Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[S.torch]

There are hopes that Microsoft loses its shit and performs mass firings of senior staff over there at Obshitian. At this point, I'm kinda hoping for it.

Would hardly change anything

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Feargus and others would be out of a job.

 

[c u in da ballpit ashren]

It makes complete sense that Josh wrote Arcade.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/706650739267846144/whats-your-take-on-all-this-ogl-stuff

otter-blogger asked:
What's your take on all this OGL stuff?

Dumb and short-sighted, but par for the course when money people get involved. The attempts at spinning it are particularly ridiculous and no one is buying it.
I only have a little bit of experience working within the tabletop RPG sphere, but I have to say that as bad as videogame publishers can be, the most soulless people I've encountered in the broader industry are on the tabletop publishing side. Unless someone working as a tabletop publisher is reading this - you're great, of course.
Obviously someone has to worry about the bottom line, especially in an industry notorious for losing money, but when that becomes the only thing they care about - oof, what a rough way to suffocate everyone else's love for something.
No matter how great and passionate and forthright the individual devs and designers are, the people in charge can always ruin a good thing. Of course, that's true for every industry; it's just really on display right now.

https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/706718989499400193/do-seki-and-aedyran-belong-to-the-same-language

impoffreemarket asked:
Do Seki and Aedyran belong to the same language family? Rekke seems to pick up Aedyran fairly quickly, even if he struggles at times, something that is really hard to do if you're not in the same or close language group to your target language. Is it possible they were the same language, but diverged due to Yezuha's isolation from outside world?

Seki and Aedyran are completely unrelated. Kate wrote Rekke as being particularly adept at learning new languages, with an implication that he is already a polyglot.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

What's OGL?

 

[OSK]

What's OGL?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Game_License

 

[Infinitron]

A bit of under bus throwing here:

 

[rusty_shackleford]

found notes/logs are significantly worse/more abused
especially ones detailing moments right before someone died

 

[Wunderbar]

 

[Harthwain]

It's hilarious. I guess some people want to emulate "Drums in the deep" style so hard they fail to realize when to stop for it to make sense.

 

[Peachcurl]

Possible. Or maybe it's an intentional joke.

 

[Hace El Oso]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[0sacred]

https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/708273311838257152/is-there-a-particular-difficulty-you-consider

plstkme-blog asked:
Is there a particular difficulty you consider "canon" in the PoE series? Like how Bungie said that Heroic was the canon difficulty for their Halo games.

Nah.

tfw you stooped so low as to put a Story Mode in your game

 

[Roguey]

tfw you stooped so low as to put a Story Mode in your game

That was forced on him. He was a strong proponent of forcing players to step up, even if playing on easy was the best they could manage.

 

[OSK]

tfw you stooped so low as to put a Story Mode in your game

That was forced on him. He was a strong proponent of forcing players to step up, even if playing on easy was the best they could manage.

Wait... did I accidentally play "story mode" on Pentiment? How do I enable the game play?

 

[Berengar]

feel like we're at the point where this stuff(i believe tvtropes called it 'Dear Diary Today I Died") is included mainly for purposes of a wink wink joke and for tradition. I always associate it with Lovecraftt stories though. Bro is literally penning a letter as a monster is knocking at his door.

 

[S.torch]

Please, refrain yourself from mentioning disgusting places like tv pseuds in this prestigious forum.

Thanks.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/709063385725140992/hi-are-auto-clickers-allowed-in-the-pillars-of

g0rto asked:
Hi!
Are auto clickers allowed in the pillars of eternity 2 ultimate challange?
My hands are hurting from swapping boon duration equipment so much. Big fan, loved pentiment!

Seems fine to me. I don't even know if we would register that in our review of the save file and video, anyway. And thank you.

 

[whydoibother]

Hello, Mr. Sawyer! Welcome to Bethesda Softworks!

 

[LostHisMarbles]

I'm still not used to seeing people responding to themselves; publicly at that..
And i'm actually glad to

I also want to note the irony of Josh's sharing his wisdom; but O.K., keeping yourself relevant, which is fair.

 

[jimster]

Twitter "threads" are so unwieldy, just use a blog.

 

[Infinitron]

!! Sawyer replies to a frequent Codex complaint, that's been carefully phrased in a socially acceptable way: https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/709246802005737472/potentially-controversial-question-though-i-dont

deotterguy asked:
Potentially controversial question, though I don't mean it in that sort of way: One thing I noticed in Deadfire's writing was that there was a far greater likelihood for male characters to be portrayed as the more incompetent or less sympathetic half in most dynamics, whether it was debtor/debtee (Radora/Zamar), boss/subordinate (Furrante/Aeldys), enemies (Rinco/Mokeha) and so on. That's not to say misandry, since the goal is obviously equal representation, but I did notice this enough that I assumed wasn't just me seeing things or wanting to see them to justify a bias, especially also considering that if my observations were accurate, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest considering I would have chalked it down to an understandable difference in context regarding the way genders act based on historical norms and power dynamics (ie. There is possibly more historical weight in a man abusing a woman vs the reverse of that, so it is important to understand that history before portraying something that may or may not be a false equivalency). Essentially I ask this more as a curiosity than anything else: What was the writing team's approach to portraying gender dynamics in Deadfire?

I think the first thing is that we did make a conscious effort to numerically represent women as much as men among NPCs (note: there are not many non-binary characters in Deadfire, so in this answer I'll just be talking about male/female dynamics). We also put more women in authority positions where we felt it made sense in this fictional world that we created. For those who think that's bad, well okay.

That said, I don't really agree that the women consistently come across as more competent or sympathetic. In cases where they do, it's usually a difference of degree, not kind. I think a lot of the female characters are kind of shitty people and/or bad leaders, as many of the male characters are kind of shitty people and/or bad leaders.

If you prefer Aeldys to Furrante, that's understandable, but also Aeldys... sucks? Director Castol and Lueva Alvari are also both bad in different ways. Queen Onekaza II is a sympathetic figure but installed herself as a monarch over the other tribes of the Deadfire and has caused a lot of collateral damage to the Huana in her ongoing defense of the region - literally a gatekeeping girlboss. Prince Aruihi is a flawed character but I don't think he comes across as particularly incompetent or malicious compared to his sister.

Rinco is annoying and pathetic but Mokeha comes across as excessively belligerent even if she was in the right. Radora did get jumped by pirates, which is easy to sympathize with, but I don't think she does much to endear herself to the Watcher. Hazanui Karū is highly effective but she would be perfectly content seeing the RDC effectively steamroll Huana culture. Atsura is below her in rank, but he easily as competent as she is in different areas, but repellent for other, weirder reasons.

And as far as the companions go, Xoti is approaching Permanent Dark Mode, Maia assassinates people with no questions asked, Pallegina is a ultranationalist zealot... I don't know - I just don't think these characters feel "better" or more sympathetic than the male characters.

I think the main difference really is just that there are about as many female characters as male characters and they are more represented in key positions of power. But they often suck ass in those positions of power because they are difficult jobs and inherently corrupting. For better or worse, one of the recurring comments about Deadfire's factions is that they all seem kind of shitty. Even in cases where you can shift the faction head, they still feel a different type of shitty. That's both because of the vibes of the faction overall as well as their leadership. You do not, in fact, "gotta hand it" to the Royal Deadfire Company or Aeldys' nightmare anarcho pirate flotilla with the Ukaizo storm engines permanently set to Max Power.

https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/709063385725140992/hi-are-auto-clickers-allowed-in-the-pillars-of

g0rto asked:
Hi!
Are auto clickers allowed in the pillars of eternity 2 ultimate challange?
My hands are hurting from swapping boon duration equipment so much. Big fan, loved pentiment!

Seems fine to me. I don't even know if we would register that in our review of the save file and video, anyway. And thank you.

https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer/709071305668952064/would-you-consider-doing-a-game-thats-rated-teen

sergeantaegis asked:
Would you consider doing a game that's rated Teen or Everyone by the ESRB or do you feel it would "constrain" you too much (creatively-speaking)?

I don't think about ESRB ratings when I'm developing games, but they usually wind up in M territory. I would not go out of my way to specifically make something T or E because it's not particularly important for me to reach younger audiences, to be honest. I want to make the things I want to make and if they all wind up being M, I'm fine with that.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I can't read his words anymore. They're soo... arrogant and chock full of self importance.

 

[0sacred]

at least he admits they intentionally put women above men. He's a turbo cuck with self reflection