Editor’s note: Gamers from around the world will be gathering in Durham this weekend for the Escapist Expo. And Cliff Bleszinski, certainly one of the better known thought leaders in the gaming industry after his years as the creative leader behind franchises such as “Gears of War” and “Unreal” at Epic Games, will participate. The Escapist expects more than 7,000 people to play games, hunt zombies, dance – and just have lots of fun. WRALTechWire gaming Insider John Gaudiosi offers a sneak preview of what Bleszinski will be talking about.

DURHAM, N.C. - The former design director at Epic Games continues to back local game conventions. Having served as a keynote speaker at this year’s East Coast Games Summit, Cliff Bleszinski is speaking on two panels this weekend at the Escapist Expo in Durham, which is put on by The Escapist website. We caught up with the game developer, who has spent his free time of late blogging about the games industry, to talk gaming earlier this week..

  • What are you speaking about at Escapist Expo on Friday?

With “That Thing I Like,” myself and several other notable folks (Randy Greenback, Lisa Foiles and Greg Tito) are basically just going to gush about different things. I’m not the most well-rounded person, but I’d like to think for a developer I’m relatively rounded. I’m having my house renovated and I’m in love with tile. I find tile to be an amazingly beautiful art form, how they lay it out and carve the curves.

I have an appreciation in real life for construction now that I’ve gotten older. Over the last few years I’ve really fallen in love with football and I love learning more and more about how the NFL is structured, how the players are structured, how the deals are structured, how the rules change. I’ve always enjoyed hockey since I was a kid. I’ll talk about my dog, Teddy, who I’ve had for four years. He’s getting up there, he’s nine.

People see me posting on social about how I love Italian sports cars, but I like to just constantly remind them it’s a game of cost versus enjoyment. The dog far outweighs any car I’ve ever owned in my entire life by a matter of 1000. I can always gush about my wife, but I’m sure everyone’s kind of tired of hearing about that. I’m not a very religious person, but there’s not a better word to use than that I’m “blessed” to have a wonderful life right now.

  • What will your Saturday panel be about?

It’s called Dealing with the Spotlight, which they figure will be a good fit since I’ve obviously thrown myself into it for 20-plus years. It’s coming to a head in regards to Internet abuse, misogyny, racism and this culture of being mean to each other online. It’s like “I’m anonymous therefore I’m so tough” and how does a writer deal that.

A person writes a blog about what it’s like to be a female developer in a hostile workforce towards your gender and to take all the heat from you calling it out. This is a very interesting subject to me. It’s very personal in regards to my own experiences, but I’m going to have a lot of tough love for people. I’m going to be honest.

On one end you put yourself out there against an anonymous mob and you have to expect you’re going to get a certain amount of flack. At the same time, it does not make the behavior of the anonymous mob justifiable because they’re adults, and adults should act like adults regardless of anonymity.

  • What are your thoughts on the online space today?

There are so many solutions that need to happen in the online space. I would love to see an online community that’s more akin to Reddit. Even though Reddit’s not perfect, it’s still pretty darn good compared to YouTube comments. Look at the difference between the two and it’s insane. Generally speaking, the first two pages of Reddit has something funny, interesting, cute, amusing or informative and nine times out of ten you click on the comment thread and it’s everybody outwitting each other and making funny and cute references. You go to YouTube and it’s Lord of the Flies because it’s just anybody saying anything. It’s just verbal diarrhea and then inevitably somebody gets compared to Hitler.

There are multiple things that need to happen in the online space over the next five to ten years to reduce this, but people are always going to be a-holes, sadly enough.

  • Are you going to integrate video game development or your own past with gaming into any of these talks?

It’s more of a free-flowing panel, so it’s going to be based on whatever the flow of the panel is and wherever the anecdotes go. I’d be happy to share anecdotes with them. I will never have a time period in my career when I can be more straightforward and honest with the general gaming population, which is something I’m not sure they all seem to understand.

When I sometimes call out various industry practices, I don’t have a deal with anyone right now. I don’t have an agenda. I’m sitting in the corner biding my time. I don’t have to work and I can be honest about why the industry works the way it works, and some people don’t like that. But I can’t help it. It’s twenty years of having to be moderated by PR people and now I can say what I really think about a lot of things. Some love it. Some hate it. A lot of people appreciate the whole idea of keeping it real at the end of the day. It’s been very refreshing this past year, to be honest.

  • Is this your first time to the Escapist Expo?

This is my first time. I’ve learned to love this area. I moved here in ’98 and back then it was not a very good or very fun area. There was just a Burger King and Angus Barn, basically. But then over the course of the years, downtown Raleigh, in particular, has grown. And Durham’s on the way up. A lot of these neighborhoods are growing.

The fact is this area is a mini-Austin as far as I’m concerned. I think helping video game studios in this area is an excellent idea. The Escapist Expo is a great idea and the more people who come to the area, the better. The East Coast Games Conference is small, but people want to be part of something. They want to make a pilgrimage to their Mecca or whatever. If it’s Burning Man or if it’s the Hopscotch Music Festival, people love coming to events and making memories.

The gaming community is no different. In fact, we love it almost more than a lot of those communities. I don’t expect Escapist Expo to be too big, but it’s our gaming community. I think now more than ever in 2013 and beyond, we have a myriad of choices to entertain yourself and community is the most important thing.

Note: A full schedule of events for The Escapist Expo can be found online.