Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Fairfax]

 

[mitochondritom]

Chris sounding more butthurt every day. Sure it must make you feel so cheap to be part of another kickstarter *proceeds to become Bethesda drone #123568373*.

 

[Infinitron]

I thought he enjoyed working on other company's games. It's what gave him the idea that he could thrive outside of Obsidian. Becoming a Human Stretch Goal allowed that to happen.

 

[Fairfax]

I thought he enjoyed working on other company's games. It's what gave him the idea that he could thrive outside of Obsidian. Becoming a Human Stretch Goal allowed that to happen.

Wokring on other company's games =/= having to be a stretch goal. Also, he says he didn't like previous times, not all of them.

The odd thing is that he says "or was even aware". It's hard to say where that could've happened:

WL2 - Didn't even have stretch goals, he just joined the team.
TTON - He definitely knew about this one, even explained how he had to work it out with Feargus and Fargo. It was also pretty obvious that he knew and really wanted to do it.
D:OS - Codex and then other backers campaigned for it. He sat down with Swen, liked the project, thanked the Codex, says he's happy to work on it, etc.
BT4 - He also knew about this one, since he wrote a message for the update where they announced it. The stretch goal was for him to design a specific dungeon, which is quite specific. I doubt that would've been the case if Fargo didn't talk to him first.

I think the cases he disliked and the ones he didn't know about are stretch goals that never saw the light of day, like the cancelled Tyranny KS and the PoE2 offer.

 

[Sannom]

Is it confirmed that Tyranny was the Kickstarter which Feargus told us was coming but that ultimately decided not to do?

 

[Prime Junta]

Is it confirmed that Tyranny was the Kickstarter which Feargus told us was coming but that ultimately decided not to do?

AFAIK Tyranny was Paradox's creature from the start. Never intended to go on Kickstarter.

 

[Infinitron]

Is it confirmed that Tyranny was the Kickstarter which Feargus told us was coming but that ultimately decided not to do?

Nope.

Brother None knows what that Kickstarter was, but he never told me. Hey badler, how about you spill the beans? That Kickstarter Feargus was talking about in 2013-2014, what was that?

 

[Azrael the cat]

I wouldn't consider Qui-Gon a grey Jedi, btw. He still is in the Jedi Order, he just don't accept every order and do what he thinks is right even if the Council says otherwise, but that doesn't make him grey or anything else.
Jolee left the Jedi Order and when you meet him he talks about the fact that light and dark side means little and there are more shades of grey, but at the end he's just a man who made some questionable decisions that bite him in the back (his lover-padawan) while always remaining in the path of light.

Kreia on the other hand has been a Jedi Master, shifted gradually towards the Dark Side (as her teachings went more and more against the Jedi Code), then became a Sith Lord and started the Trayus Academy with her two apprentices Sion and Nihilus. She experienced both sides and at the end choose for herself another path in contrast to both the Jedi and the new Sith.
In the end, it could be argued that she is more "evil" than she is neutral, because her actions and words tend to reward (non-pshychotic) dark-side players that manipulate others to get their goals using every tool they have (murder, betrayal of friends and allies, and other morally dubious methods are all legit to her), but she is still an interesting and fresh take for a character in the SW setting and is totally different from any previous "Grey Jedi".

The beautiful thing about Kreia is that she sits outside the 'force classifications' entirely, because her enemy is the force. Where the Sith see power, and the Jedi see space-buddhism, Kreia - who has experienced the heights of both - sees it as robbing everyone, good, evil, every sentient being that has ever existed, of their freedom.

And then she's aware of the contradiction of it all, that what she wants is impossible - every power at her diposal to fight the Force is itself from the Force. It's why she loves the Exile, even after learning that his force connection was severed by fear instead of bravery - because in that time he spent wandering the outer rim, he might just have been the one being in the universe that has ever been truly free, even just for that short period of time before he gained his pseudo-restored connection by draining the force from those around him.

Her awareness of the contradiction of her struggle is mirrored in her mocking the Mandolarians - poor, pathetic fools for thinking that bravery, training, strategy, technology, skill and honour could make up for not being the force's chosen victors/disciples.

Note that she seems more evil on a light-side run - on a darkside run, she'll scold the Exile for thinking that the force gives him strength, rather than being a leash to lead him along like a good little attack dog. And her methods are due to the magnitude of what she's fighting - an all-encompassing, all-seeing force of nature that seems to have a mind of its own, that causes civilisations to rise and fall without anyone even realising that their actions weren't truly free, and which acts through willing agents granted superpowers for submitting themselves to the force's will entirely (just under different shades of the same beast).

Again, that's her perspective, and nothing in the game implies that her view is any better founded than that of the Jedi or Sith. But it's also presented as no worse founded, and that ought send a shiver down any force-sensitive being's spine.

 

[Fenix]

And her methods are due to the magnitude of what she's fighting - an all-encompassing, all-seeing force of nature that seems to have a mind of its own, that causes civilisations to rise and fall without anyone even realising that their actions weren't truly free, and which acts through willing agents granted superpowers for submitting themselves to the force's will entirely (just under different shades of the same beast).

Well... Doesn't it looks like theomachy?

 

[Fairfax]

Is it confirmed that Tyranny was the Kickstarter which Feargus told us was coming but that ultimately decided not to do?

AFAIK Tyranny was Paradox's creature from the start. Never intended to go on Kickstarter.

A few months after PoE was released, Feargus did the interview where he said "we've just signed with a publisher", so it wasn't Paradox's until after PoE.

 

[Infinitron]

Olive branch extension taken to the next level: http://www.pcgamesn.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-deadfire/chris-avellone-obsidian

Obsidian's Josh Sawyer misses having Chris Avellone around: "He's a machine"

It’s been a year and a half since Chris Avellone left Obsidian, the RPG studio he co-founded and helped guide to genre-defining glory, to become a full-time Kickstarter stretch goal. In the time since he’s been attached to Divinity: Original Sin II, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and even Arkane’s Prey reboot. But what of the vacuum he left behind at Obsidian?

In conversation with Josh Sawyer about Pillars of Eternity II, we asked what the designer missed about Avellone’s presence in the studio.

“Chris always gave very good feedback,” Sawyer replied. “I think that one of his greatest assets is his ability to look at a character or storyline and give just really insightful feedback.

“It wasn’t always stuff that everyone agreed with, and he was usually pretty cool - like, if someone said, ‘Ah, there’s another direction I wanna go with this’. But he’s very, very good at analysing a character, their dialogue; he can just see flaws very quickly.”

During the development of Fallout: New Vegas, for instance, it was Avellone who pointed out that the companion line-up was missing a representative from Caesar’s Legion. From that suggestion came Ulysses, who went on to precipitate the story of New Vegas’ concluding Lonesome Road DLC.

“That was an extremely astute observation,” said Sawyer, before adding: “Of course, Chris is extremely prolific as a writer. I don’t actually know if I’ve ever known a writer who’s as prolific as Chris is. So yeah, you know, he’s a machine.”

At the time we interviewed Chris Avellone - shortly before his departure from Obsidian - he spent the average day working on a novella, drawing avatars for Pillars backers and acting as creative lead on a project. It doesn’t sound like his schedule has quietened since.

Chris Avellone

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

This just in: Game studio's creative director denies ex-coworker might have feelings.

 

[Fairfax]

Sawyer wishing he had writers like the FNV team for PoE2.

 

[CptMace]

“Chris always gave very good feedback,” Sawyer replied. “I think that one of his greatest assets is his ability to look at a character or storyline and give just really insightful feedback.

This is so sad how this reflects the fact MCA didn't actually write games anymore.

 

[Rev]

Sawyer wishing he had writers like the FNV team for PoE2.

Can't really blame him after seeing the new addition to the team, Miss Starks.

 

[2house2fly]

“Chris always gave very good feedback,” Sawyer replied. “I think that one of his greatest assets is his ability to look at a character or storyline and give just really insightful feedback.

This is so sad how this reflects the fact MCA didn't actually write games anymore.

It's so weird considering how popular he is among RPG fans, ie Obsidian's audience, that they didn't just front and centre him as much as possible. I guess maybe they tried and his game skept getting cancelled.

 

[Infinitron]

Maybe he didn't want to be front-and-center, or couldn't.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Chris sounding more butthurt every day. Sure it must make you feel so cheap to be part of another kickstarter *proceeds to become Bethesda drone #123568373*.

I completely agree. I'll always respect Chris, mainly because of his work on KOTOR2, Torment and New Vegas DLC but he's become a real douchebag lately.

 

[Fairfax]

Sawyer wishing he had writers like the FNV team for PoE2.

Can't really blame him after seeing the new addition to the team, Miss Starks.

I think nobody would blame him. In the FNV era they had John Gonzalez, Chris Avellone, George Ziets, Eric Fenstermaker and Travis Stout. I wonder what happened to the industry, because there hasn't been any other team nearly as strong since then.

“Chris always gave very good feedback,” Sawyer replied. “I think that one of his greatest assets is his ability to look at a character or storyline and give just really insightful feedback.

This is so sad how this reflects the fact MCA didn't actually write games anymore.

It's so weird considering how popular he is among RPG fans, ie Obsidian's audience, that they didn't just front and centre him as much as possible. I guess maybe they tried and his game skept getting cancelled.

They did put him, Tim Cain and Sawyer as stars during the Kickstarter, but as Roguey quotes in his signature, MCA didn't want to be Lead Writer anymore. Unfortunately, there isn't much he can say about that period due to NDAs.

 

[2house2fly]

Yeah, I think Roguey quoted him as saying he didn't want to be a lead writer at Obsidian, but based on what I've heard since he left he doesn't want to be lead writer anywhere else either. What's he done, "additional writing" on Divinity and Prey?

 

[Fairfax]

Yeah, I think Roguey quoted him as saying he didn't want to be a lead writer at Obsidian, but based on what I've heard since he left he doesn't want to be lead writer anywhere else either. What's he done, "additional writing" on Divinity and Prey?

He's Lead Writer on the System Shock reboot. He's also creating a new studio and working on other undisclosed projects.

 

[2house2fly]

Hadn't heard about the new studio, gl on that and I hope they turn out something cool

 

[Infinitron]

Hadn't heard about the new studio, gl on that and I hope they turn out something cool

It's still unclear to me whether this "new studio" is going to be anything more than Chris Avellone's personal brand name (like what "Spiderweb Software" is to Jeff Vogel), but it is likely that Fairfax knows things I don't.

 

[Fenix]

I wonder what happened to the industry, because there hasn't been any other team nearly as strong since then.

How old they are?
Maybe they can't tolerate that SJW-roll? Or MCA himself? If yes we'll never know because today such info is a death sentense in any industry on the West.
Just guessing.

 

[Rev]

I think nobody would blame him. In the FNV era they had John Gonzalez, Chris Avellone, George Ziets, Eric Fenstermaker and Travis Stout. I wonder what happened to the industry, because there hasn't been any other team nearly as strong since then.

Yeah, they had an amazing talent back then in the writing departure.
Of all these names I still don't understand why let Ziets go. I mean, the others had better offers from richer studios, left over some differences about management or the direction the company was taking (MCA) and Fenstermaker because he wanted some time with his family and his new-born child, but Ziets has ended up working with inXile, so it's not like he was hired by EA, Activision or Bethesda which covered him with money, Obsidian could've probably kept him if they wanted to.