With the world tuning in to the dramatic season finale of Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” that says farewell to Captain Phil Harris, Captain Sig Hansen talks about a new way for fans to interact with all of the captains through videogames. Crave Entertainment’s Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos will ship this October across all platforms, allowing greenhorns to take control of a crab boat in the brutal Bering Sea and fish for crab.
How involved were the captains in this new game?
Well, a lot of the guys, the captains, were a part of the game, so that's what made it kind of fun, 'cause everyone gets to participate. We get to put our thoughts into what we think will be fun and mix it up a little. So, it's good.
Did you ever think as a captain that you'd actually be able to participate in the gaming world?
No, I did not. I didn't think I'd be at a big convention center doing this, but I mean it's fun! We got one life to live, and we're living it.
Tell what's going on with the realism of the game and how you feel it portrays what goes on in your life as a sea captain.
Well, it's all about strategy. So for me as a captain, it's all strategy. I'll lie, cheat, steal, whatever I have to do to make money. That's my job. And so anybody that watches the show that can appreciate that will appreciate the game, and then you can lie, cheat, steal and be a bad boy too. Or girl.
The game allows you to pick your crew and offers stats on each crew member. Is that what it’s like for you as a captain deciding who will sail with you?
You've done your homework, haven't you? Yeah, in real life, your crew is everything. Without a good crew, you're done. Just takes one bad apple, and you are done. So, it's important, and you bring that in the game, great. You bring strategy to the game, great. Add a couple of waves and wind and see if you can find the crab, and the fact that people appreciate the show for what it is and our work ethic behind it, it says volumes. And so now a guy can actually do this on his couch--not freezing!
In the game you talk about superstitions. Where does that come from?
Oh, man, that goes back for generations. Hundreds of years. It's always been there. Even me as a kid, growing up, my grandfather, he's from Norway, and he was always telling me weird superstitious things like that, and it gets embedded in your mind. And then you get to Dutch Harbor, and that whole thing is there. It's all part of fishing. I don't care what port you're from, there is something about it. It's like sports—hockey guys are really into superstition. Most sports people are, for some reason. But we take it to another level, you know. We do.
It's just in your blood then.
Yeah, but God help you if you do something that we we don't agree with as far as that superstition goes. You're off the boat.
But men can fall overboard on this game.
Yeah, just no death. We want to keep it for everybody and...look, we're trying to keep it as real as we can without getting too real on it. I mean I like the visual effects they have, I like the competition, there's a lot of new games they put in there to make it fun and energize it, so I think it's a game for everybody. It's not the hard-core gamer. This is for someone that's a fan of the show or appreciates the show, and kinda wants to simulate that.
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About the Author
John Gaudiosi
Editor-in-Chief
John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.
