Interview Ask J.E. Sawyer Random Questions

[Clockwork Knight]

there is only one way to deal with volly

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

moroncy

is that like currency for idiots? i'm glad you at least cared enough to respond at all though, princess. thank you. *bows*

Anyone whow astes their time on internet message baords is either crazy or retarded. Which are YOU!?!

oh i'm definitely crazy. we should hang, bro. fuck-shit-up, knowhutimsayin?

*finishes beer, smashes can on forehead*

 

[1eyedking]

How does it feel to know you/Obsidian are one of the few great game devs us cynical WRPG fans have left, and that we're all relying on the likes o' youse to maintain quality writing in video games?

I think it's sad, honestly. In my opinion, gamers set the bar very low for good writing.

That is oddly ambiguous. Is he being self-effacing--ala MCA re: Torment--and implying that his writing's not that good, and therefore the fact that we think it's good is sad (in which case the rest of the gaming world, i.e. everyone outside the Codex, is super-sad)? Or does he mean it's sad game writing in general tends to be shit?

I'm guessing nine out of ten questions were asked by Codexers.

This guy sometimes fall on the typical "nothing's ever enough" Codex troll behavior, the kind who can't see the good things in something obviously not entirely great.

Yes, Torment didn't have excellent writing. Nor did the Fallout games. But it was pretty good nonetheless, and they should have set a minimum bar from which to work on, or at least maintain.

There's a lot of awesome lines in those games, even in the IWDs, and to compare games to literature is stupid because they're entirely different genders. Citizen Kane's script doesn't go anywhere near Oscar Wilde's plays, but as movies go it's among the greatest, if not the greatest. It works the other way around: a play by Wilde would be a snorefest of a movie, I opine. Therefore it is that I think that games should aspire to be great games, and not great pieces of paintings, music, writing and cinematography, but a good cohesive combo of them all.

The whole matter actually lies in that apparently insignificant word, cohesive. Therein is the key to understanding good game design.