Interview Brian Fargo interviewed about Microsoft acquisition at Eurogamer

[TheImplodingVoice]

Does anyone actually believe a word Brian Fagro says?

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

The most fascinating thing for me in all of this is how smoothly the switch between taking the biggest dumps on publishers to being the best buddies again went. No other high profile kickstarter made anti-publisher theme quite so central to their campaign than W2 did. I remember people being concerned with Fargo's future in the industry considering the abandon with which he was burning all the bridges, at least verbally. Yet surprisingly, no bad blood resulted from it. I suppose it's not words that big business cares about the most. People in the publishing probably went "wow, he has nothing, yet he made people pay him money for it; well played Brian, well played!"

The mistake you make is that you think companies have emotions and can hold grudges. No. They only care about how to make more money. They are ruled by psychopaths for which words are just means to an end. Any statement made by them is only a marketing tool, their don't consider the factual merit of words, only how they can be used for the goal of getting more money. They don't have any moral objections against lying, only practical. Lying only becomes a problem when they are caught doing so, but well, they have PR departments to handle those situations.

 

[Morality Games]

The most fascinating thing for me in all of this is how smoothly the switch between taking the biggest dumps on publishers to being the best buddies again went. No other high profile kickstarter made anti-publisher theme quite so central to their campaign than W2 did. I remember people being concerned with Fargo's future in the industry considering the abandon with which he was burning all the bridges, at least verbally. Yet surprisingly, no bad blood resulted from it. I suppose it's not words that big business cares about the most. People in the publishing probably went "wow, he has nothing, yet he made people pay him money for it; well played Brian, well played!"

Wouldn't register with Microsoft anyway. They don't have the mentality of a game publisher because they are more concerned with cloud computing for the Gap, etc.

 

[MicoSelva]

I wish inXile all the best, but other developers are able to make better (and not just technically better) games with similar or smaller budgets, so while having access to M$ money might seem like a boon, it will not remedy everything. Hiring audio guy, lighting guy and cinematics guy might not be enough, inXile could also use better designers... Better writers would also do no harm.

 

[OndrejSc]

Its undeniable that out of the Feargus-Sven-Fargo trio, Brian made the least compromises for the mass market

Yeah, I still remember how Feargus and Swen added health bars to a PnP system that didn't have them because focus groups got confused, added hint pop-ups to their puzzles because, yep, focus groups got confused, and bemoaned that the spiritual successor to PST wasn't "Twitch-friendly" enough.

Feargus and Fargo clearly are the same person, just a copying error by the scribes created two out of them.

 

[The Bishop]

The mistake you make is that you think companies have emotions and can hold grudges. No. They only care about how to make more money. They are ruled by psychopaths for which words are just means to an end. Any statement made by them is only a marketing tool, their don't consider the factual merit of words, only how they can be used for the goal of getting more money. They don't have any moral objections against lying, only practical. Lying only becomes a problem when they are caught doing so, but well, they have PR departments to handle those situations.

Of course companies can't hold grudges. People on the other hand absolutely can. And whenever I think there's no way anybody can be this petty, people keep surprising me. This case however is a different kind of surprise. People at Microsoft have apparently transcended beyond all the worldly passions and achieved true corporate enlightenment.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

The mistake you make is that you think companies have emotions and can hold grudges. No. They only care about how to make more money. They are ruled by psychopaths for which words are just means to an end. Any statement made by them is only a marketing tool, their don't consider the factual merit of words, only how they can be used for the goal of getting more money. They don't have any moral objections against lying, only practical. Lying only becomes a problem when they are caught doing so, but well, they have PR departments to handle those situations.

Of course companies can't hold grudges. People on the other hand absolutely can. And whenever I think there's no way anybody can be this petty, people keep surprising me. This case however is a different kind of surprise. People at Microsoft have apparently transcended beyond all the worldly passions and achieved true corporate enlightenment.

Yes. We have for the first in the history of the world 100% Lawful Evil people. Now we need a Holy Sword.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

The mistake you make is that you think companies have emotions and can hold grudges. No. They only care about how to make more money. They are ruled by psychopaths for which words are just means to an end. Any statement made by them is only a marketing tool, their don't consider the factual merit of words, only how they can be used for the goal of getting more money. They don't have any moral objections against lying, only practical. Lying only becomes a problem when they are caught doing so, but well, they have PR departments to handle those situations.

Of course companies can't hold grudges. People on the other hand absolutely can. And whenever I think there's no way anybody can be this petty, people keep surprising me. This case however is a different kind of surprise. People at Microsoft have apparently transcended beyond all the worldly passions and achieved true corporate enlightenment.

They’re not the same people, though. XBox and Microsoft as a whole are under new management.

 

[Alpan]

Of course companies can't hold grudges. People on the other hand absolutely can. And whenever I think there's no way anybody can be this petty, people keep surprising me. This case however is a different kind of surprise. People at Microsoft have apparently transcended beyond all the worldly passions and achieved true corporate enlightenment.

There's no reason to believe that a given corporate entity reacted in any other way than "yeah, well, that's just Fargo for you, evil publishers, blah blah blah, good for him though" to the WL2 Kickstarter pitch. That is, if they reacted at all. If they even watched that video. For the reality that exists outside the small hopes of an indie revival, the vaunted age of the Kickstarter was a mere blip on the radar: It is, beyond anything else, inconsequential.

Also, the guy is a scion of the Fargo banking family, and is already filthy rich by any measure, if you would check out the pictures of his Newport mansion. That makes him a far, far safer bet than your average indie upstart. Feargus Urquhart is the real wildcard here, but what Fargo says applies to both of them: they have contingency plans and they are survivors.

 

[Delterius]

im looking forward to kinect vr numa numa

 

[Fry]

I wonder many 10,000 unit sellers they have to go through before MS starts telling them what to make.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Does anyone actually believe a word Brian Fagro says?

Only if they are retarded.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Wow, awesome article! Can’t believe this Brian Fargo dude has been making rpgs since the 1980s, thanks for posting Infini! Hopefully they get to interview Obsidian next!

 

[Bohrain]

Lack of capable editors is what hurt Torment if anything.

 

[SlumLord]

Lack of capable editors is what hurt Torment if anything.

Capably editing derivative material still produces mediocrity in the end. I agree that Numenera could've used a good scorched earth policy as far as its jungles of text are concerned, but that wouldn't have put a dent in the myriad of other problems plaguing the game.