Interview Brian Fargo on inXile's Darkest, Publisher-Driven Days

[UnknownBro]

yada yada yada evil publishur yada yada...
Release the damn thing already and stop babbling so much god damn it.

 

[Grotesque]

I am so happy that bitComposer exists, this beacon of equity, this pristine island amidst puss infested malevolent publishers.

 

[Roguey]

I enjoy how this article was pretty much "Fuck you Bethesda! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou"

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Does that look like it was done on Bethesda's creation engine to anyone else?

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

I enjoy how this article was pretty much "Fuck you Bethesda! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou"

He certainly knows his target audience.

 

[Roguey]

I enjoy how this article was pretty much "Fuck you Bethesda! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou"

He certainly knows his target audience.

I'm sure it's genuine frustration/anger over how they treated him during Hunted. That they also screwed over his buddies at Obsidian is a rage bonus. Though I imagine the Obsidian owners would prefer he not continue to bring that up since they want to work on Fallout 4: Spin-off. I bet they'd even take the bonus off the table entirely if it came to that.

 

[Grunker]

I enjoy how this article was pretty much "Fuck you Bethesda! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou"

He certainly knows his target audience.

I'm sure it's genuine frustration/anger over how they treated him during Hunted. That they also screwed over his buddies at Obsidian is a rage bonus. Though I imagine the Obsidian owners would prefer he not continue to bring that up since they want to work on Fallout 4: Spin-off. I bet they'd even take the bonus off the table entirely if it came to that.

I was thinking about that as well. Though maybe it's nice for Obsidian that people are fighting that fight without them having too. Sort of a backdoor to righteous anger that they can't afford to express themselves, y'know?

 

[DeepOcean]

So, it was Bethesda that made the shitty writing, shitty action combat and shitty art direction too? Bethesda could had being guilt in forcing inExile in making an action game but there was nothing stopping them in making a good action game, actually if they did one, Fargo would be very happy right now making Hunted 2 for Bethesda. When I see Fargo pandering to the hardcore crowd that is exactly what he is doing in this interview, I remember that there were very solid action/RPG games made by middle sized companies like the Larian ones for example. If Hunted was a gem killed by bugs and lack of marketing but with evident qualities (All Troika games for example.) I would agree with him. This sound more like let's blame the evil publisher routine, the fact that his team for the most part didn't had much experience at all outside choplifter HD could had nothing to do with it, right? I'm hyped for Wasteland 2 but these publishers are evil speeches are boring.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Fargo doesn't appear to be at his best being a publisher's bitch.

He appears to be at his best when he's in command.

 

[TheRabbitsGeorge]

blah blah blah

"Hey, have you heard that people love my key lime pie? I was thinking that if you payed for the ingredients, I could make a ton of key lime pies and we'd make tons of money together!"

"Sounds great! People love pie! But we were thinking pizza pie. You're making a pizza pie"

"-but I don't really know how to make a pizza p-"

" NO ONE LIKES YOUR KEY LIME BULLSHIT, START COOKING"

gee i wonder why Hunted was shitty.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Fargo: I hate to comment on what we're going to do next, because we have a lot of different ideas, but I’d be more likely to do something more for my core audience than I would to do something off-kilter. We have our niche. It’s role-playing games. One guy’s going to have a niche for train simulators.

BRIAN FARGO ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR EPIC ROLE-PLAYING TRAIN SIMULATOR GAME.

Choo-Choo McFuggin: The Quest for the Coal of Ironwood

 

[Curious_Tongue]

 

[Oesophagus]

 

[Monty]

Perhaps some foreplay would help?

 

[Brother None]

Does that look like it was done on Bethesda's creation engine to anyone else?

Hunted ran on Unreal Engine IIRC.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Does that look like it was done on Bethesda's creation engine to anyone else?

Hunted ran on Unreal Engine IIRC.

The opening cinematic I mean.

 

[DeepOcean]

blah blah blah

"Hey, have you heard that people love my key lime pie? I was thinking that if you payed for the ingredients, I could make a ton of key lime pies and we'd make tons of money together!"

"Sounds great! People love pie! But we were thinking pizza pie. You're making a pizza pie"

"-but I don't really know how to make a pizza p-"

" NO ONE LIKES YOUR KEY LIME BULLSHIT, START COOKING"

gee i wonder why Hunted was shitty.

I don't know man... I'm not saying that Bethesda aren't being jews but Fargo is on hype mode for Wasteland 2 and the whole article as Roguey already said could be summarized as: Fuck you Bethesda!You fucking jews! I don't care about Bethesda but I'm trying to avoid falling on the hype train for Wasteland 2 and be disapointed in the end like with Shadowrun Returns OC. If Wasteland 2 is really the long waited Messiah, I would adore Fargo as his prophet until then publishers are evil speeches sounds like PR strategy.

 

[Gurkog]

I don't know man... I'm not saying that Bethesda aren't being jews but Fargo is on hype mode for Wasteland 2 and the whole article as Roguey already said could be summarized as: Fuck you Bethesda!You fucking jews! I don't care about Bethesda but I'm trying to avoid falling on the hype train for Wasteland 2 and be disapointed in the end like with Shadowrun Returns OC. If Wasteland 2 is really the long waited Messiah, I would adore Fargo as his prophet until then publishers are evil speeches sounds like PR strategy.

I hope you like a giant fisting!

You statements are pretty much in agreement with my train of thought.

 

[Stabwound]

Fargo really has a lot riding on Wasteland 2 and Torment. I mean, he's burnt a lot of bridges already and he's doing it still even when he's not trying to market his kickstarters.

Good on him, though.

 

[bussinrounds]

It's you. Must be watching so much North that his image is stamped into your brain or something.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Fargo really has a lot riding on Wasteland 2 and Torment. I mean, he's burnt a lot of bridges already and he's doing it still even when he's not trying to market his kickstarters.

Good on him, though.

I think it's probably more like "If this doesn't work I'm totally fucked anyway so...FUCK YOU BETHESDA AND EVERYBODY ELSE!"

 

[St. Toxic]

Any reason to tell Beth to go fuck themselves is validated by the act itself.

 

[crawlkill]

Obsidian said yes to a contract that allowed Bethesda to do this, or are you implying Bethesda broke the contract?

The problem is that a contract that has a higher payout based on reviews in which the employer gets to control QA is loosely equivalent to saying "Hey, I'll pay you double if you can release within six months, also I decide when you release!" You really think they're gonna pick a six-month release if they can delay it a day and deny the dev their bonus? If Bethesda's market research people think the game'll be a hit regardless of its reviews (I don't know if that's A Thing, but since Bethesda games are hits regardless of their -quality,- I wouldn't be surprised), then it actually becomes in their financial self-interest to force a launch on a product that won't be a critical darling. That's conspiracy-ish, but we're talking about corporate politics here. Ethics are rare. I'm not saying I think this is going on, just that as a hypothetical scenario it's entirely possible with this setup.

I operate on the assumption that Bethesda is the ultimate shoestring corporate funnel. Skyrim and Oblivion were built on the same engine, played almost identically, had similar bugs. Does anyone seriously think they spent much more money on Skyrim than a quick graphical overhaul, a slightly more convincing procedural dungeon generator and terrible voice talent? A company like that with sales like they have doesn't need to force a launch before a product's ready, especially with the apparently cheap budget New Vegas was running on. It's suspicious, it's unnecessary, and it hurts both the audience and the people doing the actual work.

I don't know how you fix corporate ethics. Obviously legal regulation would just put abusable power in someone else's hands/further amp the power of the lawyers. Mandatory 100% transparency on certain kinds of decisions and financial data, I guess.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Are e talking Bethesda Softworks? Or Zenimax?

It appeared to me that Bethesda saw an industry bent on raping talent and IP or short term gains, and said "Me too!".

 

[tuluse]

Bethesda is Zenimax for any purposes we're discussing.