Interview with Dr. Vries

[The Nomodder]

Hello friends and colleagues! 

 

I have taken the trouble to have translated an interview that was conducted by the German website Wrestlinggames.de a few weeks ago with Dr. Vries.

 

http://board.wrestlinggames.de/showthread.php?p=1661935#post1661935

 

Have fun reading! 

 

__________________________________________________________________________

 

Today I’m fortunate to speak with one of the most famous CAW creators worldwide. Thomas, in the WWE Games Community also widely known as Dr. Vries, for some time now pulls particularly challenging and realistic caws out of the hat. Thomas,  first I would  like to say thank you for taking the time for this interview. Tell us a little bit about how you came to CAW making!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it, it really doesn’t happen that often. How I came to the CAW-making can be easily explained by the fact that I'm a big wrestling fan since my very early childhood. I started with Wrestlemania 8 and haven’t  stopped watching since. The first wrestling game I've played, with which one could create caws, was WWF RAW, which was released in 2000 or 2001 for the PC. Of course I had to have this game.

 

You've just mentioned - it really does not happen often that the brains behind the popular CAWS speak out. What do you think is the reason for that?

Maybe it is the lack of opportunity? I cannot really tell. Within the relevant forums these creative minds are actually very outspoken,  the ones I got to know anyway.

 

And you add up perfectly in a league with known names like WolfgangJT or The Von. How do I have to picture that, Do the top minds in the CAW business exchange ideas? Do you even work together on caws sometimes?

We not only exchange ideas among ourselves. We often like to work together. With Wolfie I have not had the pleasure to work personally, but with The Von. I myself am a member of the CAW collective "NCO".

 

NCO? What does it stand for? And what's behind it?

"NCO" stands for "New CAW Order." This is of course an allusion to the NWO. The NWO of course I need not explain to anyone who deals with wrestling.  Behind the NCO stands  a union of some of the most creative CAW makers, with whom I have had the pleasure to work. The goal is always to achieve the best possible result. Just for WWE 13, we have created about 35 CAWS.

 

Does that mean that you now only work as part of the NCO?

I still like to work on single projects as well, but once you have gathered such a talented group of people, you quickly get the feeling that a group project is more satisfying.

 

If a aspiring  CAW maker would ask you, "Which character should I start with?" - What would you answer? Is there something like an ideal starter-CAW, someone who is easy to accomplish?

I believe that no one is really simple to create. But you can make it easy if you  choose someone wearing a very simple costume. Steve Austin, for example, only wears simple black pants. You can reduce the amount of work when you don’t have to create any fancy clothes. If I'm not mistaken, my first fully completed and published CAW was Scott Steiner. His  attire was simple enough for a beginner.

 

The WWE games community is of course mostly containing of wrestling fans. Many behave as Smarks on the net and perhaps act a little hotheaded, for example, if someone has a good CAW presented  in a forum like CAWS.ws or similar, but isn’t posting a formula, or isn’t uploading it to CC right away. How have you always handled it with your CAWS? Do you prefer to finish a caw to perfection, or do you present a caw as early as possible to get feedback?

I have published my first CAW for SVR2010. It was a Sting in his crow gimmick. I didn’t have the highest standards back then and was actually quite pleased with it. I remember that my first comment came from WolfgangJT. He welcomed me to the forum, and made ​​me realize that my CAW was actually quite crappy. I didn’t feel offended and became more careful and thorough then. Today I tweake pretty long before I present my first preview in the forum. If you have a good community they will give a newbie good advice and ways to improve themselves. Even a horde of smarks can be very helpful.

 

Which of your creations would you describe as your best so far?

Ha! That's hard to say. I have a few usual suspects that I do almost every year. My personal favorite is but Seth Rollins / Tyler Black. For WWE 13 I created it in collaboration with Ravenos.

 

One thing you notice while you are browsing through the relevant CAW forums is that there are relatively few female CAWS. Why is that in your opinion? The interest of the CAW maker and players might not exist? Or fails the whole thing rather on the possibilities of the CAW editor?

The interest of CAW Makers is definitely there. For example Divas like Paige from the NXT roster are highly sought after. But a wholly owned similarity fails actually to the possibilities of the editor. Compared to Create a superstar mode, Create a diva is significantly limited. The polygons that are available in the face of a male superstar, are needed elsewhere on the divas. I personally think that is very unfortunate. Maybe that will change with the next generation of hardware.

 

Which game do you think had the best CAW mode? Has the mode improved with each passing year? Or did the quality drop from a certain game?

There is no definite answer to this question. In my opinion SvR2011 was somewhat of a milestone in the recent history of THQ / Yukes games. The possibilities to influence the morphing got better from game to game, but with SvR2011 the creations got a look that was very close to the ingame models. Of course, the possibilities for creative freedom, enormously increased since the re/introduction of the painttool. The standard had increased continuously until the transparency had been removed and the number of skin tones has been reduced. With these two steps, they had thrown a few large stones in the way of the creative community. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of it, I think there was a huge increase in quality after 2011. Maybe it was like a defiance. If one is forced to work with reduced means, it forces you to work harder and more creatively.

 

Currently most of the players are hot for WWE 2k14 - what do you expect especially from the new CAW suite? What extras are overdue?

Like most CAW Makers, I hope, of course for the full return of transparency for designs and logos. An RGB color scale ca not be missing in the skin tones, then I would be almost happy. If I could set up a wish list, I would of course have a number of ideas. Basically, it would be logical and consistent to increase the number of high-resolution painttool logos. So far it is only possible to place either two different high res logos, or ten different low res logos. It would also be nice if it would be possible to add transparency to created logos. A way to upload images to a server in order to load them into the game, would be a good idea too. There are so many things I'd like to see in the game. It would take too long to enumerate all. The development of the perfect game, from the perspective of CAW makers, would probably be too time-consuming and expensive.

 

The first details of the roster are recently leaked. It gives the impression that it contains many legends this year. This might mean some work for you and your colleagues. Are you looking forward to possibly have to do more, or do you see this game just like the previous ones?

If you look at the first rumors, and already confirmed facts about the upcoming roster, I'm very curious as to where the focus is. Legends such as "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior are , of course for every fan a real goodie. If the current roster suffers, there is a lot of work to do for people like me. I am looking forward to complete the roster, on the other hand I don’t want to create the same people every year, just because the WWE has not put them in the game.

 

The WWE itself is extremely reticent when it comes to the use of Chris Benoit. He is nowhere advertised; many workers distanced themselves after the terrible incident around him and his family from him. What do you think about it? Do you also build Benoit-CAWS or is he a "no-go"?

This is a difficult question because it relates to a tragedy in real life. Regarding the tragedy that took place in 2007, I cannot and should not say anything. I must say that he was one of my absolute favorites as a wrestler. His matches were almost always the highlights of the match card. He could make an excellent match with almost any worker. His intensity, athleticism and experience made ​​him one of the best wrestlers of the 90s and 2000s. That's why I've always created him in the past three years. From time to time there is therefore a bitter comment in my direction, but for that you have to have understanding. I personally try to separate the wrestler and the private person.

 

Are there any wrestlers that you have never created? And never would create?

Luckily there are almost every year new wrestlers that I have not yet created. The only limitation that I have set myself is that I concentrate fully on actual wrestlers. Is there someone I would never make? If someone would ask me to create a CAW of Angela Merkel I would reject with high probability. Only joking. J

 

What about the ideas? You prefer to build people in which you are interested? Or do you prefer to take requests from other people?

Honestly, I have no real preference. Of course, you are more motivated to create someone you are actually interested in. Within the NCO we had the goal to create a roster as current as possible. This also includes the NXT roster. It was inevitable to create one or the other wrestlers that you have never seen wrestle before.

 

Are you working with only one console? Xbox 360 or PS3? Or even both?

Not so long ago I would have to say that I only have a Xbox 360 console. But this has changed recently and now I also own a PS3. I do come eight years too late to the party but that does not bother me. I'm going to buy WWE2k14 for the Xbox 360 console. The Xbox is so to speak my official wrestling console. J

 

The next generation of consoles is currently a hot topic - especially the Xbox one had a lot of beatings inflicted by the consumer, but also by the press. If you had to hire a prediction here and now - which console is for the CAW aficionado you think the better option? Where will you and your collective rather be active? Have you already discussed this  internally?

With the next generation, the cards are completely reshuffled. Microsoft's backward roll on "allways on" has perhaps prevented them from suffering  the worst-case scenario, but as far as the pre-order goes, Sony seems to have the edge. I personally tend very much for the PS4. In the small circle, of course there has already been talked about which console is the more interesting, but there was not a clear result yet. Could be, that for many, the more favorable price, with nearly identical performance, will be the decisive point.

 

The time factor is certainly interesting for many aspiring CAW Creators - how much time has your most extensive solo CAW claimed to date?

This is day form-dependent. But I'm trying to estimate times. For WWE12 I created Seth Rollins completely without the help of imported textures. Thus, it was of course necessary to create intricate painttools in large numbers. The first thing you need of course is as much reference material as humanly possible. So you have to search the internet for well suitable pictures and videos. Once you have found enough material it’s time to begin. Personally, I work until the last minute before the upload. I may be a little bit nuts about that, but it is too late to change that now.  J Including the search for reference material, creating all the logos and fine-tuning of the face and body, I spent with Seth Rollins about one to two weeks.

 

You mentioned that you participate in the CAW collective "NCO". How can one imagine that? Are you an international team? Is there something like team meetings or a separate site on the net?

The "NCO" is very international indeed. In our group are American, Irish, British, a Scotsman and two German. There are very extensive discussions regarding upcoming or future projects but also completely dissociated chatting about this and that.

In fact, there is also a website. http://ajsim81.wix.com/ncocreations #! chat/c161y

Working within the group is very relaxed because everyone knows exactly where your own strengths and weaknesses are. The more experienced members help the newcomers. This ranges from feedback, to active support. Everyone is trying to help the others. We have absolute experts in terms of the creation of movesets and Entrances. There are also true artists among us who can create incredibly realistic logos with Photoshop or Paint tool. This division of labor allows us to present results at very high speed.

 

Who do you think is the best CAW maker in the world? Is there someone you regard as an "Idol"?

I have no idol but in my opinion there are a few real "icons". Without a special order:

AJ SIM, The Hippopotomus, The Nomodder, American Dream, WolfgangJT, Bhangra_man, Petchy, The D, Pac, Gamevolt, American Dream, and many more. When it comes to excellent movesets, you cannot forget brilliant colleagues like Righteous and The Knight. I could continue this list for a while and would still forget some of the most talented. At this point I would like to apologize to all that I have not mentioned here.

 

Textures are an ambivalent topic. You have to bypass restrictions to get hacked resources into the game - the result is all the more impressive - Face textures, authentic logos and tattoos or even selection screen renders. Do you think that 2K could and should come to an accommodation with the CAW aficionado, so you do not have to resort to "semi-legal" solutions?

EA Sports has already proven with "My Pro" that it is possible to insert images from another source into a game. In my opinion it would be, as mentioned earlier briefly, a good idea to connect the game with a picture platform. This would, if 2K is even aware of this circumstance help to pull a big part of this creative community out of the "underground". Can 2K accommodate the aficionado? YES. Should 2K accommodate the aficionado? I do not know. It won’t hurt the sales figures,if they don’t.

 

Have you ever tried on a CAW, where you are ultimately failed? In your eyes, is there somebody you simply cannot create with the resources available?

Yes, there is a CAW where I've failed. You can probably remember that there were a lot of WCW legends in WWE12. I would have loved to add "MrWonderful" Paul Orndorff to this list of legends. This man has cost me nerves. After some really frustrating hours, I've thrown in the towel. I wouldn’t really exclude anyone. If a wrestler is slipping into the extreme too much, like Giant Gonzales or Yokozuna for example, you will probably not achieve hundred percent similarity. But hardly anyone seems impossible to me.

 

I was frankly surprised that you are from Germany. Are there other, relevant CAW makers, which also come from good old Germany?

My Brother The Nomodder. Anyone looking for classic wrestlers from the 90s knows him. But there are certainly more. Of some I might not even know that they are from Germany. It is a pity that you hardly meet german CAW makers. A site like WrestlingGames.de may perhaps lure them out of their caves.

 

What is more common in the scene - uploading with or without editing lock? And which option do you prefer?

It is more common to upload without editing lock. Myself, like most of the others have the opinion that it makes no sense to turn on the edit lock. Why should you lock someone out from the CAW-mode?

 

Does it happen often that Caws are copied and claimed as someone else own creation? Did you ever have beef with someone over this matter?

I think after a few dozen copies on Community Creations, you stop counting. You cannot prevent it. If copies appear in a forum, and are presented as an original creation, that’s a different story. Within a community such a thing is looked at as disrespectful. I really do not want to dramatize it, but within a forum the most important thing should be respect for each other.

 

In conclusion I would like to play a round of word association with you - I call one or a few words and you write down the first word that comes to mind, okay?

Sure. Fire away.

 

> THQ

Bankrupt

> WolfgangJT

Legend.

> CAWS.WS

friends

> WWE All Stars (video game)

Mistake

> 2K

Bioshock .... yes, Bioshock

> Next generation consoles

Big Brother

> Community Creations

Searchtag: NCO

 

That's it! We thank Dr Vries for his time and enthusiasm. May he long make caws at such a high level!

Edited August 7, 2013 by Iamnomodder

[Miztah Raza]

Nice.

Question: Are you two actually brothers?

Oh, and put in a good word for me, I want to get interviewed too :P2 lol.

[The Nomodder]

I am the Docs actual older brother, by four years!  

[Miztah Raza]

Cool! Who's CAWs do you think are better? lol.

[The Nomodder]

His!

[Miztah Raza]

If I asked him the same question, what would he say? lol.

[Miztah Raza]

The guy who did the interview seems to be really high on WolfgangJT. I would have been a little offended personally.

That's because you're a professional asshole and Dr. Vries is a cool, down to earth guy :P2

[Big Pete®]

Doc V... proper legend, NCO mutha bitches ha!

Edited August 6, 2013 by Big Pete

[Auday]

i read most of the interview and i really would like to be like doc one day congrats for him

[HarlotEffect]

 

 

The guy who did the interview seems to be really high on WolfgangJT. I would have been a little offended personally.

That's because you're a professional asshole and Dr. Vries is a cool, down to earth guy :P2

 

Well, at least you've figured it out. :P2

 

 

I would have said Zurick than Wolfie. But yeah it's an interesting interview.

[Smacktalks]

That's a really cool interview, feel free to add a link to wg.de article

I reached out to Wolfie and a few others last year about doing an interview but there was no interest at the time, I might revisit that idea tho if people are interested.

[Big Pete®]

Zurick counts? that guy hasn't released shit since 08.

Zurick still lives!

[Big Pete®]

haha I cant say anything I ain't uploaded shit.... still whoop arses though!

[Big Pete®]

true dude.... I ain't got live, that's my excuse ha!

[Miztah Raza]

That's a really cool interview, feel free to add a link to wg.de article

I reached out to Wolfie and a few others last year about doing an interview but there was no interest at the time, I might revisit that idea tho if people are interested.

Ahem, I think I'll just put this out there but.....

50 PLUS MODS AND I'VE FIXED FOR SOME OF THE BEST CAWS THIS YEAR.

Don't over-look me bredda.

[Miztah Raza]

I. Am. No one.

[Miztah Raza]

EXCEPT A PERSON WHO....

MADE 50 PLUS MODS AND I'VE FIXED FOR SOME OF THE BEST CAWS THIS YEAR.

HAHAHA

 

Still can't ban me, muahaha.

[Miztah Raza]

Don't you dare come out of retirement.

 

I mean, unless you want to.

[_HiBye_]

awesome read. 

[delete]

 

Don't you dare come out of retirement.

 

I mean, unless you want to.

 

 

:D2

[Miztah Raza]

Don't you dare GIF me!!

[Spyder78]

 

 

 

 

 

But that was a good interview from Dr. Vries indeed