GamersInfo.net: What is it you do on the EVE team?

Noah Ward: Game Designer. My job consists of balancing various aspects of the game including but not limited to; Market, Blueprints, Ships, Modules and other aspects mostly dealing with the player vs player side of the game. I don't design anything related to agent missions, dead space complexes or asteroid belt pirates (PvE content). I do have some input into what loot drops just because it affects overall game balance. My current big task right now is designing the game play behind the up coming Factional Warfare. The goal of which is to let players sign up with a faction and fight against other players in enemy factions.

GamersInfo.net: What did you do professionally before EVE and what are you most proud of?

Noah Ward: After high school I was a sponsored snowboarder, managed a snowboard team, worked at a snowboard shop and helped do R&D and marketing for a small startup snowboard binding manufacturer. I did that and freelance graphic design / web design for about 7 years until I moved from Seattle to Pittsburgh to work at a dot com doing web stuff full time. That's when the snowboarding pretty much stopped.

GamersInfo.net: What was the bigger culture shock: moving from the US to Iceland? Or from your web design job to game design? And why?

Noah Ward: I'd say moving to Iceland was the bigger culture shock. Before I got started as a game design I was a little worried that I didn't have any experience as a game designer. But then I started thinking about it and I've been gaming for almost 25 years. The majority of that time gaming was spent really delving into the game mechanics. I poured over item and monster stats until the wee hours of the night as a D&D GM. I would read role play rule books during the whole 3 hour ride in the car on the way up snowboarding. I used to read the Diablo 2 forums at work as much as possible and calculate optimal DPS for my characters.

Iceland is interesting for many reasons. Its climate is pretty close to Seattle's so that's no big deal but the cost of pretty much everything is double. Another thing that's hard for foreigners to get used to is the endless night/day. A lot of people have trouble sleeping or waking up during those times but I've managed to deal with it. There isn't really a language barrier since pretty much everyone here speaks English.

GamersInfo.net: Outside of work, what are your passions and hobbies? What would you be doing RIGHT NOW if you could get up from the keyboard and go do it?

Noah Ward: I suppose I'd be down at the pub having a pint with my friends. In some fantasy world I suppose I'd be racing formula one cars or something.

GamersInfo.net: Have you ever returned to snowboarding as a hobby? And what stopped you from racing Formula One cars if you were willing to take on snowboarding?

Noah Ward: I haven't been snowboarding since I've been living in Iceland. I still check it out on the web and I was considering buying Amped 3 for the Xbox 360. I have some friends at work who keep begging me to get my gear sent over but I just don't see getting back into that lifestyle. There were a few seasons where I was on the mountain 180 days a year. As far as the Formula One racing goes; that's a rich man's sport. You need to start young and you need parents that are dedicated to getting you into racing. I was begging to go to the mountains when I was 9 years old. My passion for cars didn't start until I was 16 and by then I was already deep into the snowboard thing.

GamersInfo.net: What is the best Icelandic Beer? Defend your choice!

Noah Ward: Ugh… unfortunately the beer culture here is rather immature in the grand scheme of things. Prohibition ended here in like 1989, before that they had to mix non-alcoholic beer with Vodka. I've only lived here a year and a half so I'm not sure if I got the date right. I usually go with Thule if I'm at the pub having a pint and I have a choice between that and some other Icelandic beer like Gull or Viking; only because it's the lesser evil. Heroic defense I know…

GamersInfo.net: How did you get from Pittsburgh and "web stuff" to working on Game Design in Iceland on EVE?

Noah Ward: I could go into a lot of detail here but the trimmed down version is that I was in beta and got involved with the volunteer team as a bug hunter. I was giving a lot of input into balance and writing up e-mails to TomB about how I felt certain things should be balanced. It got to the point where TomB would put stuff on the test server and have me give feedback. Finally he just offered me a job. We still use this method of finding trusted players to give feedback.

GamersInfo.net: If you had the chance to live in the Universe of EVE, where would you live and under what circumstances?

Noah Ward: As far as just being a person who lives day to day in the world of EVE I'd say I'd want to live in some rather out of the way planet within the Gallente Federation. Reason being that life within any of the other factions space just doesn't appeal to me. You have the Caldari where everyone is a worker drone and a slave to their corp, The Matari who are either lower class or poverty stricken and the Amarr who are all religious fanatics. I picture the place I'd live to be a cross between Hawaii and Amsterdam's Red Light District.

GamersInfo.net: Name the five greatest games of all time:

Noah Ward: There are just too many to name, this will be tough. I'll just list the games I know I wasted the most time on.
EVE
Starcraft
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Diablo
Quake
I'm seriously struggling here with my list. There have been so many great computer games. Notice those are all games from my adulthood. There are the games from my childhood like Defender and Pitfall. Then there are the games from my early teens like Metroid, Megaman and Contra on the NES. All those games were classics but I just wonder if nostalgia is affecting my memory.

GamersInfo.net: You list 5 very established games not as your favorites but the 5 you "wasted the most time on". Do you agree with the argument that games have no teaching value? Or do you feel there's something to be learned in playing and therefore, your time was well-spent?

Noah Ward: Well it was my leisure time and I enjoyed it so I would say it was time well spent. I wouldn't agree with the argument games have no teaching value. Games broadened my vocabulary and got me interested in academic things like math. As an 8-year old I was using terms like "cumulative damage". Computer games improve hand eye coordination and stimulate cognitive development. Modern MMOs like EVE can teach people about emergent systems, and complex economic and social structures. Learning is much easier when it's presented in a way that's interesting to the student.

GamersInfo.net: What's the last film you watched and the most memorable scene? Why do you think that scene was most memorable?

Noah Ward: Oh I watch a whole lot of movies. The last one I saw in the theater was that Johnny Cash movie "Walk the Line" (movies come to Iceland a lot later, I think Walk the Line was released in November in the states). I'm struggling to come up with a memorable moment in the film despite the fact I enjoyed it. I guess it would be the scene when June tells Johnny there's too many "if"s in his sentence. I'll paste the quote Google helped me find:

June Carter: There's too many "if"s in that sentence.
Johnny Cash: There's only one actually.
shouting
Johnny Cash: There's only one "if" in that sentence, June!
looking at Jerry Lee