Golden Globe Awards
editYear | Category | Film | Winner/nominee(s) | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | Best Original Song – Motion Picture | [1] | Nominated | |
2012 | Best Animated Feature Film | Gore Verbinski | Nominated | |
The Adventures of Tintin[2] | Tintin | Won |
Todd Coward | |
---|---|
Born | 1971 (age 52–53) Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, United States |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | College of William & Mary |
Occupation(s) | Video game designer, director, producer |
Employer | Bethesda Game Studios |
Known for | The Elder Scrolls, Fallout |
Todd Coward (born 1971) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He currently serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series.
In 2009, GamePro magazine named Coward one of the "Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming" over the last 20 years.[3] He was named one of IGN's "Top 100 Game Creators of All Time".[4]
Early life
editCoward was born in 1971 in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania.[5] He developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age.[6] He considers Wizardry and Ultima III: Exodus to be inspirations for his future games.[6] He is a 1989 graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he graduated from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he double majored in engineering and finance despite his desire to create video games, later saying that "it seemed like the easiest path to get through college".[6]
After playing Wayne Gretzky Hockey, Coward requested a job from a Bethesda Softworks office he encountered each day on his commute to and from school. He was rejected and told that he needed to finish school as a prerequisite. After completing school, he went back to Bethesda for a job but was rejected again.[6]
Career
editBethesda Softworks
editCoward joined Bethesda Softworks in 1994. His first game development credit for Bethesda Softworks was as producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock and Skynet, followed by design on The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, which was released in 1996. He was the project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard released in 1998. Coward was the project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and for the expansions that followed. He led the creation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and all of its downloadable content. After this, he was the game director and executive producer of Fallout 3.[7][8] He said Bethesda's philosophy for The Elder Scrolls games was to allow people to "live another life, in another world".[9]
He returned to The Elder Scrolls series to lead the development of its fifth installment, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released in November 2011. Coward directed Fallout 4, which was announced with the release of its first official trailer on June 3, 2015.[10][11] He directed Fallout Shelter, Bethesda Game Studios' first mobile game, which was announced and released at the E3 Showcase.[12]
Format
editEach week the McElroy brothers alternate between answering questions that have been directly submitted by listeners and questions that listeners have found on Yahoo! Answers. The second type of question is usually referred to by the brothers as a "Yahoo." Both kinds of questions will usually prompt the hosts into long humorous discussions.[13]
Advertisements from corporate sponsors and paid messages from listeners are read by the hosts on air during a segment called "The Money Zone."[14] Recurring segments feature intermittently. These include "Munch Squad", where Justin recites and ridicules press releases from fast food companies about new products; "Haunted Doll Watch", featuring eBay listings of apparently haunted, possessed, or cursed dolls; "Movie Watch", where the brothers discuss incorrect, inaccurate, and often unrelated plot points in currently screening films; and "Sad Libs", in which Travis creates tragic stories with blank spaces and completes them with nonsensical words.
Episodes of the show are occasionally performed and recorded in front of live audiences at venues in cities such as Los Angeles, New York City and Huntington; the format remains the same, including recurring segments such as Munch Squad, with the addition of a section where the brothers take questions from the audience.[15] A special episode called "The Adventure Zone" was released on August 18, 2014, shortly after Justin and his wife Sydnee had a baby. It featured the brothers playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons with their father, Clint.[16] The Adventure Zone was later spun off into its own podcast on the Maximum Fun network.[17]
"(It's a) Departure" by John Roderick and The Long Winters (from the album Putting the Days to Bed) has served as the primary theme song for My Brother, My Brother and Me since the show joined the Maximum Fun network on January 17, 2011.[14] Prior to this, the show's theme song was "Take a Chance on Me" by ABBA, while "Root to This" by Fear of Pop and later "Play Your Part (Pt. 2)" by Girl Talk was used as a closing theme.[18]
- ^ "Golden Globe Nominees and Winners 2003". About.com. About.com. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
- ^ Boucher, Geoff (January 15, 2012). "Golden Globes: 'The Adventures of Tintin' wins best animated film". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
- ^ "Around the Web: Interviews edition | Bethesda Blog". Bethblog.com. May 7, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
- ^ "IGN - Top 100 Game Creators of All Time". IGN. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
- ^ Musgrove, Mike (August 15, 2008). "Out of the Dark and Into the Spotlight". The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Hanson, Ben (January 13, 2011). "Road To Skyrim: The Todd Coward Interview". Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ^ Remo, Chris (October 13, 2008). "Falling Into Fallout 3: Director Todd Coward Talks Scope And Evolution". Gamasutra. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ "Fallout 3 Q&A - E3 Thoughts And More". GameSpot. August 2, 2007. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ Coward, Todd. "The RPG for the Next Generation". Archived from the original on January 24, 2010.
- ^ Hussain, Tamoor (June 3, 2015). "Fallout 4 Officially Confirmed for PC, Xbox One, PS4". GameSpot. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
- ^ "Fallout 4 -- E3 Showcase World Premiere". Bethesda Softworks. June 15, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ "Move over, Candy Crush, Fallout Shelter catapults to #1 app in iTunes Charts". PhoneArena. June 18, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "MBMBaM 217: Clippy Lovemaking Tips". My Brother, My Brother and Me. Maximum Fun. September 15, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
- ^ "My Brother, My Brother and Me". libsyn.com. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
- ^ "MBMBaM: The Adventure Zone". My Brother, My Brother and Me. Maximum Fun. August 18, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
- ^ "The Adventure Zone – Maximum Fun". Retrieved December 17, 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page).