With Gears of War 5 due out September 10, Microsoft and The Coalition are doing everything they can to promote the upcoming sci-fi shooter sequel. Not only are they conducting the usual myriad of previews and interviews, but a number of new Gears-related books are being released as well, including Jason M. Hough's prequel novel Gears of War: Ascendance (July 30), the comic Gears Of War: Hivebusters (November 19), and the art book The Art of Gears of War 5 (September 10).

But first there's Gears of War: Retrospective, a history of the series by former Polygon editor Arthur Gies. Newly available in hardcover, Retrospective looks back at the history of this shooter series, and how it came to be, with perspective from the people who helped make them.

We caught up with Gies and he explained how this book came together, and what went into making it.



GoWRetro.jpg GameCrate: To start, what exactly is Gears of War: Retrospective? Is it an art book with some essays, a prose history with a lot of images...what?

Arthur Gies: Gears of War: Retrospective is a sort of survey history of the development of the Gears of War franchise going back as early as 1999 or so, and even a bit earlier. It's told in large part through the words and recollections of some of the people who made it — some names a lot of fans have heard, and some they maybe haven't. I tried to build a more-or-less confirmed timeline of events, which involved a decent amount of research and fact-checking of people's recollections of that history.

GC: And is the book just about the games, or is it about the entire franchise? Like, does it talk at all about the novels or the comics or the movie that never happened?

AG: The book is about the history of the franchise, so there's a bit here and there about transmedia stuff. But it's really a development history of Gears of War, told from that perspective and in the context of how the games were received, and the sort of world those games released into.

GC: Whose idea was it to do this book?

AG: Initially a couple of people from Xbox and The Coalition contacted me about the possibility of contributing to what was originally pitched as an art book. My understanding is that my experiences writing features about Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Gears of War 4 during my time at Polygon established that I knew how to talk about the series, and I think I had maybe written more about Gears of War than anyone else. And that was in large part because I really like the Gears games, and have always been fascinated by their place in gaming history, and the development process behind them.

Anyway, I took a meeting up at The Coalition last summer, and explained what I thought the potential was for something more expansive than some supporting text for another art book. Don't get me wrong, I like art books — I own too many already. But there's already an art book for most of the Gears games, so to me, it made more sense to get a little more in-depth about the game and the people who made it. And to Xbox and The Coalition's credit, I think they agreed that this book presented that kind of opportunity.

GC: Non-fiction books can employ different approaches and tones; they can be academic and detailed, light-hearted but still informative, and so on. Which did you take with Gears of War: Retrospective and why did think it was the best one for this book?

AG: I wanted to create a kind of narrative history of Gears of War inspired by non-fiction books in a way that felt accessible — at least I hope it is. I think there's a great tradition of non-fiction that observes pop cultural phenomena and historicizes it and puts it into a broader perspective. Gears of War wasn't just a popular game, it was a really, really important one to video games as a medium and as a business, and I wanted to make a case for that while telling an interesting and readable story. This might sound silly, but when I was growing up, and well before that, Time Life was a book imprint/publishing company that had this sort of reputation for creating series of books that explored these things in interesting, in-depth ways that didn't trade entertainment value for exhaustiveness or an academic voice, and that was in my head a lot as I was putting the text together.

As far as tone, I wanted to be respectful, analytical, and critical, but to reflect the tone of the people who contributed to my understanding of the material. So there are some f-words in there, I think.



Arthur.jpg GC: And in deciding this and other aspects of Gears Of War: Retrospective, did you look at any other books about video games to see what to do, or maybe what not to do?

AG: I didn't want to feel beholden to the idea of a video game book, necessarily, because I don't know what that means. I've always preferred to write about video games like they're a thing of value with a broad cultural appeal and interest. But I also think there are books about video games that tap into a similar vein, especially things like David Kushner's Masters of Doom, which is a really driving, hard to put down book.

To be completely honest though, in writing the book, I often fell back to books about artists and art movements, and things like more involved exhibition catalogs that museums like The Met, the MFA, and MOMA put together for their more prominent exhibitions. Frequently, these are hardbound books that really tell a story about the work covered in the exhibition in question, and they contextualize and humanize the work and the people who made it.

A lot of the tone was also informed by my love for making-of documentaries for films that had very difficult production processes. I think in that way many films and many game production periods are similar in that they are a group of people working together to try to make something resembling a vision or idea against a lot of odds and momentum. It's rare that anything ends up exactly the way it's supposed to, and that's interesting to me.

There's a really great, very long documentary about the making of Aliens called Superior Firepower that's a real rollercoaster of egos and changes and compromise and the perfect being the enemy of good enough, etc. I don't know if that's a direct influence, but its ability to be appreciative and critical was something I've internalized.

GC: Obviously you spoke to people working on the next game who also worked on earlier ones, but did you also talk to Cliff Bleszinski and other people who are no longer involved in these games?

AG: I spoke with Cliff for a couple of hours for the book, because I don't know how I could have written the book without his input. The Gears of War games have been massive team undertakings, and no one person is responsible, but Cliff had a lot of responsibilities put on his shoulders to represent the game to the public, to express its identity clearly and concisely in a way that was pretty ahead of its time. And also, in speaking to many of the other key members of the original Gears team, Cliff's gut and feedback and tuning were critical in nailing the feel that so decisively set the game apart from a lot of other shooters trying similar things.

GC: How honest did people, both past and present, get with you. Like did anyone admit something that made you ask, "Are you sure you want that in the book?"

AG: People were surprisingly forthcoming in their discussions with me about the development of the games and the path that led to Gears. I think this is due to a variety of factors. Most critically, I've spoken with Rod Fergusson many times over the last 8 years, especially since he assumed the role of studio head at The Coalition, and I think I've demonstrated a level of credibility with him that carried over with other veterans of the series. I had Rod to vouch for my interest and seriousness with the material, I think, which helped to ensure conversations with people that otherwise have largely moved on with their lives after Gears of War.

Also, since this was a project involving Xbox, who had final edit over the book, I was able to be very matter of fact with people that if there was something that seemed out of bounds, it probably wouldn't make it to the final manuscript. That's not a concession I would have made as press, or as an independent entity working on a project, but it is the reality of this project.

However, it didn't change the questions I asked, and I was clear with my partners at Xbox that the best, most interesting stories involve successes and failures, and even hit games have their own regrets and misses behind the scenes. It's hard work, and not all of it will see the light of day. So thankfully, people answered honestly, didn't regret their answers, and Xbox had enough faith in the manuscript to let the story run more or less as I wrote it, minus a couple of fact checking things here and there.

Gears of War: Retrospective is out now in hardcover.