Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[Bohr]

Wonder how Fargo will be filling those long, dreary contractual hours until earn-out

 

[Rev]

Well, that was the point. He showed modesty when called out, unlike his general attitude in the last decade or so.

Tbh, he never sounded that arrogant in the last years. He has ideas and he defends them when someone asks him about it, but he never seemed overly arrogant or whatever when he replied to people, be it on twitter or in his blog.
Of course I don't know him, he could be super arrogant in his private life or in the Obsidian's offices but I have no way of knowing it.

 

[CappenVarra]

Is this the new excuse for why Sawyer does not suck?

Sure he does - it's about the only thing he does well. Still not enough to qualify for the Olympic sucking team though.

Spoiler

All right, getting the 2nd edition rules in IWD closer to RAW than BG1 was also good.

 

[hexer]

Well, that was the point. He showed modesty when called out, unlike his general attitude in the last decade or so.

Tbh, he never sounded that arrogant in the last years. He has ideas and he defends them when someone asks him about it, but he never seemed overly arrogant or whatever when he replied to people, be it on twitter or in his blog.
Of course I don't know him, he could be super arrogant in his private life or in the Obsidian's offices but I have no way of knowing it.

Holding a GDC talk on "Proper Attribute Tuning" sounds pretty arrogant .
It's like he's the world authority on RPG systems

 

[fobia]

Well, that was the point. He showed modesty when called out, unlike his general attitude in the last decade or so.

Tbh, he never sounded that arrogant in the last years. He has ideas and he defends them when someone asks him about it, but he never seemed overly arrogant or whatever when he replied to people, be it on twitter or in his blog.
Of course I don't know him, he could be super arrogant in his private life or in the Obsidian's offices but I have no way of knowing it.

Holding a GDC talk on "Proper Attribute Tuning" sounds pretty arrogant .
It's like he's the world authority on RPG systems

Yeah, calling sth. proper is the peak of arrogance. It's way worse than, let's say, define what a good RPG is. It's like people who discuss such stuff are the 'world authority' on RPG Codex.

 

[Rev]

Well, that was the point. He showed modesty when called out, unlike his general attitude in the last decade or so.

Tbh, he never sounded that arrogant in the last years. He has ideas and he defends them when someone asks him about it, but he never seemed overly arrogant or whatever when he replied to people, be it on twitter or in his blog.
Of course I don't know him, he could be super arrogant in his private life or in the Obsidian's offices but I have no way of knowing it.

Holding a GDC talk on "Proper Attribute Tuning" sounds pretty arrogant .
It's like he's the world authority on RPG systems

Why? He's giving his opinion on the argument, and maybe he was even asked to give such a talk (or maybe not, but it doesn't change anything).

By the same logic, MCA should be considered arrogant for giving a talk about how management should work. Is he the world authority on how to manage teams?
But of course it's a stupid argument to make: MCA was free to give such a talk, and I wouldn't call him arrogant for that, just as I wouldn't call JES arrogant for talking about balance ad GDC.

 

[hexer]

Yeah, calling sth. proper is the peak of arrogance. It's way worse than, let's say, define what a good RPG is. It's like people who discuss such stuff are the 'world authority' on RPG Codex.

My opinion is my own, e.g. subjective.
I'm sharing it publicly but I'm not claiming it's objective or "proper" as your RPG god Sawyer tries.
Capiche?

 

[fobia]

Yeah, calling sth. proper is the peak of arrogance. It's way worse than, let's say, define what a good RPG is. It's like people who discuss such stuff are the 'world authority' on RPG Codex.

My opinion is my own, e.g. subjective.
I'm sharing it publicly but I'm not claiming it's objective or "proper" as your RPG god Sawyer tries.
Capiche?

Your opinion is shit and that's what I was calling out. But obviously you didn't 'capiche'.

 

[hexer]

Why? He's giving his opinion on the argument, and maybe he was even asked to give such a talk (or maybe not, but it doesn't change anything).

Have you even watched his GDC talk?
He's taking a dump on DnD / ADnD in it.
How is that not arrogant?

 

[J_C]

Well, that was the point. He showed modesty when called out, unlike his general attitude in the last decade or so.

Tbh, he never sounded that arrogant in the last years. He has ideas and he defends them when someone asks him about it, but he never seemed overly arrogant or whatever when he replied to people, be it on twitter or in his blog.
Of course I don't know him, he could be super arrogant in his private life or in the Obsidian's offices but I have no way of knowing it.

Holding a GDC talk on "Proper Attribute Tuning" sounds pretty arrogant .
It's like he's the world authority on RPG systems

So only world authorities should hold GDC talks. Good to know. Your kind of GDC would be pretty empty I assume.

 

[2house2fly]

Why? He's giving his opinion on the argument, and maybe he was even asked to give such a talk (or maybe not, but it doesn't change anything).

Indeed, anyone who actually watches the video will see that Brenda Romero suggested he pitch the talk. They can presumably also cite specific examples of things he says which are arrogant.

 

[hexer]

So only world authorities should hold GDC talks. Good to know. Your kind of GDC would be pretty empty I assume.

How about watching the video before commenting on it?
He's holding a talk about "properly tuning attributes" his way (PoE system) while criticizing the world's most famous RPG system.

 

[fobia]

So only world authorities should hold GDC talks. Good to know. Your kind of GDC would be pretty empty I assume.

How about watching the video before commenting on it?
He's holding a talk about "properly tuning attributes" his way (PoE system) while criticizing the world's most famous RPG system.

What? The world's most famous RPG system? And he dared to criticize it?

 

[J_C]

So only world authorities should hold GDC talks. Good to know. Your kind of GDC would be pretty empty I assume.

How about watching the video before commenting on it?
He's holding a talk about "properly tuning attributes" his way (PoE system) while criticizing the world's most famous RPG system.

Son, I have watched more GDC videos, this included, than you will in your life. He is allowed to criticize and talk about attribute tuning, just as any developer can talk about their way of developing games. You know, this is what GDC is for.

 

[Quillon]

criticizing the world's most famous RPG system.

DnD is above criticization?

 

[Lhynn]

The only problem with Sawyer is that he is wrong. He has always been wrong and nothing he ever did made him an authority on RPGs. At least Todd Howard's doesn't pretend to understand what he is talking about (and managed to make better RPGs).

Only good thing I have to say about him is that he stimulated the conversation about RPGs and their design. In the same way that a kid dying in the street does. What he does may be a tragedy, but with any luck people will learn from his mistakes.

 

[karoliner]

Wonder how Fargo will be filling those long, dreary contractual hours until earn-out

Vikings is so bad he should be watching The Last Kingdom instead.

 

[hexer]

Son, I have watched more GDC videos, this included, than you will in your life.

First, don't criticize me based on age .. I'm over 40.
Second, I used his GDC talk to prove he's arrogant and has no respect for colleagues that paved the path before him.
You, me, anyone can criticize DnD all we want but when someone gets up on a GDC stage and starts talking how he can do a better system than DnD.. and then fails to deliver - that person has an ego / god complex issue.
Ask any psychologist about this very example and hear for yourself what they'll say.

 

[fantadomat]

There is more of those sketches,beat the jew

 

[2house2fly]

First, don't criticize me based on age .. I'm over 40.
Second, I used his GDC talk to prove he's arrogant and has no respect for colleagues that paved the path before him.
You, me, anyone can criticize DnD all we want but when someone gets up on a GDC stage and starts talking how he can do a better system than DnD.. and then fails to deliver - that person has an ego / god complex issue.
Ask any psychologist about this very example and hear for yourself what they'll say.

I really don't think "tries to improve on Advanced Dungeons And Dragons" is in the DSM

 

[thesheeep]

Wonder how Fargo will be filling those long, dreary contractual hours until earn-out

Vikings is so bad he should be watching The Last Kingdom instead.

I actually liked it for the first few seasons.
But only because of the main character.
Then the main character died...

 

[TemplarGR]

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

Out of this list, only Alpha Protocol is SHIT. And that is for gameplay/controls/QA reasons, they were on to something but they fucked it up because that is what Obsidian does. Fucking good ideas up with poor execution. That's their MO.

The rest of the list is made from very good games. Icewind fucking Dale is the best IE game. Best story, best art, best atmosphere, best combat, best gameplay. Icewind Dale II was good too but it was rushed and 2D at a time when NWN was released and everyone wanted 3D. Plus it was fucking hard 9 years before the Dark Souls/roguelike hysteria, if it had been released today everyone and their dog would hype it to kingdom come!

NWN2 was a really good game, bad at launch but now with powerful PCs we can enjoy the great treasure of content it contains with its expansions and fanmade campaigns... You can play fucking BG on the thing, and Pool of Radiance!

Fallout New Vegas was an excellent Fallout 3 sequel. One of the best games of the PS3 generation.

And the 2 POE games are really good spiritual successors to IE games.

If you don't like those games, what the fuck are you doing in RPGcodex? Those are great examples of CRPGs. Come on, admit it, you are a covert popamoler. The fact that you think only New Vegas is good (because it has First Person Shooter elements you enjoy) exposes you dude...

 

[Fairfax]

Well, that was the point. He showed modesty when called out, unlike his general attitude in the last decade or so.

Tbh, he never sounded that arrogant in the last years. He has ideas and he defends them when someone asks him about it, but he never seemed overly arrogant or whatever when he replied to people, be it on twitter or in his blog.
Of course I don't know him, he could be super arrogant in his private life or in the Obsidian's offices but I have no way of knowing it.

This thread by Roguey (who became a fanboy because of Sawyer's "justified" arrogance) has many examples, and those are only from the period between PoE's KS and launch. His actions have shown arrogance as well. After PoE, Brandon Adler (PoE's Lead Producer) recommended that Sawyer shouldn't do any writing in the sequel, and MCA agreed with him. Sawyer not only ignored him but also doubled down, and became PoE2's Lead Narrative Designer. The result speaks for itself.

 

[hexer]

The rest of the list is made from very good games. Icewind fucking Dale is the best IE game. Best story, best art, best atmosphere, best combat, best gameplay. Icewind Dale II was good too but it was rushed and 2D at a time when NWN was released and everyone wanted 3D. Plus it was fucking hard 9 years before the Dark Souls/roguelike hysteria, if it had been released today everyone and their dog would hype it to kingdom come!

No. For me, PST and BG2 were the best IE games.

NWN2 was a really good game, bad at launch but now with powerful PCs we can enjoy the great treasure of content it contains with its expansions and fanmade campaigns... You can play fucking BG on the thing, and Pool of Radiance!

No. NWN2 was so bad it destroyed NWN1's productive community it inherited in a year after its release.

Fallout New Vegas was an excellent Fallout 3 sequel. One of the best games of the PS3 generation.

I don't like Bethesda's FPS Fallout 3 engine but I love FNV's story and world.

And the 2 POE games are really good spiritual successors to IE games.

PoEs feel like ghosts of IE.

If you don't like those games, what the fuck are you doing in RPGcodex? Those are great examples of CRPGs. Come on, admit it, you are a covert popamoler. The fact that you think only New Vegas is good (because it has First Person Shooter elements you enjoy) exposes you dude...

Yes, clueless one, I loooooove popamolers so much I worked 2 years, day and night for free as a project lead / artist / programmer on a Van Buren remake in a FOnline engine.
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?forums/van-buren-a-fallout-adventure.86/

 

[2house2fly]

This thread by Roguey (who became a fanboy because of Sawyer's "justified" arrogance) has many examples, and those are only from the period between PoE's KS and launch. His actions have shown arrogance as well. After PoE, Brandon Adler (PoE's Lead Producer) recommended that Sawyer shouldn't do any writing in the sequel, and MCA agreed with him. Sawyer not only ignored him but also doubled down, and became PoE2's Lead Narrative Designer. The result speaks for itself.

That thread is a long list of dry statements froma guy about the game he's designing.

There are really two things I want every attribute in PoE to accomplish:

1) If a player makes a character of any class, they can look at the attribute and say, "My character will be significantly better at <SIGNIFICANT_THING> for having raised this attribute."

And less vital, but still important:

2) If a player makes a character of any class, they will look at at attribute and say, "My character will suffer significantly for having dumped this attribute."

Depending on how wild and wacky you get with varieties of attribute bonuses, it becomes more difficult for both of those goals to be accomplished. A/D&D's stats often do not accomplish both of those goals for any given class.

My stars, the arrogance.