People News Brian Fargo plans to retire after Wasteland 3 is released

[Jazz_]

Farewell Brian, in a world where the average CEO in the industry still looks like the stereotypical dungeons&dragons uberdork from the 80s:

you almost made videogames look like a cool, respectable, and dare I say viril hobby :

 

[Gwendo]

I loved Wasteland 2 (the latest version). I loved the combat system and gameplay. I hope Wasteland 3 will build upon that and not try to deviate too much. Besides Divinity Original Sin, there hasn't been any worthy turn-based combat in RPGs in the past decade. Age of Decadence was a dispointment to me, with suck cluncky gameplay and graphics/animations and poor presentation.

 

[Outlander]

Also, see any similarities here?

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

After he's retired, maybe Brian can eat lunch every day at Herve's pasta bar.

 

[Roguey]

Free toppings you say? Better make the parmesan look like a snowcap.

 

[A horse of course]

Why are you guys so mean? These are real people we're talking about here. Brian devoted his life to pleasing you, and it destroyed him. All he has to look forward to now is alimony payments to his trophy wife once she inevitably leaves him for Chris Roberts.

 

[i.Razor]

Well, considering Brian is a member of Fargo familly and had his future secured from the start i believe he really has(-d) a passion for the games his teams created and i respect that. To bad that TToN has failed and now the fun is over and is time to quit, but understand him.
Thank you Brian for all those games.

(I remember when i was just in highschool in 3rd rate country and my brother gave me a fallout 2 cd and mentioned that saler said it was something like Diablo, and then... oh my)

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

Why are you guys so mean? These are real people we're talking about here. Brian devoted his life to pleasing you, and it destroyed him. All he has to look forward to now is alimony payments to his trophy wife once she inevitably leaves him for Chris Roberts.

I'm not mean to him. I really do think Monte Cook and Colin McComb were more to blame for Torment's failure than Fargo was. Fargo might be an inept CEO, but there's zero evidence that he's a criminal or that this was a "ponzi scheme" as some have alleged. I think Hanlon's Razor applies here. But yes, it couldn't be just a coincidence that he makes this announcement after the tepid reception of Torment. For a few weeks after the game's release it seems like he was in denial, but I think he finally now accepts that the game was a failure, and that was probably a blow to him. No one wants to admit that they fucked up.

If Wasteland 3 ends up being successful then he might change his mind and stick around. He might also pull a Shigeru Miyamoto, where he doesn't fully retire, but stays on behind the scenes to senpai the young bloods while scaling back his own direct control over things. Retirement or not, I'm sure he recognizes he won't be around forever, so he will want to ensure the company passes on to capable hands, because this is his legacy.

I also think opinions of Torment might soften in the years ahead, just like how opinions of George W. Bush have softened compared to the final years of his presidency. Torment is a terrible RPG and barely counts as a game, but it fills a niche in being an avant-garde artsy fartsy Frenchie thing that appeals to college Liberals. It will probably have a long lasting cult following with that demographic. I don't know how much of a consolation that will be to Brian Fargo when he's an old man on his death bed, but it's something.

 

[Wayward Son]

I imagine that Wasteland comes across as unplayable and ridiculous if you played Fallout first, and groundbreaking and amazing (though not unflawed) if you played Wasteland first.

Not in my case. I played New Vegas, F3, F1, and then F2, then lastly Wasteland. And I found it pretty enjoyable.

 

[Morality Games]

Why are you guys so mean?

You've been a member since 2010.

 

[Lurker King]

I'm not mean to him. I really do think Monte Cook and Colin McComb were more to blame for Torment's failure than Fargo was. Fargo might be an inept CEO, but there's zero evidence that he's a criminal or that this was a "ponzi scheme" as some have alleged.

It’s not about being mean; it’s about holding people accountable for their mistakes.

The problem of Fargo is that since the first Wasteland and Bardstale he stop being a developer and become a bunch of other things with multiple interests.

The way he approached the ToN kickstarter reflected completely lack of understanding of what made PS:T work in the first place – from the spoilerish trailers, to the terrible choice of setting.

He thinks that he can buy people to deliver a classic and wash his hands, which is utter idiotic. Just because Colin McComb worked on PS:T, doesn’t mean that he will deliver another PS:T. You have to be involved daily, know the ins and outs of the process, conceptually analyze whether something is good or not, etc. He doesn’t do that, because he break deals and sell hopes. He is a salesman.

 

[huskarls]

I can't blame Fargo too much for making nostalgia bait sequels since that's all kikestarter wanted to fund, in fact wasteland 2 is very good for a team he slapped together after being out of the game for a decade. But man he spent millions making a visual novel more poorly written than fan fiction. I think codex plays a part in that for over hyping torment, there's no way Fargo would have got as much backing for an original title as he did for Tworment -but you just can't write a novel with some fresh faced rookies slapped together just because you can make a turn based game with them, no matter how many dinosaurs you have facing the operation. Maybe Bioware or interplay at is peak, or even obsidian five years ago, can edit something with a lot of writing, some small scale company however can't even if they are attracted by the low production costs

I also doubt he's making the necessary development changes to bards tale 4 and wasteland 3

 

[Kz3r0]

What are the qualities of a "Fargo game"? That distinction seems like a big stretch.

Wasteland 1, daring, whaky, over the top and visceral with very basic gameplay, basically nerd games made for jocks, inXile latest releases maintain the same tracts but without the luster and genius of yore.

 

[Kz3r0]

Who made a real difference in the gaming world were the developers, artists, programmers, etc., involved in these games, mostly people who you will never know, or don’t care to know, because you are too eager to give the credit to the car salesman that ruined the company.

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

He thinks that he can buy people to deliver a classic and wash his hands, which is utter idiotic. Just because Colin McComb worked on PS:T, doesn’t mean that he will deliver another PS:T. You have to be involved daily, know the ins and outs of the process, conceptually analyze whether something is good or not, etc. He doesn’t do that, because he break deals and sell hopes. He is a salesman.

That's kinda the same thing as what I said - he's clearly an inept CEO, but there's no reason to believe he's a malicious criminal with evil intent like some have suggested. He's just made some really bad decisions and put his trust in people he shouldn't have. With all the writing talent he bought, he might have done better to create a new franchise IP from scratch instead of building his game in Monte Cuck's SJW dystopia. This more than anything else resulted in the mediocre product presented before us. People wonder where all the money disappeared to, and apparently it was eaten up by having to do endless rewrites and revisions because of Monte's tantrums over things like his insistence that no white characters were allowed.

A CEO doesn't get involved in the creative process directly, but it is their job to sniff out the best talent, and this is where Fargo failed. It isn't his fault that Monte and Colin are SJW hacks, but it is Fargo's fault that he failed to realize this. Fargo never should have become a CEO. Some people are great at certain roles, but terrible in others. In his younger days back in the 80s before he became a CEO he was a simple game developer and everything was golden, and many of these games like Wasteland are beloved classics today. His greatness as a game developer made Interplay great, but his ineptitude as a CEO was what lead to Interplay's decline. That's how it is with InXile too, so the history appears to have repeated itself.

He has one final chance to redeem himself with Wasteland 3, and I hope he can pull it off. He needs to roll up his sleeves and step into the ring as Fargo the game developer; not Fargo the CEO. Come on Brian, show these young SJW idiots how CRPG development is really done - just like you did back in the 80s!

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

People wonder where all the money disappeared to, and apparently it was eaten up by having to do endless rewrites and revisions because of Monte's tantrums over things like his insistence that no white characters were allowed.

The funny thing is, the whole point of a license is to bring fans of the license in as players. Why the fuck else would you put up with dealing with some imbecile and paying fees? And even TSR never got that hands on with licensees

As far as SJWs go, most older people don't realize how things have become. Some 60s hippy spewing dipshit would still act semi normal back in the day. Now it's all soviet union levels of bizarreness and unreality.

 

[Iri]

Not sure what he meant with 'Last of the Mohicans' and 'old guard' but if he is talking about veteran game developers, that statement is simply untrue.

There are alot of old developers till kicking. Though how many of those people on your list came back after Schafer and Fargo proved there was a way to make games they are excited about? Even if all Fargo did was be the 1st guy to replicate Double Fine's Hail Mary it still crowded the field with other possibilities. How many companies and developers were in freefall before the crowdfunding sh*t?

How many came back using the same Hail Mary pass? (Julian Gollop is back for chrissakes)

I am not giving him all the credit in the world but he does seem like a cool guy who f*cking tried.

real talk:

He is the Obi-Wan to Avellones Skywalker. I will pour a beer out the day this guy retires. Probably like a PBR but that's just cause I'm a cheap asshole.

 

[GarfunkeL]

he's clearly an inept CEO

Guy has run two successful companies for decades. InExile has no external debts and is in a very good position. He hasn't had to put his own, or his family's, money into keeping it afloat, and there have been no scandals of employees not getting paid which is sadly common in the games industry. At least the other retards shit on him for artistic reasons. Claiming that he's inept as a CEO is just so fucking retarded. Do you even understand what a CEO is or does?

 

[Apexeon]

He got given plenty of money to run a indie development company. More then any indie with "passion" will ever see
in there life time.

He had his chance at incline and he failed.

If Brain had passion for game development he should of learnt by now what makes a great game tick.
Passion means you want to learn, to get better and to make better art.

Real passion would find a way to make a great game.
Real passion is a life time endeavour.

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

The funny thing is, the whole point of a license is to bring fans of the license in as players. Why the fuck else would you put up with dealing with some imbecile and paying fees?

That might have been the point, but it obviously didn't pay off, did it? OTOH, Pillars of Eternity is a completely new IP created from scratch, and it has sold a million copies. I don't know how much of a following Monte Cuck's books have, but clearly that didn't translate into sales for this game. So at the very least a new IP from scratch couldn't have worked out any worse than how things turned out anyway, and it wouldn't have had Monte meddling and getting butthurt about everything.

As far as SJWs go, most older people don't realize how things have become. Some 60s hippy spewing dipshit would still act semi normal back in the day. Now it's all soviet union levels of bizarreness and unreality.

Yes, things are worse now in that regard than they've ever been. Someone like JFK would probably be considered a Republican by today's standards for saying things like "ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" which means he would be against entitlements and reparations for slavery and all that, so he would probably be slammed for being "racist" too. Goes to show how far society has fallen over these last few decades.

But that being said, there's no reason that SJW crap should be shoved into video games. Many people play video games to escape this sort of bullshit in the real world. No one likes being told they're "racist" or "privileged" and should be rubbed out just because of their skin color. That's bad for business if you're a game developer, and it is also a good way to lose elections if that's the platform you run on. Hillary supporters, I'm talking to you.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

But that being said, there's no reason that SJW crap should be shoved into video games. Many people play video games to escape this sort of bullshit in the real world. No one likes being told they're "racist" or "privileged" and should be rubbed out just because of their skin color. That's bad for business if you're a game developer, and it is also a good way to lose elections if that's the platform you run on. Hillary supporters, I'm talking to you.

I agree, but I doubt fargo wanted that. Most tv and games have been made by faggots and jews for decades but only recently have they let their bullshit become the main driving force behind their "entertainment".

Doubly stupid to get a license when that means any sequels will also need the shitty license, too.

 

[Davaris]

Hire the clapped out talking heads of teams that made awesome games in their early 20s for nostalgia reasons. Expect they will perform as well in their 40s and 50s. What could possibly go wrong? Sprinters have their prime years and so do mathematicians and physicists. Designers clearly have them as well.

TBH, there's kind of a contradiction between the idea of Fallout as Tim Cain's underground personal project that he and his friends made without anybody knowing, and how obviously it was an attempt to flatter Fargo's sensibilities.

Didn't Tim Cain want it to be set in the Jurassic period initially? Post-apoc was someone else's idea iirc.

EDIT: Fallout Could've Been About Time-Traveling, Dinosaurs, and Monkey Murder

Spoiler

"You started in the modern world," Cain said. "You traveled back in time, you killed the monkey that would evolve into humans, you went through space travel, you went to the future, which was ruled by dinosaurs, you were exiled to a fantasy planet where magic took you back to the original timeline that you restored to full, and came back to the modern world to save your girlfriend."

Okay, so. As much as I love the idea of a fantasy planet that magically returns things to how they were, allowing you to save your girlfriend, I think my favorite part about this is that you "killed the monkey that evolved into humans." What?

"It's weird to hear me talk about it now," Cain said, "but we really were going to go with this. And I think one of the other producers kinda slapped me and said, 'There's no way you're going to get this storyline made, it's not going to get through, you could work on it for years and no one would ever do it.'

Regardless, what led to it being a GURPS emulation was definitely of Cain's making.

The way Tim explained it made it look like brainstorming to me. Ideas were taken from the time traveling idea, like the vault the player ventures out from.

People wonder where all the money disappeared to, and apparently it was eaten up by having to do endless rewrites and revisions because of Monte's tantrums over things like his insistence that no white characters were allowed.

The funny thing is, the whole point of a license is to bring fans of the license in as players. Why the fuck else would you put up with dealing with some imbecile and paying fees? And even TSR never got that hands on with licensees

As far as SJWs go, most older people don't realize how things have become. Some 60s hippy spewing dipshit would still act semi normal back in the day. Now it's all soviet union levels of bizarreness and unreality.

Whites just love their virtue signaling.

 

[Junmarko]

The way Tim explained it made it look like brainstorming to me. Ideas were taken from the time traveling idea, like the vault the player ventures out from.

Watch his interview with Matt Barton, goes into more depth

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Wasteland 1 is tremendous as both an inspiration to younger devs at the time and as a game on its own. Brian Fargo made that. After all he's done for the industry, it's stupid to argue he doesn't care about games.
His track record is immense, if uneven, and much more stable than for instance Peter Molyneux who used to be a games genius but now... yeah.
But times change and I agree that this is a pretty good time to quit. Let's just hope he does intend to make his last game WL3 the best he possibly can.

 

[Makabb]

WL3 the best he possibly can.

hate to be that guy, but it will never be Fallout 1 again