Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[Drax]

I know, this is Q&A but fuck it, I don't know if there's a "Josh Appreciation Thread".

 

[Prime Junta]

Comrade Josh, demonstrating once again how much fun he is at parties

 

[Jinn]

He should probably stop making games then if he's going to repeatedly say such things to his audience. Makes him look like a giant hypocrite.

 

[Roguey]

The world doesn't need video games like it needs basic needs, but it does need entertainment, and video games are just as valid as any other form of entertainment.

hurr does the world need more books; no, no it does not. Go start a commune and work the fields, commie.

 

[aweigh]

Actually saying stuff like that makes him look more based.

 

[Jinn]

Drax, what exactly did you find retarded about that comment?

 

[Prime Junta]

He should probably stop making games then if he's going to repeatedly say such things to his audience. Makes him look like a giant hypocrite.

You can't opt out of capitalism. You do what you must to live, and do what you can to change it.

 

[Jinn]

You can't opt out of capitalism. You do what you must to live, and do what you can to change it.

I realize this, of course. But working in one of the world's largest entertainment industries, making quite a bit of money at it, continuing to do it, then expressing regularly how destructive a force you feel it is just seems like an unfortunate view. If that's really how Josh feels, he probably experiences a lot of self-loathing and existential turmoil on a day to day basis.

I don't dislike Josh or his games, to be clear. I just think it's an odd sentiment for someone in his position to continue reiterating on social media. I respect his honesty, but it's hard to continue getting excited for games developed by someone who seems to think that games, at their core, are a detriment to an individual. Where is the passion in that?

 

[Prime Junta]

If that's really how Josh feels, he probably experiences a lot of self-loathing and existential turmoil on a day to day basis.

For sure. I'm doing pretty well by bourgie standards too, and live with it all the time. Cognitive dissonance is a bitch.

 

[FreeKaner]

You can't opt out of capitalism. You do what you must to live, and do what you can to change it.

I realize this, of course. But working in one of the world's largest entertainment industries, making quite a bit of money at it, continuing to do it, then expressing regularly how destructive a force you feel it is just seems like an unfortunate view. If that's really how Josh feels, he probably experiences a lot of self-loathing and existential turmoil on a day to day basis.

I don't dislike Josh or his games, to be clear. I just think it's an odd sentiment for someone in his position to continue reiterating on social media. I respect his honesty, but it's hard to continue getting excited for games developed by someone who seems to think that games, at their core, are a detriment to an individual. Where is the passion in that?

Working in epicentre of capitalism in California and actively contributing to predatory expansion of it at the iconic image of capital in entertainment industry, then complaining about the system at place while being a major benefactor is basically a defence mechanism to not face the fact that he is not merely a cog in the engine but keeps it running. He can absolve himself of responsibility if he just speaks against the economic model, claim that he does what he needs to and does not like it so then he is obviously not at fault as he obviously dislikes it. No attempts at resistance or lowering the degree of participation to reduce impact of course, he just spoke about it online what else could he do?

He is a courageous and moral man bravely speaking against the fountain of blood which he drinks from.

 

[Prime Junta]

You can't opt out of capitalism. You do what you must to live, and do what you can to change it.

I realize this, of course. But working in one of the world's largest entertainment industries, making quite a bit of money at it, continuing to do it, then expressing regularly how destructive a force you feel it is just seems like an unfortunate view. If that's really how Josh feels, he probably experiences a lot of self-loathing and existential turmoil on a day to day basis.

I don't dislike Josh or his games, to be clear. I just think it's an odd sentiment for someone in his position to continue reiterating on social media. I respect his honesty, but it's hard to continue getting excited for games developed by someone who seems to think that games, at their core, are a detriment to an individual. Where is the passion in that?

Working in epicentre of capitalism in California and actively contributing to predatory expansion of it at the iconic image of capital in entertainment industry, then complaining about the system at place while being a major benefactor is basically a defence mechanism to not face the fact that he is not merely a cog in the engine but keeps it running. He can absolve himself of responsibility if he just speaks against the economic model, claim that he does what he needs to and does not like it so then he is obviously not at fault as he obviously dislikes it. No attempts at resistance or lowering the degree of participation to reduce impact of course, he just spoke about it online what else could he do?

He is a courageous and moral man bravely speaking against the fountain of blood which he drinks from.

That's probably an accurate representation of what goes on through his mind during sleepless nights.

Cognitive dissonance, as stated, is a bitch.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Honest Hearts, haunting the minds of good-thinking liberals since 2011:

We can't expect God to do all the work.

 

[Trashos]

Ah, a lot of interesting stuff I missed in August.

David Lynch rocks. Josh is right, Lynch requires several views to get an idea on what is going on. Although I prefer Eraserhead or The Lost Highway, Blue Velvet has Dennis Hopper in it.
NSFW:

Spoiler

On Joshua Graham, is he the best character Josh ever wrote or what? I don't think any of his other characters even come close. I always took it for granted that Graham tasted all the forbidden fruits. Then he lost the battle at Boulder City and it all crumbled.

When the walls come tumbling down, when you lose everything you have, you always have family. And your family always has tribe.

 

[Infinitron]

Somebody crossposting our threads to Josh Sawyer's tumblr?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Newsflash: Man who champions decline in CRPGs dreams of causing decline in politics and economics.

 

[Roguey]

Popped over to badgame for the first time in ages to see if Josh had anything to say about Cyberpunk (he did not) but I did find this

the only pathfinder character i played for more than a single session was an alchemist inspired by bobby boucher's mama from THE WATERBOY and juanita the maid from BILLY MADISON. she had lots of ranks in cooking and sleight of hand and would smuggle drugs and poisons into places by hiding them under her enormous bosom and making guards uncomfortable with lascivious talk.

 

[Prime Junta]

I would kill to see him in character.

 

[Prime Junta]

But who radicalised him?

 

[FreeKaner]

But who radicalised him?

His own shortcomings in his passion and of course his own personal failures. There is no better radicalisation tool.

When one makes a game so aggressively inoffensive that at every moment it tries to make the player not miss out on it, one cannot help but radicalise as a reaction to such regress to mean.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Hardly radicalized. More like lacks the testosterone to be a badass himself but still wanting in on the action.

Fucking hipster.

 

[Infinitron]

Oooh: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/178166511166/hi-josh-i-love-new-vegas-and-played-it-for

Hi Josh. I love New Vegas and played it for countless hours on Steam. Some fans would argue If Obsidian were to somehow able to make the next fallout installment, it would be radically different from the New Vegas that we know and love. As fans would say its due to a shift in management. I don't know how valid that point is, but I thought I would get your opinion on it.

I don’t know what changes people think have been made in management that would result in such a shift. I’d say it’s more likely that changes in staff (i.e., the development team as a whole) would be likely to result in a shift – but I don’t even think that would be likely.

I guess it depends on what decisions on F:NV you consider to be integral to its character, who made those decisions, and if that individual would make similar decisions on a future Fallout project.

I had, by far, more authority on Fallout: New Vegas than on any project I’ve worked on before or since. I exerted more dictatorial control over individual elements on F:NV than I have on any other project. Were I to direct a future Fallout title, I would make similar decisions in terms of both broad strokes and details.

I did not pick New Vegas as a location, but I framed the entirety of the base game’s world, mapped out every region on paper (world builders like ScottE, Sydney Wolfram, and Denise McMurry did all in-game mapping), and wrote every Region Design Constraint doc (RDC), naming, describing, and overall defining the major locations in the game (everything marked with a star in this map, which I created):

Would I change how I approached this? Probably. I would start the character somewhere farther away from the edge of the world and probably farther away from New Vegas. I would also loosen up a bit on real-world map accuracy and insist that the world builders use as few invisible walls as possible – only to prevent them from falling and getting stuck, never out of a concern about sight lines and LoDs, especially since I/we understand how LoDs work in the engine much better now. Otherwise, I think this process worked well.

For better or worse, I conceived and designed the character arcs for every base game companion (though they were further fleshed out and entirely written by different designers, save Arcade Gannon). Time permitting, I would be more likely to work with writers to conceive companions collaboratively, as we did on Deadfire. Otherwise, I think the process and overall quality of the companions was terrific thanks to the efforts of the writers. I wouldn’t change the process or focus for a theoretical future title.

I defined the open nature of the critical path and insisted on certain elements, such as ending with the battle for Hoover Dam, allowing any non-child character to be killed, and allowing the player to skip any/every step of the critical path prior to meeting Benny in The Tops with the story still making sense. John Gonzalez (our lead creative designer) defined the major characters of the critical path, the Strip’s houses, and the details of the critical path, but I see no reason why we would (now) design something that feels fundamentally different from what John did.

I was the only system designer on the project, excepting the work Frank Kowalkowski did on Challenges (he designed pretty much everything about them and implemented them all). I made all of the SPECIAL revisions, skill system revisions, Perk and Trait revisions/additions. I also designed, implemented, and tuned every weapon in the game. Overall, I’m happier with the system design in F:NV than any other game I’ve worked on. If you want to know what I’d change about what I did, look at the JSawyer mod.

I also designed Caravan (with Jesse Farrell, but please hold me responsible for its shortcomings). Yeah, that was a bridge too far. That and scheduling the Legion territories and supplemental quests too late in development.

The team as a whole defined the character of Fallout: New Vegas’ quests and the writing of individual characters. I can’t really take much directorial credit for this other than telling designers when I think they were doing a good job, offering suggestions/feedback, and generally staying out of their way unless I thought they were making something players weren’t going to enjoy. If we were to make another Fallout game, I would absolutely have all of the designers look at what the team did on F:NV. New Vegas is what it is because of their work. All the high-level planning and directing in the world will fall flat if the moment to moment conversations, quests, and environments don’t move something in you. That takes a team of people making good decisions and doing good work and there’s no way around that.

It’s been 8 years, so a lot of the staff have moved on from Obsidian, but many members of the original F:NV team are still here. I still think we could make a fantastic Fallout game with the character of Fallout: New Vegas. I don’t think I will ever get the chance to, but I’m grateful both to the original team and to the fans for making F:NV the best game I’ve had the good fortune to be involved with.

 

[Quillon]

For better or worse, I conceived and designed the character arcs for every base game companion (though they were further fleshed out and entirely written by different designers, save Arcade Gannon). Time permitting, I would be more likely to work with writers to conceive companions collaboratively, as we did on Deadfire. Otherwise, I think the process and overall quality of the companions was terrific thanks to the efforts of the writers. I wouldn’t change the process or focus for a theoretical future title.

Heh I asked him about this when we were discussing MCA's subtle criticism about Josh for designing the companions that writers write, he didn't answer then.

 

[Fairfax]

Time permitting, I would be more likely to work with writers to conceive companions collaboratively, as we did on Deadfire.

An astounding success, eh?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Prime Junta]

Poor man. He really doesn't grok or much care for the IE games, does he? Working against other people's imagined expectations of them, rather than his own passion or vision.