Interview Codex Interview with MCA

[callehe]

Also, new reno fits well into the fallout world.

Oldstyle gangsters fit in PERFECTLY with the 'future past' world of fallout.

yeah, listen to bryce all you fallout 2 haters out there. new reno didn't suck. san fransisco did though. big time.

 

[VasikkA]

A very entertaining 'interview'(and pictures!). It wasn't that hostile and loaded as I expected, but MCA pulled it off anyway in that peculiar manner we're used to on his part. Too bad most of the answers were about Kotor and not so much about PS:T. I, too, missed the Kotor series. He should author a Black Isle Bible revealing all the juicy behind-the-scenes intrigue in the company during its last days.

 

[Vault Dweller]

5 more interviews coming.

Any of Bethesda's developer(s) in those interviews ?

Nope. I talked to Kathode (Gavin Carter) awhile ago and MSFD few months ago, both have agreed/expressed interest, but Pete Hines said no.

 

[Vault Dweller]

FUCKING CHRIST, can you asshats stop using abbreviations for one post? Who the hell is MCA? Chris A. the object of the interview? Why the M?

Mister Chris Avellone. An old joke that goes back to the Black Isle historic period.

And what the fuck is BL?

Bloodlines, the last Troika game.

Before you ask, RPG is a role-playing game.

 

[elander_]

Very funny interview. CA is my favorite games writer and he can pass a negative criticism without being agressive. I see why they are so disturbed by rpgcodex and the other critic and cynical rpg sites and that's a good thing. I bet they all would like people to forget all the classics that have been made between 1992 and 1999 like Darklands, Daggerfall, Fallout, Baldurs Gate, Planescape. So i guess they will have rpgcodex and similar news sites stuck in their asses for a long time until they learn.

 

[theverybigslayer]

The second picture is great.
I am the baby on the left side.
CONSOLES SUCK!

 

[Zomg]

I mean seriously, this:

Its core gameplay should be fun. Aside from our lead designer, Kevin Saunders, our third project has two of the three sub-lead designers (one Josh Sawyer, the other, Brian Heins, who were able to persuade to depart Rockstar) devoted to overseeing the two core game mechanics of the game and making sure they are as fun for the player as possible.

has got to be some kind of fucking stupid joke.

True. He's probably not acclimated to dealing with outsiders that consider him an artist, with the responsibilities that implies, rather than just another ha-ha-but-seriously organ of the schlock mill, the way the gaming press or suits must.

 

[Vault Dweller]

VD, you are wrong about new reno. Russia today is a great example of this.

Great example of what? Russia isn't a PA country, it's a country where the hand of law had been weakened by the changes, and organized crime has filled the vacuum. The existing social/political/economical infrastructure can't be handled by some bandits, it requires a much higher level of organization - ties to politicians, legal protection, integration into economics, controlling businesses from within, etc. The Fallout world needed none of that. That's why NR doesn't fit.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I don't get this New Reno bashing too. Ok, it doesn't fit the PA setting as such but it perfectly fits the fallout setting considering the shitload of intentionally comical places and characters in both falllout games. I never felt that fallout tries to realisticly mimic the PA feeling.
Although I agree about San Fran. Not because it doesn't fit but because it's plain silly including most of the npcs there.

 

[bryce777]

VD, you are wrong about new reno. Russia today is a great example of this.

Great example of what? Russia isn't a PA country, it's a country where the hand of law had been weakened by the changes, and organized crime has filled the vacuum. The existing social/political/economical infrastructure can't be handled by some bandits, it requires a much higher level of organization - ties to politicians, legal protection, integration into economics, controlling businesses from within, etc. The Fallout world needed none of that. That's why NR doesn't fit.

I think the iea that russia has to be post apocalyptic to draw a parallel is pretty ridiculous.

Organized crime is much more far sweeping han people realize, especially in certain times.

After the war new reno would only have a few thousand people, anyhow, not hundreds of thousands like today. In China, there was once a pirate fleet with over 80,000 pirates all led by the same pirate queen. The idea that thugs cannot take over some turf is pretty ridiculous, as that is what thugs do, and the situation in new reno is the same as with any group of primitive tribal chieftans.

 

[callehe]

In China, there was once a pirate fleet with over 80,000 pirates all led by the same pirate queen.

there was? damn, how come i don't know that kind cool of stuff about my country's history?

 

[bryce777]

In China, there was once a pirate fleet with over 80,000 pirates all led by the same pirate queen.

there was? damn, how come i don't know that kind cool of stuff about my country's history?

You have to know these sorts of things when you're king of the pirates.

 

[Vault Dweller]

In China, there was once a pirate fleet with over 80,000 pirates all led by the same pirate queen.

So? You can't compare pirates/bandits, operating/attacking from the outside, to organized crime like families presented in NR, operating/attacking from the inside. The models, the reasons, the logic, the goals/tactics are completely different. Even a small and well organized army of thugs, like the motor gang in Mad Max 2, would have fit in, but a family completely integrated into society, operating businesses: casinos/drug labs/alcohol productions, etc doesn't.

That's the main difference between an organized group of thugs, who never produce anything and never evolve beyond stealing/plundering, and organized crime that operates like a business, producing goods and services.

The idea that thugs cannot take over some turf is pretty ridiculous...

Never said that.

 

[bryce777]

In China, there was once a pirate fleet with over 80,000 pirates all led by the same pirate queen.

So? You can't compare pirates/bandits, operating/attacking from the outside, to organized crime like families presented in NR, operating/attacking from the inside. The models, the reasons, the logic, the goals/tactics are completely different. Even a small and well organized army of thugs, like the motor gang in Mad Max 2, would have fit in, but a family completely integrated into society, operating businesses: casinos/drug labs/alcohol productions, etc doesn't.

That's the main difference between an organized group of thugs, who never produce anything and never evolve beyond stealing/plundering, and organized crime that operates like a business, producing goods and services.

The whole idea of organized crime is they do just that.

Do you think that it is a simple operation to supply alcohol to the entire united states? Or so supply heroin or cocaine? No, it is not. Pablo Escobar owned hundreds of farms used to produce coca leaves, for example. Crime bosses in Russia own as many legitimate businesses as anyone else.

I can't even imagine how you can still maintain this ridiculous position, to be honest.

 

[Vault Dweller]

In China, there was once a pirate fleet with over 80,000 pirates all led by the same pirate queen.

there was? damn, how come i don't know that kind cool of stuff about my country's history?

Shame on you then . Anyway, the Codex is a place of wisdom and education, so let me fill in the gaps in your education:

Shi Xianggu (1775-1844) was a prostitute from Guangdong (Canton) province who started her pirate career in 1801 when she married Zheng Yi, leader of the Red Flag pirate fleet. After her marriage, Shi became known as Zheng Yi Sao (literally "wife of older brother Zheng Yi").1 The couple went to Annam (present day Vietnam) to fight in the Tay Son rebellion.2 After returning to Guangdong, China, they conducted joint operations with another pirate Wu Shi'er, rapidly extending their scope of influence and eventually establishing the Cantonese Pirate Coalition. Prior to forming the coalition, the Zhengs already had 200 ships under their command. The size of their fleet expanded to 600 ships after the coalition was established.3

After Zheng Yi died in 1807, Xianggu shared leadership of the fleet with Zheng Yi's deputy Zhang Bao. Zhang Bao, also known as Zhang Baozai ("Zhang Bao the Kid"), was then only 21.4 He was a fisherman's son. The Zhengs kidnapped Zhang when he was 15. He proved himself a brave fighter and intelligent leader and was soon adopted by the Zhengs as their foster son.5 Zhang was believed to have been Zheng Yi's boy favorite as well as Shi Xianggu's lover and later husband. Contemporary records held that Zheng Yi Sao was officially the commander and Zhang Bao, being her subordinate, had to seek her approval for administering any rewards and punishments to the crew.6

Xianggu and Zhang Baozai took the Red Flag Fleet to unprecedented levels of power and organization.7 By 1809, there were 70,000 pirates under their command. The level of armament of Zheng Yi Sao's pirate fleet was thrice that of the English fleet and Spanish armada combined at the 1588 battle between England and Spain.8 Shi Xianggu was effectively mistress of the high seas, repeatedly defeating the navy sent to capture the pirates. Both the civil and military arms of the Guangdong government were powerless against her.9 Shi Xianggu is said to far surpass her two husbands in fame, bravery, strategy and spirit. Her life has been immortalized in the novel Zheng Yi Sao by Yang Wanxiang.10

I had a cool series of books about the history of piracy per ocean/sea: Pirates of the Indian Ocean, Pirates of the Carribean Sea, etc. Hence, the knowledge.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Do you think that it is a simple operation to supply alcohol to the entire united states? Or so supply heroin or cocaine? No, it is not. Pablo Escobar owned hundreds of farms used to produce coca leaves, for example. Crime bosses in Russia own as many legitimate businesses as anyone else.

Huh? Of course not, but I've never argued that it was simple. My point had nothing to do with the complexity of organized crime, but with the requirements and prerequisites.

I can't even imagine how you can still maintain this ridiculous position, to be honest.

Same applies.

 

[callehe]

as much i hate to be lectured in mein vaterland's history by white boys, that piece of history was more than good enough to justify it thanks VD.

on new reno: fallout is not only about realism, it's about style and atmosphere as much as survival. the ganster setting fitted perfectly with the 50's theme that is an essencial part of fallout. If you complain about new reno because of the sophistication of the crime organizations you should be equally pissed by by gizmo (was that his name?) running a casino in the middle of the radiated wasteland in fallout 1. i enjoyed the different themed towns in FO2 because they added flavour and emphasized different components of a great PA setting.

 

[Drain]

but Pete Hines said no.

Perhaps he will be more cooperative after the release once the excitement(shitstorm) calms down. Besides, post-release interview won't attract as much attention to Rpgcodex, if it is what Bethesda tries to avoid.

 

[HanoverF]

Gangsters weren't 50's culture, it was 20-30's stuff.

VD, You're going way to detailed in your critique of New Reno. It's fucking Star Trek crap, instead of gangster world, its gangster town. It's an easter egg writ large. Not making sense is ancillary and debatable, it doesn't fit the setting.

 

[kingcomrade]

on new reno: fallout is not only about realism, it's about style and atmosphere as much as survival.

You said this, which is partly correct.
And then you said this:

the ganster setting fitted perfectly with the 50's theme that is an essencial part of fallout.

Which is not correct in ANY sense. Gangsters weren't a big part of '50s atmophere.

Japanese mobsters with samurai swords do not fit into post-apocalyptic of California any more than the kung fu Chinese people did. New Reno was TOO organized. It had casinos and crime bosses, but where are they getting their money? When people are struggling to survive after the bomb, they're going to go spend their money in huge casinos? That's not even the real problem, as you said there was something similar set in Junktown, though I don't agree that they were analogous.

The real point is that it doesn't fit the atmosphere like you said it does. Fallout is about survival, desperation, peasant communities and gangs and petty crime, lost technology, and radiation monsters. Not mobsters and Yakuza. New Reno was barely post-apocalyptic at all, it might as well have been set in 1920s urban decay area. Fallout 2 is full of shit that doesn't fit in with the setting, none of which is "essential" to what Fallout is.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I didn't mind the whole organized crime thing myself, i just thought they had way much of a built up city for the setting. Big fancy casinos seemed odd when people couldn't even get cars to work in the first one.

 

[Lumpy]

On the matter of towns which make no sense: Redding - who needs gold in a post apocaliptic world? And Gecko - what the hell did they need the energy the reactor produced for? There was nothing in that town that needed electricity. And they didn't even export it until you came.

 

[Solik]

Good interview. My favorite parts:

Camera angle is critical to gameplay. Isometric is more tactical, less immersive, but better for any game where you have to manage more than one companion...

A character should always have their own voice and opinion, but doing that in every situation is very resource intensive, and in some cases, I would argue it isn't always fun...

I guess my problem with dialogue is that it shouldn't have to make the action or the player's freedom stop, I think there's probably a better way to implement it in the environment that works for both types of players. I do disagree (and I have been guilty of this), that you necessarily limit a player's choice whenever you force them to endure a long dialogue, freeze them in place to watch someone else, and don't allow them to interact with people the way they want...

Its core gameplay should be fun...

Be realistic in scope. It is much better to have a high quality game with less material in it than the kitchen sink of mediocre elements.

To answer someone else's question -- lengthy dialogue breaks immersion if you can't give meaningful reactions and responses because it becomes very obvious that the game world you were in has been "paused," and you're forced to watch polygon puppet theater. It's much nicer when you're an actor on stage instead of merely a viewer. It's probably mostly a misnomer -- lengthy monologue, or conversation between other NPCs, is what's bad, even if the player is allowed to give some responses (if they don't really affect anything).

 

[Oarfish]

Redding - who needs gold in a post apocaliptic world?

Or bottlecaps.

 

[callehe]

@KC:

"That's not even the real problem, as you said there was something similar set in Junktown, though I don't agree that they were analogous. "

why not? junktown: one big fat mafia boss with a casino. new reno: 4 big fat mafia bosses with casinos and whatnot, but the town is also 4 times bigger. And that was 80 years after - development is probable in PA settings too.

you can argue that new reno is more 20's than 50's. sure i give you some cred , i'm not well versed in exact history as you can see from earlier posts . but I can argue for that ANACHRONISMS in general are part of fallout. Remember the intro movie in fallout 1? there's a commercial for "analog" car with a fusion reactor, realistic ? or the fact that the computers in fallout don't use transistors but electron tubes, realistic ? the list goes on and on. the point is the game need not be realistic nor perfectly consistent to be fun, and the game is not supposed to be about one theme only, it's the mix that makes fallout interesting. And it's what makes it distinguish itself from Mad Max 2.

Maybe the devs did overdo themselves on new reno, but nonetheless i remember it as one of the best towns ever, because of the roleplaying possibilities and chock full of content in well written and interesting quests. And that's what matter the most in the end - Roleplaying. the other things are just fluff anyway, as long as it's not in the way of roleplaying, i'm happy.