In case you didn't notice it the last two times I mentioned it in a newspost, there was a panel entitled Classic RPGs Forever at PAX Prime last Sunday. The panelists were Adam Heine of inXile Entertainment, Swen Vincke of Larian Studios, Josh Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment, Mitch Gitelman of Harebrained Schemes and Annie Mitsoda of DoubleBear Productions. The panel was not streamed, but thanks to Larian, we now have an audio recording of the proceedings:



There are no major revelations here, but it's fun to hear the Codex's favorite RPG development heroes/villains discussing the Definition Of An RPG and other related topics while evangelizing their design philosophies. Notable moments include Adam Heine expressing his shock at what RPGs had become after his ten year hiatus from gaming, Swen Vincke complaining about game journalists' tendency to label his game as a Diablo clone, Mitch Gitelman calling Batman: Arkham Asylum an RPG, and some genuinely insightful reflections from Annie Mitsoda on the role of choice and consequence in defining a character. If you don't have the time to listen to it yourself, Roguey has helpfully summarized the panel here, with the typical Roguey biases of course.