RPG Codex Interview: Chris Avellone on Pillars Cut Content, Game Development Hierarchies and More

[Blaine]

they don't often have a lot of money in the bank, especially around review time

Darth Roxor

where's your fat check at?

Wouldn't you like to know.

 

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

Steam forum responses:

250 hours in Wasteland 2 can mean only one thing.

Jesus fucking christ he seriously played over 300 hours of SotS2? HOW???

 

[2house2fly]

The story about Feargus threatening to fire Josh and Adam is also not new btw: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...ing-production-of-pillars-of-eternity.118952/

Over lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, one of Urquhart’s favorite haunts, Brennecke and Sawyer explained that trying to release the game in November would be a disaster. The team needed more time.

Yes, they were out of Kickstarter money and would now have to dip into Obsidian’s own funds, but for a game like Pillars of Eternity—Obsidian’s most important game to date—the extra investment felt necessary. Urquhart argued against it, but Brennecke and Sawyer were persistent. In their minds, the choice was already made.

“Feargus sat Josh and me down,” Brennecke said. “He said, ‘If this game does not come out in March, you guys are both gone after this project.’” Recalling the pressure, Brennecke could only laugh. “OK, we’ll get it done.”

I wonder if Josh and Adam now get associative memories of trauma and stress when they see a Cheesecake Factory

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

So I think it'd be going too far to reach the conclusion that Obsidian == shitty programmers. I lean more towards the idea of "Obsidian == mismanaged writing and design, fairly strong technical backbone".

"fairly strong technical backbone", which is why every single obsidian game to date has been a technical trainwreck

Except, nope. Everything they released after (and including) Dungeon Siege 3 has been reasonably polished and mostly trouble free. The whole "Bugsidian" thing is an outdated meme.

says you

meanwhile i remember being stuck for a week in raedric's hold because a gamebreaking bug made it impossible to leave

i finally managed to break out using the console cuz otherwise i'd be waiting a month or something for a patch to fix it

I had game breaking bugs with South Park too.

 

[M. AQVILA]

The cultural and social revolution are products of Marxist thought not capitalism.

Another angry stupid kid that tries to wipe/nuke/derail thread with his stupidity.
French bourgeois revolution - 1789 - 1799.
Karl Marx - born 1818.


Surely this guy Markss have met Leonardo da Vinci so he made time machine and that Markess guy made bourgeois revolution in France!
CUNNING MOVE! EVERYBODY DANCE!

So, here is the deal Infinitron.
I think someone trying if not derail thread, then harrasing personally me with this fresh accaunts that write exclusively how "you should behead all commie" and they know I will answer, and if this will last long enough this anyway will lead to my posts moved to Retardo Land with some tag for me.
So can I ask about gag insertion for all these freshy talky-talky accounts, because if posts from both sides will be moved to RL, that mean anyone who can in twinks can manipulate discussions.
But if not - feel free to move posts from both sides there.
But this shit must end.

Are you retarded? Socialist thinking didn't just appear out of nowhere, Marx was influenced by ideas that were already festering before he was born and that includes the ideas that led to the French Revolution.

Regardless, I wasn't referring to the French Revolution but the social and cultural revolution that happened during the 20th century, that changed the still relatively traditional society of the early 20th century into the horrors that are modern societies especially in the West.

 

[Blaine]

We have reneging staff members right here on the Codex, after all.

What? Inb4 Codex Gate.

I won a bunch of Brofists in a bet, but because DarkUnderlord had been butthurt for ages about my longstanding status as the #1 Most Fisted, he neglected to pay out for a very long time—bearing in mind that when I'd lost a previous bet, he'd promptly removed the lost Brofists.

When I finally asked him about my winnings weeks later, he told me that I'd never receive them, because I had the temerity to pester him about them, and also because it amused him to renege and gauge my reaction.

In reality, I didn't really react apart from a few gay memes. They're imaginary Internet nonsense and it's his board. What isn't imaginary, however, is that he's a shameless reneger and therefore not a real man.

Later, he deleted all of my Brofists, which is what he'd wanted to all along.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

We have reneging staff members right here on the Codex, after all.

What? Inb4 Codex Gate.

I won a bunch of Brofists in a bet, but because DarkUnderlord had been butthurt for ages about my longstanding status as the #1 Most Fisted, he neglected to pay out for a very long time—bearing in mind that when I'd lost a previous bet, he'd promptly removed the lost Brofists.

When I finally asked him about my winnings weeks later, he told me that I'd never receive them, because I had the temerity to pester him about them, and also because it amused him to renege and gauge my reaction.

In reality, I didn't really react apart from a few gay memes. They're imaginary Internet nonsense and it's his board. What isn't imaginary, however, is that he's a shameless reneger and therefore not a real man.

Later, he deleted all of my Brofists, which is what he'd wanted to all along.

Ah this, I remember. Thanks.

 

[2house2fly]

So I think it'd be going too far to reach the conclusion that Obsidian == shitty programmers. I lean more towards the idea of "Obsidian == mismanaged writing and design, fairly strong technical backbone".

"fairly strong technical backbone", which is why every single obsidian game to date has been a technical trainwreck

Except, nope. Everything they released after (and including) Dungeon Siege 3 has been reasonably polished and mostly trouble free. The whole "Bugsidian" thing is an outdated meme.

says you

meanwhile i remember being stuck for a week in raedric's hold because a gamebreaking bug made it impossible to leave

i finally managed to break out using the console cuz otherwise i'd be waiting a month or something for a patch to fix it

My favourite one was that if you went into the Sanitarium, accepted the quest in there, then left and asked a city guard about the Sanitarium, you couldn't complete the main quest. They patched out all the gamestoppers, though it's true some annoying visual bugs still remain

 

[DarkUnderlord]

- I asked why the Fair Market Value of the company hadn’t been adjusted in 10 years (it was still sitting around what the company’s initial value was, which was almost nothing). It turned out none of the procedures for voting on this had ever taken place according to the company’s own bylaws. So I asked we resume our own procedure and vote on having it evaluated – which was ignored, then interrupted by being de-ownered before the shares could be re-evaluated (which was also good business, but again, poor ethics). I don’t know if not doing a FMV evaluation is legal or not, but guessing it is.

Dude. Bylaws weren't followed and the value for a company doing multi-million dollar deals hadn't changed in 10 years? And you were (I'm assuming) paid out at old values?

Talk to a lawyer now. Also watch the Social Network. You're a Winkelvoss in this situation. Forget the tax shit, and the wife's unseen job. Even if you've signed something, my understanding is that you potentially have recourse here.

And if you need funds to get some basic legal advice, we can do a Codex fundraiser. :D

 

[Darth Roxor]

Took you a week to figure out you can just use a console?

no, i learnt about it soon, but knowing bugsidian i preferred waiting for a patch than potentially inviting more malice through console use

however, realising that the patch would not be coming any time soon, i went for the console anyway

 

[2house2fly]

The best recent Bugsidian incident was the Deadfire Pack, which had some baffling bugs considering it adds:

• a merchant with two lines of dialogue
• nine items

A hat which confuses your allies when they heal you. An arbalest which takes longer to reload the more you upgrade it. Outfits with no tint on male characters and which don't turn invisible when you sneak, something I haven't seen in any other clothing or armour in the game in three years.

And if you need funds to get some basic legal advice, we can do a Codex fundraiser. :D

I think the guy who could live for another 200 years on what he has can do without a fundraiser

 

[Maculo]

- I asked why the Fair Market Value of the company hadn’t been adjusted in 10 years (it was still sitting around what the company’s initial value was, which was almost nothing). It turned out none of the procedures for voting on this had ever taken place according to the company’s own bylaws. So I asked we resume our own procedure and vote on having it evaluated – which was ignored, then interrupted by being de-ownered before the shares could be re-evaluated (which was also good business, but again, poor ethics). I don’t know if not doing a FMV evaluation is legal or not, but guessing it is.

Dude. Bylaws weren't followed and the value for a company doing multi-million dollar deals hadn't changed in 10 years? And you were (I'm assuming) paid out at old values?

Talk to a lawyer now. Also watch the Social Network. You're a Winkelvoss in this situation. Forget the tax shit, and the wife's unseen job. Even if you've signed something, my understanding is that you potentially have recourse here.

And if you need funds to get some basic legal advice, we can do a Codex fundraiser. :D

Whatever he does choose, he needs to make it sooner as opposed to later. Many states have statute of limitations on written contractual claims anywhere between 3 and 5 years (provided this falls under contract law). The issues Chris discussed were from 2015 or before. Furthermore, it really depends on Chris what signed (or didn't sign).

Edit: Almost 2 years and 11 months from Avellone leaving Obsidian (around June 9, 2015).

 

[Blaine]

The best recent Bugsidian incident was the Deadfire Pack, which had some baffling bugs considering it adds:

• a merchant with two lines of dialogue
• nine items

A hat which confuses your allies when they heal you. An arbalest which takes longer to reload the more you upgrade it. Outfits with no tint on male characters and which don't turn invisible when you sneak, something I haven't seen in any other clothing or armour in the game in three years.

And if you need funds to get some basic legal advice, we can do a Codex fundraiser. :D

I think the guy who could live for another 200 years on what he has can do without a fundraiser

How many edits is going to take you to finish that bullet-pointed list?

 

[Jasede]

Why would Chris do anything? The dude is living the life of dreams: presumably hot wife, money for ages, infinite booze, nice place to live, complete freedom to work on anything he wants and reject what he doesn't.

MCA has made it. Why in the world would he do anything?

 

[Roguey]

Why would Chris do anything? The dude is living the life of dreams: presumably hot wife, money for ages, infinite booze, nice place to live, complete freedom to work on anything he wants and reject what he doesn't.

MCA has made it. Why in the world would he do anything?

Spite, hence this thread.

 

[Jasede]

This thread is just for fun. Give the man some credit. We're a fun bunch.

Would you rather go to a bar with us or normies?
As long as you watch your drink you'll be fine. Probably. As long as you don't run into nomask.

 

[Black Angel]

MCA has made it. Why in the world would he do anything?

To prevent all the shit's that happened to him from happening to someone else in Obsidian. It's been said, over and over again, that they can do these stuff to a co-owner; imagine what they might do to an average employee if this keeps on going.

 

[Maculo]

This thread is just for fun. Give the man some credit. We're a fun bunch.

Except that Bester filed or was prepared to file a complaint to the IRS against Obsidian, and Chris Avellone thanked him for looking into it. I wouldn't call it spite per se, just a readiness to punch back at the upper management at Obsidian.

 

[Jasede]

Oh, I missed the post where he thanked him. Wow!

 

[azimuth]

Yep, the one impression I get from this thread is "MCA is an emotionally balanced, happy individual who's just having a laugh over thousands of words of office gossip from at least three years ago on the eve of a big release."

 

[J_C]

So I think it'd be going too far to reach the conclusion that Obsidian == shitty programmers. I lean more towards the idea of "Obsidian == mismanaged writing and design, fairly strong technical backbone".

"fairly strong technical backbone", which is why every single obsidian game to date has been a technical trainwreck

Except, nope. Everything they released after (and including) Dungeon Siege 3 has been reasonably polished and mostly trouble free. The whole "Bugsidian" thing is an outdated meme.

3.05
reloading my souldbounds

summons dont disappear, disfigured hwrd drwp 3d models fly through the space, abilities are bugged still like bloody slaughter

There are bugs like this in EVERY game ever released. Obsidians past history was about games ridden with often gamebreaking bugs. After Dungeon Siege 3, their games are on par with other games on the market in terms of bugs.

 

[ArchAngel]

- I asked why the Fair Market Value of the company hadn’t been adjusted in 10 years (it was still sitting around what the company’s initial value was, which was almost nothing). It turned out none of the procedures for voting on this had ever taken place according to the company’s own bylaws. So I asked we resume our own procedure and vote on having it evaluated – which was ignored, then interrupted by being de-ownered before the shares could be re-evaluated (which was also good business, but again, poor ethics). I don’t know if not doing a FMV evaluation is legal or not, but guessing it is.

Dude. Bylaws weren't followed and the value for a company doing multi-million dollar deals hadn't changed in 10 years? And you were (I'm assuming) paid out at old values?

Talk to a lawyer now. Also watch the Social Network. You're a Winkelvoss in this situation. Forget the tax shit, and the wife's unseen job. Even if you've signed something, my understanding is that you potentially have recourse here.

And if you need funds to get some basic legal advice, we can do a Codex fundraiser. :D

I was wondering why nobody commented on this on all pages of people trying to give legal advice. I assumed people ignored it because it was not breaking USA law or something.
I am glad someone finally brought this up.

Also isn't company value uses in some tax calculations or something?!

 

[Prime Junta]

In other news, the Fearg is suddenly active on Twitter again, posting pictures of dogs and license plates and other things to demonstrate how completely unconcerned he is about any of this.

https://twitter.com/Feargus

 

[Blaine]

In other news, the Fearg is suddenly active on Twitter again, posting pictures of dogs and license plates and other things to demonstrate how completely unconcerned he is about any of this.

https://twitter.com/Feargus

His dog is named after a character from some popamole CSI-type cable television show.

BURN HIM!

 

[fantadomat]

This thread doesn't end at all.


MCA seeing how you have become a regular poster i must ask. How does it feel to be a nazi communist grognard?