Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Roguey]

The only clear metric is their financial success and in their 20+ years of existence they haven't gotten financial independence to fund their own projects. That's called sucking ass and barely making it.

If your core audience is three and a half bums and you think their reviews are a metric of anything,...

Elden Ring got crazy sales not from their "core audience", but from random casuls. BG3 - same deal. You don't understand the business.

They got bought by Daddy Microsoft who are now funding two big games and whatever small games they can manage (Grounded, Pentiment). According to Avellone, getting purchased was always the goal.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

The only clear metric is their financial success and in their 20+ years of existence they haven't gotten financial independence to fund their own projects. That's called sucking ass and barely making it.

If your core audience is three and a half bums and you think their reviews are a metric of anything,...

Elden Ring got crazy sales not from their "core audience", but from random casuls. BG3 - same deal. You don't understand the business.

They got bought by Daddy Microsoft who are now funding two big games and whatever small games they can manage (Grounded, Pentiment). According to Avellone, getting purchased was always the goal.

This doesn't invalidate anything I said. They didn't get bought on merits, but because Microsoft decided to buy everything out there. And obshitian was part of everything out there. They got lucky they lasted so long. It's like one of those situations where a climber is rescued in the nick of time, unconscious, minutes before succumbing.

It's unlikely they would be able to make an Obsidian-style game Obsidian fans would enjoy just as much.

What are obshitian traits in a game? Generic as fuck lore, infodumps of boring ass text, formulaic as fuck design, story, presentation, zero surprises or originality. You think a competent company can't make that if they tried? As a parody, anyone could make an obshitian game. As a real product, nobody would want to.

 

[Roguey]

This doesn't invalidate anything I said. They didn't get bought on merits, but because Microsoft decided to buy everything out there. And obshitian was part of everything out there. They got lucky they lasted so long. It's like one of those situations where a climber is rescued in the nick of time, unconscious, minutes before succumbing.

Obsidian was working with Private Division on Outer Worlds at the time. Feargus is a good survival weasel, he would have found other gigs after.

What are obshitian traits in a game? Generic as fuck lore, infodumps of boring ass text, formulaic as fuck design, story, presentation, zero surprises or originality. You think a competent company can't make that if they tried? As a parody, anyone could make an obshitian game. As a real product, nobody would want to.

Japanese developers don't do narrative-focused RPGs the way companies like Obsidian, CD Projekt, inXile, Owlcat, and Spiders do. Bioware and Harebrained used to be in this group.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Japanese developers don't do narrative-focused RPGs

You think if the eye is slanted, the man can't do narrative? It's not about "can't", it's about "won't" by choice.

Feargus is a good survival weasel, he would have found other gigs after.

Yeah, they were "surviving". That's how "successful" they were.
My initial point that you finally seem to understand.

 

[user]

Japanese developers don't do narrative-focused RPGs

You think if the eye is slanted, the man can't do narrative? It's not about "can't", it's about "won't" by choice.

Feargus is a good survival weasel, he would have found other gigs after.

Yeah, they were "surviving". That's how "successful" they were.
My initial point that you finally seem to understand.

Eh... everyone in the industry is "surviving" - this is the measure of success.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Japanese developers don't do narrative-focused RPGs

You think if the eye is slanted, the man can't do narrative? It's not about "can't", it's about "won't" by choice.

Feargus is a good survival weasel, he would have found other gigs after.

Yeah, they were "surviving". That's how "successful" they were.
My initial point that you finally seem to understand.

Eh... everyone in the industry is "surviving" - this is the measure of success.

Growth, optionally go public, become self-sufficient, keep growing, finally stop growing and start paying dividends. That's the route of a successful company.

Obshitian got stuck in toddler phase, almost died a couple times, had no money to pay their employees for months, got saved by Kickstarter life support. They're useless losers, their games suck ass as a physical proof of their ineptitude.

 

[user]

Japanese developers don't do narrative-focused RPGs

You think if the eye is slanted, the man can't do narrative? It's not about "can't", it's about "won't" by choice.

Feargus is a good survival weasel, he would have found other gigs after.

Yeah, they were "surviving". That's how "successful" they were.
My initial point that you finally seem to understand.

Eh... everyone in the industry is "surviving" - this is the measure of success.

Growth, optionally go public, become self-sufficient, keep growing, finally stop growing and start paying dividends. That's the route of a successful company.

Obshitian got stuck in toddler phase, almost died a couple times, had no money to pay their employees for months, got saved by Kickstarter life support. They're useless losers, their games suck ass as a physical proof of their ineptitude.

Yeah, I mean people - much of the time, people surviving or not, has little to do with the company's success. I agree it's the best route for a company that makes consistently good products for us, but it usually turns to shit anyway, because curbing growth is nigh unthinkable nowadays as it goes against the reason companies are created in the first place.

 

[Roguey]

You think if the eye is slanted, the man can't do narrative? It's not about "can't", it's about "won't" by choice.

I never said can't. Japanese RPGs don't focus on reactive narratives the way western ones do, they leave that for the visual novels. Could they add one and keep up the quality of the gameplay mechanics? If they were coming up with both at the same time, doubtful, never been done before.

 

[Daedalos]

Why does this game look so utterly out-dated, boring and generic? I've watched the trailers, and jesus, it just does absolutely nothing for me at all, dead lifeless.
I mean Pillars of Eternity 1 was a decent game, it was, but as a 3rd person skyrim clone? no, just .. no.

looks painfully bland and generic.

PLEASE make outer worlds 2 good, i dont care about the rest. COME the fuck on.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Could they add one and keep up the quality of the gameplay mechanics? If they were coming up with both at the same time, doubtful, never been done before.

What's introducing doubts here? The fact that it "has never been done before"? You need an explanation for why that's a logical fallacy?
Or do you need an explanation that people responsible for the narrative wouldn't be burdened with gameplay mechanics, and hence wouldn't care one way or another if the game has deep mechanics or not? Or are you going to spew more platitudes about how mechanics need to be married with the systems, and that it somehow makes all the difference, which will prevent the poor Jap writer from doing a good job?
You know what you have in common with Sawyer? You're both utterly boring in your banality.

 

[Roguey]

What's introducing doubts here? The fact that it "has never been done before"? You need an explanation for why that's a logical fallacy?
Or do you need an explanation that people responsible for the narrative wouldn't be burdened with gameplay mechanics, and hence wouldn't care one way or another if the game has deep mechanics or not? Or are you going to spew more platitudes about how mechanics need to be married with the systems, and that it somehow makes all the difference, which will prevent the poor Jap writer from doing a good job?
You know what you have in common with Sawyer? You're both utterly boring in your banality.

In 30 years of gaming, no one has ever done the RPG that does everything well. The conclusion to draw is that it's impossible.

 

[Butter]

What's introducing doubts here? The fact that it "has never been done before"? You need an explanation for why that's a logical fallacy?
Or do you need an explanation that people responsible for the narrative wouldn't be burdened with gameplay mechanics, and hence wouldn't care one way or another if the game has deep mechanics or not? Or are you going to spew more platitudes about how mechanics need to be married with the systems, and that it somehow makes all the difference, which will prevent the poor Jap writer from doing a good job?
You know what you have in common with Sawyer? You're both utterly boring in your banality.

In 30 years of gaming, no one has ever done the RPG that does everything well. The conclusion to draw is that it's impossible.

Um, Redaxium?

 

[Silverfish]

I haven't experienced a crash in an Obsidian game in over a decade, gramps.

You haven't played an Obsidian game in over a decade? Can't say I blame you, but Stick of Truth was pretty funny, try that one.

 

[luj1]

Roguey the Obsidian Lawyer - the Thread

 

[scytheavatar]

As someone who has never been a big fan of Obsidian and will not shred a tear if they close down tomorrow, I am not sure how anyone can deny that it is clear Avellone era Obsidian is unique and no one can make an Obsidian style game better than them. We can debate what an Obsidian style game is, but since losing Avellone they are no longer the same studio. The Outer Worlds is super generic and Avowed looks even worse.

 

[luj1]

it is clear Avellone era Obsidian is unique

This is only SWKotOR 2

and maybe NWN 2

 

[Roguey]

I haven't experienced a crash in an Obsidian game in over a decade, gramps.

You haven't played an Obsidian game in over a decade? Can't say I blame you, but Stick of Truth was pretty funny, try that one.

Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Deadfire, The Outer Worlds, Grounded, and Pentiment were all stable as a rock.

As someone who has never been a big fan of Obsidian and will not shred a tear if they close down tomorrow, I am not sure how anyone can deny that it is clear Avellone era Obsidian is unique and no one can make an Obsidian style game better than them. We can debate what an Obsidian style game is, but since losing Avellone they are no longer the same studio. The Outer Worlds is super generic and Avowed looks even worse.

I never cared too much for Avellone and he himself claimed he never had much power and influence over what their games would be like. The biggest loss was the Gen X designers: Ziets, Saunders, MacLean, Stout, Gonzalez, even Fenstermaker under the right conditions. Replaced by Millennials who are worse across the board.

 

[Butter]

I never cared too much for Avellone and he himself claimed he never had much power and influence over what their games would be like. The biggest loss was the Gen X designers: Ziets, Saunders, MacLean, Stout, Gonzalez, even Fenstermaker under the right conditions. Replaced by Millennials who are worse across the board.

Gen X were the last generation who weren't terminally online.

 

[luj1]

Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Deadfire, The Outer Worlds, Grounded, and Pentiment were all stable as a rock.

They were all shit too. Amazing isnt it?

Pillars had loading screens so long, you could go make a dinner

 

[Roguey]

They were all shit too. Amazing isnt it?

Pillars had loading screens so long, you could go make a dinner

That's a feature inherent to Unity, nothing to do with Obsidian's coding other than not going above and beyond to make them faster, which most devs don't do.

 

[luj1]

Just like poor design is inherent to Soyer's soy brain, nothing to do with him, its just like that

 

[Alienman]

What happened to Ziets new studio?

 

[Sannom]

Digimancy Entertainment ? There were tweets around May 2023 which said that they were helping with Avowed's development, but I haven't heard much else.

 

[Roguey]

What happened to Ziets new studio?

Bait-and-switched us by making Annie Vandermeer of PANIC at Multiverse High! fame the narrative lead.

 

[Sannom]

Narrative Lead, but on which game ?