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Interview Fallout Developer Profile: John Deiley

Dgaider

Liturgist
Developer
Joined
Feb 21, 2004
Messages
316
I think you guys are being a bit harsh on the poor guy.

He didn't necessarily mean "I think Fallout would make a cool MMORPG if done like every other MMORPG out there right now" ...it's not impossible that you could have a gritty and realistic game of that type if you had certain things in it like permanent death and so forth. It's just unlikely that such a game would get made because of the entrenched notion of what a MMORPG game has to include in order to be successful.

I for one, think that the Shadowrun setting is one that would lend itself well to a MMORPG game, but only if done right. But it'd more likely be a travesty so I honestly hope one never materializes.

That could have been what the fellow had in mind, you don't know that... he didn't have the chance to elaborate on the topic after all. If such was the case the worst he can be accused of is overly hopeful naivete.

Though I would have to agree the idea of a regular MMORPG Fallout is pretty shudder-worthy. Nice spoof there, incidentally.
 

Diogo Ribeiro

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Lisboa, Portugal
Dgaider said:
I for one, think that the Shadowrun setting is one that would lend itself well to a MMORPG game, but only if done right.

Word.

Hey, when Bioware is rolling in millions, how about developing a Shadowrun MMORPG? We won't bug you with it being realtime because it's a MMOG standard (though we'll still bug you because you're working on a MMOG).
 

Sol Invictus

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Joined
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Pax Romana
There is no more money to be had in MMOGs. The market is tapped out and any new projects are doomed to certain failure. Also, like I said before, without the AI - it's impossible to create a realistic environment. You'll just have goons running around killing Droids to get their latest phat loot mod drop.


D00dCyber: do u guyz no wut 2 kill 2 get the dermal armor implant?
noobKilrr: lol ya just go and kill the droids for 2 hours u will get a drop
D00dCyber: kthxbai
 

Diogo Ribeiro

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Messages
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Lisboa, Portugal
I'm aware of the usual problems MMOGs have, Ex. I just like Shadowrun a whole lot, to the point i'd be willing to play a Shadowrun MMOG. D00dCyber's and noobKilrr's would be a problem, yes, but if the rest was well handled, i could accept that.
 

Anonymous

Guest
There is a good Shadowrun MUD out there, if I remember right it's name is Awake 2061 or something, I played it for a few days.
 

Greenskin13

Erudite
Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
1,109
Location
Chicago
I hope you're not ragging on Zork, man. I think there are a lot of great text games out there, though I play more Interactive Fictions than MUDs. I remember one puzzle-IF called Rematch, where you had to save yourself and your two friends from an SUV that was going to crash into the poolhall you were in. But the catch is you only have one turn to do it.
 

Rosh

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Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
1,775
I can only hope that a developer who really cares for Fallout and the universe it’s based in gets the license. I don’t want to see the game cheapened in order for someone to just “make a buck” or go with the prevailing trend of console gaming. I think a massively multiplayer online version of Fallout would be nice.

I think it's funny that Deiley removed himself from that list of developers with the latter two sentences.

I think I now know who was responsible for the multitude of unbelievably idiotic and naive pipe dreams about FOOL posted at NMA by drive-by posters, while others went to the defense of such garbage. It fits around the same time the title was said to have been into consideration, so I have my suspicions. The funniest one was pointing out how the world map and condensing time couldn't be taken into consideration. We had to go back to "A train leaves from St. Louis and travels at 40 MPH to Denver..." to educate those poor morons.

Then the spin doctor for shit design has to open his mouth to make for more comedy gold.

Exponential Boy said:
I think you guys are being a bit harsh on the poor guy.

David, stop right there. You're already laughed at because you give poor excuses as to why you've not learned how to design in complex methods. You don't need to make yourself more of a...damn, I'm too late.

He didn't necessarily mean "I think Fallout would make a cool MMORPG if done like every other MMORPG out there right now"

If he didn't, then he would have come up with some way of differentiating the concept. Saying that "I think a Fallout MMORPG would be a great idea!" only gives one clear impression and it's not too difficult for most people to piece that together. At least, I hope it isn't.

Welcome to basic communication. You suck at it, we know. Now go sniveling away from this thread or come up with another copout reply. You're nothing but predictable with the excuses. It, in fact, makes for a far more suitable nickname for yourself.

...it's not impossible that you could have a gritty and realistic game of that type if you had certain things in it like permanent death and so forth.

That is charming, but to those who have played and designed MMORPGs, you've just pointed out yourself a complete ignoramus that tries to partake in the discussion to try and get back some credibility. Let me give you a little bit of advice. Stop trying, you're just digging yourself in deeper.

The first part that makes me consider you an idiot to presume to post about such a topic in your ignorant state would be the "realistic game". When you have to allow for thousands of people to be able to do the same thing, you've watered down the ability for any single event to chance anything significant in the world. If you make it for just a couple of people, then it is wasted effort and/or leads to message board discussions about favoritism and other such drama bullshit.

Of course that's how you develop, David, so then are you presuming to claim to be so great, O Mastar of teh Fed-Ex? It doesn't take much to see how you fail to realize how a post-apocalyptic world wouldn't really resemble such anymore when put into a MMO environ (unless you count SWG), and you want to call yourself a designer? Clannies do seem to be your cuppa, so I'm not surprised there, either.

It's just unlikely that such a game would get made because of the entrenched notion of what a MMORPG game has to include in order to be successful.

Not just a notion, but apparently, what sells if done to the point of combining the gameplay most want. They often pick the best-looking clone, and I doubt I have to point out the stigma of using licensed material. While A Tale in the Desert might be brilliant in some ways in multiplayer gameplay, it isn't enough of what the market wants in order to make it wildly attractive.

So you'd either have an unprofitable niche game, which is great for a SMALL development studio with their own intellectual property, or one that doesn't have much semblence to the setting or original gameplay but does draw people in to play.

One of the important parts of

See many old Origin people there at Origin? No, most were ousted by EA because the publisher didn't care about single-player games from them anymore, they only became interested in the money.

So, to draw that parallel, BioWare goes into the MMORPG market, does successful, and ends up a shell of what it used to be. The employees and founders are no longer there, and you're at some lesser company that hired you. Then you get to watch as the work you so lovingly created is mercilessly skullfucked. Then watch as a half-ass sequel to the series is released to put a final insult onto your work. Ask a real developer, MCA about this sometime concerning Jefferson. At least he admits his mistakes.

I have to give a sincere "go fuck yourself" for posting something so utterly naive that it prompts me to have to do an essential part of your job. You might like living in your own world, but if you aren't going to learn from easily seen mistakes, then that makes you an idiot. That is, unless you are too young or too new to the gaming industry to have remembered what happened to Ultima. At which I have to say, no excuses. You can learn how to do your job, Excuse Boy.

I for one, think that the Shadowrun setting is one that would lend itself well to a MMORPG game, but only if done right. But it'd more likely be a travesty so I honestly hope one never materializes.

Whoa, is that some small spark of a clue gleaming in your eye or am I mistaken?

The only way that projects like this could be handled well are in small scale, with a small user base. At that point, you might as well make a single or co-op game.

The only purpose for the Massive part in the name is to indicate it's for a large amount of players. A large amount of players leads to problems with the design and the design leaning heavily towards simplistic. Some things can be done to alleviate the problem with the sterile world, but on a whole it is exponentially more dry than a single-player game in steps.

You start with a single-player game and have the world/setting/NPCs react to the various ways a player decides to play. They die, game over.

Factor in another person and you have to add in more things like handling quests for more than one person, changing the text (unless you wrote it "party based" to begin with, which tends to suck ass when playing a single-player mode). You would have to change a number of items and add in a lot more (networking protocols, etc.). The players go from being the protagonist to being part of the group. Anyone dies, a res is given.

The next big step is when you go from a party or two to making it playable for indefinitely more players. Quests are watered down even more, and the speech is the same for nearly every person, the world also has to be balanced and made so that nobody could get rich quick nor could you really find a large cache of really useful stuff. Move out of the way, there's a line. The player now is one of a number of identical other people and is treated like a number. Someone dies, a crowd laughs.

Please note the correct use of "exponentially" there.

That could have been what the fellow had in mind, you don't know that... he didn't have the chance to elaborate on the topic after all. If such was the case the worst he can be accused of is overly hopeful naivete.

Sorry, but I fail to see how "overly hopeful naivete" is much of a change from "overly hopeful naivete", which is exactly what people have been saying. You just had to come in and go for the "birds of a feather" pity approach.

Without any quantification or qualification, then there is a clear meaning. Pathetic excuses and dodges based on "lack of evidence" are moot compared to such matters like "the basics of conversation".

Though I would have to agree the idea of a regular MMORPG Fallout is pretty shudder-worthy. Nice spoof there, incidentally.

It's funny when you get down the the "regular" aspect of what you're trying to say. It is almost as if you're trying to make it sound like it can be developed for individuals. MMOG devs are desperately trying to give a bit more need for grouping or requiring player interaction in recent titles, but the methods they are using are quite absurd most of the time, asinine in others.

Rule one of MMOGs, there is no individual. What one can do thousands will. That's the price you pay for making it "massive". You can make something special, or make it templated and like a turnstile. You can't do both, and you can't do one of those in a MMORPG.

On the world, who are you? You are essentially nobody. The difference between the real world and the game world is that some people feel better for knocking down ten rats to get to the next level. Pity that such feats, including learning important lessons in game development, can't be duplicated in real life, eh? They, like you, are still nothing special as there's plenty of other level 2s around. :)

-Rosh
Level 90 PK Asshole
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
24,924
You deserved to be banned. So do i; but that's a whole different story.

Anyways, Rosh's rant dosn't tell us his true feelings. He should repost what he really meant.
 

Sol Invictus

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UO killed Origin. That pisses Rosh off personally. I'd say he's got some experienced with the whole subject and I'd assume they're his real feelings on the matter, too.

'nuff said.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
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Messages
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No. As the Great Mcmahon said about a fool," Origin killed Origin".

That is all...

And,

'Nough said. :wink:
 

Dgaider

Liturgist
Developer
Joined
Feb 21, 2004
Messages
316
You know, just the other day I was playing tug-of-war with my dog using a squeaky toy of his (which had just about seen the end of its days) and after wrestling with him for a bit he finally got it out of my hands and did something startling: growling and over-excited, he shook the toy in his mouth so rapidly and violently that dog-slobber went flying everywhere and the toy's clown head went flying across the room. Then he turned and tried to run outside so I couldn't take the now-headless toy away from him... only I'd shut the patio door so he smacked his head on the window and was stunned for almost a minute afterwards. He seemed almost drunk, it was very adorably cute.

Rosh reminds me of that. I'm not sure why, but I want to just pat Rosh on the head and tell him what a good boy he is. He'd probably bite (being rabid and all) but that doesn't stop me from being reminded of it.

Yes, you're a good boy! Oh, yes you are! Oh yes you are!! :D
 

Greenskin13

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Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
1,109
Location
Chicago
Dgaider said:
You know, just the other day I was playing tug-of-war with my dog using a squeaky toy of his (which had just about seen the end of its days) and after wrestling with him for a bit he finally got it out of my hands and did something startling: growling and over-excited, he shook the toy in his mouth so rapidly and violently that dog-slobber went flying everywhere and the toy's clown head went flying across the room. Then he turned and tried to run outside so I couldn't take the now-headless toy away from him... only I'd shut the patio door so he smacked his head on the window and was stunned for almost a minute afterwards. He seemed almost drunk, it was very adorably cute.

There's a sport on the University of Oregon campus called Squirrel Fishing where they would tie a piece of food to the end of a fishing line and then swing it out to a bush. Then they'd wait for a squirrel to latch on and they would play with the squirrel to see how long it would keep trying for the food before giving up. Haven't seen it myself, but I hear it's fun from the students.
 

Saint_Proverbius

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Behind you.
I like to play tug of war with my dog as much as the next dog owner, but I tend to agree with Rosh on the Fallout Online thing.

There's just too much of what made Fallout great that just wouldn't work in an MMORPG. If a speech skill only works on the NPCs, then what's the point of it in an MMORPG? If barter as a skill didn't work with on players, then what's the point of that as well? Both of those two skills are directly linked to being used on NPCs and just don't work on people. People make their own decisions about these things. How much would you spend on a leather armor that Player #27 made? His and your skill wouldn't enter in to it, really, because it's the choice of both parties as to whether or not they accept the transaction. If you try to force something on both players just to make that skill "work", you end up creating even more problems.

The same thing goes with a speech skill. If a player wants to do something, you can't convince them not to do that just because you have a 97% speech skill and a high charisma. They'll do what they want regardless of what they see as arbitrary numbers, because unlike an NPC, they're not forcibly scripted to accept that reasoning.

MMORPGs are all about player on player interaction. That's the whole point of them. That's also the problem with converting something like Fallout to an online setting.
 
Joined
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Dgaider said:



I'm not saying I necessarily agree with everything rosh said, but dgaider, your reply was cheap even by flame standards. It neither owned nor slam dunked. Read his post again, think about it mull it over, then post something worthy.

Then maybe, if your good and say your prayers i'll read you a bedtime story, set in a world of a badly implemented D&D ruleset....
 

Sol Invictus

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I didn't necessarily think that it 'owned' although I stated so, since it was the thing to do, but Rosh did raise some very good points about Fallout Online not working and how RPG -> MMORPG developers tend to get screwed over by their publishers in the quest for the almighty dollar.
 

Briosafreak

Augur
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
792
Location
Atomic Portugal
I like Deiley a lot, he`s a great fan of the Fallout RPGs, was humble enough not to bring things he did less successfully in Fallout2 to Fallout3, and he`s right on the care one should have in the future with the franchise. I`m not going to defend his stance on MMORPGs though, i`ve already explained why on NMA, and i do prefer the small steps aproach Damien Folleto has, of deconstructing the present days MMORPGs features, showing the weaknesses and trying to find new answers. Still if even Puuk has a long way to go, his first attempts don`t appear to be very successfull, a mere declaration of faith on the Massive online RPGs like Deiley did is even less productive.

I do like the man, he seems to be good fun, and a great fan, with interesting ideas about the role of story in CRPGs, but i don`t think he`s going anywhere with the FOOL defense.

And the Gaider/Rosh disputes are priceless, i`m getting some pop corn right away :)
 

Astromarine

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Messages
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Location
Switzerland
cala-te com as pipocas, aqui na Suiça não ha pipocas decentes, fico com saudades das dai. PQP os paises civilizados que so tem pipocas salgadas no cinema.

Erm, sorry guys. Got a bit carried away there...
 
Joined
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Messages
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it silences you with pipocas, here in the Whisker not ha pipocas decent, I am with homesicknesses of you give them. Salty civilized PQP paises that so has pipocas in the cinema.




thats all I could get out of babel on that.
 

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