Interview MCA interview part 2 up at Winterwind

[Spazmo]

Tags: Chris Avellone; Obsidian Entertainment; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

<a href=http://www.winterwind-productions.com>Winterwind</a> have posted <a href=http://www.winterwind-productions.com/gaming_industry/avellone2.html>part 2 of their interview with Chris Avellone.</a> In it, he discusses KOTOR2 and the gaming industry at large.
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<blockquote>WW: Something a lot of people disliked about KOTOR was its endings. While they were pretty vague, giving you more freedom in K2, will the endings be more fulfilling to the player this time around and reflect what you’ve done in the game? Besides for just which side of the force you align yourself with.
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MCA: The current game mechanic we’re playing around for the endings with is something similar to Fallout, but it will be presented a little differently. I can’t guarantee it will work in the game, however, but cross your fingers.</blockquote>
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Well now that's neat. I love slideshow endgame sequences. Now if they manage to make these slides have the same level of reactivity to player interaction that the ones from the Fallout games had and not just the same result no matter what, it'll be really neat.
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Thanks to <b>Raymondo</b> for the heads up.

 

[Elwro]

WW: KOTOR touched on same sex romances in a responsible way, but stopped short of the lengths other romance options went. Will this be furthered in K2?

MCA: Nope. I don?t have a problem with it, but it never struck me as part of the Star Wars genre, and it?s not my playground to dictate things like that.

So these are Straight Wars, not Star Wars. Bring it on! Why should gay people be repressed like that?

Fuck, the site interviews a CRPG designer and just has to ask about gay romancing. Is it so important for gamers?

If it was Fallout 1 or 2, I wouldn?t care

? So gayness fits into FOs, but not into Star Wars universe?

 

[Sol Invictus]

Don't take it the wrong way Elwro. I don't think he meant anything personally against homosexuals, but I'm almost certain that Lucas might. Point is, it's okay to fuck around when you own an IP, but don't fuck around with stuff you don't own.

 

[Spazmo]

Well, I'm a big fan of Bertram, ToEE's gay pirate dentist love interest, but I don't think KOTOR2 will suffer much for the loss of same-sex romances. It'd be even better if there were no romances at all, naturally.

 

[Sol Invictus]

If they can pull off romances properly, meaning to say that they don't become mushy and sentimental a la KOTOR/BGII, I think I'd find myself appreciating them for what they offer the storyline and pace of the game.

It's like Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Some of them have romances in them, but none of them ever bloom into mushy/sentimental crap like they do in most fantasy novels, which are nothing more than fantasy. Real romances don't work anything like that, do they? No, I'd think not.

There's a big difference between a trashy romance and a good one. I'm damn sure MCA's capable of the latter, especially with the 'romances' he delivered in PS: Torment with Fall-From-Grace and Annah. You knew there was something there, it felt something, but it wasn't shoved in your face the way Bioware always does it. Real romances are kind of like that. I believe I've just described the criteria for what romances in games should be like.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I've never been real good around ladies, but when it comes to men I feel happy.

http://dickcream.com/landscaper/

 

[4too]

Reality Market'eering

Reality Market'eering

E.:

... romances ... mushy and sentimental ...
... nothing more than fantasy. Real romances don't work anything like that, do they? ...

There's a big difference between a trashy romance and a good one. ...

My memory of the BG2 "romances": they were "sold" as an interactive feature, and turned into a NAGGING series of untimely interuptions. Plot-tus Interruptus... "Much like the "reality" of some of my past personal relationships. And like those personal romantic experiences, the over all effect was negitive,

There's another "reality" looming on the horizon, that of REALITY TV that feeds the appitite or lowers the bar of "acceptable" character interactions. What little R-TV I've endured is with the younger experiental beings of the 'tribe'. The old communal TV fests that passes for 'meaningful' social interaction. Many viewers appear ignorant, or blind to the Editing and the Scripting of these Real Time farces, much less the contrived nature of the romantic interactions: The Naked AGGRESSION and the banial MANIPULATION. Yet, this 'young blood' or ' fresh meat' or willing victim (of any age) is the target demographic for games in general and the featured 'hooks' find their foothold in the marketing credo, that SEX AND VIOLENCE SELLS.

The tedious water torture of nagging is sometimes the first introduction of symantics, the verbal abuse inflicted "in the name of love"
and the naked club of lose-lose options when one hears. "" you don't love me ... you only need me"" that somehow turns into "" you don't need me .. (therefore) ... you don't love me .."" And that passes as true romance ......

Inserting the emotional violence of romance "should" not surprise anyone, it will be like the ""wall of noise" mixing of 'pop' music. If you are lucky. the trashy violins and fruity brass will blend into the back beat, into a "biege mash" soon forgotten.

The real violence would be if this reality marketing resulted in a butchering of a cut and paste when "romance" is hacked into the script of any story. To satisfy some devients' lust to destroy creative endevors by burdoning them with the shrill banchees of the market'eering ziet giest.

Guess that's o.k. since any ejaculation passes as "love' in this "Brave New REALITY AGE'.



4too

 

[Eclecticist]

Romances are fine as long as they are engaging and not generic.

 

[Sol Invictus]

4too, you make excellent points. It's simply awful that most people these days choose to pursue romances that resemble something they've seen on TV or read in trashy romance novel. It's life imitating art, it is.

Real life romances shouldn't be about two people needing each other in some ridiculous Giuliette et Romeo manneresques. People who do so come off as poor caricatures of people rather than flesh.

This is mostly true about young people.

 

[DamnElfGirl]

Yeah... my big problem with the BG2 romances was that they read like a virgin teenage momma's boy's idea of what a "romance" might be. I ended up reading the scripts for the romances, since my female character punted that stupid whiney-ass wanna-be paladin from the party about 10 minutes after he joined. Went to the Bioware boards after a while, and learned that was the only romantic option for a female character. Gee, thanks!

Reading further and seeing the romance scripts, I wondered if any of the writers had even bothered to show their work to a woman for comment. I hope not, and if they did or if they wrote from their own experiences, they really need to meet some different women. Of course, when a bunch of women complained about having only one romantic option versus the men's three, the Bioware dev's response was basically, "Well, more romantic options for women wasn't a priority, because women don't play computer games." Who do you think was complaining, dumbass, RuPaul?

I'm not holding up much hope for better romances in games until the game developer community grows up, more women get on board, and the players start thinking about whether things were fun and interesting instead of saying, "Ooh, I'm going to program a script so I can get all three women at once!"

 

[Spazmo]

That women don't play games argument is bull. Figures show that (I think) about 40% of gamers are female and 40% is not a market share you want to ignore. But then BioWare likes to use that garbage excuse a lot. It's the same reason there's generally only one path through their games: most people will only play through once anyhow. Most people, of course, are the reviewers working for magazines and big sites, and fuck anyone else so long as they buy the game.