Interview Feargus Urquhart talks Dungeon Siege, Fallout and new IP

[DragoFireheart]

You know, for all the screaming that the current market does not want cRPGs, does anyone actually have, you know... empirical data showing this? I suppose it's ok to assume but...

 

[Shannow]

The general public didn't want RPG's in 2000 either, so why wasn't every developer trying to make "The Sims" or "Diablo"?

I guess you forgot all the shitty and not as shitty Diablo clones?

Guess you forgot all the IE games, Troika games, Wiz8, Gothics (yeah, no character creation, but actually challenging games in contrast to what Bethsidianware are pooping out) etc. Probably because they're not cool, like games from the 80s

I think you forgot how they fared sales wise compared to oblivion or other modern day master Pieces...

???
What?
thesisko: Devs used to offer various game-play styles and genres. The consumer could choose if he wanted a shooter, H&S, TB RPG, etc.
Skyway: You forgot all the H&S.
Shannow: No, you forgot all the games other than H&S that were offered.
Retard: *some nonsense about Oblivion's sales that has nothing to with the quoted previous discussion*

Are you Bethsidianware's target demographic? Is humanity that fucked already? I'd always assumed we'd kill ourselves because of greed, stubborness and hate. Seems it might be simple stupidity after all. *sad misanthrope*

 

[thursdayschild]

You know, for all the screaming that the current market does not want cRPGs, does anyone actually have, you know... empirical data showing this? I suppose it's ok to assume but...

Developers don't want to spend money and time developing them. It's much easier to make the software component as close as possible to whatever the engine does in its demo.

 

[Forest Dweller]

You know, for all the screaming that the current market does not want cRPGs, does anyone actually have, you know... empirical data showing this? I suppose it's ok to assume but...

Perhaps the sales of Age of Decadence will be the empirical data that proves them wrong.

 

[laclongquan]

When it's released. Just next Thursday a way.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

You know, for all the screaming that the current market does not want cRPGs, does anyone actually have, you know... empirical data showing this? I suppose it's ok to assume but...

For the average consumer Morrowind, KOTOR, Oblivion and Mass Effect were CRPGs. They werent getting these games on consoles until the Xbox. They only stopped selling on the PC. Maybe it was the MMO.

 

[Longshanks]

I made a thread a while ago about NBA20K11.

The character creation process in NBA20K11 involves extremely complex, much more so than any cRPG I've ever played, chargen.

First you pick your height and weight and position on the court.

The taller you are, the less overall stats you start with for distribution. Tall and heavy is bad news, tall and skinny is equally bad news. Depending on position, shooting guard, center, etc, you get different stats at actual chargen.

Once in chargen you have to pick stats in several categories, two of which are offensive and defensive. There are also stats which effect dialogue skills in post-game press conferences, your overall team chemistry and the way your character plays out.

After this, you have to pick how your character looks.

The sheer amount of stats was impenetrable for me because I know very little about the technical aspects of basketball.

This brings me to the point of my post: If basketball fans, NFL fans, baseball fans, football (soccer) fans and in general sports fans, can push through chargen which involved delicate and sophisticated numerical decision making in order to create a player who is both good at his position and valuable to the overall team.

So why the fuck do studios think players are unable to handle chargen in RPGs? Seriously. For the love of motherfucking god. If you can have a fucking 15+ minute chargen session just to start playing a career sports season in the latest iteration of your favourite sports game, why the fuck would RPG devs think their traditional audience and even the new casuals who probably play sports games too, would not be able to handle numbers?

An optional part of the game that casual players will ignore.

That aside, I think the important thing to note here is that those who do go in for this game mode have a knowledge of basketball and know what most of those stats refer to. They will engage with the character creation and enjoy trying to create the kind of player they want to be.

And this is the point: RPG developers don't need to remove character creation (don't think Erk was saying that anyway), but need to relate it more strongly to things a player will understand, and provide more visceral in-game feedback. Doing that, will make it enjoyable even for the more casual players. We know that pretty much everyone loves facegen type crap. Making stat manipulation more relatable in a similar way, will make it more popular. This is not a way of getting more "hardcore" RPG elements into the mainstream - more like more Fable or GTA: SA where you have visible changes to your character when your stats change. Want a fat dude who can barely run? A geeky dude with no strength and poor eyesight who has to wear glasses? An Adonis-type fighting machine? ...

It's these kind of choices that are pretty much fundamental to an RPG, and should always be front and centre. With the kind of gimmicky stuff you can do with stats (again, see Fable), character creation is definitely not an element that needs to be hidden from mainstream audiences. It can definitely be a selling point. It's the more abstract kind of stat manipulation that needs to be done away with - possibly even in more hardcore games.

The other option is to have all characters start out at base stat levels (ala GTA: SA), with the player choosing which stats and skills they'd like to advance as they go. Pain free, accessible entry into the game, and then the choice of how much attention you want to pay to the stats as you progress.

Again though, I don't think Erk was suggesting we do away with character creation. The success of games like WOW strongly suggests that detailed character creation is not anathema to mainstream audiences.

 

[Monkeybiscuit]

What I don't understand is that copying large companies and their accessiblity mantra, to pander to the casual ADHD generation hasn't exactly served Obsidian that well so far.

So why not take a risk and dare to try something different, like make an old school game and test see how many people will like it. Maybe they'll get a fucking shock and produce a game that doesn't bomb for once. Cause as I see it, Obsidian right now are stradding both markets and failing in both. Commit yourself to one thing and do it well.

 

[J_C]

What I don't understand is that copying large companies and their accessiblity mantra, to pander to the casual ADHD generation hasn't exactly served Obsidian that well so far.

So why not take a risk and dare to try something different, like make an old school game and test see how many people will like it. Maybe they'll get a fucking shock and produce a game that doesn't bomb for once. Cause as I see it, Obsidian right now are stradding both markets and failing in both. Commit yourself to one thing and do it well.

Alpha Protocol was their only game that bombed financially so I don't know what you are talking about.

Also Obsidian is not a rock solid company financially, so I'm not surprised that they don't dare to take a risk.

 

[Shannow]

What I don't understand is that copying large companies and their accessiblity mantra, to pander to the casual ADHD generation hasn't exactly served Obsidian that well so far.

So why not take a risk and dare to try something different, like make an old school game and test see how many people will like it. Maybe they'll get a fucking shock and produce a game that doesn't bomb for once. Cause as I see it, Obsidian right now are stradding both markets and failing in both. Commit yourself to one thing and do it well.

See the 10 threads we have about exactly that topic...
Short answer: They want to make (shitty) aRPGs. Deal with it.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

Alpha Protocol was their only game that bombed financially so I don't know what you are talking about.

That seems to be his point.

 

[thesisko]

No one would get through character creation nowadays.

When it comes to...maybe all gamers, it has to be accessible, people have to be led into it.

Project Eternity confirmed as "accessible" RPG without character generation?

 

[Stinger]

Don't quote him out of context.

He was going on about full party creation of 6 characters. Eternity is a single character RPG with existing companions. That's pretty much the extent of it.