Obsidian...what happened?

[JohnSmith24601]

There's few gay men in video games because homosexuality is inherently disgusting for heterosexual men AKA the massive majority of people who play video games.

Even ugly lesbians are less disgusting than average gay men, true story.

That said, ToEE has a butt pirate as a companion!

Yeah I personally find all this sexual orientation/gender bending thing disgusting. It’s like we are encouraging actual deviancy as a society. Can’t wait till all this blows over and we have the loonies back where they belong.

 

[A horse of course]

The South Park RPG was trash, why are people here including it in lists of pre-decline Obsidian games?

Alt-right chuds

 

[JohnSmith24601]

Mostly lucid posts surprisingly ; you would have expected more political points - Obsidian became shit because of leftists, etc - but I'm not sure if game writing was any better when it didn't have a "left agenda". Not being interested in dikes and gays doesn't make you a good writer or something.

There's few gay men in video games because homosexuality is inherently disgusting for heterosexual men AKA the massive majority of people who play video games.

You're fucked, man. Supposedly almost 50% of US gamers are women, now. The old world is definitively dead, even though your imagination still lives in it. This idea that the demographic didn't change is ludicrous, gaming is such a big business, it wouldn't thrive much off basement-dwellers. Rejoice however, you can be cool now ; we know this is all you ever wanted

Agree with first paragraph, but most “women gamers” do Candy Crush on their phone or something, not Fallout 1. I guarantee that none of the women you met in real life has played Fallout 1 themselves. Let me know if they even have just heard of it.

 

[Nano]

Agree with first paragraph, but most “women gamers” do Candy Crush on their phone or something, not Fallout 1. I guarantee that none of the women you met in real life has played Fallout 1 themselves. Let me know if they even have just heard of it.

Most male gamers don't play Fallout 1 either, you delusional twat.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Most male gamers these days become female gamers eventually anyways, HEHEHEHEHE

 

[Sweeper]

this is now a vtuber thread

You should have finished the job yanks.
Fucking pussies, always leaving shit half finished.

Supposedly almost 50% of US gamers are women, now.

Ah, yes yes, the candy crush enthusiasts and twitch thots. How would this multi billion dollar industry survive without the likes of them? FUCKING HOW I ASK YOU?!

 

[Maculo]

I have fond memories of Fallout New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2, but their recent games are all mediocre to low. Especially the writing department has gone so far down hill that it's unreal. The stories in Pillars games make very little sense, and now we have this thing...the Outerworlds. I'm not even sure what to say about that. So soulless and boring...

PS: They also probably have the most toxic fanboys all around. The Pillars forums are filled with regulars (by regulars I mean they are ALWAYS there) who would swarm you if you bring up any sort of negative things about their beloved games.

From what I remember Obsidian always had troubled development cycles, but the earlier writing/characters generally made up for it in some way (e.g., Kotor 2).

Where I would diverge is that Obsidian is not alone. Video game writing in general has dropped off a fucking cliff. I don't know if new writers are parallelized by trying to make a post-modern story ("subversion"), or they need to dumb it down for select international markets.

 

[Sweeper]

Video game writing in general has dropped off a fucking cliff.

It was never good.

Muh PS:T Muh Disco Elysium

the number of games that are actually well written can be counted with your fingers.

 

[Maculo]

Video game writing in general has dropped off a fucking cliff.

It was never good.

I saw this comment coming. It is not even about "good" writing, just overuse of "subversion of expectations" and shock. It's like the RPG equivalent of jump scares.

 

[JarlFrank]

Video game writing in general has dropped off a fucking cliff.

It was never good.

But it was never as tryhard terrible as it is right now, either.

 

[someone else]

this is now a vtuber thread

That lead to this.
Best thread evar!

 

[A horse of course]

That's a dude btw

 

[Butter]

I have fond memories of Fallout New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2, but their recent games are all mediocre to low. Especially the writing department has gone so far down hill that it's unreal. The stories in Pillars games make very little sense, and now we have this thing...the Outerworlds. I'm not even sure what to say about that. So soulless and boring...

PS: They also probably have the most toxic fanboys all around. The Pillars forums are filled with regulars (by regulars I mean they are ALWAYS there) who would swarm you if you bring up any sort of negative things about their beloved games.

From what I remember Obsidian always had troubled development cycles, but the earlier writing/characters generally made up for it in some way (e.g., Kotor 2).

Where I would diverge is that Obsidian is not alone. Video game writing in general has dropped off a fucking cliff. I don't know if new writers are parallelized by trying to make a post-modern story ("subversion"), or they need to dumb it down for select international markets.

Back when the industry was smaller, only enthusiasts ever applied to work at video game companies, and they generally understood that writing didn't have to be good if it was unobtrusive. Now that video games make more money than movies, a shitload of wannabe screenwriters who don't understand the medium try to write video games and are predictably bad at it.

Personally I blame Hideo Kojima. He's probably responsible for more decline in the industry than anyone else.

 

[turkishronin]

Neverwinter Nights 2

NW2 was godawful. Most horrible combat system I have seen in an RPG

 

[Ol' Willy]

Personally I blame Hideo Kojima. He's probably responsible for more decline in the industry than anyone else.

And once again, Japan is the main source of decline and degeneracy.

 

[urmom]

That lead to this.
Best thread evar!

Thought for a second there she was going to put on a MAGA hat.

 

[turkishronin]

Personally I blame Hideo Kojima. He's probably responsible for more decline in the industry than anyone else.

And once again, Japan is the main source of decline and degeneracy.

I always thought Kojima was American

 

[Sigourn]

Personally I blame Hideo Kojima. He's probably responsible for more decline in the industry than anyone else.

And once again, Japan is the main source of decline and degeneracy.

I always thought Kojima was American

Kojima is as american as apple pie.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Kojima is as american as apple pie.

Hideo Kojima (小島 秀夫, Kojima Hideo, born August 24, 1963 in Tokyo) is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and writer.

 

[Riddler]

Supposedly almost 50% of US gamers are women, now.

If you include shit like farmville and various mobile games, yes.

My wife plays solitaire while listening to audiobooks. I'm married to a hardcore GAMER!

 

[Tigranes]

Kojima is more American than any actual American, insofar as he lives and breathes his own fantasy world best represented by yet another improbable Japanese pop hit:

 

[rusty_shackleford]

kojima is a fag that hates america

 

[Riddler]

this is now a vtuber thread

That lead to this.
Best thread evar!

We need a pedo button DarkUnderlord

 

[overly excitable young man]

Agree with first paragraph, but most “women gamers” do Candy Crush on their phone or something, not Fallout 1. I guarantee that none of the women you met in real life has played Fallout 1 themselves. Let me know if they even have just heard of it.

Most male gamers don't play Fallout 1 either, you delusional twat.

HOT GURLS THAT PLAYED FALLOUT 1 NEAR YOU!

 

[JarlFrank]

I have fond memories of Fallout New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2, but their recent games are all mediocre to low. Especially the writing department has gone so far down hill that it's unreal. The stories in Pillars games make very little sense, and now we have this thing...the Outerworlds. I'm not even sure what to say about that. So soulless and boring...

PS: They also probably have the most toxic fanboys all around. The Pillars forums are filled with regulars (by regulars I mean they are ALWAYS there) who would swarm you if you bring up any sort of negative things about their beloved games.

From what I remember Obsidian always had troubled development cycles, but the earlier writing/characters generally made up for it in some way (e.g., Kotor 2).

Where I would diverge is that Obsidian is not alone. Video game writing in general has dropped off a fucking cliff. I don't know if new writers are parallelized by trying to make a post-modern story ("subversion"), or they need to dumb it down for select international markets.

Back when the industry was smaller, only enthusiasts ever applied to work at video game companies, and they generally understood that writing didn't have to be good if it was unobtrusive. Now that video games make more money than movies, a shitload of wannabe screenwriters who don't understand the medium try to write video games and are predictably bad at it.

Personally I blame Hideo Kojima. He's probably responsible for more decline in the industry than anyone else.

Yeah, back in the day writing was often functional and the focus was on presenting the player with interesting situations, quests, and some backstory lore. Now everything has to be shoved in your face, voice-acted, emphasized, and adorned with prose so flowery a florist would grow jealous just to show off how GOOD the writing is.

Tides of Numenera was the perfect example of this. People liked Planescape Torment for the story! It had a lot of text! That means our game should also have a lot of text! Text! Text! Text! Let's add another descriptive paragraph here! Some adjectives there! Two paragraphs of pointless prose here, just to hammer home how competent our writers are!

Every single sentence in that game oozes trying-too-hardness. The exception are companions written by Avellone and Rothfuss, one of whom is an experienced CRPG writer and the other an award-winning published author. Both are confident enough in their ability that they don't have to shove their EXTREME WRITING SKILLZ in your face every 5 minutes. The young millennial writers however think they have to prove their ability all the time, so they spew out the most overwritten prose you've ever seen. And instead of having an editor cut it down a bit, like a book publisher would do with its promising new writers, Fargo bragged with the wordcount because apparently quantity = quality these days. Our words are so good, you definitely wanna read more of them!!

In addition to that, many younger RPG writers are informed by classic RPGs they played in their younger years, mostly the Infinity Engine games and maybe some crappy JRPGs like Final Fantasy too. Older writers were informed by novels, cinema, history, life experience, etc and came up with something new and fresh rather than only relying on established genre tropes. Most of the young writers jumping into the game industry have a very narrow in-the-box way of thinking about video game writing. They don't wanna evoke the savagery of Howard's Conan in the medium of video games, they wanna evoke... that other video game they played when they were little. And they have either studied creative writing or game design (or both) at a popular university likely located somewhere in California, and modern education in creative subjects is utter trash and teaches you to be the opposite of creative - it teaches you to be derivative. That's why all of them sound the same.