Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[IHaveHugeNick]

Chris is slowly becoming a poster child for why "never meet your heroes" is best advice a young person can hear.

 

[Fairfax]

While still at Obsidian Chris was quite fast to put some of the blame always on publishers as well.

He was never on the "publishers are evil" train, he always blamed himself and Obsidian for the issues in their games.

I seriously doubt a change in the interface that had little or no effect at all was all that damning for the game.

It seems you had some trouble understanding the tweet. "To little or no effect" means the attempt to change the UI was a failure, not that the intended changes were minimal. Even if they were, his point is that Parker wasted a lot of time and resources in the process.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Oh give it up already, Fairfax. I've met goth teenage girls on their first period who were acting more reasonable than Avellone does these past few years.

 

[HoboForEternity]

avellone going the way of jeff vogel?

 

[Fairfax]

Oh give it up already, Fairfax. I've met goth teenage girls on their first period who were acting more reasonable than Avellone does these past few years.

Zzzz... At least the other Obsidian fanboys put in some effort.

 

[fantadomat]

avellone going the way of jeff vogel?

Does it really matter,as long as they make good games?

 

[Background Character]

Oh give it up already, Fairfax. I've met goth teenage girls on their first period who were acting more reasonable than Avellone does these past few years.

Were they hot?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Eh, think of it like a jilted lover. He's bitter as fuck and probably regrets a lot of shit. He's also probably angry that his shit continually got butchered or cut out or pushed aside. I take it as something similar to what happened in Troika. The guys all of a sudden became businessmen and they did not want to do that. Boyarski is quite candid he has no interest in ever doing that again, and just wants to make games. Cain is the same way I think.

Also probably a little bit of envy of Sawyer for his rise and the two apparently dislike each other tremendously. He might have seen sawyer as a rival early on, or vice versa.

And the fact that Sawyer seems to excel in obsidian at various levels while MCA apparently floundered certainly shows that Avellone is possibly blaming everyone at the top for his own inability and his own discomfort in his new role.

 

[Lhynn]

Fact is Avellone can write and has interesting ideas for systems. I have enjoyed his shit most of the time.
Sawyer cant do shit but peddle garbage to imbeciles, and business is booming.

As to their "rivalry", i just dont buy it.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Fact is Avellone can write and has interesting ideas for systems. I have enjoyed his shit most of the time.
Sawyer cant do shit but peddle garbage to imbeciles, and business is booming.

As to their "rivalry", i just dont buy it.

Sounds like the classic case of artistic genius vs. businessperson. Although for his level of genius Chris has been plenty successful. There's others with that skill and creativity who are starving in comparison.

 

[Lhynn]

Sounds like the classic case of artistic genius vs. businessperson.

I just dont think there is a vs.

There's others with that skill and creativity who are starving in comparison.

Who?

 

[Infinitron]

Lhynn is...absolutely correct!

The case of Chris Avellone isn't the case of an uncompromising artist who got pushed out of his studio for refusing to lower his standards.

It's the case of a guy who burned out and developed a grudge against his partners.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Lhynn is...absolutely correct!

The case of Chris Avellone isn't the case of an uncompromising artist who got pushed out of his studio for refusing to lower his standards.

It's the case of a guy who burned out and developed a grudge against his partners.

Interesting. So maybe it's a case of a wild genius (like a sorcerer, if you will. Or maybe a wild mage) vs. genius but who has discipline to stick around in the industry (like a wizard, with structure, etc..)

Sounds like the classic case of artistic genius vs. businessperson.

I just dont think there is a vs.

There's others with that skill and creativity who are starving in comparison.

Who?

I don't follow them at all like that so I have no idea if there is a vs. at all. I just meant in their approach, or at least the way their approaches were framed a few posts back (again, I know very little about them as people and barely enough about them as designers. I just know Chris did Planescape: Torment. )

 

[Deadass]

Avellone should just make his own studio and stop whoring around

 

[Prime Junta]

It's the case of a guy who burned out and developed a grudge against his partners.

Sure looks like that.

TBF it's highly likely that there are valid reasons behind the grudge.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

It's the case of a guy who burned out and developed a grudge against his partners.

Sure looks like that.

TBF it's highly likely that there are valid reasons behind the grudge.

If he was this much of a whiny bitch when he still worked there, there's also valid reason why other partners were tired of his shit.

 

[Flou]

TBF it's highly likely that there are valid reasons behind the grudge.

I agree. Chris Parker could be a horrible person to work with or just a horrible person in general. I just don't think what Avellone does is healthy or very constructive. It's just very petty and it makes him look as bad as it does make Obsidian look if not even worse. It's Chris who chooses to answer these questions and tweets, seething with anger, frustration and such. He could ignore any such questions if he chose to, or he could just blurt out everything that ever went wrong with Obsidian and be done with it since he didn't sign the NDA.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

If he had a beef with somebody, he should have spoke about it when he left. He was one of founders, so "never shit talk previous employers" doesn't apply here. Say what you have to say, rip it like a bandaid and move on. This is what an adult does.

Spending 3 years on constant passive-agressive bickering is how a manchild acts and there's nothing that annoys me more, than a middle aged manbaby.

And it's funny you know. Back when MCA first announced his departure, pretty much the entire Obsidian/BIS fanbase took his side and gave him a benefit of a doubt. It was those greedy corporate penny pinchers Sawyer and Feargus, keeping the Genius Artist down, all out of spite. A lot of us expected the Genius Artist to start his own company pronto and show the talentless hacks how it's done.

Couple of years pass, Obsidian seems to be doing great and are probably in best condition they have ever been. Meanwhile, the Genius Artist spends his days bitching on twitter to his 85 followers and whoring himself out to mediocre developers doing forgettable side jobs.

Funny how things change.

 

[Fairfax]

Also probably a little bit of envy of Sawyer for his rise and the two apparently dislike each other tremendously. He might have seen sawyer as a rival early on, or vice versa.

MCA used to praise Sawyer quite often in interviews, he only stopped after PoE's pre-production.

Avellone should just make his own studio

He's doing that.

 

[Rev]

MCA used to praise Sawyer quite often in interviews, he only stopped after PoE's pre-production.

Well, tbh he used to praise a lot of his former coworkers at Obsidian, now he doesn't (he spoke positevely only about two or three of his ex-colleagues who he's probably friends with), even if he has no problem praising the likes of Hines, Howard, Bethesda in general and Beamdog.

 

[ga♥]

When they pay your bills and rent, it's hard to NOT praise them.

Anyway, some "citations needed" on the burning out part and total innocence on Obsiddian part.

 

[fantadomat]

It is difficult to say with people like them, he could have just wanted some change. Also i don't think that there is some real animosity between them....yet. There are creative differences with artistic people and they do like to bitch,that doesn't mean that they want to do a "last man standing" in the office.

 

[Fairfax]

MCA used to praise Sawyer quite often in interviews, he only stopped after PoE's pre-production.

Well, tbh he used to praise a lot of his former coworkers at Obsidian, now he doesn't (he spoke positevely only about two or three of his ex-colleagues who he's probably friends with), even if he has no problem praising the likes of Hines, Howard, Bethesda in general and Beamdog.

He spoke positively of the devs in general, and said his issue is with the management. He also said he's looking forward to the Cain/Boyarsky game.

Anyway, some "citations needed" on the burning out part and total innocence on Obsiddian part.

It's just Infinitron's conclusion.

 

[Plane Escapee]

Posters are not appreciating Chris Avellone enough in this thread. Please split thread into Chris Avellone Lack Of Appreciation Station for accuracy and upholding of stable and lawful forum government, ORDNUNG MUSS SEIN.

 

[Roguey]

He could ignore any such questions if he chose to

Can't fault a guy for answering questions. He occasionally reiterates that he always responds to people because when he was young and wanting to break into the game industry, already-established people hardly ever responded to his inquiries.