Interview Brian Fargo chats up GameSpy

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Bard's Tale (2005); Brian Fargo; InXile Entertainment

Good day for these things, because there's <A href="http://www.gamespy.com/interviews/october03/fargo/">an interview</a> with <b>Brian Fargo</b> of <a href="http://www.inxile-entertainment.com/">inXile</a> done by the boys at <A href="http://www.gamespy.com/">GameSpy</a>:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><b>GameSpy: What do you think of the direction RPGs have taken in recent years?
<br>
<br>
Brian Fargo:</b> Let me think about that question for a moment. [pause] Well, I feel like it's funny because I think about what we were doing at Interplay and it seems like a lot of the direction of RPGs that were coming from us and our group, between BioWare, Troika, Black Isle ... On the PC side of the business ... I think they were focused on size as opposed to depth. We tried to focus more on the depth of it, as you know. But they've been great products ... I think the most interesting one, really, is Knights of the Old Republic, because it's the first time I've seen a PC-type experience on a console machine.
<br>
<br>
As you commented earlier, is that a trend? Yeah, I think it is, I think it is. I've never been that interested in console RPGs. I found them to be talking down toward a demographic that I'm not part of. More of that 14-year-old mentality, more like it was only about big spell effects and getting +5 sword and +6 sword and +7 sword, just because +7 sword is better than +5 sword, so I found that the console RPGs tended to be very unsophisticated in that way.</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
Not to nitpick, but <b>Brian</b> should have looked around more. There have been some earlier PC CRPGs for the consoles. There was <i>Ultima VI</i> for the SNES, for example. Oh, and <i>Pool of Radiance</i> for the NES. Then there was... Eh.. Why bother? <a href="Http://www.swkotor.com">Knights of the Republic</a> sure wasn't first.
<br>
<br>
Spotted this at <a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a>.

 

[Visceris]

Not the first, but certainly the most recent. Also he said it was his first experience not the first game.

Not meaning to nitpick here. :D

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

More of that 14-year-old mentality, more like it was only about big spell effects and getting +5 sword and +6 sword and +7 sword, just because +7 sword is better than +5 sword, so I found that the console RPGs tended to be very unsophisticated in that way.

Well, some of the older CRPGs like Might and Magic and Wizardry, up to a point, weren't much better than that in terms of game goals. The one thing i like about console RPGs is the element of customization when it comes to character skills. While most CRPGs tend to invest in outdated class-based systems, with little to no customization (with obvious exceptions), console games tend to allow players to decide what, and how, they'll learn skills.

O'course, a CRPG's level of personal freedom, interactivity and reactivity trounces any console japanese RPG.

Also that kind of mentality isn't inherent to console players. Load up your average MMORPG and it gets worse, only with more ego and more 133t speak.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Not the first, but certainly the most recent.

Considering they go back to the 1980s, I'm kind of surprised KotOR is the first one he can name. There's dozens of them, even recent ones like Eye of the Beholder for the GBA and Morrowind for the XBox. I can see missing out on EotB, but how could he have missed out on Morrowind for the XBox?

Also he said it was his first experience not the first game.

Not meaning to nitpick here. :D

Which is why I said:

Not to nitpick, but Brian should have looked around more.

 

[Visceris]

True enough onthe Morrowind thingie. Also in October there is going to be yet another Morrowind thingie for the X-Box. Game of the Year Edition that has all Tribunal and Bloodmoon fixings to the game. Kind of the Extended version of Fellowship of the Ring coming out just 2 months later of the original which wasn't announced til a week or two after the original was released.

Way to make double your money on the same product. :D

 

[Focomin]

Not to nitpick , but every game you mentioned was a port from PC. I think Fargo was addressing the general flash over substance mentality of the console specific RPGs. Case in point - taking the "Baldur's Gate" license and turning it into a "Gauntlet" clone for the console market. KOTOR is one of the first PC style RPGs to debut on a console.

 

[Visceris]

Then we still have Morrowind which is a direct port minus the construction set from the PC to X-Box, or was it X-Box to PC. Both platforms got the game at the same time roughly and iit looks like Morrowind is a much larger game than KotOR which will be much larger in a couple of weeks for the X-Box.

 

[Psilon]

Nah, PC first, though it was essentially simultaneous development. I think there was about a month's difference in release dates.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Not to nitpick , but every game you mentioned was a port from PC. I think Fargo was addressing the general flash over substance mentality of the console specific RPGs. Case in point - taking the "Baldur's Gate" license and turning it into a "Gauntlet" clone for the console market. KOTOR is one of the first PC style RPGs to debut on a console.

Fargo's words were PC type experience on a console, so I think a PC CRPG port to a console would count as such.

 

[Jiles]

Kind of the Extended version of Fellowship of the Ring coming out just 2 months later of the original which wasn't announced til a week or two after the original was released.

Not to nitpick Visceris, but it was pretty common knowledge that they were going to do this months before the initial release.

 

[Voss]

And they even mentioned the extended version on the back of the basic version. Something like 'included is a preview of the extended version of the Fellowship of the RIng'

Sure it wasn't in big BOLD letters, but it was there. Its fair game to prey on the idiots who rush out to buy things without thinking or researching them.