He was a fat nerd who had never had a girlfriend when he wrote Torment, wouldn't be based on any personal experience.I'd ask Chris which female dev orbiter in his life inspired Ravel Puzzlewell
Anyway, after that, things went pretty much downhill for my social life. I finally got a group of 3-4 guys together to play role-playing games (this grew to 7-8 during our Warhammer campaign in high school, which I am still most fond of). Girls remained a mystery to me with their strange curves, the fact they smelled nice, and strange way of behaving (I later learned this was courtesy), so me and my friends played the Temple of Elemental Evil for TWO years (no shit, longest campaign I ever ran, and we played weekly), then once we got bored of fantasy, we played a bunch of Superhero games (TWO more years of Superworld – thanks, Steve Perrin) and Hero Games, which seemed a little better thought-out rules-wise, and allowed for greater character customization. Throughout high school I sent a huge number of shitty submissions to Dragon magazine, Palladium, and GURPS that were sent back with generic form letters saying I needed to grow up. Even Hero Games did this, but I wore down the will of Monte Cook and Bruce Harlick (both of whom grew to hate the fact I kept submitting, and Monte even wrote me an angry mail to that effect, shortly before he capitulated). That is when I learned the most valuable lesson of my gaming career – persistence pays off.
I wrote a few supplements for Hero Games, discovered that I loved making characters for game worlds (Underworld Enemies for Hero Games had some of my favourite characters ever – including Ashtray Art, the pyrokinetic who was REALLY in love with fire and thought it was a real woman, the Hanged Man [no relation to the Fallout 3 character concept of the same name], the emotionally vampiric Saiettas Crime Family who didn’t care as much about the crimes they committed as they could feed on the misery it caused, and Mad Billy, who got stronger and tougher the more alcohol he drank – kind of like if the Hulk was fuelled by beer). All contributed to my social retardation, but my writing and design skills grew to level 3, and I added various Geeky Feats to my character until it was time to level up to Computer Game Designer Level One
Once at Interplay, I worked on a bunch of games. I made a lot of mistakes and a lot of friends. I got to meet Scott Bennie, who had worked at Hero Games before he levelled up. I met Steve Perrin, who had designed Superworld that our gaming group had played. I met Floyd Grubb and Bill Church, who took me to my first strip club. And I occasionally met Tim Cain, who I think still had that closely trimmed beard he always has, but he was too busy to tell any stories. While there, I envisioned Planescape: Torment, which I would argue was a huge mistake, but I loved doing it, so there was a period where I loved my job more than my own life, which my doctor later told me would not allow me to rise from the dead when the combination of stress and caffeine would cause my heart to stop beating (the last month of Torment was when I got this medical warning, but Annah was the last companion I had to write, so it was probably the best time for it to happen). This was the third thing I learned about game development – planting your ass in front of a computer game monitor is not conducive to your emotional and physical health.
The spiral of doom for Interplay was pretty evident around that time – Torment, Fallout, and other projects were the last of the 2-3 year development cycle within Dragonplay/Black Isle Games and the cycles became shorter and shorter as Interplay ran out of cash. I recovered from Fallout, lost some weight, gained a social life, lost more weight, actually learned more about Orange County, all against the backdrop of Interplay’s death throes. We kept laying people off. In some cases, this was a good thing. Black Isle remained relatively intact, but the demands and the pressure grew and grew until it cracked a few months after I left.
A different kind of fat. He started lifting in the early 00s, built up some muscles. Then he apparently stopped but kept eating and became that squat strongfat, not the soft fat he is in the above picture.He still is a fat nerd
Events like DragonCon have a reputation for being a nerd orgy, I know. But overweight 170 cm Chris didn't really have any clout or appeal for that kind of thing to happen back then. Even when he was a celebrity dev and physically fit that wasn't assured (Jacqui...)Roguey you're unable to distill subtle jokes from reality. Even fat George Martin was married multiple times and got laid a lot on post-nebula and other post-awards parties, which you wouldn't think possible (sci-fi nerd stuff), and yet.
LIES!Events like DragonCon have a reputation for being a nerd orgy, I know. But overweight 170 cm Chris didn't really have any clout or appeal for that kind of thing to happen back then. Even when he was a celebrity dev and physically fit that wasn't assured (Jacqui...)Roguey you're unable to distill subtle jokes from reality. Even fat George Martin was married multiple times and got laid a lot on post-nebula and other post-awards parties, which you wouldn't think possible (sci-fi nerd stuff), and yet.
Is that bark talking about the bounty hunter, the random graveyard resident, or the mayor?LIES!Events like DragonCon have a reputation for being a nerd orgy, I know. But overweight 170 cm Chris didn't really have any clout or appeal for that kind of thing to happen back then. Even when he was a celebrity dev and physically fit that wasn't assured (Jacqui...)Roguey you're unable to distill subtle jokes from reality. Even fat George Martin was married multiple times and got laid a lot on post-nebula and other post-awards parties, which you wouldn't think possible (sci-fi nerd stuff), and yet.
yesIs that bark talking about the bounty hunter, the random graveyard resident, or the mayor?LIES!Events like DragonCon have a reputation for being a nerd orgy, I know. But overweight 170 cm Chris didn't really have any clout or appeal for that kind of thing to happen back then. Even when he was a celebrity dev and physically fit that wasn't assured (Jacqui...)Roguey you're unable to distill subtle jokes from reality. Even fat George Martin was married multiple times and got laid a lot on post-nebula and other post-awards parties, which you wouldn't think possible (sci-fi nerd stuff), and yet.
Is that bark talking about the bounty hunter, the random graveyard resident, or the mayor?LIES!Events like DragonCon have a reputation for being a nerd orgy, I know. But overweight 170 cm Chris didn't really have any clout or appeal for that kind of thing to happen back then. Even when he was a celebrity dev and physically fit that wasn't assured (Jacqui...)Roguey you're unable to distill subtle jokes from reality. Even fat George Martin was married multiple times and got laid a lot on post-nebula and other post-awards parties, which you wouldn't think possible (sci-fi nerd stuff), and yet.
Based on the reactions to my post. I am going to assume the OP in the linked thread was the product of a homoerotic fantasy.I recently came across the linked thread. Did this Codexer actually met Avellone? I wasn't even aware Avellone had an account here.
Bathroom Encounter
Unlike Cain, he probably hasn't been invited to the premiere.
Yeah he has no hope of getting that job at Bethesda he clearly wanted. Wonder if the irony occurs to him that Bethesda gave him what he wanted - cutting down the NCR and resetting the board so to speak - but executed it in the worst way possible.Unlike Cain, he probably hasn't been invited to the premiere.
Wrong.Doesn't matter. Chris has always complained about Fallout not being true to its roots and now says the show's lore is bad, which while it's total shit his contributions are no better.
Lest we forget when he added Simpsons Springfield to Tactics complete with buildings from the show and made himself its mayor so he could give an in-game speech about poop jokes. Not as an optional easter egg, but as a main location. Any time he complains about Fallout's setting it's pure hypocrisy.
The character shares both Avellone's name and appearance; however, Avellone did not voice the character, nor was he even aware of the character's inclusion in the game. Had he learned about the character, Avellone has stated that he likely would have asked the developers to take him out of the game, as he is against "breaking the fourth wall." |
I stand corrected then.Wrong.Doesn't matter. Chris has always complained about Fallout not being true to its roots and now says the show's lore is bad, which while it's total shit his contributions are no better.
Lest we forget when he added Simpsons Springfield to Tactics complete with buildings from the show and made himself its mayor so he could give an in-game speech about poop jokes. Not as an optional easter egg, but as a main location. Any time he complains about Fallout's setting it's pure hypocrisy.
The character shares both Avellone's name and appearance; however, Avellone did not voice the character, nor was he even aware of the character's inclusion in the game. Had he learned about the character, Avellone has stated that he likely would have asked the developers to take him out of the game, as he is against "breaking the fourth wall."