Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[The Jester]

Soyer

Gets me every time

 

[Flying Dutchman]

PoE's story was Eric Fenstermaker's baby: https://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=10231

I don't remember if it's in that interview, but I seem to remember there being an issue of a couple pitches being presented and Fenstermaker making an executive decision to go with one (or maybe combining them) over the objection of MCA (who said there were a lot of issues with how to explain everything that was going on). Infinitron is probably the resource to settle the story issues since he covered it in pretty good detail.

I got the impression it was Fenstermaker and Sawyer and Fenstermaker basically gave up and said "it's good enough to ship it"? When, well, it... wasn't.

Sounds like a comedy of errors.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

It was allegedly Feargus that mandated Fenstermaker’s pitch, not Fenstermaker. According to MCA the team was pushing for Ziets' pitch.

 

[Quillon]

IIRC they couldn't decide on any pitch then Fenstermaker made one pitch to rule them all or combined all the pitches into one.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

IIRC they couldn't decide on any pitch then Fenstermaker made one pitch to rule them all or combined all the pitches into one.

It was always the plan to combine elements of all pitches, but in the MCA May of Rage he infamously said that Feargus asked the team who they wanted to be Creative Lead and they fairly unanimously voted for Ziets, to which Feargus responded, "Let's go with Eric".

 

[Butter]

IIRC they couldn't decide on any pitch then Fenstermaker made one pitch to rule them all or combined all the pitches into one.

It was always the plan to combine elements of all pitches, but in the MCA May of Rage he infamously said that Feargus asked the team who they wanted to be Creative Lead and they fairly unanimously voted for Ziets, to which Feargus responded, "Let's go with Eric".

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

IIRC they couldn't decide on any pitch then Fenstermaker made one pitch to rule them all or combined all the pitches into one.

It was always the plan to combine elements of all pitches, but in the MCA May of Rage he infamously said that Feargus asked the team who they wanted to be Creative Lead and they fairly unanimously voted for Ziets, to which Feargus responded, "Let's go with Eric".

I think it was "You should have chosen Eric"

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Roguey]

Chris Avellone status: told.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Ninjerk]

Imagine answering questions like that until your last days.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

A lot of supposed references everywhere are just a coincidence.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Ahh, so I hope he enjoys the quality of people that play his games going forward.

 

[Nano]

Josh thinks Cleric/Mages should stop being greedy and pick just one.

 

[Gordian Nutt]

Ease of one sided argument shown

Van Buren never removed NCR despite damage to NCR so original question is bad but so is Sawyer response

When NCR is size of California + Nevada it is not really a post apoc game anymore and leaves less room for apoc stories vs NCR ranger outposts

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Ease of one sided argument shown

Van Buren never removed NCR despite damage to NCR so original question is bad but so is Sawyer response

When NCR is size of California + Nevada it is not really a post apoc game anymore and leaves less room for apoc stories vs NCR ranger outposts

I think using NCR (and other factions he's implemented in games) as an example of the flaws of the answer in his worldbuilding approach would be essay-worthy.

I'm biased because I don't think Sawyer designs good worlds or factions (Fallout doesn't count for a few reasons because it's largely not his world, either in gameplay or lore, he's a tourist).

I thought NCR in New Vegas, for all its mighty civilization, was pretty boring, one-note, and the only interesting thing about them was areas where their influence was falling apart, not where it was stable and prospering.

I think NCR had a president, too, but it was interesting that for all that work, the president was boring and worse, forgettable, especially in comparison to someone like Tandi who is the actual, real face of the faction in F2 - so I guess on some level, aesthetics do matter?

Caesar was much better, but I feel like that was more Gonzalez getting the setting right.

 

[Infinitron]

Weird complaint. The president of the NCR in New Vegas was a ten minute cameo in-game, and was basically just a pseudo-JFK stand-in symbolizing the NCR's expansionist bravado.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Weird complaint. The president of the NCR in New Vegas was a ten minute cameo in-game, and was basically just a pseudo-JFK stand-in symbolizing the NCR's expansionist bravado.

Your face is a weird complaint

(I'll edit this with an expanded response when I can be bothered - but the fact neither of us seems to remember the President's name enough to cite it is interesting in itself)

 

[Infinitron]

Weird complaint. The president of the NCR in New Vegas was a ten minute cameo in-game, and was basically just a pseudo-JFK stand-in symbolizing the NCR's expansionist bravado.

Your face is a weird complaint

(I'll edit this with an expanded response when I can be bothered - but the fact neither of us seems to remember the President's name enough to cite it is interesting in itself)

I did remember that his name is Aaron Kimball, but like I said it's not important.

 

[Bad Sector]

I thought NCR in New Vegas, for all its mighty civilization, was pretty boring, one-note, and the only interesting thing about them was areas where their influence was falling apart, not where it was stable and prospering.

But that is the point of NCR in New Vegas - it is the face of a boring, bureaucratic government, and not even a bright face: it is weak and starved from resources with lots of internal politics, which is something that the other factions want to take advantage of. Also the president is very unimportant in New Vegas since this still the frontier as far as NCR is concerned, it doesn't make sense to have him sitting around there (the other factions present in the game have their heads in New Vegas but they are smaller factions and that makes sense for them). And as a proper bureaucratic government, they do not have one single person to act as a head of NCR - there are different people for the army, politics, etc. And they're not the best at their job because if they were they wouldn't be in New Vegas but back in the capital city.

 

[Gordian Nutt]

My point was the original poster asking Sawyer the question was wrong

In the old Van Buren documents NCR still exists but is smaller and fighting with Brotherhood of Steel so it is not destroying a faction it is keeping the scope more limited instead of it being a huge nation

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Again, it's agreed. Even the best of Sawyer games leave us wanting, thinking about what could have been rather than how great it was.

I played FONV a LOT, partly due to the fact that the RPG world had a dearth of interesting new stuff in it, for a long, long time. I was still a mild fan of obsidian at that point, not because I felt their games were particularly worth while but because they appeared to be the only studio in town doing anything resembling RPGs.

Then somehow or other the indie scene for RPGs blew up. Probably a combo of steam, gog, and then all that crowdfunding crap just going bananas. I dunno, but I like it. I've played in the last two years more RPGs than I did in Obsidian's 'heyday' when they still had promise but were really just a lot of woulda-shoulda-couldas.

But even then, the only Obsidian games I actually played were FONV and Pillars. And Pillars was only twice. So much for that company. Meanwhile, I've bought Underrail and AOD for friends several times.

 

[Nano]

Okay, seriously, Josh's profile pic makes him look like he's wearing makeup. How is it that he hasn't wisened up and replaced it yet?

 

[Efe]

because he is wearing make up.