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

As far as I know, in New Vegas EricF did Vault 11 and the Ultra-luxe casino. The former was about a very interesting social experiment (the most interesting vault in the base game, afaic) and the latter about cannibalism. Anything but shallow, both of them. He also came here and presented his point of view on PoE at a time that it certainly took guts to do so.

Look, I love MCA's work and I don't know EricF's character. But EricF has also done some good work, I wouldn't underestimate him.

 

Explains the white hair though.

 

Damn this is getting juicy, course I don't really give a toss because its none o my business, but I kind of like the passion MCA shows, after all he gave a lot o years to firm and should be upset at being fucked over de-ownered. Fact that bloke cares speaks well of him to me, might not be professional to be so candid wi us idiots, but fuck it we're not all professional and emotionless robots and truth'll set you free.

I still feel bitter and regretful at some o places i've worked in and situations i've endured, i'd not be fucking human if I didn't, after all apathy is death.

 

O shit, that was him?!

 

Yeah, his contributions to NV were fairly awesome too. What the fuck @ saying his writing was shallow.

 

Okay, caught up with the state of Chris-tendom again. Woo-whee, what a ride. Reactions:

(1) The spat between EFen and MCA is unfortunate. EFen is among the best game writers currently working, and over the last several years has clearly been a more reliable writer than Chris. Which does not preclude him from having a fragile ego and not working well with other talented writers. Whatever the case may be about that, his writing is still really good.

(2) Unreasonably relieved that Josh is not on Chris's shitlist. He seems like an all-around Mensch, a deeply ethical person, and it would have broken me a little to discover he was a part of the evil stuff that's been going on here. (Also a comrade, since his unionisation speech anyway.)

(3) If even a quarter of what Chris is saying about Feargus is true, and the bombs just keep dropping... oh man.

Carry on men. Thing keeps on going this way, it'll start the Revolution, and the USA is the only place it can succeed since it won't get immediately invaded by the USA.

 

What did Feargus work on during Baldur's Gate 2 development? He wasn't in a managerial position then, right?

 

I wouldn't be so sure.

(I mean, they've done it before...)

 

Feargus founded Black Isle Studios. He was the head of BIS, which published BG2 via Interplay.

 

Wait a sec, fuck you guys. Baldur's Gate 1 was freaking great. I disliked Baldur's Gate 2, it was a overly depressing game that made me hate life.

 

The South will rise again!

 

Hey guys, so I guess we hate Feargus more than Fargo now right.

 

Yes I am serious dammit!

Baldur's Gate 1 was a simplistic story about adventure and discovering who you are. The game had a lot of charm and was pretty comedic and didn't take itself too seriously. The NPC dialogue was pretty stupid, but that just added to the lovely charm that the game had going for it. From Imoen's annoying dialogue, to the NPC's annoying HEYAs, the game was enjoyable and never failed to make me laugh. furthermore, just with DnD, the early game was very challenging and very fun. As I mentioned, DnD early game is my favorite. Everything is intense and suspenseful, one mistake can completely end your run if you don't know what you're doing. While yes, the game did lack depth it was fun.

Then here comes Baldu's Gate 2 completely replacing the light hearted mood with a foreboding gloom, that will give dark souls a run for it's own money.

 

I hope the villain of the next MCA game will be the Dark God of Betrayal and Greed, Fargos

 

Que? BG2 isn’t lighthearted and funny? Hiiiii-yah!

 

Interesting. I guess it requires a lot of animation that you wouldn't otherwise need in an RPG? Or it just needs a lot of time to adequately develop the relationship?

 

The plot twist being that this is a fantasy setting and the rogue AI manifests as the undying spirit of the last dude you gypped.

 

I hadn't considered the animation aspect (although if you were doing a ME game, you would have to invest in that, too - I've rarely worked on a game with relationships that needed cinematics except for Alpha Protocol, and you're right, those were still an additional time sink to be sure), but adding a relationship arc can be as tough as adding another companion quest. You can sometimes unite the two, or share design and dialogue elements to make it easier, but it can be a lot more work to do properly.

Also, even when the romance is consummated, you'd still need appropriate reactivity to that (maybe not just in the core game, but in future games that save scripting states). It's likely why companion relationships were a stretch goal in PoE2: They're expensive to do.

 

Chris Avellone you said that you were in financial problems with all medical procedures going on that time (or healthcare, idk) but later you said that you have more money than obsidian in your account. How this transition happened so fast?

And, after this revelations, did you receive any support from the industry? A call, email, whatever supporting you? Like "hey buddy dont worry we are with you", etc.

 

so... is codex blacklisted?

 

Change your fucking avatar.

 

I interpreted it as the criticism against Fenstermaker, although that hardly qualifies as 'most.'

The original reddit thread was also cross posted on /r/fallout, I haven't gone through it properly yet, but they seem to be more critical of Obsidian than the commenters in the other thread. It was also posted on /r/projecteternity and they responded how you think they would. A youtuber with 55k subscribers also made a video responding to MCA's post(s?) but I haven't watched it yet because the production is off-putting.

 

Nah, we're far too prestigious.

 

Chris Avellone , real talk. Are dungeon crawlers like Wizardry RPGs?
Obviously some ppl think they are not. But I'd like to know your thoughts on the history of crpgs.

 

Yeah, also please define RPG for the codex once and for all.