Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[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.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[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.

 

[MjKorz]

Yet somehow it never works out for him in practice.

It always works out for him in terms of his games being good.

that's why his only project in 6 years was a Java game about history.

The game that has 95% positive rating on Steam with 6k reviews. Was that supposed to be an insult?

 

[sosmoflux]

He isn't renting surely, there's no way

 

[KVVRR]

Does Obsidian allow for for people to work remotely or do they have to show up at the office? Maybe he's just saving up for when he retires and then he'll buy a property somewhere that isn't so expensive to live for no reason at all. Surely the economy isn't such a state someone making 250k can't afford a house, even if it is california?

 

[Roguey]

He isn't renting surely, there's no way

He's expressed his frustration with his inability to own a home in southern California.

Does Obsidian allow for for people to work remotely or do they have to show up at the office? Maybe he's just saving up for when he retires and then he'll buy a property somewhere that isn't so expensive to live for no reason at all. Surely the economy isn't such a state someone making 250k can't afford a house, even if it is california?

He owns his parents' home in Wisconsin. Avellone dropped a million dollars on a home near LA, but Sawyer has been unable/unwilling to save up that much at this point in time.

The housing regulations in SoCal are insane and it's a place a lot of people want to live, so property is sky high.

 

[santino27]

Josh could have/should have bought ~10+ years ago, but maybe the timing didn't work out with Obsidian's difficulties. Still, he's been there forever at this point, and is a single guy who only needs space for his bikes and cat(s) (RIP).

These days though? Yeah, market valuation in SoCal is absurd. I had a friend buy a small 2-bedroom house at ~$700k in 2017 that's valued at something truly stupid now.

 

[PunchYouInTheFace]

Josh could have/should have bought ~10+ years ago

Should've brought his home 40 years ago in sappho washington instead of in commiefornya.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Josh could have/should have bought ~10+ years ago, but maybe the timing didn't work out with Obsidian's difficulties. Still, he's been there forever at this point, and is a single guy who only needs space for his bikes and cat(s) (RIP).

These days though? Yeah, market valuation in SoCal is absurd. I had a friend buy a small 2-bedroom house at ~$700k in 2017 that's valued at something truly stupid now.

This is what happens when you piss away all your money on pretentious shit and sex workers instead of saving for a down payment. Some day, they'll toss his syphilitic, forever alone corpse into a hole and this shitty thread will be the only testament that the poor bastard ever existed.

 

[PunchYouInTheFace]

This is what happens when you piss away all your money on pretentious shit and sex workers instead of saving for a down payment. Some day, they'll toss his syphilitic, forever alone corpse into a hole and this shitty thread will be the only testament that the poor bastard ever existed.

^pegged by gas station hooker.

 

[Roguey]

Josh could have/should have bought ~10+ years ago, but maybe the timing didn't work out with Obsidian's difficulties. Still, he's been there forever at this point, and is a single guy who only needs space for his bikes and cat(s) (RIP).

These days though? Yeah, market valuation in SoCal is absurd. I had a friend buy a small 2-bedroom house at ~$700k in 2017 that's valued at something truly stupid now.

His student loans and his own parents' mortgage payments took priority (hence why he's the legal owner of his parents' house).

 

[mediocrepoet]

Josh could have/should have bought ~10+ years ago, but maybe the timing didn't work out with Obsidian's difficulties. Still, he's been there forever at this point, and is a single guy who only needs space for his bikes and cat(s) (RIP).

These days though? Yeah, market valuation in SoCal is absurd. I had a friend buy a small 2-bedroom house at ~$700k in 2017 that's valued at something truly stupid now.

His student loans and his own parents' mortgage payments took priority (hence why he's the legal owner of his parents' house).

Commendable if true, but how and why do you know this?

 

[Roguey]

Commendable if true, but how and why do you know this?

The guy is pretty open when it comes to microblogging about his life.

 

[luj1]

The guy is pretty open when it comes to microblogging about his life.

Like you are about microstalking and microgossiping