Warren Spector on Conspiracy Theories: “I’m Not Sure I’d Make Deus Ex Today”

GDC Showcase is upon us! A combination of live events and pre-recorded presentations with live speaker chats is underway from the 15th through 19th, and the week kicked off with a somber moment from Warren Spector.

The week’s first presentation was a live chat with living legend Warren Spector beside a live viewing of his classic game postmortem on Deus Ex, a presentation from GDC 2017.

In the introduction to the game, Spector says Deus Ex was, among other things, a game in a world where conspiracy theories are real. Spector added his own comment in the chat.

“Interestingly, I’m not sure I’d make Deus Ex today,” Spector says. “The conspiracy theories we wrote about are now part of the real world. I don’t want to support that.”

Spector’s comments follow the arrest of two men charged with assaulting officer Brian Sicknick during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol building—an event still surrounded by and widely believed to be the result of conspiracy theories. Sicknick died after the attack.

“I’m constantly amazed at how accurate our view of the world ended up being,” Spector later added in the live chat. “Frankly, it freaks me out a bit.”

Spector provided a wealth of new insight during his presentation, including that Valve founder, Gabe Newell, once sent him a copy of a book called Behavioral Psychology and told him “Read it. It’s what we do for a living.”

Interested participants can still register and attend GDC Showcase online for free by visiting GDConf.com.

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