Sacred82
Self-Ejected
hobo is the word you're looking for
-
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Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station
- Thread starter Crooked Bee
- Start date
Jedi Master Radek
Arcane
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- 4,348
The Village Loon
Augur
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- Dec 10, 2009
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Oulu next huh? Who are we gonna send there to cosplay a RPG Codex journalist so they get their free personal troll avatar? Vaarna_Aarne could go ask about anime or about Star Trek. Jedi Master Radek can provide up to date intel.
Malignant Manor
Augur
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2013
- Messages
- 213
Wow. That is a terrible picture of Chris Avellone. Someone should tweet the picture to him.
He looks like he had been partying for several days straight. Which he probably had.
yeah he's gained weight lol. maybe quitting corporate structure really help with stress as he hates administration and managing job.
Sensuki
Arcane
Chris looks very tired.
SniperHF
Arcane
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2014
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- 1,110
I guess it's easier than "freelance game designer and writer".
Eh, calling yourself a freelancer is mostly an exercise in branding. There's no reason for whoever made the graphic to abide that. Avellone is basically a contractor and in pretty much every other industry a person who is currently on contract still says "I work for X" despite there being an end point of the arrangement.
Shin
Cipher
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- Jan 5, 2015
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- 700
he looks french, just missing the baguettes and a bottle of red wine
Razor
Arcane
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- 942
Or like Rei Hiroe who is best known for Black Lagoon. The series is in limbo because the author prefers making hentai under the name of "TEX-MEX".
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Digital Dragons videos are starting to go up: https://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalDragonsKrakow/videos
It won't be long now.
It won't be long now.
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Fairfax
Arcane
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I thought this was going to be 90min talking about his favourite game and then answering silly questions, but it does seem to have interesting parts.
At ~12min he starts to talk about leaving Obsidian (even though the question was just about freelancing). It's interesting because he starts to speak very slowly and carefully chooses his words.
"I wasn't happy any longer ff...uh..on...just....focusing on one thing, day after day, specially if that was...troublesome and I had no control over what was going on".
[still listening to the rest]
No transcription, just basically what he said
Interviewer: "I kind of thought you were a for-lifer at Obsidian"
MCA says he still friends with lots of devs there (mentions Brian Menze).
"It's kind of hard being married for 15 years to four other husbands...[laughs]"
[Ooh. Marriage analogy now.]
"Your perspectives narrow when you're continually in that same environment";
"As much as you might make assumptions about them, they certainly starts to make assumptions about you";
"You know, Chris could never make interface design, Chris could never explore systems, [deepens voice] what Chris does is...we want Chris to write, and if Chris starts talking, Chris should probably just write some more! [laughs] eventually you kind of just get tired of it, and I just wanted to do new things";
[MCA is not holding back anymore, folks.]
"There's a range of stuff that I'm working on, these two [TTON, DOS2] are the ones I can talk about";
"My role on TTON was always focused on doing storyline reviews and one of the companions";
Most of the writing in TTON done by Adam Heine, Colin McComb and Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, who MCA calls a "writing powerhouse".
Namedrops RPGCodex and explains how he got to work on D:OS2.
"Any dream projects you'd like to do?"
Chris then talks about how he could pitch this to the people he knows, whether it's something he could fund himself (huh), "isn't necessarily Kickstarter".
[about pitch process] "I don't know whether it just wasn't clicking back at previous companies, but the pitches I've been involved with seem to go really well"; "the success rate for those has upped considerably, so that's been a surprising twist".
At ~12min he starts to talk about leaving Obsidian (even though the question was just about freelancing). It's interesting because he starts to speak very slowly and carefully chooses his words.
"I wasn't happy any longer ff...uh..on...just....focusing on one thing, day after day, specially if that was...troublesome and I had no control over what was going on".
[still listening to the rest]
No transcription, just basically what he said
Interviewer: "I kind of thought you were a for-lifer at Obsidian"
MCA says he still friends with lots of devs there (mentions Brian Menze).
"It's kind of hard being married for 15 years to four other husbands...[laughs]"
[Ooh. Marriage analogy now.
]"Your perspectives narrow when you're continually in that same environment";
"As much as you might make assumptions about them, they certainly starts to make assumptions about you";
"You know, Chris could never make interface design, Chris could never explore systems, [deepens voice] what Chris does is...we want Chris to write, and if Chris starts talking, Chris should probably just write some more! [laughs] eventually you kind of just get tired of it, and I just wanted to do new things";
[MCA is not holding back anymore, folks.
]"There's a range of stuff that I'm working on, these two [TTON, DOS2] are the ones I can talk about";
"My role on TTON was always focused on doing storyline reviews and one of the companions";
Most of the writing in TTON done by Adam Heine, Colin McComb and Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, who MCA calls a "writing powerhouse".
Namedrops RPGCodex and explains how he got to work on D:OS2.
"Any dream projects you'd like to do?"
Chris then talks about how he could pitch this to the people he knows, whether it's something he could fund himself (huh), "isn't necessarily Kickstarter".
[about pitch process] "I don't know whether it just wasn't clicking back at previous companies, but the pitches I've been involved with seem to go really well"; "the success rate for those has upped considerably, so that's been a surprising twist".
Last edited:
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Fairfax
Arcane
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Significant is entirely subjective. Pat Rothfuss and MCA are writing one companion, but I think that's a significant contribution, and that's what was advertised (unlike PoE).
________________________________________________________________________
"There have been AAA game opportunities, which I have taken, where they isolate a certain section of their game, and they'll either ask me "hey, flesh this out, tackle this", and I enjoy that", and goes on about how it could be something different like science-fiction or an RPG he's used to but with a "different framework".
[They talk about Wasteland 1, I'm skipping that]
He has played a "very small amount" of Fallout 4.
About modern/classic RPGs:
"Two things that concern me from a role-playing perspective is...I've always been against players choosing a class [...] I worry that sometimes developers include more classes like that to make the systems more comfortable", "what I've always liked about Fallout was...even though there were suggested archetypes, the way they set up the skill system, you could be a hybrid of any of these things";
"The other thing is...I've always been divided on the concept of voice acting the player character. From the developer side it's such a huge budget resource...at the same time I also worry that it also puts some distance between you and role-playing your character, because you're not saying things the way you imagine your voice sounds, the game's providing that for you", "I'm not poo-pooing the VA in Mass Effect or Fallout 4, like FO4 specially the female PC actress [says the name, didn't catch it], she's got an amazing voice...and when I'm playing I get into that character, but when I step away from it I'm like...well, I don't know if I would have that same experience if I was imagining my character saying those lines".
"I don't think players would be put off by that [not having these 2 things] as much as publishers worry about".
Says he's guessing, but thinks it's probably a developer bias regarding class systems rather than a requirement by publishers. Believes BioWare adding VA to everyone in KOTOR1 changed the industry and set a new level of expectation. Thinks devs may have struggled with it, including BioWare.
AP was a long learning experience in this regard and opened his eyes about BioWare's "amazing pipeline", then ME2 blew him away around the same time.
For the last year and a half he has mostly played builds of games he's working on, testing games or playing "previous games in a franchise for research purposes".
Loved companion arcs in ME2, and says companion arcs are very tricky. Companions are "like the marketing folk within the game for you", and explains how they're supposed to be a sounding board for your characters, explore themes, immediate reactivity, etc. Companions take at least 1 or 1.5 month of work at least, not counting all the voice acting and reaction to that.
Has been playing games from other genres because he was worried he was too focused on RPGs and wasn't looking for solutions in other games. Mentions Telltale games, Bioshock series and Amnesia series. Starts to praise Amnesia's mechanics and talk about how it has simple mechanics that are much better than some RPG tropes.
Interviewer makes him go back to talking about Wasteland. Zzzz....
Likes the stronghold mechanics in AC games and the "360 degrees of actions" you can take in Far Cry 4. Thought early game over "I'll be right back" thing in FC4 was fantastic.
Back to Wasteland again....I know it's called "My Favourite Game" for a reason, but this is overkill. He breaks the natural flow of the answers to forcefully go back to Wasteland.
Guy asks something about Wasteland, Chris answers and moves on to other topics and games during the answer. He follows up with another Wasteland question that has nothing to do with the previous question or the answer.
Says Fallout resembled Wasteland in some ways, but that it "never got as wacky as Wasteland", though "Fallout 2 got close to that wackiness but in a different direction". Hasn't played Undertale yet, and has heard it might approach it [the wackiness]. (?)
The guy actually ran out of questions about Wasteland, so he basically asked "what topics about Wasteland haven't we covered yet?". For fuck's sake....
Dislikes random rolls during character creation and is "glad that archaic RPG mechanic went away".
Believes both WL1 and FO2 had a lack of cohesion. Too many "different voices" and "each area feels different". Says that's why you have a Creative Lead or a Project Director overseeing these things.
Interviewer: "I'm only familiar with Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4".
Brian Fargo set up a contract where he paid Obsidian for MCA's work on WL2. "It was good because Obsidian needed the money at the time -and I felt like I was prostituting myself - but at least I enjoyed having sex with Wasteland 2 [laughs]". Although I think most people always assumed this, it's confirmation that he didn't get paid for it. Apparently he didn't get money besides his normal salary, I mean. Considering he signed up for TTON while still working there, I wonder how that contract is working out, because InXile paid Obsidian to have its employee working on the game, but he doesn't work there anymore.
"Honourable mentions" - I don't know what the hell the host meant here. I guess he's talking about other games he loves? I don't know, there's a music break and it comes back with the guy saying "honourable mentions" really fast.
Chris, however, seems to answer the question as if it was about recent games that he enjoyed, as he explains in the middle of it that he didn't have time to play more.
FTL - loved working with Subset Games guys.
"Unfortunately, I've been playing a lot of mobile games"; says he's been enjoying a "cute" game called Dungeon Boss.
System Shock 2 - says it was a toss up between Wasteland and SS2.
Top 3 games:
There's plenty to speculate about, but I suspect these bits will be in the Radek interview already.
Overall the interview becomes a drag after 40min or so. I don't recommend it.
________________________________________________________________________
"There have been AAA game opportunities, which I have taken, where they isolate a certain section of their game, and they'll either ask me "hey, flesh this out, tackle this", and I enjoy that", and goes on about how it could be something different like science-fiction or an RPG he's used to but with a "different framework".
[They talk about Wasteland 1, I'm skipping that]
He has played a "very small amount" of Fallout 4.
About modern/classic RPGs:
"Two things that concern me from a role-playing perspective is...I've always been against players choosing a class [...] I worry that sometimes developers include more classes like that to make the systems more comfortable", "what I've always liked about Fallout was...even though there were suggested archetypes, the way they set up the skill system, you could be a hybrid of any of these things";
"The other thing is...I've always been divided on the concept of voice acting the player character. From the developer side it's such a huge budget resource...at the same time I also worry that it also puts some distance between you and role-playing your character, because you're not saying things the way you imagine your voice sounds, the game's providing that for you", "I'm not poo-pooing the VA in Mass Effect or Fallout 4, like FO4 specially the female PC actress [says the name, didn't catch it], she's got an amazing voice...and when I'm playing I get into that character, but when I step away from it I'm like...well, I don't know if I would have that same experience if I was imagining my character saying those lines".
"I don't think players would be put off by that [not having these 2 things] as much as publishers worry about".
Says he's guessing, but thinks it's probably a developer bias regarding class systems rather than a requirement by publishers. Believes BioWare adding VA to everyone in KOTOR1 changed the industry and set a new level of expectation. Thinks devs may have struggled with it, including BioWare.
AP was a long learning experience in this regard and opened his eyes about BioWare's "amazing pipeline", then ME2 blew him away around the same time.
For the last year and a half he has mostly played builds of games he's working on, testing games or playing "previous games in a franchise for research purposes".
Loved companion arcs in ME2, and says companion arcs are very tricky. Companions are "like the marketing folk within the game for you", and explains how they're supposed to be a sounding board for your characters, explore themes, immediate reactivity, etc. Companions take at least 1 or 1.5 month of work at least, not counting all the voice acting and reaction to that.
Has been playing games from other genres because he was worried he was too focused on RPGs and wasn't looking for solutions in other games. Mentions Telltale games, Bioshock series and Amnesia series. Starts to praise Amnesia's mechanics and talk about how it has simple mechanics that are much better than some RPG tropes.
Interviewer makes him go back to talking about Wasteland. Zzzz....
Likes the stronghold mechanics in AC games and the "360 degrees of actions" you can take in Far Cry 4. Thought early game over "I'll be right back" thing in FC4 was fantastic.
Back to Wasteland again....I know it's called "My Favourite Game" for a reason, but this is overkill. He breaks the natural flow of the answers to forcefully go back to Wasteland.
Guy asks something about Wasteland, Chris answers and moves on to other topics and games during the answer. He follows up with another Wasteland question that has nothing to do with the previous question or the answer.
Says Fallout resembled Wasteland in some ways, but that it "never got as wacky as Wasteland", though "Fallout 2 got close to that wackiness but in a different direction". Hasn't played Undertale yet, and has heard it might approach it [the wackiness]. (?)
The guy actually ran out of questions about Wasteland, so he basically asked "what topics about Wasteland haven't we covered yet?". For fuck's sake....
Dislikes random rolls during character creation and is "glad that archaic RPG mechanic went away".
Believes both WL1 and FO2 had a lack of cohesion. Too many "different voices" and "each area feels different". Says that's why you have a Creative Lead or a Project Director overseeing these things.
Interviewer: "I'm only familiar with Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4".
Brian Fargo set up a contract where he paid Obsidian for MCA's work on WL2. "It was good because Obsidian needed the money at the time -and I felt like I was prostituting myself - but at least I enjoyed having sex with Wasteland 2 [laughs]". Although I think most people always assumed this, it's confirmation that he didn't get paid for it. Apparently he didn't get money besides his normal salary, I mean. Considering he signed up for TTON while still working there, I wonder how that contract is working out, because InXile paid Obsidian to have its employee working on the game, but he doesn't work there anymore.
"Honourable mentions" - I don't know what the hell the host meant here. I guess he's talking about other games he loves? I don't know, there's a music break and it comes back with the guy saying "honourable mentions" really fast.
Chris, however, seems to answer the question as if it was about recent games that he enjoyed, as he explains in the middle of it that he didn't have time to play more.
FTL - loved working with Subset Games guys.
"Unfortunately, I've been playing a lot of mobile games"; says he's been enjoying a "cute" game called Dungeon Boss.
System Shock 2 - says it was a toss up between Wasteland and SS2.
Top 3 games:
- Wasteland
- System Shock 2
- Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
There's plenty to speculate about, but I suspect these bits will be in the Radek interview already.
Overall the interview becomes a drag after 40min or so. I don't recommend it.
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Listening to this now myself. I wonder if he ends up working on System Shock 3.
Fairfax
Arcane
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- 3,518
Yes, that's the first game that came to mind once he said he was playing previous games in a franchise for research. They'd be fools not to approach him.
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And the preference for classless as well.
Haha, what you really want to know is what things were being shouted at Obsidian on the day he announced that he was leaving. But I doubt we'll ever learn that.
Lhynn
Arcane
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2013
- Messages
- 9,970
I dont agree with MCAs approach to mechanics. Not the first time i said this, tho its not abject rejection like with sawyer.I really thought someone would get around to tagging Lhynn before I did.
Also, i cant stress this enough, i really dont think developers in general know what they are doing, if they did the codex would be a much happier place.
I consider people quoting them like they spoke facts instead of misguided preferences as trolls baiting at best. Appeal to authority is rogueys thing tho.
Fairfax
Arcane
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- Jun 17, 2015
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- 3,518
What's interesting is that he wasn't even asked about his departure directly. Seems like MCA himself wants to talk about it, but the interviewer failed to pick up on that (or perhaps wasn't interested).
Interesting that you expect him to have done that, but was skeptical about Sawyer throwing a tantrum demanding the Kickstarter.
And the preference for classless as well.
Haha, what you really want to know is what things were being shouted at Obsidian on the day he announced that he was leaving. But I doubt we'll ever learn that.
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