People News Colin McComb and Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie have left inXile

[Kz3r0]

McComb and succubi? McComb and elves? Jack of Jil? I don't understand the references. Any help?

 

[Kz3r0]

Inb4 Colin McComb June of Rage, why Fargo sucks and the real truth behind Codex blacklisting in gamescom.

Seriously, Fargo propped up Colin quite a lot while was always obvious that Obsidian kept MCA down.

 

[Junmarko]

Seriously, Fargo propped up Colin quite a lot while was always obvious that Obsidian kept MCA down.

 

[Max Edge]

McComb and succubi? McComb and elves? Jack of Jil? I don't understand the references. Any help?

He wrote this piece of poetry? Prestigious.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Seriously, Fargo propped up Colin quite a lot while was always obvious that Obsidian kept MCA down.

That's what you assume, butmaybe he signed an evil NDA before leaving.

 

[Roguey]

He wrote this piece of poetry? Prestigious.

His wife was the bass player. Fun band imo.

 

[Lahey]

TTON is far from a bad game. It's probably the best SF game ever made, with the exception of the more action-centric KotOR. But for people who like to read sci-fi and imagine fantastic worlds, it's an incredible game. Review here.

The meres MRY did write, plus the exceptional encounter and characterization of Inifere, are outstanding, not alone because of its prose poetry which you find too rarely in mature games. A lot of the places and stories, like the glimpses of the past or the Mere in the underwater city are excellent.

BUT the one thing the game is not, is a Torment game. InXile should have had the balls to say crowdfunding is one thing, but marketing and presentation of the game must have an entirely different focus. If that would have been clearly communicated, a lot of expectations and disappointments could have been avoided.

InXile is definitely guilty of mismarketing, with claims like a new take on combat, spiritual successor to PST and other nonsense. It's sad to the point it's almost absurd. Their Ninth World trailer is one of the best video game trailers ever made, and yet they had Techland produce a lot more that simply mischaracterized the focus of the game. Here lies the root of the commercial flop. The marketing didn't convince the mainstream, and alienated its true audience. The cover for the game, which is fantastic art in its own right, is simply not suited for marketing a sci-fi game to an audience that is not interested in horror. I'd even go as far as saying Brian Fargo missed the biggest opportunity of his career by his ineptitude for proper marketing. This is a theme that goes back to games like PST and Soulbringer, games that were great but underperformed.

Pretty good narrative design resume tbh.

 

[Max Edge]

He wrote this piece of poetry? Prestigious.

His wife was the bass player. Fun band imo.

I'm do not share your beliefs, but I have respect for them.

So, what left to InXile? Make another Kickstarter to fund paycheck for new writers?

 

[The Bishop]

It will be interesting to see where they will land and who will replace them at inXile (or maybe inXile will remain with fewer writers now).

With the way things seem to be going for inXile they're probably looking to staff different positions in the future. Like liquidation managers.

 

[Zeriel]

As the canonical Luke Skywalker says in his crowning appearance, "No one's ever really gone." I'm sure we'll keep seeing many games from Colin and Gavin for years to come. Both were very kind colleagues to me, and my sense is that they were well liked inside inXile as well as by outsiders like me. From what I gather from Darth Roxor, Gavin's humorous characters like Sn'erf the alien sexologist will fit in well with the Divinity franchise, and I'm sure Colin will land well, too.

The Codex's 180 on Colin is unfortunate, and I think mutual at this point, but so it goes. (In high school, two friends of mine, one not good at basketball and the other pretty good, used to play 1-on-1 all the time, with the better player always winning. Finally, after ~100 rounds, the other guy managed to win. Immediately the better player asked for a rematch. "Nope," refused the worse player, who spent the rest of our years in high school gloating that "you're only as good as your last game." I suppose there's a lesson in that for all of us.)

Anyway, Codexian glee seems misplaced from a self-interested perspective (cf., Obi-Wan, strike me down, etc.), but who am I to stand in the way of schadenfreude?

We get it, you're buddies with all these people who fucked us raw in the ass and gave us AIDS. I'm sure they're very nice people to you, but that doesn't change the fact they left us bleeding and butt-sore in an alleyway, and it doesn't change the fact it's their fault we're dying of terminal hyper-AIDS.

On a less acerbic note, a game developer is not a priest. We don't care about their personality, we just care about what they can give us. If the last thing they gave us is trash... well, what can you say? You don't pay the chef for his winning personality.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I thought Numanuma was alright. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Bohr]

It's a somewhat lulzy touch that a casual visitor to this site will see an 'Obsidian developer' giving McComb and TTON both barrels

 

[Kem0sabe]

Shit writer for a shit company making shit games. Why should we care?

 

[Nael]

Gavin has since announced that he's moving to Ireland to join Swen Vincke's growing Larian empire.

 

[MechMessiah]

Haven't played Tworment, is it really that bad? I thought McComb was good, given that he co-wrote the original?

Playing it right now. I don't get far yet (still in Sagus Cliff), but for now it's pretty good.

 

[Junmarko]

It will be interesting to see where they will land and who will replace them at inXile (or maybe inXile will remain with fewer writers now).

Merger incoming?

 

[Roguey]

I'm not entirely sure who would wind up with the better deal in that situation.

 

[Junmarko]

I'm not entirely sure who would wind up with the better deal in that situation.

 

[Lahey]

 

[Junmarko]

Who's we? Forgotten Realms and Friends? Good riddance lol.

 

[Lahey]

"We" as in everyone else.

 

[Mastermind]

<Edginess of a melon>

But yeah. After such a promising entry, Colin kind of fizzled out. Not gonna lie, but his work and vision for Tworment were really terrible. But still, knowing how all the bigwigs have turned out to be hacks recently, except Avellone, I guess, it was not a surprise.

What do you mean "except"? Avellone hasn't done anything good since Torment (Kotor 2 is shit and so are you if you disagree). it's obv avellone is a one hit wonder. his particular obsession with subversion worked out for him then because of the weird setting. It doesn't work in anything else and he hasn't grown as a writer since.

 

[Boleskine]

Were they also de-ownered?

 

[agentorange]

TTON is far from a bad game. It's probably the best SF game ever made, with the exception of the more action-centric KotOR.

Numenera is not science fiction. I don't even think it could be called soft science fiction (like Dune). It is science fantasy at most, or just fantasy, likewise with KotOR and Star Wars as a whole. And calling it the best SF game is certainly stupid when there are far better games with an SF setting, like Deus Ex, and games that explore science fiction themes far more deeply like SOMA or Prey.

 

[deepfire]

I'm sure we'll keep seeing many games from Colin and Gavin for years to come.

Gavin, perhaps.

Colin is bald fraud who only managed to land one job in games industry in the last 20 years. And it was an unmitigated disaster. But I wish him well and hope he has fruitful career appropriate to his level of competence. Something like writing menus in a local kebab.

You know.. I find it hard to believe that someone working in the industry and sweating his bread would find it possible to say this kind of stuff about qualities of artistic labour of a colleague -- even if you don't work in the same company.

This makes it somewhat clear you're not an Obsidian developer.