Interview Feargus Urquhart talks about stuff at Rock Paper Shotgun

[Dexter]

I've suddenly got the urge to look up other articles made by this fine gentleman.

I mean, I really liked The Walking Dead, but I don't see how it's an RPG.

These two alone would be sufficient:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/28/why-arent-we-discussing-videogame-violence/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/09/gaming-made-me-violence/

 

[Curious_Tongue]

That pinky finger looks deformed from constant use.

 

[deuxhero]

OMG! Batman: The RPG!

Actually, Batman Inc. (Bruce Wayne uses his vast fortune to fund Batman like vigilantes around the world) would make for a good premise for a superhero RPG.

 

[skuphundaku]

OMG! Batman: The RPG!

Actually, Batman Inc. (Bruce Wayne uses his vast fortune to fund Batman like vigilantes around the world) would make for a good premise for a superhero RPG.

Total War: Batman

 

[deuxhero]

I'm serious though. Making the player some random vigilante who gets trained by Batman and unleashed upon a city (with moral choices, a real point to no-kills playthroughs). It even has a good solution to modern voice acting requirements if that's required (you fully chose your secret idenities name, but are limited to a handful of super hero names, ala JC Denton)

 

[Shannow]

I have about 18 months right now to get that next big thing signed up.

You passed the etiquette check. Avoided the expression "slam dunk". You do not get poo flung at you at the graphixwhorecodex.

“What is this game we want to make?”

...​

You take something like Arkham City. It’s sort of like a fighting game, a third-person fighting game. Five years ago they wouldn’t have made that like Arkham City. You look at what Skyrim does well, what’s really fun about Skyrim. So that’s the kind of thing where… I think there’s this desire to say, “First-person sword fighting isn’t always the best entertainment.” But hey, the fighting in Arkham City is awesome.​

So where do RPGs need to go from that? Do they need to get more like Devil May Cry? Do they need to get more like this or like that? And we’re looking at who plays role-playing games. I’m distinctly a role-playing game player. I play a ton of games, because I’m in the industry. I play Ninja Gaiden. I can respect Ninja Gaiden. But I would not play a ton of Ninja Gaiden. It’s just not my thing. All of their focus is on that system. When you’re making a role-playing game, your system is broader, much broader. That’s what we’re trying to say. What is combat? A lot of the other systems in role-playing games, they all work awesome and people love them. They still need to evolve and move forward a little bit, but what should combat be in that next big role-playing game? That’s one of the things we’re trying to zero in on.​

Well, since only action games are mentioned it's pretty obvious what Feargus' favoured direction would look like...
And before you think about "evolving and moving forward (a little bit)", how about at least managing to copy gameplay that was done well? If it "has" to be action gameplay: copy M&B; if it "must not be turn based": copy Infinity Engine; if it should be a good RPG with actually novell gameplay take a hint from W2, Chaos Chronicles or ToEE.
Sorry, but RPG gameplay has been steadily devolving and Obsidian games are some of the worst offenders. Examples for good gameplay are either old games or indies and I just can't stand the non-sense drivel PR-talk of "evolving" anymore. Instead of copying wheels they try to drive around on squares. Not to mention that all games mentioned are for consoles. Clearly shows their focus. Not surprizing from Obsidian but it still always manages to disappoint.

Ah well, OE can churn out another buggy console action game. I'm still a happy camper 'cause I finally have alternatives

 

[Duraframe300]

I don't think an actual opinion about how *good, novel* W2's gameplay is can be made so far.

 

[Snerf]

How about...

Fair enough, I remember reading some of those violence articles and thinking that they were pretty stupid. I didn't realize that was him. Yeah, this guy sucks.

To expand, because the more I read of his, the more I'm slapping my forehead.

I don't think this Nathan dude knows enough to be trying to discuss the topics he's getting at here. All he's doing is saying "it's bad and makes me feel icky". Well that's great, but it's not an article.

Take, for instance: "We squeal with glee when life-giving liquid squirts out of men’s necks. Does that cause violence? Probably not. I don’t have any concrete reason to believe so, anyway. But it gives violence an active, constant role in our day-to-day lives. We can’t just ignore that. We shouldn’t ignore that. It’d be outright irresponsible to do so."

Who is we? Life-giving liquid? Really? A constant role in our day-to-day lives? Even though you acknowledge that there is no evidence linking it with violence, it's still irresponsible to not be overly-melodramatic about make-believe?

My good friend owns a farm and has to prepare and kill animals for food on a constant basis. Does that day-to-day exposure to violence count? It involves spilling life-giving liquid, after all.


So yeah, agreed - the writer is bad at what he does. It's not the gun-grabbing though, that has actual real-world evidence-backed connection to populations with less gun violence. This guy skips evidence and moves directly to emotional gum-flapping and hand-wringing.

 

[abnaxus]

You take something like Arkham City. It’s sort of like a fighting game, a third-person fighting game. Five years ago they wouldn’t have made that like Arkham City. You look at what Skyrim does well, what’s really fun about Skyrim. So that’s the kind of thing where… I think there’s this desire to say, “First-person sword fighting isn’t always the best entertainment.” But hey, the fighting in Arkham City is awesome.​

So where do RPGs need to go from that? Do they need to get more like Devil May Cry? Do they need to get more like this or like that? And we’re looking at who plays role-playing games. I’m distinctly a role-playing game player. I play a ton of games, because I’m in the industry. I play Ninja Gaiden. I can respect Ninja Gaiden. But I would not play a ton of Ninja Gaiden. It’s just not my thing. All of their focus is on that system. When you’re making a role-playing game, your system is broader, much broader. That’s what we’re trying to say. What is combat? A lot of the other systems in role-playing games, they all work awesome and people love them. They still need to evolve and move forward a little bit, but what should combat be in that next big role-playing game? That’s one of the things we’re trying to zero in on.​

Fuck yeah Dark Messiah 2

 

[skuphundaku]

It's not the gun-grabbing though, that has actual real-world evidence-backed connection to populations with less gun violence

Here I have to disagree with you. You have less crime in Texas than in Illinois, New York or California. Why? Because in Texas, if you try something funny, they'll shoot your ass and don't even bother asking questions later. In Chicagoland, The Bloomberg Kingdom or Cali, they'll trow the book at you if you have the gall to defend yourself. Also, I'll just mention the fact that firearms-related crime increased both in Britain and in Australia after private gun ownership was, essentially, banned in the '90s. If you want actual reference on that, either google it or I can look it up for you.

 

[Snerf]

It's not the gun-grabbing though, that has actual real-world evidence-backed connection to populations with less gun violence

Here I have to disagree with you. You have less crime in Texas than in Illinois, New York or California. Why? Because in Texas, if you try something funny, they'll shoot your ass and don't even bother asking questions later. In Chicagoland, The Bloomberg Kingdom or Cali, they'll trow the book at you if you have the gall to defend yourself. Also, I'll just mention the fact that firearms-related crime increased both in Britain and in Australia after private gun ownership was, essentially, banned in the '90s. If you want actual reference on that, either google it or I can look it up for you.

I don't want to go too far with this, since it's already pretty off topic, but your examples conveniently leave out Japan and places like Canada. I'd like the UK reference if possible too out of curiosity. I suppose I could Google it, but it's easier to know for sure that we are looking at the same report.

When gun violence went up in the 90s there, was it just correlation or is there actual evidence of causation? Also, what has it done since that time? I would imagine that a spike would be predictable, followed by a gradual downward trend.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I have about 18 months right now to get that next big thing signed up.

You passed the etiquette check. Avoided the expression "slam dunk". You do not get poo flung at you at the graphixwhorecodex.

“What is this game we want to make?”

...​

You take something like Arkham City. It’s sort of like a fighting game, a third-person fighting game. Five years ago they wouldn’t have made that like Arkham City. You look at what Skyrim does well, what’s really fun about Skyrim. So that’s the kind of thing where… I think there’s this desire to say, “First-person sword fighting isn’t always the best entertainment.” But hey, the fighting in Arkham City is awesome.​

So where do RPGs need to go from that? Do they need to get more like Devil May Cry? Do they need to get more like this or like that? And we’re looking at who plays role-playing games. I’m distinctly a role-playing game player. I play a ton of games, because I’m in the industry. I play Ninja Gaiden. I can respect Ninja Gaiden. But I would not play a ton of Ninja Gaiden. It’s just not my thing. All of their focus is on that system. When you’re making a role-playing game, your system is broader, much broader. That’s what we’re trying to say. What is combat? A lot of the other systems in role-playing games, they all work awesome and people love them. They still need to evolve and move forward a little bit, but what should combat be in that next big role-playing game? That’s one of the things we’re trying to zero in on.​

Well, since only action games are mentioned it's pretty obvious what Feargus' favoured direction would look like...
And before you think about "evolving and moving forward (a little bit)", how about at least managing to copy gameplay that was done well? If it "has" to be action gameplay: copy M&B; if it "must not be turn based": copy Infinity Engine; if it should be a good RPG with actually novell gameplay take a hint from W2, Chaos Chronicles or ToEE.
Sorry, but RPG gameplay has been steadily devolving and Obsidian games are some of the worst offenders. Examples for good gameplay are either old games or indies and I just can't stand the non-sense drivel PR-talk of "evolving" anymore. Instead of copying wheels they try to drive around on squares. Not to mention that all games mentioned are for consoles. Clearly shows their focus. Not surprizing from Obsidian but it still always manages to disappoint.

Ah well, OE can churn out another buggy console action game. I'm still a happy camper 'cause I finally have alternatives

It's kind of disappointing, because out of all those games, he clearly likes Arkham City's combat the most - and combat in that game is very shallow, although visually impressive. If he wanted to have an RPG with Ninja Gaiden's combat, I could have a certain amount of respect that - if you're going to copy action games, you may as well copy the good ones. Even better, if he looked up to Dark Souls, which had an excellent combat system.

But nope, Arkham City. Guess we're in for another Alpha Protocol, because a combat system like AC's requires a high level of polish to work well, and let's just say that is not one of Obsidian's biggest strengths.

 

[villain of the story]

If it "has" to be action gameplay: copy M&B

Heavens forbid! M&B is an atrocious piece of shit.

 

[Infinitron]

I've already told you guys - now that Obsidian have their Kickstarter project, they have absolutely no reason to want to make any of their mainstream AAA games particularly hardcore. It's gonna be good storyfag games with dumbed down mechanics, all the way. Maybe they'll even learn how to make a good action-RPG in the end.

 

[tuluse]

It doesn't matter what side of an argument Grayson takes. His prose is so pretentious and bloated, I feel nearly as ill reading it as he apparently does from red pixels next to a CGI neck.

 

[tuluse]

I've already told you guys - now that Obsidian have their Kickstarter project, they have absolutely no reason to want to make any of their mainstream AAA games particularly hardcore. It's gonna be good storyfag games with dumbed down mechanics, all the way. Maybe they'll even learn how to make a good action-RPG in the end.

Well they still want to make good games don't they?

 

[Jaesun]

They will have to adhere to the Publisher and the Publishers Marketing Department demands, so nothing has changed when making Published AAA games.

 

[villain of the story]

I am also very worried about Obsidian doing a 1st/3rd Person Action game of any kind from scratch. They suck at level design for this type of game and more importantly, they suck at basic gameplay. They would do an excellent Elder Scrolls game, reusing assets from Skyrim or another TES game, though.

 

[Roguey]

Ugh, those people in the RPS comments just want to play adventure games. Which already exist.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/15/obsidians-urquhart-on-the-future-of-rpgs/#comment-1200364

Speculation engine revving up…. C2B at the Penny Arcade forums mentions that an Obsidian artist on Twitter had been asking questions about documention on the Unreal 3 engine. They have positions open for a 3d artist and environment, with “*highly realistic* ingame-results”.

(That C2B guy often shows up on Formspring, asking Josh Sawyer questions, btw)

He's IronicNeurotic.

 

[tuluse]

He said they had no reason to make their games particularly hardcore, which is a vague statement to begin with. I bet Obsidian's approach to gameplay in AAA titles doesn't change at all because they have a kickstarter project. For better or worse. They have as many reasons to make their games "hardcore" as they ever did.

 

[Aeschylus]

Feargus sure can get rambly.

 

[Captain Shrek]

He said they had no reason to make their games particularly hardcore, which is a vague statement to begin with. I bet Obsidian's approach to gameplay in AAA titles doesn't change at all because they have a kickstarter project. For better or worse. They have as many reasons to make their games "hardcore" as they ever did.

Yeah. I am not sure if kickstarter may have anything to do with it. I was just commenting from experience of playing their games.

NWN2/MoTB/AP are super easy to play.

 

[Duraframe300]

He's IronicNeurotic.

Actually, its me. I know IronicNeurotic in RL though. Grew up with the dude.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

He said they had no reason to make their games particularly hardcore, which is a vague statement to begin with. I bet Obsidian's approach to gameplay in AAA titles doesn't change at all because they have a kickstarter project. For better or worse. They have as many reasons to make their games "hardcore" as they ever did.

Yeah, maybe that was hyperbole. I'm sure guys like Chris and Josh will still want to stealthily inject an oldschool favor into whatever they're making, but...there's less motivation to do it, and less motivation for guys like Feargus to authorize it.