Marc Vaughan's Face The Board Answers

[Antmeister]

1. Where did you grow up?
A small rural village called Sedgeford in Norfolk, England. It was great - very huck finn lots of running through fields and getting wet in rivers

2. What brought you to the FOFC?
I sporadically search for common questions to do with SI related products and answer them wherever they might be; its fairly rare that I make sites part of my everyday routine once I come across them in this way - but the level of intelligent conversation on FOFC drew me in.

3. Have you ever played werewolf?
Yes and I was lynched quite quickly both times (first time guilty as charged, second time just charged) - I LOVE the concept but unfortunately don't really have the time to play.

4. Do you have any superpowers?
I have the superpower of patience and stubbornness both of which are incredibly handy in both development and my private life

5. What do you do for fun? What do you do for money?
I do lots of different things for fun, as most people know I'm a rabid reader (average 2 books a week) and I'm obviously enjoy computer games - especially Strategy based ones (mainly wargames or Sports Management sims).
I also play soccer badly at least once a week and spend a lot of time relaxing with my family doing whatever they enjoy really - I'm generally fairly laid back and willing to go with the flow.

6. How long do you expect to live?
I expect to be immortal, its only a matter of time until scientists work out which genes cause aging and how to control it

(not great at facing such things me ).

7. What do you look like?
Kinda normal if you think someone who's 6' 5'' with ginger hair and a roman nose is normal

8. What do you prefer physically in a woman?
Looks around to check where his wife is .... to be honest I don't know, its a sum of parts thing for me - I love my wife but its the package which I find appealing if she was beautiful but dumb I don't think I'd be attracted to her.
(but as far as it goes I think its largely a hair thing for me - long especially)

9. How did you get your username?
I've always made a point of posting using my real-name simply because I'm a believer in standing by what I say. If I need to post it under an alias then I probably shouldn't be saying it ..

10. What sports do you follow?
Only really soccer, although I'll watch basketball if its on.

11. Which are your favorite teams?
Brighton and Hove Albion FC.

12. Why or how did they become your favorite teams?
I grew up an Everton supporter in my early years because my older cousins supported them, but I never really went to any matches to see them. Then I went to university at Brighton and shared a house with 3 rabid Brighton fans and that was it

(despite the fact that I started following them during probably our worst period for success).

13. What do you do for a living?
I help make computer games, designing and coding them.

14. Do you have any post-secondary education? if so, where?
I took a Maths & Business Studies Honours Degree and an HND in Software Engineering at Brighton University. Although I have to clarify and admit I only completed the Software Engineering course (I transferred off the Maths course in the second year because I realised I didn't want to be an accountant ).

15. Are you married? Have a common law partner? Have kids?
I'm married to Becca and have 3 kids (Haley - 15, Jake - 10, Keegan - 6).

16. What would you say is some of your favorite music?
I've a hugely varied taste in music - everything from Supertramp, 10cc, David Bowie to Snow Patrol.

17. What would you say are some of your favorite movies?
How to lose a guy in 10 days, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter Series - anything Sci-Fi, Romantic or Fantasy based

18. Where were you born?
I was born in Ely in England.

19. Where have you lived and where do you live now? Do you have any opinions on the places you have lived in?
I've lived in - Sedgeford, Cromer, Norwich, Brighton, Puckeridge, Surbiton (london), Worcester park (london), Royston. At the moment I live in Rockledge (Florida).

Of all the places I've lived I think Puckeridge was probably my most favourite. Its a quiet english village in the middle of no-where but with good amenities and a fast train link to Crawley and the south coast. Its very quaint and while I lived there I rented a small english cottage in the grounds of a mansion owned by an eccentric inventor who pottered around designing fairground rides and suchlike. I loved it there and endured a 3 hour commute to and from London for nearly a year when I first joined Sports Interactive because I liked it so much.

20. Do you play any sports? Have you played any sports in the past? Are there sports you want to try out?
I play in a soccer league each friday in Rockledge, its 4v4 and is a really good laugh. I've also played basketball and badminton a bit when I was younger but I'm even worse at them than I am at soccer

21. Happiest moment of your life?
Probably when I first met my wife.

22. Saddest moment of your life?
When my Nan died. She was a huge influence on my early life - she lived a few doors down from us and was very strict and old school but loving with it, without her help I'd have never gotten through my O and A'Level exams (she was a retired teacher and helped me revise for them).

I'll always remember her and her dog 'Pete Pup' (who I was vastly jealous of as a poor student, I swear that dog ate better than I did ).

23. If you had to re-live one moment in your life, what would it be?
The first time I met my wife, it was near perfect and we just 'clicked' straight away.

24. What regrets do you have?
I don't actually have any - I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't made the decisions I did in the past. Some of my decisions were better than others and there are some things I definitely didn't enjoy living through at the time, but they've shaped my life and without them I wouldn't be me.

25. Do you consider yourself to be an introvert or an extrovert?
I consider myself a friendly Introvert. I hate crowds and to be honest am quite happy with my own company 99% of the time, however I am fairly friendly and easy going when forced to be sociable.
My wife is amazingly social and between the two of us we make a normal person

26. What is your favorite catch phrase?
Doh

27. What are your top 5 movies?
Sliding Doors, Star Trek, Star Wars (any), Trainspotting, Tron.

You'd have to know me to realise how weird it is for there to be NO romantic comedies in that list - if it was a top 10 add in - How to lose a man in 10 days, Shallow Hal amongst others

Incidentally Tron is to blame for me getting into computers, loved that film as a kid.

28. What would you do with 1 million bucks? 10 million?
To be quite honest I wouldn't - I'm not into money and if I had that much (either value) I'd shove it into investments and continue living my life the way I am already. I'm content with lie as it is already and don't see that spending money would improve it.

29. You're at a party and as it progresses, everyone strips naked and jumps in the pool, do you join?
No - I'd be more likely to be frowning at my wife and wondering what she was doing naked in the pool

30. What's your beverage of choice?
Mines a Starbucks venti non-fat latte thanks for offering, I kid with my missus that these are the only reason I was happy to move to America, I'm a total StarBucks addict.

31. Do you have an abnormal fear?
Spiders traditionally enough, although anything creepy crawly will do. I'm not sure why but my level of bravery has only advanced as far as bombarding such things with books from afar ... very manly I know

32. What food do you never tire of?
Steak, its a very expensive luxury in England and comparatively cheap here so I'm loving it

(my daughter and I would probably be classes as carnivorous by most standards, meat is where its at )

33. What better: vanilla or chocolate?
Vanilla

34. What better: sweet or salty?
Salty.

35. Favorite YouTube video?
Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
YouTube - Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
A simply amazing lecture by a wonderful man, I found it truly inspiring.

36. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Now thats a hard one - I'd have to go for the magic (think Gambit from X-Men or Merlin).

37. Which bad habits drive you crazy?
Bad manners - belching, burping that sort of thing.

38. Do you have any annoying habits?
Yeah loads (just ask my family ) - I have a weird laugh, I'm annoyingly peppy in the morning (whereas my wife and daughter aren't), I'm scruffy and awful at any DIY based tasks.

39. List 1 thing you would change about yourself.
I'd love to have perfect eyesight, I hate the fact that I'm actually blind as a bat without contact lenses in (I can only see clearly for about 3 inches then everythings a blur). I'm considering the laser surgery but everytime I think we've saved enough for it something more important comes up.

40. What's your favorite thing to do on a Saturday night?
Chill at home on the patio reading a book cuddled up to the missus, while my kids play in the pool.

41. Do you have any hidden talents?
Nothing exciting like playing musical instruments or being able to belch the alphabet I'm afraid, I used to be a county level chess player but thats about it.

42. What happens to us after we die?
I don't know but I don't think death in the end. My mum believes in reincarnation but I'm in with my dad in simply knowing that I don't know.

43. Would you break the law or lie to save a friend?
Yes - but obviously depending on circumstances.

44. Did you ever have a realistic dream that truly scared you?
Loads, I used to have quite vivid dreams as a kid and had several of the 'standard' nightmares of being chased through a house where the the rooms gradually shrank as I ran further and further into them, that kind of thing.
Its always intruiged me how the most ludicrous things can seem real in a dream.

45. What are you not afraid of?
Letting down people I love.

46. Which is worse: rejection or failure?
Easy one - Failure, rejection isn't something you can control yourself whereas Failure is something you had a say in.

47. What are you hoping for in the future?
I want my kids to grow up and be happy and eventually the same to happen for me

48. You are on a flight from California to Texas and the back of the airplane catches fire. You have enough time to make ONE phone call, who would you call?
To be honest I probably wouldn't ring anyone - I think it'd be unfair to do so as it'd cause huge stress for whoever you rang and they'd constantly rerun the conversation wishing they'd said 'x' or whatever.

Besides knowing me I'd be too busy trying to work out how to put the fire out or knitting a parachute out of blankets - I believe you always have some control in your life and that its always worth at least 'trying' ..

49. You are at the doctor's office and she has informed you that you have one month to live.. what do you do?
To be frank I've no idea, I'd probably spend it with my family just trying to add to the memories we've shared.

50. Lincoln Logs or Legos?
No idea what Lincoln Logs are - but Lego is that small brick stuff my son plays with yeah? ... so I'll take that.

Q. Have you ever gotten into an argument with an American whether it should be called Soccer or Football..
No - to be honest it amuses me when English people object to the term 'soccer' because it was originally an English term.

Do you find a segment of American soccer fans to be posers..
No - to be honest all the chaps I've met have been really nice.

Q. Have you seen a MLS game in person?
Not yet, I'm afraid there isn't a 'local' team here - but if I ever visit a city with a team I'm definitely going

Q. I know you mentioned Blood Bowl, are you buying it next month when it comes out.
Oh yeah - for sure

Q. Can you play FM09 and still have fun, despite knowing what's "Under the hood"?
Yeah definitely - the game has too many variables to be predictable and I always make a point of never looking at the raw database values more than I have to when testing, that way its more enjoyable imho.

Q. Have you ever met anyone in your day to day life who, when they found out what company you work for/what game you make, complained about how a certain player was rated in the game? (perhaps more applicable to when you lived in the UK)
Around the year 2001 we released CM01/02 and as part of that myself and Kev (Turner) from SI had to go along to a television studio to help setup a PC so it could be shown on a 'morning' chat show. While there a rather aging professional football player / celebrity called Mark Bright was talking to us and spent about 15 minutes complaining about his ratings in the game and how he was worth more than an 8 pace, was quite funny really.

Q. What changes (if any) would you suggest Markus makes to OOTP if SI was still involved?
I wouldn't change a thing - when Markus was working with SI he was given free rein with the development of OOTP and while

I'd discuss ideas with him I never forced anything upon him (apart from the use of source control and a bit of a coding standard ). The way I see/saw it is simply that I don't know as much about baseball or its fans as Markus does and so it'd be very silly for me to try and tell him how to make OOTP.

Q How/why/when did you meet/join the Collyer brothers and get into programming CM/FM? My first CM was CM Italy (1996 i think) and it was one of my first dangerous gaming addiction, were you already part of their team?
In the last 1990's I had my own company working 'freelance' writing mission critical software (stuff which killed people if it went wrong), it was quite lucrative but very very very boring.

All the way through university I'd planned to become a games designer/programmer and I was playing around with some stuff in my spare time but it hadn't gotten any where at that point.

As one of my contracts was nearing its end I saw a job advert for a programmer to help with running a small development team helping to make Championship Manager, it was my all-time favourite game so I applied and was lucky enough to get the position.

The first game I got into the credits for was 1997-98 and that was really PaulC's baby with my involvement being limited to LOTS of play-testing and writing an installer for it at the last minute when we realised we didn't have one.

Q. Was it a full time job with big future plans since the beginning or was it more of a hobby that turned into a profitable business? (i mean for you, as i know it started as a bedroom project for the Collyer).
When I was hired it was a full-time job from the get-go. Eidos's plan was for me to do the coding and Paul and Oliver to just do designs, however I knew instantly that was impractical so I convinced them quite quickly to continue coding and myself and Paul Norman (who's now left SI, but continues to be my best friend) helped introduce them to the dubious joys of C++.

Q. Are the Collyer and you still working directly in the game development or has it become more of a PR/business manager job with less involvement in the game due to becoming a big company?
Ov is the lead designer/coder on Football Manager Live and Dobs is still the lead guru on the FM PC match engine. I'm still very hands on myself and have actually stepped away from the managerial side of things in the last couple of years and back further towards development.
I concentrate on the handheld game which is really nice to work on because its a small team and as such its very much more 'your baby' than FM PC would be (much more like the 'old days' working on CM3 etc.).

Q. What was the first version of CM you played?
CM1

Q. How has it been working "remotely" from the U.S.?
Its really nice because I don't have to commute I get to see a lot more of my family than I used to when I commute into London each day.

Q. Who's really in charge these days at SI?
Miles runs the studio.

Q. What's the office like in London?
BIG - the new offices (SI relocated around the time I moved to Florida two years ago) are huge although now they've near enough 50 members of staff there all the space is filled up and there are less cricket games going on (I kid you not, Keith and Co used to play cricket in the office upstairs when it was empty).

Q. Are the SI messageboards as bad as they used to be, or are they getting better? If they're still bad, why do you think
they have been so difficult?
I don't think they're any better or worse really - I think its natural to some extent that when a board/forum has a huge number of passionate people upon it that you will get arguements and flare ups - especially if someone if having problems with the game.
I always try and remember that the fact that they're so upset shows they're paassionate about the game and that is in itself a compliment regardless of what they're saying at the time

Q. What have you liked most and least about moving to the States?

I like being able to see my family a lot more than I could before. The thing I dislike most is the lack of pubs and other community related things which encourage you to get to know your neighbours.

I know a fair few people from my 'area' through the soccer club but only really my immediate neighbours.


Can you get me some Branston pickle the next time you go to the UK?
Yeah I can no worries (seriously if anyone has 'orders' drop me a PM and I'll bring stuff back, so long as you're not talking HDTV's. Although I'd recommend ordering it off of Amazon thats what I generally do (I tend to go for light stuff when I travel back and forth - mainly chocolate, marmite, packet soup, crisps that sort of thing).

Q. Do you, or anyone else at SI, ever fire up an old version of CM/FM for nostalgia's sake?
I finally brought myself to delete my old Brighton CM97-98 save game last week actually now you mention it - was sadly enough fairly emotional for me ... but it had to go I'd run out of diskspace to do a build.

Q. What's your sweet tea of choice!? hint----v
the only Sweet Tea I've ever bought for home Brewing is Mr. Brewmans

Anything else just wouldn't be right.

(now don't forget my commission )

You live in Florida? Why?
My wifes American and grew up in Miami. Her sister lived in Rockledge and had just had twins which is why my wife wanted to move back over here (so she could help out).

Florida State or Florida? College football where do you stand?
We're Gators - because my eldest son thought they were cool

Mushy peas: your thoughts.
Horrible ghastly things, which for some unknown reason my wife loves. Personally I'm more into fish, chips and curry sauce myself.

Lager, Bitter or Stout?
None of the above - I drink either whisky, snakebite and black (english drink - 1/2 pint alcholic cider, 1/2 pint lager and top up with black currant juice ... be warned its lethal in large doses, students drink it to get hammered fast) or alcopops.

Out of all the states you could have chosen to live in, you picked Florida. Was it really #1 on your list? So, what was #50? #25?
My wife grew up in Florida and her family are all here so it was #1 for those reasons.

If it hadn't been for family fies I'd probably have chosen Massachusetts because I loved working in Boston many many years ago (was helping out with bug fixing 'Mercury OS' which my flight sim used at the time)

How do taxes work, being a UK person living in the States? Or did you just call up an accountant and call it a day?
They're a right pain in the butt - basically I have to file in both the UK and US, but there is a tax treaty between the countries to prevent me paying tax on the same earnings twice. Luckily I've a very good accountant in England who is very patient with me (he's the brother of an old friend and puts up with a lot ).

What's the best thing about your hometown that people not from your hometown don't know about?
It exists (my home village is called 'Sedgeford' and has a sum total of about 400 inhabitants - so practically no one has ever heard of it, typically in this day and age it does have a website though ....
http://www.sedgeford.org.uk/

How much have American English idiom, spelling, usage, accent, etc crept into your own communication style since you've moved to the US?
My spellings always been awful so now I've got a conventient excuse if I spell something wrong then its always either the 'English spelling' or the 'American spelling' depending on who I'm talkng to
Apart from that I've probably pick up a bit of American slang from my kids, but by and large I'm a great fan of 'old english' sayings - I call people "chaps", lasses "lasses" and suchlike ... which I don't think will change in a hurry.

Do you play FOF? If yes, how? If no, why not?
I've played FOF on and off, but never to the extent I have FM, this is simply because I've grown up with soccer and so am much more immersed and emotional about the sport. Strangely the American Football game I got into 'most' was TV Sports

Football on the Amiga if any of you played/remember that - it used to play out near enough in real-time and take 30+ minutes per match.

I admire Jim's games hugely and think he is amazingly talented at what he does.

Do you miss watching "English" sports (I know you can get soccer and rugby through the various networks, but not as much as you probably are used to)
Yeah I do a lot, I can actually get more live matches here than at home but its not the same watching things early in the morning alone compared to in a pub surrounded by people passionate about the game.

I am lucky in that I travel home regularly (about once a quarter) and so catch as many matches as possible when back in the UK (when back home I stay with a mate who's a mad footie fan so that helps ).

Incidentally I'm actually playing MORE soccer since I've moved to America than I have in a while - Rockledge has a fairly active soccer club and its been a great way to make friends when I first moved into the area.

I was impressed with the variety of potato chips available on my one trip to the United Kingdom. Do you miss the crisps from your homeland or do American brands get the job done?
I'm glad Salt and Vinegar crisps have made it over here now, but I still miss many of the home grown flavours such as Prawn Cocktail and Marmite flavour.

That being said I'm trying to be healthy these days so being away from them probably doesn't hurt

[DaddyTorgo]

d'oh - i missed getting any questions in (kept procrastinating)

[spleen1015]

Thanks, homie!

[flere-imsaho]

Great read. Thanks Marc!

[Marc Vaughan]

Apologies for the awful grammar & spelling in the answers (did them all very late one night during a debugging session and it shows) ... also if you have any questions you want to poke me with feel free to fire away.

[terpkristin]

DAMMIT, I mean to get in on this action and ask you some questions! Stupid work.

Still, it was a great read, thanks Marc!

Edit to add: bats aren't blind

/tk

[Noop]

You're a Gator. I am so sorry to hear that.

[Schmidty]

I need to start reading these again. Very interesting and fun to read, Marc!!

[Coffee Warlord]

Mines a Starbucks venti non-fat latte thanks for offering, I kid with my missus that these are the only reason I was happy to move to America, I'm a total StarBucks addict.

I take back every nice thing I've ever said about you, Marc.

[Logan]

17. What would you say are some of your favorite movies?
How to lose a guy in 10 days

Didn't see that coming.

[DanGarion]

Really fun read Marc!

[3ric]

Great answers Marc!

A follow-up question... Kevin Keegan doesn't have anything to do with you naming your youngest Keegan?

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by 3ric

Great answers Marc!

A follow-up question... Kevin Keegan doesn't have anything to do with you naming your youngest Keegan?

Predictably enough - yeah he's named after Kevin Keegan.

I've always admired Keegan since his playing days and my wife is a Man City fan and he'd just taken them back up to the Premiership at the time as their manager.

Add to that, I'm half Irish and its an Irish name - plus it means 'Little Firey One' and my wife had heartburn all the way through the pregnancy and well it seemed ideal

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks for the read!