http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/2/14798096/deus-ex-warren-spector-vr-virtual-reality-dumb-down-games
Earlier in the talk, Spector listed a series of questions he asks himself before every game he makes, culminating in the question, “Do you have something to say?” An audience member brought this up again during the Q&A, asking how that might apply to the wide variety of less hardcore games being created, including non-narrative experiences.
Spector conceded that there may be some games wherein “having something to say” is less important, but went on to say that they aren’t the type of games that interest him.
“If I have to dumb down a game to sell 20 million copies, I’m not going to make games anymore,” he said.
Here's video of the talk:
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024338/Classic-Game-Postmortem-Deus-Ex
So, actually the Polygon writer mixed two separated (but somewhat related) Q&As in that one:
First one (48:56)
Question: "You said you need to have something to talk about in your games. Could you expand that to other genre of games? What is it mean to say something when it's not full-on narrative games."
Spector: "I think I perhaps overstated to make my point. [...] But any game that has any kind of narrative however deep can actually ask players to think about something. [He goes on about how Epic Mickey games ask questions about the value of family and friends.] Even a Mickey Mouse game can ask questions like that. And if you think about in terms of questions, then create game systems and gameplay that allow players to explore those questions in subtle, subconscious ways, I think games can actually be even more remarkable medium than we are."
Second one (56:48)
Question: "For you as a creator, where do you draw the line between obviousness and subtlety, especially from a narrative standpoint. [...] Deus Ex is the game that admired in lot of these subtleties in narrative elements, but seems like people still managed to get what's going on in that game."
Spector: "First of all have a great writing team. I had four writers, all of them with one exception were programmers who could write, not writers who could...we tried to make interactive writers. I think that helped. One of writers had a duel degree in Creative Writing and Computer Science in Harvard and MIT simultaneously. [He's talking about Sheldon Pacotti, who is also currently Design Director of System Shock 3.] It's kind of easy to make an intelligent game when you got people like that on board. But honestly, I don't worry about that too much. I'm the luckiest guy in the game business in that I get to make games way I want to make them. I try to make games that I want to play and I find appealing, and hope enough people find them appealing that I get to make another one. So, subtlety and intelligence are important to me, and if I have to dumb down a game to sell 20 million copies, I'm gonna not make games anymore."
(Also I think he and any of audience never mentioned Invisible War in the entire talk.
)