to flag content as inappropriate. If the community starts to deem certain kinds of content inappropriate, if it gets flagged a certain amount of times, it will be removed from the server. That’s one thing that we’ve done.

Also, with the story, you can write your own dialogue. We do a language filter for that dialogue, so as you post your content, it will be run through a language filter, and we will asterisk out any inappropriate material.

Of course, there’s always ways around that, and THQ reserves the right to remove any content that it might feel is inappropriate, and that can be done through the server. But we give users the freedom to do almost whatever they want, as long as it’s tasteful and doesn’t offend a large majority of people.

We want to give freedom, we don’t really like restricting people, so we try to limit that as much as possible. We did add some things to make sure that we don’t go overboard; our fans can get carried away, they’re a very creative bunch, but we want to make sure everything is tasteful.

Kombo: Something else I was wondering about: I know that there is a lot of emphasis about showing your stuff online. But I’ve heard some problems, I’m not sure if it was WWE, but where you’re not able to use created characters in versus modes online. Can you do that here?

CL: Absolutely, there’s no restrictions for that. You can create your character, you can fight with them online as often as you like, no restrictions of who you fight against.

You can also download other peoples’ content that they’ve posted, and then use it online as well, there are no restrictions for that. The only restriction we do have is a requirement on the Microsoft and Sony side, in that you’re not allowed to edit the content that you download. Let’s say you download a story; you won’t be able to edit that story after you download it.

That’s the only restriction; you can use this content as freely as you like, and we made sure there’s not a lot of restrictions because there’s nothing more annoying than to create all this content, download all this stuff, and not be able to use it freely.

Kombo: Something I was wondering about is the Wii version. It’s looking a bit different (content-wise) from the other ones, and I was wondering about Stone Cold Steve Austin, because he’s an exclusive download with the preorders at GameStop and the other places.

CL: Yeah, unfortunately, it doesn’t count for the Wii version of the game, as it doesn’t have the online support. Only fans of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game will be able to play as Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Kombo: Unless they make him.

CL: Unless they make him, right! Because they’ll have the tools to do that!

Kombo: Will they have the music to make him?

CL: …they won’t have the music to make him.

Kombo: What about The Rock? Is he in there in any capacity?

CL: Unfortunately, they won’t allow me to talk about the roster, other than the guys we already mentioned. But the roster is going to be revealed in a couple of weeks, and as we move closer to launch, we’re going to reveal the full roster.

Kombo: During the presentation, you said there was a list of finishing maneuvers that the announcers would be able to call. Now, something I’ve wondered about is that technology has progressed since we first saw things like Bonzi Buddy and other speech synthesizers. I was wondering if there has been any consideration to having something like that, where the announcers are calling out your name or moves, like the “Super Dan Death Drop,” for example.

CL: We’ve explored doing that kind of stuff, and we’ll continue to do so in the future, but there’s no true solution right now that we really like. Also, there’s talent out there, talent that we want to keep to preserve the game’s authenticity.

So we’ll look into that technology, not necessarily use it for that, but we’re going to continue to explore that, because it would be cool to be able to have customized voiceovers and use your name, your character’s moves, for stories, whatever it may be. But it’s a very cool thing that we want to keep in mind for the future.

Kombo: I guess getting J.R. and The King in there to say “ooh,” “eh,” “ee,” “ah,” and so on for hours on end would be more than you guys could do.

CL: I wouldn’t rule it out, but we’d definitely like to, and have continued to look at it.

Kombo: Each year, you guys have put an emphasis on a different theme: 2008 was story, last year was tag teams, and this year is the heavy focus on community. Do you scale back on the previous year’s theme with each new iteration, or continue to build off it as you move forward? Will the new tag team features introduced last year still play prominently this year?

CL: They definitely are, the whole thing with us is to build on our foundations. We take a look at our game each year, we decide what worked and what didn’t work. Sometimes our ideas or our executions just really didn’t work, sometimes stuff has been in the game for so long that it’s lost its fun factor.

We’re always reevaluating to see with each mode, “okay, what do we do this year?” We’re always constantly evaluating that, and we keep the stuff that we’re very happy with, we’re very proud of. The stuff like the tag-team stuff, that’s in this year, slightly improved.

Kombo: Now, I was wondering is if there is some stuff that might find its way into the game as downloadable content in the future, like a few extra shirt designs, masks, that kind of thing.

CL: Absolutely. I think it’s funny, because the creative team is never really short of ideas. A lot of times, people ask me “what are you going to do to top yourself next year?” And we really actually have this giant wish list, and we only accomplish like, five percent of it each year, and other stuff is like “boy, I really wish we could get that in.”

So, there’s always new stuff in every aspect of the game where there’s downloadable content, where there’s parts for the create-a-character. We’re always constantly trying to get as much in as we can, and we have to pick and choose each year with a whole process of what stuff we’re going to keep, what stuff we have to maybe try for future years.

Kombo: That leads in to another question, actually. Can we get some kind of hint as to what you guys might decide to focus on next year?

CL: I wish; lots of people ask me that, and I can’t reveal anything, no teasers… but as I said before, there’s no shortage of ideas, and there’s a lot of stuff to build on, as far as improving.

And I think the fans are going to continue to see more of the creation stuff and the community, as that’s becoming a big part of video gaming. And not just our game, but every game will be like that, with user-generated content and sharing that with the community.

So, you’ll probably expect to see that grow out more. And of course, everything changes in WWE as far as stories, wrestlers, other things, so we’ll always try to keep up with that.

Kombo: Speaking of downloadable content, I was wondering: suppose there’s a successful storyline on TV, might there be a possibility of being able to download an “official” version?

CL: That would be great, and it’s a good idea, something we’ll have to think about. We’re really hoping that the power can be in the fans’ hands to do that stuff, and they’ll probably do a better job than we do, just because they’re so dedicated and so hardcore.

And we think it would be good to be able to create the show, and to be recognized as that guy who creates these great stories. We hope our fans will really be able to take up that role.

Kombo: And that concludes our WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 Q&A with Senior Creative Manager Cory Ledesma. We would just like to thank THQ for making this possible, and we look forward to hearing more about this game.

In addition, after the event had concluded, I did follow up with one question by e-mail for the benefit of standard-definition television owners. I asked if care had been taken to make sure that the text and such things would be easily readable on an SDTV, given this game seems as though it will feature more of it, due to story modes and the like.

Jaime Jensen of THQ informed me that “standard def owners would not have any issues reading text, etc. on standard definition versions of the game. Each platform is maximized to deliver the best output possible each year.”

So, if you were concerned about such a thing, then worry no more.

If you haven’t seen our coverage already, you can read our feature all about the game here, and find out who made the cut to be on this year’s roster here.

Do note, at the time of this interview, the roster had not been revealed, or else I would have been asking about the Harts, The Hurricane and Zack Ryder, among others.