Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[Heroic Liberator]

it was very obvious from the beginning Josh never liked bg. you do not dissect things you love on the table to figure out how they work and why you or other people love them

you don’t?

How can you say you love someone without being willing to disembowel them?

How can you love?

Spoiler

 

[rusty_shackleford]

How can you love?

cool it with the homophobia

 

[Roguey]

IIRC, Josh has said BG1 is the best IE game; it's BG2 he likes to criticize.

His favorite is Icewind Dale, the one he worked on. He didn't like how BG didn't follow all the rules and had too much empty space.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

IIRC, Josh has said BG1 is the best IE game; it's BG2 he likes to criticize.

His favorite is Icewind Dale, the one he worked on. He didn't like how BG didn't follow all the rules and had too much empty space.

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I could swear I remember some vaguely equivocating quote about how BG1 is the most complete and well-rounded package in the IE catalogue, and therefore it's allowable to label it the "best"; I do know that IWD is his favorite, it's one of the things that's always made me cut him a little slack (because obviously IWD is the best IE game).

 

[Major_Blackhart]

No such thing as a good infinity engine game

 

[Grunker]

it was very obvious from the beginning Josh never liked bg. you do not dissect things you love on the table to figure out how they work and why you or other people love them

you don’t?

I don't have to dissect a game I like to know why it's good.

That's some alien rationalization. The world is full of good analysis on people's favourite stuff

 

[Shadenuat]

it is.

but Cold. Try asking 14 yo Grunker, he might have an explanation you seek.

 

[Diggfinger]

I hate Josh Sawyer's hypocrisy as much as anyone else. He's made zero fucking progress towards Darklands 2, which is something that when Arnold Hendrick was alive was a real possibility but he clearly didn't actually want to happen, probably because it would require too much reading.

As for Pillars of Eternity, there was an audience that wanted that and...

No. You know what. Fuck that. Fuck this asshole. You can't sell out and then whine about being this artist who is bound by his audience. This is the most shameless thing I've seen since Blink 182.

 

[Infinitron]

On the transition from lead designers to game directors:

 

[Roguey]

"Now we have game directors and design directors"

How is this not confusing? :\ And what was wrong with "lead designer"?

The owners were skeptical about it. They thought one person having control over the entire project would result in bad things.

"That's our job." -- Urquhart and Parker

 

[Nano]

"That's our job." -- Urquhart and Parker

Yeah, it always sounded to me like Parker's role on KotOR2 wasn't much different from a project director's.

 

[Sannom]

How is this not confusing? :\ And what was wrong with "lead designer"?

I'm going to guess that it's in order to align with the other director roles : audio director, art director, etc.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

 

[Flying Dutchman]

"Now we have game directors and design directors"

How is this not confusing? :\ And what was wrong with "lead designer"?

"That's our job." -- Urquhart and Parker

Minor edit on the last line if the rumors are true.

Isn't a design director a studio role, and game director is focused specifically on a game? If so... yeah, that's still kind of confusing.

 

[Roguey]

Isn't a design director a studio role, and game director is focused specifically on a game?

He's the design director for the whole studio similar to how Boyarsky (formerly Avellone) is the creative director for the whole studio but there are also creative leads on individual titles (though I guess they'll be renaming those creative directors too...?).

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Hmm, Roguey got me thinking. Was the reason Urquhart even made peace with Cain and Boyarski due to the fact that the main creative in the studio, Avellone, left? I always got the feeling that there was no love lost between the Troika group and Obsidian, not that anything was said one way or another that could lead you to that decision. I mean when Troika was around, whenever Obsidian or Black Isle was mentioned in some places, a lot of people would immediately bring up Troika as well.

Plus, the fact that Obsidian's games were essentially all spinoffs or sequels until 2010 with Alpha Protocol, which bombed, is definitely something that I would think could bring up an inferiority complex. Everyone, myself included, always gave Obsidian a TON of slack because for years we blamed publishers, which is what they said without actually saying it. Then the moment they got Pillars they essentially shit the bed, disproving what we all felt about them. Whereas Boyarski and Cain would readily admit that they didn't really know what they were doing sometimes, and early on realized that they had wanted to make games, not run a business and hated that aspect of it, which was a HUGE reason for their company failing.

 

[Roguey]

Was the reason Urquhart even made peace with Cain and Boyarski due to the fact that the main creative in the studio, Avellone, left? I always got the feeling that there was no love lost between the Troika group and Obsidian, not that anything was said one way or another that could lead you to that decision.

Any bitterness they had would have been about Fallout 2 (Feargus demanding more creative control), not what happened after.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Any bitterness they had would have been about Fallout 2 (Feargus demanding more creative control), not what happened after.

While we're at it, what's that supposed to mean? What lists?

 

[Ninjerk]

Any bitterness they had would have been about Fallout 2 (Feargus demanding more creative control), not what happened after.

While we're at it, what's that supposed to mean? What lists?

Spoiler

agris sorry bad image, here's a better one

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Vormulak]

Soyer is an overrated hack.

 

[Testownia]

it was very obvious from the beginning Josh never liked bg. you do not dissect things you love on the table to figure out how they work and why you or other people love them

you don’t?

I don't have to dissect a game I like to know why it's good.

You reserve the harshest criticism to products you love. Unless you're a trend-chasing, Patreon-begging piece of shit YouTuber, spending multiple hours on a movie/game/series that everyone and their mother knows is bad.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Major_Blackhart]

God I want him to be taken out behind the shed and shot.

I mean, people always knew Fergus was a shill and a dolt based simply on an old quote Saint_Proverbius had for years in his signature, displaying the difference between his mode of thought vs. Tim Cain's, which also showed the difference between Troika and Black Isle / Obsidian by way of depth and breadth.