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Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,854
MCA said:
It was weird to bring up design elements and be listened to – they didn’t agree to everything, but at least they listened.

This we knew, but you cant get a bigger confirmation of how things were at obsidian, really a bad place to be in, especially if you are the creative director of the whole thing.

Coupled with this

MCA said:
My role was often a question mark, one that I attempted to get answered a few times. I've said this before in other interviews, but while creative director can give a lot of advice and thoughts, they may not have any decision making power at a company - they can't enforce a design philosophy or even tell any other employee what to do, even project directors and lead designers.

Must have been hell, tons of great ideas, a fancy chair and a desk with your name on it, but no one cares or listens to you anyway.
 

Fairfax

Arcane
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
3,518
"The entire past 12 years of my life was a mistake and doing freelance work on PS2 ARPGs would have been better" goes a bit beyond mere frustration.
He said going freelancer would've been a better path. You're assuming he meant his time at Obsidian was a waste of time, but he didn't say that.
 

Rev

Arcane
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
1,180
MCA said:
My role was often a question mark, one that I attempted to get answered a few times. I've said this before in other interviews, but while creative director can give a lot of advice and thoughts, they may not have any decision making power at a company - they can't enforce a design philosophy or even tell any other employee what to do, even project directors and lead designers.

Must have been hell, tons of great ideas, a fancy chair and a desk with your name on it, but no one cares or listens to you anyway.
Well, what he said in that quote is nothing I would call negative. I mean, he's Avellone and we assume that his ideas are good/great (and they probably are, considering his record), but I think it's only fair that a project director or lead designer has the final say on his game's vision, despite what the owner of the company thinks and ofc as long as that said director/lead designer doesn't fucked up with the budget or with the timetable.
Now, think if instead of MCA and Obsidian we were speaking of BIS and Torment or Fallout, and Fargo/other owners would impose their views on Tim Cain or Avellone himself instead of giving them the freedom to do what they though was right, the game would've been changed and not for the better, probably. On the other hand, the strange thing is that MCA didn't have a lead role on anything except Alpha Protocol (which was initially in the hands of other devs, though) and before that, KotOR II, that were released respectively 6 and 11 years ago. As an owner, he should've had the freedom and power to start his own project (and even Feargus said something about offering him the chance to go wild in their next KS which was supposed to take place around Q2 2014, then something changed apparently).
Maybe he himself didn't want to lead an Obsidian game, and he even said that in an interview, but I think that stance is referred just to his last years at the company in which he preferred to work on other stuff and accepted many other freelancing jobs.
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,854
Well, what he said in that quote is nothing I would call negative. I mean, he's Avellone and we assume that his ideas are good/great (and they probably are, considering his record), but I think it's only fair that a project director or lead designer has the final say on his game's vision, despite what the owner of the company thinks and ofc as long as that said director/lead designer doesn't fucked up with the budget or with the timetable.
Now, think if instead of MCA and Obsidian we were speaking of BIS and Torment or Fallout, and Fargo/other owners would impose their views on Tim Cain or Avellone himself instead of giving them the freedom to do what they though was right, the game would've been changed and not for the better, probably. On the other hand, the strange thing is that MCA didn't have a lead role on anything except Alpha Protocol (which was initially in the hands of other devs, though) and before that, KotOR II, that were released respectively 6 and 11 years ago. As an owner, he should've had the freedom and power to start his own project (and even Feargus said something about offering him the chance to go wild in their next KS which was supposed to take place around Q2 2014, then something changed apparently).
Maybe he himself didn't want to lead an Obsidian game, and he even said that in an interview, but I think that stance is referred just to his last years at the company in which he preferred to work on other stuff and accepted many other freelancing jobs.

It was weird to bring up design elements and be listened to

at least they listened

It is very negative when people outright ignore the creative director and founder of the company for like a decade.
 

Fairfax

Arcane
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
3,518
Well, what he said in that quote is nothing I would call negative. I mean, he's Avellone and we assume that his ideas are good/great (and they probably are, considering his record), but I think it's only fair that a project director or lead designer has the final say on his game's vision, despite what the owner of the company thinks and ofc as long as that said director/lead designer doesn't fucked up with the budget or with the timetable.
Now, think if instead of MCA and Obsidian we were speaking of BIS and Torment or Fallout, and Fargo/other owners would impose their views on Tim Cain or Avellone himself instead of giving them the freedom to do what they though was right, the game would've been changed and not for the better, probably. On the other hand, the strange thing is that MCA didn't have a lead role on anything except Alpha Protocol (which was initially in the hands of other devs, though) and before that, KotOR II, that were released respectively 6 and 11 years ago. As an owner, he should've had the freedom and power to start his own project (and even Feargus said something about offering him the chance to go wild in their next KS which was supposed to take place around Q2 2014, then something changed apparently).
Maybe he himself didn't want to lead an Obsidian game, and he even said that in an interview, but I think that stance is referred just to his last years at the company in which he preferred to work on other stuff and accepted many other freelancing jobs.

It was weird to bring up design elements and be listened to

at least they listened

It is very negative when people outright ignore the creative director and founder of the company for like a decade.
I think he was talking about specific people, not the company as a whole.
At Obsidian he only worked under 3 different lead designers/project directors: Josh Sawyer (NWN2, FNV, PoE, Aliens), Kevin Saunders (MotB) and Chris Parker (AP).
Which one is most likely to be one of the people he's referring to? :M
 

Rev

Arcane
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
1,180
I think he was talking about specific people, not the company as a whole.
At Obsidian he only worked under 3 different lead designers/project directors: Josh Sawyer (NWN2, FNV, PoE, Aliens), Kevin Saunders (MotB) and Chris Parker (AP).
Which one is most likely to be one of the people he's referring to? :M
Well, Parker is the only one he publicly cited and criticized in some occasions. :M
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,854
I think he was talking about specific people, not the company as a whole.
At Obsidian he only worked under 3 different lead designers/project directors: Josh Sawyer (NWN2, FNV, PoE, Aliens), Kevin Saunders (MotB) and Chris Parker (AP).
Which one is most likely to be one of the people he's referring to? :M
I think we could safely include others, especially those in high places at obsidian that did nuffin.
 

Fairfax

Arcane
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
3,518
I think he was talking about specific people, not the company as a whole.
At Obsidian he only worked under 3 different lead designers/project directors: Josh Sawyer (NWN2, FNV, PoE, Aliens), Kevin Saunders (MotB) and Chris Parker (AP).
Which one is most likely to be one of the people he's referring to? :M
I think we could safely include others, especially those in high places at obsidian that did nuffin.
Definitely. It's just that he was talking about bringing up design elements with Swen, not the same kind of interaction you have with the partners (though it probably happened with some of them as well).
Reminds me of when Infinitron thought MCA calling Feargus "our CEO" in interviews was a sign of affection. In older interviews he called him "Ferg" or "Feargus", now he barely ever mentions the partners (or Sawyer) by name. :M
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,854
I just want to see this dude write again, he clearly still has it in him to give us great worlds, characters and ideas and its just a fucking waste.
 

Latro

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
7,348
Location
Vita umbratilis
so all the gossip about MCA and Obsidian is 100% true. that's pretty tragic, but also, i like to be right

to be frank, I still remember that "I only had two friends at Obsidian", and it sounds like it wasn't just Sawyer/Feargus, but everyone bullied MCA. maybe he shouldn't have gotten those big slutty arms and all these nu-males would have left him alone!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,461
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Nah that's not true. He seems to have good relations with pretty much everybody except Obsidian's "leadership group".
 

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