Interview Interview with David Gaider

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: BioWare; David Gaider

David Gaider of <a href=http://www.bioware.com>Bioware</a> fame was kind enough to drop everything and <a href=http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=123>answer a few questions</a> about ... well, a lot of things, so you better see for yourself.
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<blockquote><i>4. All Bioware role-playing games, for one reason or another, were class-based. I'm sure that was an insightful experience. Did that affect your understanding of classes in a CRPG? Did that give you any ideas we might see in future games? Development and power level of a class, the number and balance of classes, unique abilities, different builds within a class, etc?</i>
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I think that experience taught us what our fans like to see in their classes, and as well what pitfalls we should be trying to avoid when designing our own class-based system. Overall, I’d say I lean towards having less breadth and more depth when it comes to classes – I’d rather see less actual classes, for instance, and focus more on having many different development options within those classes. That’s simply a personal preference, however. D&D didn’t do too bad of a job of identifying fantasy archetypes that are fun roles to have inside of a party, though I (and any D&D fan, I expect) could probably argue endlessly on the particular merits of any given class and how many options or lack thereof was given by the D&D system to take a class in different directions.</blockquote>
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Thanks to <b>David Gaider</b> and <b>Erik Einsiedel</b> for their time and efforts. Sadly, Dave didn't have time to answer all the questions, but we love him anyway.
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[FrancoTAU]

Good read, hopefully you get another interview with him when Dragon Age comes closer to being released.

 

[obediah]

Thanks to everyone involved - for an interesting, informative and relatively insult and hype free interview.

Thanks especially to David for going in to the reasons behind some design decisions rather than just shooting buzzwords at us until our heads explode.

I would say that low vs. high magic is more than an aesthetic difference though - especially in a well-fleshed out and deep setting.

 

[Surlent]

Haven't seen codex made interviews for long time. Anyways, great show and Dave rocks.

 

[tilting_msh]

Good stuff, I really enjoyed the read. Too bad he couldn't answer the question about the Shadow Thieves/vampire split in BG2, I was curious about what he had to say about that.

 

[Shagnak]

Good stuff VD!

 

[HanoverF]

Whats with the ' - ' responses? They're in the vacinity of loaded questions, but a good honest answer would be better than ignoring them for time concerns.

 

[Jora]

Whats with the ' - ' responses? They're in the vacinity of loaded questions, but a good honest answer would be better than ignoring them for time concerns.

Sadly, Dave didn't have time to answer all the questions, but we love him anyway

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

The nonlinearity bit is an interesting continuation of the discussion we had a while back on this topic (the "nonlinearity is a waste of time" thread)- it's obvious that designers (or at least David) do in fact see that as a problem. I more and more get the feeling that we will only start to see decent nonlinear games in the mainstream once game engines are sufficiently complex simulators that can take care of some of the cause and effect by themselves, thus taking some of the load of designers shoulders.

 

[Vault Dweller]

@ HanoverF: They are not really loaded questions. Each missed question is basically a question about a certain feature. There were some reasons why these features were considered, and I thought that Dave might want to share those reasons with us.

 

[Section8]

Good read. It's always good to hear an RPG developer's take on the Codex's eternal questions/chestnuts.

 

[Elwro]

Good read. I hope he finds time to answer the other questions (yeah, probably impossible) as they're interesting.

Now, Bethesda folks, when are you going to give an interview to RPGCodex? You should see now that it doesn't hurt so bad. :D

 

[Levski 1912]

Bethesda is too afraid whoever takes on the Codex will break down and expose their game.

 

[Volourn]

Why does VD have to lie in the questions? That's pretty stupid. Other than the lies, it was a very good interview. :D

Too bad Monsieur Gaider didn't answer all the questions. Maybe next time.

 

[Mefi]

Excellent and insightful interview. Full credit to David Gaider for answering so many questions in full.

Want to take some to digest it. Not often that happens when I see an industry insider interviewed. So kudos VD.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks, guys. Hopefully something will work out with Bethesda, and while I'm waiting for Pete to do the smart thing, I will try to score some more interviews for your amusement.

 

[Whipporowill]

It's always fun to read non-standard interviews. Great of Gaider to put some effort into his replies as well.

 

[Milecolt]

Good questions. I really wanted to know the answer for question 7 (about NPC's).

 

[HardCode]

Excellent interview. No fluff, no BS, just great questions and great answers. Game site interviewers take heed! This is how it's done.

 

[Jon]

Great stuff. I guess I will just reiterate what others have said: Its good to read an interview with intelligent questions, focusing on concepts and ideas rather than an unmitigated stream of hype. Thanks to all concerned.

 

[Volourn]

"Game site interviewers take heed! This is how it's done."

Yeah. Lie, lie, lie. Let's misinform readers even more.

 

[gromit]

Yeah, pretty good interview. Sadly, the hyphened questions were really, really good ones. I'm always terribly interested in hearing the developer's side of the [effort:extra content] balance, how they reach the middle ground and why they thought that middleground was optimal. It's one thing to have the facts of the real world reiterated at you, but another to hear the reasoning behind their choices and sacrifices, and which critical elements they tried hardest to keep / reflect.

 

[Zomg]

Gaider = Stud

I think the bit where you print the questions he didn't answer was a bit cheesy, since it gives the appearance of evasion, but the "not enough time" thing classes it up somewhat. It does keep more of the balance of power in the domain of the interviewer, though.

 

[Mefi]

Just a little thought on the questions weren't answered..

I'm sure David Gaider did have time constraints. And I take VD's word that his questions weren't meant to be loaded... but.. I've got to confess that the first time I read them, they did appear to be asking for a developer to either dump on another game or confess to something like wasting time over a feature. Perhaps a little more neutrality in the wording might encourage a future developer to confess that he thought Dungeon Lords was a pile of shit on release from his own initiative?


Anyways, just been thinking about the issue of dialogue and narrative. Gaider gave an interesting response regarding that. Can better graphics replace the narrative effect of older games? Or does the reliance on graphics lead developers into becoming sloppy with their dialogue or even neglect it to a much greater degree?

 

[FrancoTAU]

I guess a good analogy for that would be like writing dialogue for a movie instead of a book. The graphics would have to still be even better than they are now before they emote exactly like a good actor could though.