Below is my translation of the exclusive interview. All thoughts expressed within are that of PC Games and Hexenmeister Raven. This is merely a human translation.
PC Games: Please introduce yourself to our readership. What is your name, how old are you, what you do in real life and whether there's a chance of obtaining your phone number?
Hexenmeister Raven: In real life, I am known as Christina Marten, am 40 years old and work in a factory, though I am currently unemployed. And my phone number is not listed in any phone book - those who wish to have it will have to put in some effort to gain it.
PC Games: Since when have you been modding games?
Hexenmesiter Raven: I have been modding games since countless years, though I have previously never managed to truly complete any modifications. My path took me from Heroes of Might & Magic, over NWN 1+2, to the D'jinni Adventure Editor of The Witcher. In the Witcher forum, I made the acquaintance of Nimue (Petra Prinz) and asked her, whether she'd be interested to join my team. This event led to the creation of the Raven Team and with her aid did I finally complete my first modification.
PC Games: What fascinates you so much about modding?
Hexenmeister Raven: I had always wanted to program my own games. With the toolsets of various games, this goal is at least somewhat realizable. One can live out one's own fantasies and create a world, in which one would even wish to live in. You can create heroes, who you would never come across in real life and generate characters the way you want them to be and thus tell your own little story.
PC Games: Games tend to be rather male-oriented. Most of the time, men are the heroes and women take on a subordinate role or, as in Gothic, wipe the floor half-naked. And the few heroines that do see the light of day tend to be objectified like Lara Croft's large chest. Where do you stand as a woman on this issue?
Hexenmeister Raven: While Petra could probably live with such clichés as long as the game is enjoyable enough, I simply cannot. I truly detest when women are objectified for their breasts or rear. Seriously, 'objects' such as Lara Croft tell me what body part men think with 99% of the time. A game can be completely pointless yet at least men would still buy it as long as the heroine happens to be naked. This tells a lot about the way our society works, and is truly sad. It is time to change the status quo and make clear to men that we women were not made to be merely prostitutes or cleaners. It is time, to turn the tables and let a scantily clad man scrub the floor for once, while the warrioress in full armor gets to laugh about it before dragging him to bed...
PC Games: What exactly would you like to achieve with your modifications?
Hexenmeister Raven: Well, tell a story,
my story. Unfortunately I have troubles working with blocks of text and therefore work with toolsets and graphical applictions to create my characters and stories while looking for someone who enjoys delving into the depths of dialogues. I have found the perfect person for this task in Petra, who writes novels as a hobby and helps me in making my stories realizable and publishable.
PC Games: What types of games do you enjoy playing the most and since when have you been gaming?
Hexenmeister Raven: I have been playing since quite a while already, and enjoy role-playing games and adventures the most. As not to rouse old C64 nostalgia, I will go from Ultima, Monkey Island and Simon the Sorcerer directly over to PC gaming. My favorite games remain the Might & Magic franchise, Myst, Revenant, King's Bounty, Desperados, The Witcher and sometimes also a simulation such as the Anno franchise.
PC Games: You are currently planning a new mod for Bioware's Dragon Age. Tell us a bit about that and why you chose Dragon Age, which has not even been released yet?
Hexenmeister Raven: There's not much to tell here really. As you mentioned, the game hasn't been released yet. However, by reading the book 'The Stolen Throne' by David Gaider, I've managed to get a grasp of what characters there will be in the game. The only certainties I currently have are that this mod will be larger than 'Evil Decision' hence promising significantly longer gaming duration as well as countless quests and of course an epic story. Petra has already stated writing tirelessly on a few side stories and new dialogues, probably because she will need to write all the stories and dialogues for this mod anyway.
So why for a game that isn't out yet? Simply because we know the precursor, we know Bioware and we have seen the trailer and the previews for this game. Bioware is known to create both enormous yet userfriendly toolsets as well as for their extensive modding support. We furthermore hope that at least one of us will be chosen for the soon to start toolset beta tests and be able to start work on our project before the public release.
PC Games: In your Witcher modification 'Evil Decision' there is a homo-erotic scene between two men. Why did you make and include it?
Hexenmeister Raven: A good question... and the answer is simple: While there's tons of scantily clad females in just about every fantasy game for men, such as Lara Croft, us women tend to not get any action. As I happen to be of the female gender and am interested in men, I do not see why I shouldn't be having any fun. A handsome warrior with a bare rear who carves his way through various monsters (though admittedly this would look rather silly, but its the same for Lara), and instead of two women who lie with him in bed, why not two men who stand...uh...lie... at my (apologies,... my
heroine's) command in the hay. The particular scene in 'Evil Decision' occured, as Yaevinn and Geralt suit each other well and I certainly could sense the sexual tension between them, and thus I let them have at it. I had a lot of fun setting this scene...especially because it enabled me to tease Petra, who'd rather had seen her alter ego Nimue in the hay with Yaevinn.
PC Games: How important to you is the moddability of PC games and mods in general?
Hexenmeister Raven: For an adventure, game editors are probably not necessary, but for role-playing games they are vital. As one can see by the example of NWN or Oblivion, there are still thousands who go out to buy the game and it is likely that this is fueled by the hordes of community-made modifications that are out there for these games. I also find userfriendliness important, such that non-programmers will be able to use a given toolset to share their stories. And as long as there are mods and modders, PC gaming is unlikely to go extinct!
PC Games: Is there anything that you had always wanted to speak out on? Now is your chance?
Hexenmeister Raven: Dear game designers, developers, publishers and all the others in the business...please stop catering solely to your male audience and start thinking of us women who also game and want to see male warriors and heroes in patchy armor into which us women can also have a peek at. For all I care, it may be leather trousers with transparent patches at interesting places as long as its attractive and makes us swoon.