Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming November 12th(?)

[Vulpes]

The more interviews I read, the more mindboggling this gets. Who in their right mind came up with this project? Is this really Obsidian's future now? Producing shovelware for Xbox Game Pass?

Odd choice for a narrative team that entirely build from YA and fanfic writers. on the other hands, Nu-Obsidian writers loathe player agency (although it's highly regulated) so they would invest instead in companions/NPC reactivity that would force their infantile doll play on the player, this is a very MFA behavior.

In the recent Xbox podcast you showed that you can flirt, and you showed the character Yatzli, who is very flirtatious. But there aren’t romance options in the traditional sense, right? You're not building romantic relationships? You’re not marrying characters or anything like that, correct?
CP: Yeah, we decided to forego full romance paths in Avowed. It's something that we thought very hard about, and we talked about it as a narrative team. I think if you're going to invest in romance, everyone who's writing them needs to be absolutely, fully bought in. And the other thing you need to do is make sure that if you're going to provide that path, that you're balancing that with an equally meaningful and well-developed, non-romantic path because you never want players to feel that, "Well, the only way I really get to know this character or really get to form a meaningful bond with them, is if I commit to romancing them, which maybe isn't something I want to do." So, for all of those reasons, we decided to forego romances, specifically in Avowed. But we still built a lot of content around getting to know your companions. Forging deeper bonds with them and coming to understand their stories.

So this is the justification they're going for? They're too lazy to write both a friendship and romantic path for the companions (despite there being only 4!!! of them), so they had to cut out the latter? Not even their own hardcore fans are naive enough to buy into this sorry-ass excuse. Shit, what are they even talking about? They can't write a good fellowship to begin with. At no point in PoE 2 or TOW did I ever feel any sort of camaraderie with any of my companions. They all came across as mere acquaintances that were only tagging along because they're bored and have nothing else to do.

 

[Morality Games]

The more interviews I read, the more mindboggling this gets. Who in their right mind came up with this project? Is this really Obsidian's future now? Producing shovelware for Xbox Game Pass?

Odd choice for a narrative team that entirely build from YA and fanfic writers. on the other hands, Nu-Obsidian writers loathe player agency (although it's highly regulated) so they would invest instead in companions/NPC reactivity that would force their infantile doll play on the player, this is a very MFA behavior.

In the recent Xbox podcast you showed that you can flirt, and you showed the character Yatzli, who is very flirtatious. But there aren’t romance options in the traditional sense, right? You're not building romantic relationships? You’re not marrying characters or anything like that, correct?
CP: Yeah, we decided to forego full romance paths in Avowed. It's something that we thought very hard about, and we talked about it as a narrative team. I think if you're going to invest in romance, everyone who's writing them needs to be absolutely, fully bought in. And the other thing you need to do is make sure that if you're going to provide that path, that you're balancing that with an equally meaningful and well-developed, non-romantic path because you never want players to feel that, "Well, the only way I really get to know this character or really get to form a meaningful bond with them, is if I commit to romancing them, which maybe isn't something I want to do." So, for all of those reasons, we decided to forego romances, specifically in Avowed. But we still built a lot of content around getting to know your companions. Forging deeper bonds with them and coming to understand their stories.

So this is the justification they're going for? They're too lazy to write both a friendship and romantic path for the companions (despite there being only 4!!! of them), so they had to cut out the latter? Not even their own hardcore fans are naive enough to buy into this sorry-ass excuse. Shit, what are they even talking about? They can't write a good fellowship to begin with. At no point in PoE 2 or TOW did I ever feel any sort of camaraderie with any of my companions. They all came across as acquaintances that were only tagging along because they're bored and have nothing else to do.

"We didn't feel like doing that so we just didn't do that," seems to be the design ethos for the entire game.

In addition, a cursory glance at the Avowed reddit would suggest that their hardcore fans are indeed naive enough to buy this (or any other other) sorry-ass excuse.

 

[Sòren]

View attachment 51570
https://wccftech.com/avowed-confirmed-by-obsidian-to-be-very-short-for-an-rpg/

Post the original interview: https://www.gameinformer.com/previe...as-considered-but-ultimately-not-included-and

Can you tell me more about Avowed’s third-person option? That’s likely how I will play the game.
Carrie Patel, game director: So, as you yourself have just noted, there are a lot of people who simply prefer it. There are people who prefer it for aesthetic reasons. They've built this character, and they want to see them in the world. There are people who prefer it because of accessibility reasons. First-person maybe makes the motion sick, and FOV sliders don't quite get them comfortable. So yeah, there are a lot of reasons to have it. There are a lot of players who prefer it for some reason or another. But we're still giving players the same Avowed experience in third-person. Gabe can speak more to that.

Gabe Paramo, gameplay director: So, to be super clear, right? This is a first-person game with a third-person perspective. So, when we talk about feel, there might be some micro-adjustments – in terms of, like, the physics of the capsules, super micro – in order to give a little bit of leeway for the animation frames to kind of make those blend a bit better, but we want it to feel as snappy. And we and it's going to feel in control exactly like the first-person game. Okay,

Gabe's answer reads like: "yes, we got a third person mode, it kinda sucks, but we tried our best :'("

at least they did get that being able to see your PC is an important element in such games.

 

[Lemming42]

"Carrie: Gabe can speak more to that.

Gabe: Sorry, it's going to be half-assed bullshit."

Half of the stuff they're coming out with is almost phrased like an apology, this is some of the worst pre-release marketing I've seen in a long time. The only lucky break for them is that probably nobody's reading this anyway.

 

[Tyranicon]

So this is the justification they're going for? They're too lazy to write both a friendship and romantic path for the companions (despite there being only 4!!! of them), so they had to cut out the latter? Not even their own hardcore fans are naive enough to buy into this sorry-ass excuse. Shit, what are they even talking about? They can't write a good fellowship to begin with. At no point in PoE 2 or TOW did I ever feel any sort of camaraderie with any of my companions. They all came across as mere acquaintances that were only tagging along because they're bored and have nothing else to do.

Only 100 employees bro. Gotta manage those expectations.

At this point I'd expect the game to be a 5-hour hallway combat simulator with collectibles.

 

[Infinitron]

Odd choice for a narrative team that entirely build from YA and fanfic writers. on the other hands, Nu-Obsidian writers loathe player agency (although it's highly regulated) so they would invest instead in companions/NPC reactivity that would force their infantile doll play on the player, this is a very MFA behavior.

In the recent Xbox podcast you showed that you can flirt, and you showed the character Yatzli, who is very flirtatious. But there aren’t romance options in the traditional sense, right? You're not building romantic relationships? You’re not marrying characters or anything like that, correct?
CP: Yeah, we decided to forego full romance paths in Avowed. It's something that we thought very hard about, and we talked about it as a narrative team. I think if you're going to invest in romance, everyone who's writing them needs to be absolutely, fully bought in. And the other thing you need to do is make sure that if you're going to provide that path, that you're balancing that with an equally meaningful and well-developed, non-romantic path because you never want players to feel that, "Well, the only way I really get to know this character or really get to form a meaningful bond with them, is if I commit to romancing them, which maybe isn't something I want to do." So, for all of those reasons, we decided to forego romances, specifically in Avowed. But we still built a lot of content around getting to know your companions. Forging deeper bonds with them and coming to understand their stories.

what the fuck is MFA behavior?

MFA = Master of Fine Arts. Blackheart is referring to a type of graduate degree in "creative writing" which many consider to be a dumbed down alternative to a proper education in English literature: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/education/edlife/12edl-12mfa.html

 

[Tyranicon]

MFA = Master of Fine Arts. Blackheart is referring to a type of graduate degree in "creative writing" which many consider to be a dumbed down alternative to a proper education in English literature: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/education/edlife/12edl-12mfa.html

It's a joke degree. Nobody cares about it.

It's what people with too much money get because they like being in college forever.

Writers don't need more than a bachelors and barely that. I regret spending money on university in the first place.

 

[Butter]

The more interviews I read, the more mindboggling this gets. Who in their right mind came up with this project? Is this really Obsidian's future now? Producing shovelware for Xbox Game Pass?

Odd choice for a narrative team that entirely build from YA and fanfic writers. on the other hands, Nu-Obsidian writers loathe player agency (although it's highly regulated) so they would invest instead in companions/NPC reactivity that would force their infantile doll play on the player, this is a very MFA behavior.

In the recent Xbox podcast you showed that you can flirt, and you showed the character Yatzli, who is very flirtatious. But there aren’t romance options in the traditional sense, right? You're not building romantic relationships? You’re not marrying characters or anything like that, correct?
CP: Yeah, we decided to forego full romance paths in Avowed. It's something that we thought very hard about, and we talked about it as a narrative team. I think if you're going to invest in romance, everyone who's writing them needs to be absolutely, fully bought in. And the other thing you need to do is make sure that if you're going to provide that path, that you're balancing that with an equally meaningful and well-developed, non-romantic path because you never want players to feel that, "Well, the only way I really get to know this character or really get to form a meaningful bond with them, is if I commit to romancing them, which maybe isn't something I want to do." So, for all of those reasons, we decided to forego romances, specifically in Avowed. But we still built a lot of content around getting to know your companions. Forging deeper bonds with them and coming to understand their stories.

So this is the justification they're going for? They're too lazy to write both a friendship and romantic path for the companions (despite there being only 4!!! of them), so they had to cut out the latter? Not even their own hardcore fans are naive enough to buy into this sorry-ass excuse. Shit, what are they even talking about? They can't write a good fellowship to begin with. At no point in PoE 2 or TOW did I ever feel any sort of camaraderie with any of my companions. They all came across as mere acquaintances that were only tagging along because they're bored and have nothing else to do.

I don't understand your complaint. Obsidian are inadvertently making their game better by conceding that they suck too much to include romance.

 

[Cohesion]

Feargus must be funding a second vacation home with all the money he's fleecing from Microsoft.

Nah, the whole industry is like that. Bloat full of incompetent DEI people. It's not like other studios are churning games in 1-3 years. Look at Starfield / GTA VI / Cyberpunk / TES VI. Budgets are higher than ever while development time is x2-x3.
These clowns are all carried hard by marketing nowadays (YouTubers, journos, hype).

 

[Cohesion]

I know Microsoft are an amoral mega-corporation but I actually feel bad for how hard they got scammed here. I'm feeling the type of sympathy I normally only feel for lonely old women who fall victim to romance scammers. This is the videogame equivalent of cowboy builders. Imagine someone pitching to you being like "we're making the next Skyrim!" and you're like "wow!" and you keep sending money over then six years later it's just Avowed.

They deserve it. Especially gates foundation and other ((philanthropists)). Hope someday MS will also flop.

 

[santino27]

MFA = Master of Fine Arts. Blackheart is referring to a type of graduate degree in "creative writing" which many consider to be a dumbed down alternative to a proper education in English literature: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/education/edlife/12edl-12mfa.html

It's a joke degree. Nobody cares about it.

It's what people with too much money get because they like being in college forever.

Writers don't need more than a bachelors and barely that. I regret spending money on it.

I got mine (bachelor's in writing) and immediately went and wrote code for a career lol.

 

[Vulpes]

I don't understand your complaint. Obsidian are inadvertently making their game better by conceding that they suck too much to include romance.

If they wanted to make the game better, they wouldn't be including any companions to begin with.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

People should be paid more though. It's disgusting how much execs get paid (whether it's bonuses or just salary) compared to grunts

This is the claim that most people that can't do math always say. People bitch about things like the CEO of Ford getting a $20,000,000 bonus and how they should pay their workers more, but if you go the math on how much more they would pay all those people, it works out to a few cents on the hour. A better use of that would be something like R&D. Innovate, make something better and make sure those people keep the jobs they have in the face of competition.

Only 100 employees bro. Gotta manage those expectations.

The amount of people they have working on games these days still shocks me. It's even more crazy when you have games like Spacebourne which was done by one very talented person.

 

[Infinitron]

About 15 minutes here with Carrie Patel starting at 20:00

 

[Fedora Master]

About 15 minutes here with Carrie Patel starting at 20:00

Nobody cares. This isn't news. This isn't relevant to the actual game. Why is this so hard for you to comprehend?

 

[Yosharian]

People should be paid more though. It's disgusting how much execs get paid (whether it's bonuses or just salary) compared to grunts

This is the claim that most people that can't do math always say. People bitch about things like the CEO of Ford getting a $20,000,000 bonus and how they should pay their workers more, but if you go the math on how much more they would pay all those people, it works out to a few cents on the hour. A better use of that would be something like R&D. Innovate, make something better and make sure those people keep the jobs they have in the face of competition.

Only 100 employees bro. Gotta manage those expectations.

The amount of people they have working on games these days still shocks me. It's even more crazy when you have games like Spacebourne which was done by one very talented person.

Yes clearly I "can't do math", good one.

 

[frajaq]

Hmm it doesn't feel like they are gonna show more gameplay for awhile, and the game still has no release date... should prob unfollow the thread for now

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Enjoy the cringe!



I can't stand this guy. He used to be okay, nothing great but the video equivalent of Velveeta cheese. Over time, he sold out more and more and I can't even stand his retro gaming shit anymore.

I think this is probably more on point, but we'll see:

 

[Silverfish]

Only 100 employees bro. Gotta manage those expectations.

At this point I'd expect the game to be a 5-hour hallway combat simulator with collectibles.

Please. Modern Obsidian could never make a decent Devil May Cry clone.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[scytheavatar]

People should be paid more though. It's disgusting how much execs get paid (whether it's bonuses or just salary) compared to grunts

Execs that, let's not forget, are usually responsible for ruining the fucking games they're in charge of

Grunts at the end of the day are still grunts. I like to say that Steve jobs never designed the hardware of the iphone, never wrote the code of the iphone OS, never even took charge of the iphone marketing. But if he never was Apple CEO there's no chance the iphone would have been made.

The idea on paper should be that the execs should be the elite of the elite, the smartest people in the room. That grunts should just do whatever the elites tell them to do cause the elites know their stuff. And the smartest people should be compensated for their talent cause they are simply worth 100X more than the grunts. The problem comes when the execs are a bunch of frauds and they don't know what the fuck they are doing. In this case it still doesn't matter how competent and great the grunts are, they will still be pulled down by their bosses.

 

[whydoibother]

Over time, he sold out more and more and I can't even stand his retro gaming shit anymore.

Translation: He likes video games and has enthusiasm to play video games.

I think this is probably more on point:

Link to a guy who hates vidoe games and hopes video games will be bad, so he can performatively hate them on video for monkeys to watch.


Please don't be like that.

 

[Roguey]

Hmm it doesn't feel like they are gonna show more gameplay for awhile, and the game still has no release date... should prob unfollow the thread for now

Yeah, don't bother until gamescom.

 

[Gargaune]

Translation: He likes video games and has enthusiasm to play video games.

You realise saying that on the Codex is like saying "he likes the human mind and is enthusiastic about meeting humans" on the Nostromo, right?

 

[Lemming42]

Translation: He likes video games and has enthusiasm to play video games.

I kind of like MrMatty but he undeniably has a habit of pumping up things that are obviously going to suck, and then having to backpedal like a loon post-release. He has the decency to laugh at himself for the infamous "near perfect game" fiasco re: Fallout 4, but he somehow keeps replicating mini versions of the same fuckup.

Relentless positivity can be a good thing but he takes it a bit far. This might not be the case re: Avowed because I haven't watched his vids on it, but I've followed him now and then since the run-up to Fo4's release and he does have a tendency to be gung-ho for things in a way that feels artificial rather than truly-felt, even as his own audience scream at him to face reality.

I appreciate his enthusiasm because people are relentlessly negative nowadays in a way that's profoundly tedious, but I also don't believe his enthusiasm is genuine 80% of the time at this point. It's just become his brand identity to be constantly buzzing about everything, which ends up being just as annoying and insincere as the countless arseholes who have channels dedicated to whinging and ripping on every new game that comes out.