Company News Codex Scoop: Brian Fargo has trademarked cancelled time travel RPG Meantime...and also Van Buren?!

[felipepepe]

NicheGamer has picked this up: http://nichegamer.net/2014/12/inxiles-new-game-revealed/

Is there a pact among journos to never mention the Codex as source?

 

[naossano]

I didn't know that meantime were the game many fans were expecting, considering it is a 20 years old unborn child.

About Van Buren, tradermarking it doesn't necessary making the Fallout related Van Buren. Hexer can't make money on it and Van Buren wasn't even the name of the game. It was a working name for Fallout 3. No official Fallout game would have been called Van Buren.

 

[kain30]

my god, all this speculation is killing me.

 

[ghostdog]

A lot of time-travel whining faggets ITT. The setting is fresh and interesting, especially as far as rpgs are concerned, and has great non-linear possibilities. Recruiting historical figures to fight along with you indeed requires a more lighthearted approach, which is mightily fine, if you want edgy grimdark there's always beth and bio.

Naturally since the subject is more delicate than PA, the writers would need to deliver a much more consistent work than they did in W2. There's only so much pop-culture references you can use

Of course Fargo is probably just hoarding various IPs because they cost nothing and laughs his ass off with codex.

In before hexer gets a C&D from Roxy Music Fargo and co.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Is it possible to check all IPs owned by Roxy?

 

[Darkzone]

Is it possible to check all IPs owned by Roxy?

Yes. One can check even the still not received ones, like Van Buren. But there is nothing interesting in their roster, besides 'Domino and Friends' the RPG.

 

[Zdzisiu]

NicheGamer has picked this up: http://nichegamer.net/2014/12/inxiles-new-game-revealed/

Is there a pact among journos to never mention the Codex as source?

Well, I think we should change the current forum title to: Codex - Those who shall not be named!

 

[SniperHF]

Is it possible to check all IPs owned by Roxy?

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4802:rzzh2r.1.1

Switch to by owner. Pop in Roxy Friday.

It's all the stuff Darkzone Mentioned though. This is also assuming he isn't registering stuff under another company besides Roxy/InXile.

 

[Roguey]

Did he? I mean directly like in "Bethesda did this" or "Bethesda is like this" not some innuendos.

Because:

1. I don't see Bethesda giving "blessings" unless they have something to gain anyway.
2. If they have something to gain they wouldn't give a fuck about some innuendos. They're a business not high-school kids.

http://www.ripten.com/2012/03/27/br...l-publisher-treatment-and-having-fun-again/3/

Because they are afraid to talk, because they’ll never get another contract if they do. That’s why. You cannot believe… it’s awful. It’s really bad. You should try to dig in and get some stories out there. Look at the most recent one with those poor guys at Obsidian. They did Fallout: New Vegas, the ship date got moved up and, who does the QA on a project? The publisher is always in charge of QA. When a project goes out buggy, it’s not the developer. The developer never says, “I refuse to fix the bug,” or, “I don’t know how.” They never do that. It’s the publisher that does the QA, so if a product goes out buggy, it’s not the developer’s fault. So, (Fallout: New Vegas) goes out buggy and they didn’t do the QA, their ship date got moved up and they missed their metacritic rating by one point. Did they get a bonus? No. Do you think that’s fair? I tried to get some of my publisher friends, who I used to make a lot of money for, to donate. Do you think they donated? No. Their employees did.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/15/brian-fargo-on-inxiles-darkest-publisher-driven-days/ (don't click this link)

Fargo: The original pitch for that was to be a dungeon crawl. That was what that game wanted to be. Then it got slowly changed to become more of a shooter. But that’s not my background, so… To me, that was a typical failing, where you have the arguments about what a product should be and everything that goes with it. People don’t know sometimes how little the developer can have input-wise into a product, even if it’s theirs. The opening cinematics weren’t done by us. The voice casting was not done by us. We didn’t get to direct the voices in the game. There are all these things that go on that are just pulled away from the developer, that we had no control over.

Ultimately, the people that control the purse strings are going to control the direction of the product. But yeah, how it came out was very different than what my pitch was.

RPS: When that happened, was it basically devastating?

Fargo: Extremely so. Frustrating. Very frustrating. Because ultimately… It’s like when Obsidian took a hit on their Metacritic and didn’t get their bonus. Mostly they got dinged because it was a buggy product. Obsidian, their reputation was taking a hit for shipping buggy products. They don’t control QA. The publisher controls it. The publisher always controls QA. They decide when it’s done. There’s no bug we can’t fix. There’s no bug they can’t fix. Somebody made a conscious decision – because there was a list. I guarantee you the QA department had a list of bugs. They said, “We don’t care. We gotta ship it anyway.” Why does the developer lose their bonus and get their reputation killed for that?

So yeah, you can imagine – even if it’s a different scenario – how it can be frustrating to be a developer doing work when you’re the one that’s taking it every which way. You’re usually not making money, either. I would run the numbers on games and say, “Look. You guys are up $20 million in profit. It’s my idea. I came to you. I did 100 percent of the work. And guess what? I don’t mind if you make more money than me. That doesn’t bother me, because you took the financial risk. However, when you’re up $20 million after paying your marketing and everything, don’t you think we deserve $1 million?” Nope. So yes, it’s frustrating.

Keep in mind Bethesda is the type of publisher who will permanently blacklist sites like this one and a Star Trek forum because they gave negative reviews to their games.

And not just a "no interviews" blacklist but an "Obsidian, don't allow any of your employees to post at RPG Codex during the duration of your contract work on New Vegas" blacklist.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Did he? I mean directly like in "Bethesda did this" or "Bethesda is like this" not some innuendos.

Because:

1. I don't see Bethesda giving "blessings" unless they have something to gain anyway.
2. If they have something to gain they wouldn't give a fuck about some innuendos. They're a business not high-school kids.

They don't need permission, so long as they can get the trademark. Fallout is a single word and probably can't be defended against something like Fallout Rangers or Fallout: Van Buren. Ripping off characters won't work but there's nothing to rip off anyway, in that sense.

Hopefully meantime will be about going back in time to destroy bethesda before it is founded and take out herve caan before he ruins interplay.

 

[Delterius]

Bethesda is quickly evolving into a competent version of EA. Scary shit.

 

[mindx2]

NicheGamer has picked this up: http://nichegamer.net/2014/12/inxiles-new-game-revealed/

Is there a pact among journos to never mention the Codex as source?

Someone check the GameJournoPro chat log.....

 

[Surf Solar]

People still get excited over InXile after Wasteland 2?

 

[Darth Roxor]

when did Roguey turn into a reasonable poster

what the fuck is going on

 

[Weirdstuffinspace]

when did Roguey turn into a reasonable poster

what the fuck is going on

It's a phase.

 

[Country_Gravy]

So we are finally getting a proper Duke Nukem sequel?

 

[Grunker]

when did Roguey turn into a reasonable poster

what the fuck is going on

Always been one, you just don't like it when people disagree with you in a flippant manner.

 

[Darth Roxor]

sometimes i feel like putting your picture up on the wall and throwing darts at it you know that

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Entering codex and being flooded with brofists is a strange feeling. Now I know how it is to be felipepepe.

And not just a "no interviews" blacklist but an "Obsidian, don't allow any of your employees to post at RPG Codex during the duration of your contract work on New Vegas" blacklist.

Really? I would love to see the source!

 

[Grunker]

sometimes i feel like putting your picture up on the wall and throwing darts at it you know that

I had a friend once who did it to a picture of himself out of self-loathing.

 

[evdk]

sometimes i feel like putting your picture up on the wall and throwing darts at it you know that

I had a friend once who did it to a picture of himself out of self-loathing.

Is this one of those "I have a 'friend'" situations?

 

[Infinitron]

oasis789 https://twitter.com/oasis789/status/542033770472550400

 

[Azrael the cat]

A lot of time-travel whining faggets ITT. The setting is fresh and interesting, especially as far as rpgs are concerned, and has great non-linear possibilities. Recruiting historical figures to fight along with you indeed requires a more lighthearted approach, which is mightily fine, if you want edgy grimdark there's always beth and bio.

Naturally since the subject is more delicate than PA, the writers would need to deliver a much more consistent work than they did in W2. There's only so much pop-culture references you can use

Of course Fargo is probably just hoarding various IPs because they cost nothing and laughs his ass off with codex.

In before hexer gets a C&D from Roxy Music Fargo and co.

This (the IP hoarding) - he was a CEO of a major studio for years, and the only one of his peer-group who didn't get to become a squillionaire by selling his startup to a big publisher (I imagine he spent many nights crying in his budget mid-strength beer while thinking about how 'those kids' he helped out with their 2-bit company Bioware became rich, along with Garriot, Spectre, Molyneux and everyone else who had the brains to sell out instead of fighting and losing). The guy would have to be at the point of being willing to kill his mother to get back up there again.

Having said that, after playing WL2, I honestly hope he does. It's got a ton of flaws - but they're the same kind of flaws you used to get in large combat-heavy crpgs back in the day. 15 years ago, I'd have said that it wasn't good enough, as surely games should be learning from those old mistakes and be BETTER than those old greats. But that ship has passed. We're not talking about folks building upon the past greats anymore, we're talking about guys who haven't made anything vaguely resembling a true crpg in decades, and putting enough heart into it that it stands alongside the games of old, even if it doesn't top them in a lot of ways. And whatever flaws are there, I was still blown away by the sheer amount of love that the game oozes. I know the guy has to talk up the crpg market for $$$, but between the amount of love in WL2's design, and the way that Fargo seems to be more alive than he's been in decades (it reminds me of the 2nd/3rd episode of Battlestar Galactica, where Tigh has transitioned from creaking wino to being so on the ball that Adama suspects he's actually enjoying the holocaust). He seems like he honestly is loving the fact that he's making crpgs again, with everything he's done in the meantime just being gruntwork in the hope that an opportunity like this might finally arrive.

Maybe every game he makes from now will suck, I don't know. But I respect the fact that, even though he's a suit rather than a designer, he clearly has a passion for this shit, and is 10 times more energetic in promoting it than he's been in potentially more profitable do-it-for-the-money games.

 

[lurker3000]

Never mind that time travel is a shitty plot device.

Edgy!

Turns out time travel stories can also be really fun and interesting. It's the kind of idea that science fiction is for. If you prefer amazing stories like "What if cars could go 10MPH faster?", good for you I guess, but honestly science fiction just isn't for you.

Backwards time travel is just bad alternative history. Even HG Wells knew going backwards was a lame plot device.

edit: Unless you are playing it for laughs. Back to the Future, Bill and Ted, lots of Futurama stuff. You get my point.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

It looks we are finally starting to be credited for our epic awesomeness.

InXile Entertainment, de ontwikkelaar van Wasteland 2, heeft het handelsmerk voor de geannuleerde rpg's Meantime en Van Buren verkregen. Dat blijkt uit screenshots op rpg-forum RPG Codex.

http://www.gamer.nl/nieuws/499359/wasteland-2-studio-verkrijgt-handelsmerk-meantime-en-van-buren

Alcune informazioni scoperte da RPG Codex fanno ipotizzare che lo studio possa essere al lavoro su un gioco ancora una volta ispirato al passato e ai primi due Fallout.

http://www.eurogamer.it/articles/20...inxile-registra-i-marchi-meantime-e-van-buren

A new Trademark filing for a video game Meantime was made by a company called Roxy Friday, which rpg codex says traces back to Brian Fargo and inXile Entertainment. They note that Meanwhile is actually the name of a time-travel RPG cancelled by Interplay in the late 1980s, making this a suspect for the new RPG revival plan inXilerecently revealed. The intrigue surrounding this can be ramped up further since the article was updated with the revelation that the same entity has filed a trademark application for Van Buren, which was the codename for a project once intended to be Fallout 3 back in the Black Isle Studio days, adding another suspect to questions about who exactly is Keyser Soze here

http://www.bluesnews.com/s/157266/inxile-tms-meanwhile-van-buren

Cu lansarea lui Wasteland 2 și dezvoltarea lui Torment intrând în faza mai consistentă, studioul inXile s-a apucat de ceva nou. Un joc pe care lumea le tot cere să îl producă, dar nu au spus încă ce, așa că indivizi foarte atenți au început să sape și să scormonească după ce alte proprietăți mai are compania în mâinile sale.
Iar ce au descoperit este șocant! Nu, nu este, dar e amuzant. Meantime este pe listă, un RPG la care Interplay lucra pe vremuri antice, fix după primul Wasteland, și avea ca idee principală călătoria în timp.
Apoi, altceva, ceva bizar. inXile are în proprietate Van Buren, ce era numele de cod pentru Fallout 3. De ce ar înregistra un nume de cod pentru un joc anulat și apoi lansat într-o variantă diferită? Poate pentru că Fargo vrea să îi facă un cadou lui Avellone.
Posibilitatea cea mai mare rămâne însă The Bard’s Tale.

Sursa: RPG Codex

http://www.games-arena.ro/2014/12/08/inxile-pregateste-ceva/

[quite a big text, and below it, a tiny:]Źródło: rpgcodex.net

http://gry.onet.pl/tworcy-wasteland-2-reanimuja-kolejnego-klasyka/6xx7r

어쨌든 확실한 이야기가 나오지 않는 이상 그냥 예상이고 상상일 뿐입니다. 한 가지 분명한 건 민타임도 그렇고, 반 뷰렌도 그렇고 인엑자일이 뭔가 일을 벌이고 있다는 점이군요. 그건 참 기대됩니다.

(via RPG Codex)

https://crpgnews.wordpress.com/author/sungooshow/

So maybe Journalist Conspiracy is losing?