The guys at eurogamer put up an interview with Chris Avellone. Topics include Planescape: Torment, RPG Codex, Alpha Protocol, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

Here are some excerpts.

<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">Eurogamer: I always felt that, prior to Bethesda's game, Troika's Arcanum was probably the closest thing to a Fallout sequel.

Chris Avellone: Umm... Well, the weird thing is, of all the games I've ...

Eurogamer: You've never played Arcanum?!

Chris Avellone: Well, look, in all the conversations I've had with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, we've never discussed it. It's always been that way.

What a shocking revelation. MCA never played Arcanum. Can't blame him to be honest.

<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">Eurogamer: The RPGCodex would be pretty cross with you, Chris.

Chris Avellone: I think they're going to be cross with me no matter what I do, and I've learned to live with it as long as they provide me with detailed critiques, because past all the profanity they'll spit out, they've actually got some good information on why certain systems are broken, and which ones aren't. Those are actually worth paying attention to, so I value those guys.

Eurogamer: So you read it, then?

Chris Avellone: Oh, yeah, sure. The two sites I usually follow are RPGWatch and RPGCodex. And there's one other site I follow, but it escapes me right now ...

Eurogamer: Eurogamer?

Chris Avellone: [Silence.]

It's finally official, the love-hate relationship is mutual.

No MCA interview is complete without asking about what can change the nature of the RPG:

<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">Eurogamer: Right. Well, anyway, so here's a big one: what defines an RPG these days? It seems to change a lot.

Chris Avellone: Well, I have a personal definition. Of the RPGs I've played recently, I'll be honest: I've been pretty much immersed in Fallout 3. But it seems to me that the most important parts of an RPG are that, in terms of all the character-building you can do in the opening screens, all those skill choices and background choices need to matter in the gameworld.

That may sound kind of self-evident, but there's a lot of game balance that needs to go into making sure that each skill, trait, and attribute score is valuable, and an RPG has to deliver on that. If you're going to give the player a chance to specialise in or improve a certain aspect of their character, there needs to be value for that in the gameworld.

The other thing that's important is that there has to be a lot of reactivity to the player's actions within the environment, either in terms of quests, faction allegiance, even physical changes in the environment. The player making an impact is incredibly important.

Read the rest of the interview over there.

I don't thank anyone for bringing this interview to my attention, especially not Razz.

Spotted at: EuroGamer