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Josh Sawyer is taking a break from directing games

Infinitron

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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
Soon, for the first time ever, Josh Sawyer will be the Design Director of Obsidian Entertainment without being tied down to a project. He ain't going anywhere before he tries to leverage that.
 

Zed

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Soon, for the first time ever, Josh Sawyer will be the Design Director of Obsidian Entertainment without being tied down to a project. He ain't going anywhere before he tries to leverage that.
it went well for Avellone
 

Lycra Suit

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Sawyer is not a great name not even in this niche industry. Some of those posts are a bit off the mark.
And as far as I can tell he's a narrow minded designer partly responsible for the trainwreck that was POE's combat system at release. The last game he just directed is a massive commercial failure.
The gaming industry looks for either technical qualifications, significant talent or motivation, and no one will hire someone as a director right off the bat just because he directed games at his buddies' studio. Sawyer is not some kind of genius he's just a somewhat competent manager. That's it.
 

Roguey

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Boyarsky got Avellone's job tho, not Sawyer :P
Sawyer got the better deal since Avellone claimed his position didn't mean anything.

Then again maybe Sawyer's is equally worthless since he's only ever allowed to offer suggestions, which he's been doing all this time.
 

Wunderbar

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Bethesda can snatch Sawyer, he's experienced in directing gamebryo-engine game. He also did it in only 1,5 year.
 

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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
Hence the word "tries".

I could see Sawyer leaving if having reached the top, he concludes that Obsidian is a creative and commercial dead end. I don't think he's there yet.

In general, how people at Obsidian feel about the company right now must be heavily driven by how the Cainarsky project looks like. Remember it's an Obsidian-owned IP and much bigger than Eternity. If it looks awesome, people are going to stick around so they can be a part of that.
 

Kem0sabe

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He looks like a frugal guy, with enough in the bank to afford taking some time off.

Should leave obsidian, cycle cross country, take some mushrooms, fuck some strangers, then come back to California and make some games. I think he's missing some time off and proper inspiration.
 

Kyl Von Kull

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Did MCA and Sawyer get along?

Chris finally said some nice stuff about Sawyer in his epic interview thread. You might want to load up the big summary of his answers and ctrl-f to find his Sawyer comments.

But! MCA’s praise was all professional. He says he has no problems with Sawyer. While it sounded like they had an okay working relationship and they respect each other, you don’t get the sense that they’re BFFs.
 

Quillon

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Did MCA and Sawyer get along?

Chris finally said some nice stuff about Sawyer in his epic interview thread. You might want to load up the big summary of his answers and ctrl-f to find his Sawyer comments.

But! MCA’s praise was all professional. He says he has no problems with Sawyer. While it sounded like they had an okay working relationship and they respect each other, you don’t get the sense that they’re BFFs.

There is just professional tension methinks, mostly over Fallout. While Sawyer's handling it well, crediting Avellone for anything he did for Fallout while answering Qs about it, MCA just won't speak about Sawyer let alone mention his name...well, until recently after too much effort from Kingdom of Codexia.
 

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Lycra Suit, Avellone suggested that he was one of the few people who earned the royalties of PoE. Do you think he is broke? LOL, think again.

That wasn't my point. I'm just saying it's highly unlikely he would be able to secure a director position on the spot if he moved out of Obsidian. He would have to start as an external producer or interal q&a and either way work overtime.
 

Lycra Suit

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And having a pertinent degree is very important. There's been a lot of disinfo recently, especially from big tech personalities, that a degree doesn't matter. That only works if you're a genius ready to put in years of work with no guarantee of success. Employers do look for degrees, even after years of professional experience.
 

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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
The lead writer of Fallout: New Vegas is now creative director of Guerilla Games but you think that game's director would have to start over as a QA guy, okay

Totally not trolling
 

Kyl Von Kull

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Lycra Suit, Avellone suggested that he was one of the few people who earned the royalties of PoE. Do you think he is broke? LOL, think again.

That wasn't my point. I'm just saying it's highly unlikely he would be able to secure a director position on the spot if he moved out of Obsidian. He would have to start as an external producer or interal q&a and either way work overtime.

No one would make Josh Sawyer do fucking quality assurance. This is insane! Between Black Isle and Obsidian he spent a couple of years as a lead at Midway! At that point he’d only been in charge of one previous game, Icewind Dale 2, which also sold much worse than its predecessor.

The guy gets invited to give headline speeches at professional gaming conferences. He was the project director for New Vegas, which probably sold more than 10 million copies. Pillars 1 was a huge success given the size of its niche. The idea that Sawyer would need to come in and prove himself all over again at another company is absurd. Midway gave him a high level position fifteen years ago when he was way less marketable.

If Josh wants to direct games, he won’t have any trouble finding a position. He’s Obsidian’s head designer. The best predictor of your next job title is your current job title.
 

Goral

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Z4weO4P.jpg

This explains a lot.
 
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And having a pertinent degree is very important. There's been a lot of disinfo recently, especially from big tech personalities, that a degree doesn't matter. That only works if you're a genius ready to put in years of work with no guarantee of success. Employers do look for degrees, even after years of professional experience.

'You want to be a creative director? Son, this is basically science. Where's your PhD? Sure we could make money just by putting your name on our games, but it's not like we care about that.'
 

Kyl Von Kull

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
This is insane! Between Black Isle and Obsidian he spent a couple of years as a lead at Midway!

1 year. In 2003's video game industry. And the game he worked on was an experimental failure that he left prematurely.

The industry has gotten so much more competitive that he would get a worse position if he struck out on his own today than when he did fifteen years ago? Even though he has a much higher profile and a much better track record now? How many GDC presentations must a designer give before he’s taken seriously?
 

santino27

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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
And having a pertinent degree is very important. There's been a lot of disinfo recently, especially from big tech personalities, that a degree doesn't matter. That only works if you're a genius ready to put in years of work with no guarantee of success. Employers do look for degrees, even after years of professional experience.

Once you have sufficient experience in the industry, that's what people focus on, as your body of work speaks a lot more to your capabilities than some piece of paper given to you decades earlier. Degrees are most important in those first few years when trying to get a foot in the industry.

Source: Someone with a writing degree who's spent 20+ years as a software engineer (alongside people without degrees at all), who's never even had his degree mentioned in interviews after the very first job.
 

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