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Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,434
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
RPGDot weren't exactly mainstream journos - it was the predecessor site of RPGWatch.
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
Anyway, let's see if MS forces him to brush up on his "entertainment" skills or step aside.
His boss is not his BIS bro anymore, but some faceless corporate entity that is only interested in sales numbers.
counterpoint: if microsoft was only interested in sales numbers, they wouldn't have bought obsidian
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,163
Location
Bulgaria
Fallout never had any chance reaching obsidian or inxile before the buyout. If anything, the IP reaching them becomes more conceivable after the buyout, and after the inevitable Fallout 76 disaster.

I don't dare to hope for the Fallout 76 disaster, there's so many Bethestards in the world who will buy anything from them. Fallout 4 was a success for goodness sake! I don't even
They bought it expecting something similar to new vegas,even youtube shills were lukewarm to fallout 4. Many didn't liked the dumbing down. I can see 76 being a flop to some extend,haven't seen a single shill praise the game.
 

PorkBarrellGuy

Guest
The "IWD2 shoud have been 2E" thing is dumb IMO. It's adopting the interests of game developers rather than gamers.

IWD2 was always going to be a slam dunk sequel that nobody asked for. It was never going to be a best-seller or a high reviewer. From our perspective as hardcore RPG players, it was better that it at least tried to do something interesting by becoming the only 3E Infinity Engine game. I don't care how much of a pain it was for Avellone to develop.

There were some things I liked about IWD2 - cleric kits instead of the domain selection system of NWN was both simpler and less powergamey while enabling things like specific dialogue paths and so on. Arguably fewer outright useless spells in IWD2 compared to NWN.

That being said, even considering IWD2 was far from the most accurate implementation of 3E rules, I actually think I have always had more fun overall in 2E games. 3E does things to the magic-user/martial balance that give magic-users a huge advantage, for one.
 

Rake

Arcane
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
2,969
The "IWD2 shoud have been 2E" thing is dumb IMO. It's adopting the interests of game developers rather than gamers.

IWD2 was always going to be a slam dunk sequel that nobody asked for. It was never going to be a best-seller or a high reviewer. From our perspective as hardcore RPG players, it was better that it at least tried to do something interesting by becoming the only 3E Infinity Engine game. I don't care how much of a pain it was for Avellone to develop.
For a guy that always said content is king, the above is bullshit. If the game was a straight copy of BG2 engine, the game's cost would be way less, so more money to spent in actually designing more content instead of trash mob after trash mob for a huge portion of the game. If the ice temple/dragon's eye/black raven monastery/underdark areas had the same level of attention/quests as severed hand or BG2's underdark, the game would be way better, 2E notwithstanding
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
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Messages
97,434
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Touche. But I guess I'm not sure they actually would have designed significantly better content if that happened. It's also possible the game would not have gotten as long of a time extension without having the conversion to 3E as an excuse.
 

Rake

Arcane
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
2,969
Touche. But I guess I'm not sure they actually would have designed significantly better content if that happened. It's also possible the game would not have gotten as long of a time extension without having the conversion to 3E as an excuse.
Maybe, though i don't see why interplay would be ok with an extention for changing the ruleset and not be ok with the same or an even smaller extention to flesh out the game a little more.I imagine the arguement to both had been better sales, i can't imagine the suits at interplay gave two fucks about DnD editions. Granting the extention in the first place indicated Black Isle could afford it, in the hope of a better slam dunk
 
Last edited:

Fairfax

Arcane
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
3,518
He is not a math buff. If anything he understands very little of why D&D pure numbers are better than fractions/percentages. What bothers me is that he started PoE mechanics with the idea to make it less obfuscating than standard D&D and managed to make it even more complicated.

OK, he's a bad math buff then.
I remember him from the old days of BIS boards when he argued with Fallout 1/2 fans about how SPECIAL was flawed and how he was the only one who can make it infinitely better.
This was coming from a guy with absolutely no background, he ran a tattoo parlor before being hired by BIS as a web page designer.
Sounds like a godsend, right?
But his ego tripping didn't stop there, because 10 years later he claimed he can improve D&D, a system older than himself.
He counted his chickens before they hatched!

Being humble is a no. 1 rule for any creators, no matter what they do.
Otherwise, the life's gonna teach them a valuable lesson.
He was known for being arrogant and arguing with fans on the BIS boards, but he was a bit more modest back then:
G6d6g15.png

DVUEJ7A.png
 

Fairfax

Arcane
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
3,518
I don't care how much of a pain it was for Avellone to develop.
It was hell for the programmers, not MCA. He said it was one of the most fun projects he worked on.

But I guess I'm not sure they actually would have designed significantly better content if that happened.
The choice wasn't between spending resources implementing the ruleset or nothing. The programmers could've focused on other things, like kits, itemization, AI improvements, spells, etc. As Sawyer himself said, the content was "very uneven". He could've directed and helped the designers more instead of focusing on the ruleset, and the game's weakest areas (which are significantly worse than the good ones) could've been better as a result. Unless you believe Sawyer couldn't have done anything to improve them. :M

Maybe, though i don't see why interplay would be ok with an extention for changing the ruleset and not be ok with the same or an even smaller extention to flesh out the game a little more.I imagine the arguement to both have been better sales, i can't imagine the suits at interplay gave two fucks about DnD editions. Granting the extention in the first place indicated Black Isle could afferd it, in the hope of a better slam dunk
They used the extension to work on the 3E implementation, but it wasn't the reason for it. The original deadline (four months) was impossible, and the game wasn't even close to being finished in that time. From the Shacknews book about BIS/Obsidian:
Content was coming in, but not quickly enough. The team was going to need an extension. So, Sawyer argued, why not take time to upgrade the rules while the game was being finished?
And Feargus had the resources to give the extension:
Urquhart granted his team an extension from four months to ten. Even that left just barely enough time.

He doesn't seem very arrogant in that post you highlighted, imo.
Well, that was the point. He showed modesty when called out, unlike his general attitude in the last decade or so.
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
He isn't arrogant now. He defends his ideas and whatnot, but frankly if someone is designing games I would hope they have the balls to defend their ideas.
 

hexer

Guest

Hmm, his actions speak louder than words.
If he thought he created 3 average games in a row, why did he continue making more of the same?
He has no shame.

I think most of us can agree that from his credits list below, only FNV is an above-average game.

  • Icewind Dale (2000), designer
  • Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (2001), designer
  • Icewind Dale II (2002), lead designer
  • Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006), lead designer
  • Alpha Protocol (2010), designer
  • Fallout: New Vegas (2010), director, lead designer
  • Pillars of Eternity (2015), director, lead designer, writer
  • Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (2018), director, narrative designer
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,163
Location
Bulgaria

Hmm, his actions speak louder than words.
If he thought he created 3 average games in a row, why did he continue making more of the same?
He has no shame.

I think most of us can agree that from his credits list below, only FNV is above average game.

  • Icewind Dale (2000), designer
  • Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (2001), designer
  • Icewind Dale II (2002), lead designer
  • Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006), lead designer
  • Alpha Protocol (2010), designer
  • Fallout: New Vegas (2010), director, lead designer
  • Pillars of Eternity (2015), director, lead designer, writer
  • Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (2018), director, narrative designer
IWD are pretty good action rpgs with D&D system, NWN 2 is good if you take away the retarded ork part. AP is unique with great dialogue system.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,229
Location
Ingrija
That is something that western barbarians do,they put laughter cues for their audience to know when to laugh. I assume it is there for their women,the poor things.

I know of canned laughter, I just don't get it why it is present on this video. What next, canned laughter on astrophysics lecture?
 

hexer

Guest
IWD are pretty good action rpgs with D&D system, NWN 2 is good if you take away the retarded ork part. AP is unique with great dialogue system.

I dunno.
Personally, I've got a pretty simple way of telling if a game is average.
After finishing it once, I ask myself... do I want to play it again or uninstall it?

Play Again = Above Average
Uninstall After Finishing = Average
Uninstall Before Finishing = Shit
 

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