-- I got a tip from a friend about a game developer called Refraction Games, that I hadn't heard about at that time. I knew about DICE, of course, but Refraction was new to me. Anyway, I applied for the job as artist in March 1999 by sending them a couple of 3D models -- one of them being a 30 polygon model [That was all you had to work with back then! -- Editor's note] of the Swedish jet fighter JAS 39. I got the job, and I think I received employee number 11. Our office was located at Götgatsbacken in the South of Stockholm, and that was one of the happiest moments in my life.

 That is when you started work on Codename Eagle?
-- Yes. The Refractor engine was there, and they had done some work on the game for a year or so already, with the grand vision of a multiplayer only game featuring big battlefields with all types of vehicles in it. Since our publisher at that point didn’t believe in a multiplayer only product, we ended up making a full-blown singplayer campaign as well, but our hearts were still closest to multiplayer.

 And Codename Eagle really was the forerunner to what would later become Battlefield 1942, right?
-- Yes. We built a demo for E3 with a concept for Battlefield 1942, but we had a hard time finding any interested publishers. People seemed to think we couldn't pull it off, having 16 players in a multiplayer game -- at least until EA got in contact with us. It turned out that the QA testers at EA Redwood Shores kept playing the same game every lunch break. That game was Codename Eagle, so EA Publishing eventually found out who had made the game and invited us over to talk.

What is your proudest moment as a game developer?
-- I will give you three. One is the review event for Battlefield 1942 that took place on board the American carrier the USS Hornet in Alameda, battling it out in a 64-player LAN under deck among all the planes parked down there. One is the midnight release of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, where the roar from the crowd that wanted the game really shook me. Awesome! Lastly, receiving the Swedish Game of the Decade award earlier this year was almost surreal -- partly because I realized that I have been working with Battlefield for 10 years, and partly because what started as a small project by two students from KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) is now dubbed Game of the Decade!

 What do you think made Battlefield 1942 special?
-- I often think about its scale; from submarines to bombers. Actually, we didn't add the submarine unitl after alpha stage [The whole idea of alpha stage is drawing a line where you stop including new stuff into the game, otherwise games would never ship -- Editor's note]. As project lead, I probably shouldn't have done that, but I really wanted it in the game. As a whole, the submarine maybe didn't add a lot to the actual gameplay, but it gave us that epic scale that I think a lot of people appreciated.

 Since then, you have worked on every major release of Battlefield. What was your initial reaction when you got the assignment to kick off development on the multiplayer mode for Medal of Honor together with Patrick Liu?
-- I have always followed the series on PC throughout the years -- historically as a competitor we wanted to outperform. To get the chance to actually work on it myself was exciting. I started by reading the book "Anaconda: Not a Good Day to Die", to study the environments and what was going on over there.

 What did you want to achieve with the multiplayer mode?
-- I knew that I wanted to take storytelling in the multiplayer mode to the next level. I was thinking "How do we make something that isn't Battlefield, while still using the experience we have gathered throughout the years?" I wanted to make something different.

Different how?
-- I wanted to do two things with the multiplayer in Medal of Honor. I think historically, we have been very proud at DICE of the fact that we are inventing our own game modes, like Conquest and Rush. I think that is fine, but I wanted to open up for the fact that no matter how much time and effort you put into creating awesome new game modes, there will always be gamers who want to fall back to the classic team deathmatch. The second thing I wanted to do was tell some kind of story in multiplayer.

 You kind of did that already in Battlefield: Bad Company 2?

-- Yes, in Bad Company 2, we added small cinematic touches, so that when you take a base you can see supporting jets flying by, or ships firing in the background, and we use "outro" movies at the end of multiplayer missions. I took inspiration from this and wanted to take it to the next level. It still needs to be fun after one thousand games, and it mustn't interfere with the gameplay, so you have to be really careful in how you implement it. You can't shove story down peoples' throats. I would give most of the credit to our core team, but I’m happy to see that Combat Mission does a really good job providing an immersive multiplayer experience.

 Why do you think so many people love team deathmatch?
-- Personally, I think it's the perfect adrenaline rush at lunch. You can get in, play for a while, and you haven't signed up for something that takes a set amount of time -- you can just leave whenever. And I think, even if it's called team deathmatch, it's just a huge ego boost. At least when you do well! I think our understanding of this fact is why we have constantly fine-tuned the game modes in our Battlefield games throughout the years and are offering things like Squad Rush.

 So it's a matter of making a broader game?
-- Well, instead of tailoring a specific game for a very specific audience, I think we can offer a host of different game modes within a game to give everyone the experience they want. In the early Battlefield years, I was like "If people want TDM, they can go somewhere else!". I don't think like that anymore. I think it's up to the players what they want to do with our games.

 DICE obviously has a great reputation for creating finely tuned multiplayer experiences. What is that special DICE multiplayer touch, do you think?
-- The way I usually think about it is "from the gun out" -- it doesn't matter what kind of persistence model you have in the game, if the feeling when you run and gun isn't right. So it all starts there.

 Have you seen the back of the Medal of Honor pack? It says in big letters that the multiplayer mode is developed by DICE. What connotations are you hoping that evokes in people?
-- That it is a seal of quality. That it is a game worth playing for a long, long time.

 You are still involved in Battlefield. How does it feel to wake up and go to work on a game series that you helped pave the way for, and that you have spent nearly a decade on?
--  I feel extremely proud, and I am surprised that I still find so much joy, almost a childish curiosity, in finding new things to explore for the series in the future.

 FOUR FACTS WITH LARS
Age: 42
Lives: Stockholm, Sweden
Secret Skill: Dynamite Espresso Maker
Top Three Traits: "Patient. Disorganized. Perfectionist."

 GAMEOGRAPHY
Codename Eagle Artist
Battlefield 1942 Producer
Battlefield 2 Lead Designer
Battlefield 2142 Creative Director (outside of the team)
Battlefield 1943 Creative Director (outside of the team)
Battlefield: Bad Company Lead Designer
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Creative Director (outside of the team)
Medal of Honor Lead Designer for 1-2 months to prepare for Sebastian "Sibben" Armonioso

source:http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com