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

[2house2fly]

That doesn't make sense, since if he was the superior writer then Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain wouldn't have been the best one

 

[Sentinel]

Dude MGSV was so shit that 3 years later the fans are still delusional coming up with conspiracy theories to convince themselves that it was a prank by Kojima and he's releasing the true MGS5 soon.

 

[toro]

Dude MGSV was so shit that 3 years later the fans are still delusional coming up with conspiracy theories to convince themselves that it was a prank by Kojima and he's releasing the true MGS5 soon.

It looks like a serious case of phantom pain.

 

[Fenix]

Your great communist experiment is dead.

Do the right thing and join it in oblivion.

Another autistic screeching from another autist shithead.
Please contain yourself, and be maximally quiet.
People like you shouldn't have voice at all in the first place.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

It's funny you know, the topic name of "Codex Interview" referring to one interview, while right now the entirety of RPGCodex is basically conducting another entire interview right here in the thread. :D

Someone also did an interview with Feargus.

 

[Sentinel]

Dude MGSV was so shit that 3 years later the fans are still delusional coming up with conspiracy theories to convince themselves that it was a prank by Kojima and he's releasing the true MGS5 soon.

It looks like a serious case of phantom pain.

Well I have no doubt that Kojima intended the players to feel a "Phantom Pain" by leaving that extremely accessible "Cut Content" movie/cutscene/extra in the game for everyone to see. But I would have liked it more if the actual game wasn't garbage and the characters completely wasted, aside from Kazuhira Miller. The only salvageable thing about MGSV was the smooth movement, everything else was bad. The disappointment knife cut deeper after how gritty and dark Ground Zeroes was and how well it set up Skulface as a serious villain. And those fucking MGSV trailers man, those were the best trailers ever.

Honestly I should have expected it after "dude nanomachines lmao" in MGS4 (which despite that still had some incredible moments) and Hot Coldman in Peace Walker.

 

[Roguey]

Feargus had quite the nice scam going, giving Avellone the meaningless title of "chief creative officer" when he was the one doing the kind of things one would think a chief creative officer would be doing.

Good thing for him he gets to fall back on a similar scam with Sawyer and "design director."

 

[Jenkem]

 

[Jenkem]

Dude MGSV was so shit that 3 years later the fans are still delusional coming up with conspiracy theories to convince themselves that it was a prank by Kojima and he's releasing the true MGS5 soon.

It looks like a serious case of phantom pain.

Well I have no doubt that Kojima intended the players to feel a "Phantom Pain" by leaving that extremely accessible "Cut Content" movie/cutscene/extra in the game for everyone to see. But I would have liked it more if the actual game wasn't garbage and the characters completely wasted, aside from Kazuhira Miller. The only salvageable thing about MGSV was the smooth movement, everything else was bad. The disappointment knife cut deeper after how gritty and dark Ground Zeroes was and how well it set up Skulface as a serious villain. And those fucking MGSV trailers man, those were the best trailers ever.

Honestly I should have expected it after "dude nanomachines lmao" in MGS4 (which despite that still had some incredible moments) and Hot Coldman in Peace Walker.

agree with you 100% on MGSV!! Ground Zeroes was fucking awesome, had actual stealth (like you had to literally carry people out of a base to a helicopter, no fulton bullshit, and the base had cameras and guards positioned like the old games) TPP was an action game.. Stealth was so fucking easy due to the lack of guards, lack of cameras and the fact that you could just tranq someone and then make them disappear off the map forever...

 

[Sentinel]

seems like Roguey is a huge fan of Quiet and her rape/torture scenes

 

[Johannes]

Chris Avellone ,

is it true that drinking a pint of your urine grants a powerful blessing? Sorry if this has already been answered.

 

[Jenkem]

Chris Avellone ,

is it true that drinking a pint of your urine grants a powerful blessing? Sorry if this has already been answered.

only after a hefty dose of amanita muscaria

 

[RepHope]

Dude MGSV was so shit that 3 years later the fans are still delusional coming up with conspiracy theories to convince themselves that it was a prank by Kojima and he's releasing the true MGS5 soon.

It looks like a serious case of phantom pain.

The true Phantom Pain was the games we made along the way.

 

[Shagnak]

I always discover these threads way too late. I've probably spent more time reading this thread over the weekend than I've spent on this site all year.

Me too. Damn, this thread delivers.

(Sorry for adding to the shitposts that you have to wade through to get to the good stuff.)

 

[Wunderbar]

And yet, when Feargus finally manages to secure ownership of an IP that Obsidian has full creative control over (unlike all their previous games), we get this:

what's wrong with the first one?

 

[santino27]

Chris Avellone when it comes to the Tyranny world building, who created the Glen Cook style random name generator (I’m just assuming this must exist)? Also, please license something from Cook before he dies.

Glen Cook's Black Company was a huge inspiration, to be sure.

I would love a Chris Avellone -written Black Company CRPG. If only.

 

[Fenix]

After what I have read to that moment, I think safe to say that given the fact that such news and gossips spreads far and wide, and those who are making decisions are first to hear them out - Obsidian will never get contract from big publisher again, at least not without elefant doze of control over processes.

 

[Puteo]

So, in an effort to fix this (my next mistake), I started relying more on email to track requests and get confirmation vs. face-to-face meetings (which I thought might be the problem, since no notes were taken so decisions could get clouded).

This tracking mechanism worked, but ended up being a mistake, since the facts ended up not being the issue.

The reason it was “risky” was because presenting facts and their actual request never went over well – they’d lose their temper because their change of mind was exposed, so the facts ended up being useless. (Parker once lost it when I asked when we were getting a designer on KOTOR2 that he had promised and was using exclusively for UI work, since it was past the date for the designer to move over to content assistance – and then told me despite what he had promised, this was simply the way it was now, and the designer I had planned for would simply not be available and I had best deal with it – and this blaming was for a plan I hadn’t even proposed, so I didn’t understand the rage.)

Chris Avellone I am not in game dev but your experiences remind me so much of my current workplace it's painful to read. Thank you for posting your story; because of you I am finally going to take the step of looking for a way out of this dump. No one deserves to be treated like this.

 

[Lexx]

Jessica's really attractive though. Like "Are you sure you two are blood-related..?" attractive.

Edit: fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Jessica_Edge you people

I remember some ass old photo where she was leaning on a car hood or something. That was daymn.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Tbf I kind of feel bad for Feargus reading all this shit. It seems like poor guy is the only member of his entire family capable of staying employed, so he ends up filling his entire company with relatives and their dogs.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Infinitron

Do you remember that thread on Obsidian forums where Avellone was asking for Kickstarter ideas (back when it all started with Double Fine)?

https://forums.obsidian.net/blog/1/entry-158-if-obsidian-kickstarter/#commentsStart

 

[conan_edw]

Chris can we know how involved are you with the Ghost Story game ex. your role? or if it will have more of your work than most of your recent works since you've been with them since your departure?

 

[Fenix]

Tbf I kind of feel bad for Feargus reading all this shit.

I feel bad for involvement of a innocent dog in all this, dogs souldn't get involved in any turn of events.
Fergus after all has something human and not inherently vicious.

 

[thekdawg21]

Yeah Chris' stories remind me of my current position as a low level wage slave that managers slightly lower level wage slaves. My married department director screwed one of his employees, got her pregnant, and just did a quick divorce/remarry and noone batted an eye. We have a very productive department lead (adderall). Management loves her productivity. Her three/four day "vacations" to sleep it off are well hidden and unnoticed. We make a livable wage and have no prospects anywhere else (unless we move out of state) so noone ever complains.

 

[santino27]

Yeah Chris' stories remind me of my current position as a low level wage slave that managers slightly lower level wage slaves. My married department director screwed one of his employees, got her pregnant, and just did a quick divorce/remarry and noone batted an eye. We have a very productive department lead (adderall). Management loves her productivity. Her three/four day "vacations" to sleep it off are well hidden and unnoticed. We make a livable wage and have no prospects anywhere else (unless we move out of state) so noone ever complains.

Some of his management stories (more the tactics to push people out once they fall afoul of management than the outright fraud) remind me very much of many of the jobs I've had over the years. Bad management, nepotism, and 'evil' corporate practices are hardly the sole domain of game development. In my experience, I'd even say they are the norm rather than the exception.