Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[PunchYouInTheFace]

Chess.

Tetris.

My brother. These are not "great", they're fundamentals.

It's like what Color is to Painting. We're talking about good painting, not color.

 

[scytheavatar]

Liked the video. He was up front and shared his thoughts. Also I was not aware Avowed was Fergus' idea and came around at the end of Deadfire. Of which Sawyer was just too burned out and so was not involved in Avowed. And in general he doesn't care for (modern) rpg's and the way they approach romance.

It makes you question if Sawyer would want to do a new Fallout game even if it was offered to him. And if he is not involved what are the chances that a new Obsidian Fallout game would be better than Avowed?

 

[santino27]

I thought it was a pretty good video, liked a lot of his answers, and agreed with a few too. It doesn't give me any greater optimism for future Obsidian releases, but tbh, that ship sailed a long time ago and ended up in a 'muh colonization' setting anyway.

 

[PunchYouInTheFace]

'muh colonization'

I think it's a great topic that evoke real emotion, the fact that you're still coping after more than half a decade since its release saying that 'muh colonization' must have been a good topic to explore. It stays in people's mind a lot longer.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

'muh colonization' must have been a good topic to explore.

And they did a pretty good job with it, especially when it comes to the various factions. Enough depth as for them to be neither monoliths nor caricatures.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Even if we're talking about RPGs there are plenty of examples of good games without "good" writing such as Battle Brothers, where you can describe the prose as functional at best.

There are a multitude of good and great CRPGs where the amount of writing is scanty, if not entirely nonexistent, including such exemplars as Dungeon Master.

 

[PunchYouInTheFace]

multitude

few.

the word you're looking for is "few".

And these aren't "great", as in, "generally perceived as great", but "I think it's good/great".

 

[Dishonoredbr]

I like how he talks about BG 3's romance and says it's not something he would do and what he would do probably won't be enjoyable for the main stream auidences.

Though what he did with deadfire's romance isn't really that great.(Though still miles better than BG3).

Deadfire's romance was clearly not made with a lot of heart behind it. While BG3 actually tries and I honestly , it isn't all that good or have much content but somehow people went crazy over.

The cinematic and voice acting do the heavy lifting for them. I just hope other devs don't feel like turning their games into a date sim , like Bioware, is really necessary.

 

[Tirofijo]

And these aren't "great", as in, "generally perceived as great", but "I think it's good/great".

Are you generally perceived as a tiresome, pointless poster or rather do I think you’re a tiresome, pointless poster?

 

[Quillon]

 

[MjKorz]

Deadfire's romance was clearly not made with a lot of heart behind it. While BG3 actually tries

Deadfire and BG3 romances are very different. BG3 is the typical wish fulfillment power fantasy for horny incels. Deadfire tries to present relationships in a more realistic, toned-down fashion - something that is very evident from the way Deadfire handles romance endings where romanced companions end up balancing their duties with their romantic involvements and in many cases this does not end well.

 

[Vyvian]

Deadfire's romance was clearly not made with a lot of heart behind it. While BG3 actually tries

Deadfire and BG3 romances are very different. BG3 is the typical wish fulfillment power fantasy for horny incels. Deadfire tries to present relationships in a more realistic, toned-down fashion - something that is very evident from the way Deadfire handles romance endings where romanced companions end up balancing their duties with their romantic involvements and in many cases this does not end well.

Only masochist lunatics want real life style romance in their fantasy games. They want the fantasy just like with every other aspect of the game needs to be fantasy.
It's like if you wanted fire spells to singe your hands for HP damage every time you cast, in theory it's a good and interesting idea but in practice it is not.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Deadfire's romance was clearly not made with a lot of heart behind it. While BG3 actually tries

Deadfire and BG3 romances are very different. BG3 is the typical wish fulfillment power fantasy for horny incels. Deadfire tries to present relationships in a more realistic, toned-down fashion - something that is very evident from the way Deadfire handles romance endings where romanced companions end up balancing their duties with their romantic involvements and in many cases this does not end well.

Luv Rauatai, luv RDC, luv Maia. Simple as.

 

[MjKorz]

Deadfire's romance was clearly not made with a lot of heart behind it. While BG3 actually tries

Deadfire and BG3 romances are very different. BG3 is the typical wish fulfillment power fantasy for horny incels. Deadfire tries to present relationships in a more realistic, toned-down fashion - something that is very evident from the way Deadfire handles romance endings where romanced companions end up balancing their duties with their romantic involvements and in many cases this does not end well.

Luv Rauatai, luv RDC, luv Maia. Simple as.

The ending where Maia betrays her people by sticking with you, yet ends up being heartbroken for it was probably the most memorable one for me.

 

[Tyranicon]

Hey a Limmy shirt!

Respect for Sawyer went up +1

 

[rojay]

There is no such thing as "a great game" without a good writing, good writing is one of the requirement of a game to be great.

Chess.

Tetris.

Even if we're talking about RPGs there are plenty of examples of good games without "good" writing such as Battle Brothers, where you can describe the prose as functional at best.

I don't know, I think the writing in Battle Brothers is pretty good. There's not really a story, but then again it's not an RPG. Which begs the question, can an RPG be "good" without at least competent writing? KOTC comes to mind, and the ToEE mod of Keep on the Borderlands. Nobody plays either for the writing, let alone the story, and I guess compared to BG3 nobody plays them at all.

'muh colonization'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ

 

[Diggfinger]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/wh...bsidian-vet-and-pentiment-creator-josh-sawyer

​

What did you last read?

Stasiland: Stories From Behind The Berlin Wall by Anna Funder.Funder lived in Berlin after the fall of the wall and she conducted interviews with people who either suffered under the East German Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit – Ministry for State Security) or worked within it – sometimes both. I started reading it shortly after watching the 2006 film The Lives Of Others / Das Leben Der Anderen) and found it fascinating.

18 years to read a single book... slow and methodical approach

 

[Butter]

tl;dw Fallout 3 was easy, so New Vegas had to be similarly easy so as not to buttfuck Bethesda players. Increasing enemy health/damage is only scratching the surface of how to tune difficulty. People will invariably outskill your game over time, but it's nice to provide options like Magran's Fires for them.

 

[Drakortha]

tl;dw Fallout 3 was easy, so New Vegas had to be similarly easy so as not to buttfuck Bethesda players. Increasing enemy health/damage is only scratching the surface of how to tune difficulty. People will invariably outskill your game over time, but it's nice to provide options like Magran's Fires for them.

The DT armor system was a huge improvement over Fallout 3. It added challenge to encounters without simply bloating numbers. You needed to actually think about what weapon and ammo type you were using against what.

 

[Morgoth]

 

[Zanzoken]

I live in an old house with a weak power network and the landlord isn't interested in updating a) the electrical system b) the insulation. I do have AC in a few rooms but this one poses some difficulties the others don't.

$250k/year salary and he suffers in the summer heat. I can't believe I live more comfortably than Josh.

Sawyer confirmed that Obsidian talked about Pillars 3 after BG3, but the price of competing with it scared them off.

He's open to directing another Fallout project of course.

Imagine being almost 50 years old making this kind of money and still some landlord's cuck instead of owning your own home.

Of course he lives in Commiefornia so I guess a house costs about 30 million dollars and he's paying like 70% tax.

 

[PunchYouInTheFace]

pointless poster

I don't know. Ask your mom.

 

[Drakortha]

Make it the new balanced button.

 

[Quillon]

I like how he talks about BG 3's romance and says it's not something he would do and what he would do probably won't be enjoyable for the main stream auidences.

Though what he did with deadfire's romance isn't really that great.(Though still miles better than BG3).

Deadfire's romance was clearly not made with a lot of heart behind it. While BG3 actually tries and I honestly , it isn't all that good or have much content but somehow people went crazy over.

The cinematic and voice acting do the heavy lifting for them. I just hope other devs don't feel like turning their games into a date sim , like Bioware, is really necessary.

Josh saying he's out of touch with all this shit doesn't even matter, its a cop out; its not like Swen designs & writes romances in Larian games; he leaves it to narrative people and tell them do what bioware did and get creative. What worries Josh the most is the tech and making fun gameplay/combat gameplay & creating a yuge game with quality assets first & foremost, that is what really scares any developer looking at BG3, the romance stuff etc is the last thing they'd be worrying about if they were to attempt at a BG3 style & caliber game.

Also Deadfire's romances isn't much different from BG3, if the game was 3D and had quality cinematics romancing the shark woulda went viral well before the bear lmao

 

[luj1]

He was right about literally everything

Yet somehow it never works out for him in practice.

Good designer on paper, but he obviously can't lead for shit. The industry people know this; that's why his only project in 6 years was a Java game about history.