Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Incline Josh Sawyer appreciation station

vortex

Fabulous Optimist
Joined
Mar 25, 2016
Messages
4,221
Location
Temple of Alvilmelkedic
The Activision deal isn't finished yet, not that it matters, since Sawyer doesn't care about Arcanum and Diablo. Ziggurat Interactive owns Darklands.
Maybe you don't know him as you used to. Saywer changed a lot. Prepare for something unthinkable.
 
Last edited:

0sacred

poop retainer
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
2,025
Location
MFGA (Make Fantasy Great Again)
Codex Year of the Donut
How has Sawyer changed?

his skill as a game designer is directly proportional to the time he spends playing (A)D&D. D&D got him his first job in the industry, and working on D&D products put his skills to the best use. As he started to invest more time into hipster shit like cycling, bitches, tattoos, drinking and partying, his abilities declined.

Then he tried to be smarter than everyone and create a better roleplaying system than D&D, instead of being grateful for all the good things it had done for him. Classic case of hubris.
 

Hagashager

Educated
Joined
Nov 24, 2022
Messages
647
How has Sawyer changed?

his skill as a game designer is directly proportional to the time he spends playing (A)D&D. D&D got him his first job in the industry, and working on D&D products put his skills to the best use. As he started to invest more time into hipster shit like cycling, bitches, tattoos, drinking and partying, his abilities declined.

Then he tried to be smarter than everyone and create a better roleplaying system than D&D, instead of being grateful for all the good things it had done for him. Classic case of hubris.
To be fair, he didn't just leave DnD, DnD very definitely left him. WotC current philosophy is so far gone even Sawyer's Neo-Liberal lifestyle would still be too problematic.

He dared to make a historical video-game set during the Age of Discovery that didn't also involve relentlessly flagellating Europeans for the slave trade and colonization.
 

0sacred

poop retainer
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
2,025
Location
MFGA (Make Fantasy Great Again)
Codex Year of the Donut
To be fair, he didn't just leave DnD, DnD very definitely left him. WotC current philosophy is so far gone even Sawyer's Neo-Liberal lifestyle would still be too problematic.

He dared to make a historical video-game set during the Age of Discovery that didn't also involve relentlessly flagellating Europeans for the slave trade and colonization.

could have made a based OGL product then :troll:
 

Major_Blackhart

Codexia Lord Sodom
Patron
Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
18,433
Location
Jersey for now
How has Sawyer changed?

his skill as a game designer is directly proportional to the time he spends playing (A)D&D. D&D got him his first job in the industry, and working on D&D products put his skills to the best use. As he started to invest more time into hipster shit like cycling, bitches, tattoos, drinking and partying, his abilities declined.

Then he tried to be smarter than everyone and create a better roleplaying system than D&D, instead of being grateful for all the good things it had done for him. Classic case of hubris.
To be fair, he didn't just leave DnD, DnD very definitely left him. WotC current philosophy is so far gone even Sawyer's Neo-Liberal lifestyle would still be too problematic.
I disagree with this statement ser. Have you seen his Twitter feed? And Vax passport?

By the black gods of the void, tis foul.
 

Hagashager

Educated
Joined
Nov 24, 2022
Messages
647
How has Sawyer changed?

his skill as a game designer is directly proportional to the time he spends playing (A)D&D. D&D got him his first job in the industry, and working on D&D products put his skills to the best use. As he started to invest more time into hipster shit like cycling, bitches, tattoos, drinking and partying, his abilities declined.

Then he tried to be smarter than everyone and create a better roleplaying system than D&D, instead of being grateful for all the good things it had done for him. Classic case of hubris.
To be fair, he didn't just leave DnD, DnD very definitely left him. WotC current philosophy is so far gone even Sawyer's Neo-Liberal lifestyle would still be too problematic.
I disagree with this statement ser. Have you seen his Twitter feed? And Vax passport?

By the black gods of the void, tis foul.
I do not have Twitter and never will. On a scale from "hilarious" to "become a nihilist" how bad is it?
 

0sacred

poop retainer
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
2,025
Location
MFGA (Make Fantasy Great Again)
Codex Year of the Donut
As he started to invest more time into hipster shit like cycling, bitches, tattoos, drinking and partying, his abilities declined.

He just isn't a good lead and never will be. Doesn't have the balls for system design

Soyer works best when he is led, not the other way around

Pillows 1 was kind of ballsy, though for Deadfire my guess is there was a lot more input from other people (dangerhairs) he didn't have the guts to dismiss. Maybe he even welcomed that kind of contribution, depending on how many soy lattes he had before.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,888
Beaton's mega cringe because she had multiple mental breakdowns because all the dudes who worked on the oil sands were into her (on account of there being virtually no women there of course, it's hard physical labor).
 
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
2,894
Location
The Present
Pillows 1 was kind of ballsy, though for Deadfire my guess is there was a lot more input from other people (dangerhairs) he didn't have the guts to dismiss. Maybe he even welcomed that kind of contribution, depending on how many soy lattes he had before.
Pillars of Eternity suffered from stretch goals. Rather than develop a core basis of its systems, they began fishing for money by selling everyone on niches. In an attempt to make those niches meaningful and distinct, the fundamental systems suffered. They could have started with magic users and non-magic users, then branched out from there. Instead they got overly granular and turned everything into a gimmick that sucked.

The only smart choice that came from all of that was to disconnect skills from classes.
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
15,175
Location
Eastern block
Pillars of Eternity suffered from stretch goals. Rather than develop a core basis of its systems, they began fishing for money by selling everyone on niches.

Hopefully someone understands, expressed im one simple sentence, one of the major problems of modern RPGs.
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
15,175
Location
Eastern block
In an attempt to make those niches meaningful and distinct, the fundamental systems suffered.

I doubt there was an effort to make them meaningful and distinct. The effort was only in making them in basic form. These are shallow systems.

Pillars is not the only culprit, but also Owlcat games.
 

gurugeorge

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Messages
7,977
Location
London, UK
Strap Yourselves In
In an attempt to make those niches meaningful and distinct, the fundamental systems suffered.

I doubt there was an effort to make them meaningful and distinct. The effort was only in making them in basic form. These are shallow systems.

Pillars is not the only culprit, but also Owlcat games.
Yeah I think this a big factor. They try to stuff everything in and a lot of it ends up poorly integrated - often, you can see that it might have been better if they'd spent more time on it, but they seldom do and are always rushed.

It's a painful thing to contemplate for me, because I want all the things in my computer games. But we're always bumping up against limitations of budget, manpower, enthusiasm, ROI for suits, etc.
 

Oberon

Learned
Joined
Feb 26, 2021
Messages
460
Location
Helheim
Beaton's mega cringe because she had multiple mental breakdowns because all the dudes who worked on the oil sands were into her (on account of there being virtually no women there of course, it's hard physical labor).
Nah, the unions make sure that no hard physical labor takes place, and there are plenty of women working there as hiring is based entirely on who you know and getting the wife a job there means two six figure incomes in the household.
 
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
2,894
Location
The Present
Yeah I think this a big factor. They try to stuff everything in and a lot of it ends up poorly integrated - often, you can see that it might have been better if they'd spent more time on it, but they seldom do and are always rushed.

It's a painful thing to contemplate for me, because I want all the things in my computer games. But we're always bumping up against limitations of budget, manpower, enthusiasm, ROI for suits, etc.

It's not so much that he tried to have everything. It's that Sawyer was cutting up the cake before it was even baked. That's a recipe for disaster. You get the wizard and spells right before you get the specialist correct. You get your basic fighter correct before you start creating barbarians and monks. He oversold something that didn't exist, and he fell on his face. Not merely that, but he made the general gaming public think that this kind of game was a relic, and not worth reviving. PoE was the standard bearer for the next wave of IE-like games, and it died at birth.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom