[by Matt (utopia) Blessing]

What follows is part of a Q&A session culled from the SoFChat held Sunday night with John F. Mullins, Consultant on Soldier of Fortune. Mr. Mullins talked with everyone in attendance about SoF, SoF 2, as well as a variety of other things. As you can imagine, this made for an extremely interesting evening! In fact, so many great answers were given to so many questions, that next week we'll be presenting ANOTHER full article from the same session with Mr. Mullins, consisting of all the Q&As that we didn't have a chance to cull from the complete chatlog!

Question: Have you ever seen a hostage/innocent get brutally murdered such as Saber and his brother execute hostages in SOF? How did you feel? Angry? Answer: I've seen the aftermath of hostage situations. One of the reasons I stayed in the business. I liked going after the ones who did it. Q: How did you retire? A: I retired, honorably, with 22 years service. As a Major. Q: Have you ever had a partner or close friend get killed in battle? Did you get revenge on the killer? A: I've had a number of close friends get killed. And even more die from disease, and increasingly, the ravages of age. Revenge seemed important, a long time ago. Sometimes got in the way. Q: Who are some important VIPs you have covered? A: Several Secretaries of State, a couple of corporate types. Q: Have you ever been wounded severely? A: Wounded three times. Bullet to the leg, claymore mine pellets in unmentionable areas, and a punjii stake. Q: What is a punjii stake? A: A Punjii stake is a sharpened piece of bamboo, implanted in the ground, and usually smeared with feces. Usually they'd plant them alongside trails, ambush you, and hope you'd throw yourself down on them while seeking cover. Q: Were they primitive people that used those? A: No, they were pretty sophisticated. We used them too. Q: How skilled were you with explosives? A: I was pretty skilled, having an affinity for them and receiving cross-training as a demolitionist. Later I took a job teaching people how to disarm Improvised Explosive Devices. Q: What other game genres would you be interested in helping bring to life? A: I'm interested in the entire field. And yes, I'd be happy to work with you on other genres. Q: What is your favorite game? A: SOF, of course! Q: How do you like the vocal representation of you in the game? Was that you? A: No, It is not me in the game, speech wise. But I think they did a pretty good job. Q: How did you and the makers of SOF come to work together? A: I came to work with Raven when they asked the SOF folks from TV for an advisor. I'd written a couple of scripts, and had consulted with the TV folks, so they recommended me. Q: What do you think the most brutal part of the Vietnam War was? Tunnel sweeping? A: Certainly being a tunnel rat was a nasty, brutal way to go. Glad I was too big to go down those things. Q: How exactly does it feel being shot? A: Like someone smacked you with a very large hammer. It doesn't burn until later. Q: Do you know what was the most painful round you've been hit with? What type of gun was it fired from? A: It was a 7.62 x 39mm round, fired from an Ak-47 rifle, also known as the Kalashnikov. Q: In the SoF installation it tells how you were ambushed by the VC, exactly what happened and why did you get ambushed? A: That was during the first tour. We were winning the hearts and minds of the peasants by offering medical care. The VC couldn't allow that. Q: Did you ever actually do any missions all by yourself? A: Yes. Usually only reconnaissance, though one operational one will be the setup mission for SOF II. Q: Are you already working on SOF2? A: Yes. Q: What engine will it use? A: I do not know the technical aspect. [Go to page 2 of John Mullins Chat]