CGW: Thinking about the kind of game that Hellgate will be...it comes up a lot lately, the kinds of games girls are playing versus the kinds of games boys are playing...

Dave Brevik: I think that all along we've tried to make games that -- well, that appeal to myself; there's definitely that -- but also appeal to other people besides just myself. [I try to put] equality in all of the characters. In all the games -- we've only made pretty much role-playing games -- when you're choosing your avatar, we like to try to make it as equal as possible, so it'll open up and make for a broader audience so people can relate to it better. So we've always done those kinds of things. My wife plays games a lot -- we play [World of Warcraft] together; she's been playing games for a long time. I think that there's a lot of women that haven't necessarily been exposed to games. That's the hardest market to tap, moreso than any other thing -- race or religion or anything like that. I think that sex is probably the hardest barrier in videogames, to crossover and make a game that's fun for both women and men.

CGW: The original Diablo games seemed to transcend any kind of barrier there was...

DB: Games like Tetris do too, so there are game examples, but then there's a lot of games that appeal more to guys than women, and I think that kind of creates a barrier in the videogame space. We try not to make our games that way; we try to appeal to a broader audience.

CGW: Do you think Hellgate can be that kind of game?

DB: We hope so. I think that part of it has to do with the way we make games and the way we think and our philosophies, and it kind of goes with the area, living here in San Francisco where we're open to a bunch of things. So I think that we try to [take] that very liberal feeling that we have here in the office, and put it in the game in a lot of ways...the way that we are is the way that the game comes out.