Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Infinitron]

Link seems broken.

 

[LESS T_T]

It's working for me:

Feargus Urquhart
Chief Executive Officer
Obsidian Entertainment
Re-inventing the Publisher and Developer Relationship
With digital distribution, crowdfunding, boutique publishers, and new forms of funding, the developer and publisher relationship has seen both huge changes and stagnation over the last decade. In 2016, how should publishers and developers work together in ways that benefit both, and also leads to the growth of great game franchises - helping out the industry as a whole?

 

[LizardWizard]

 

[Abu Antar]

Can we expect any new game announcements soon? White March 2 isn't that far off. We already know about the card game and MMOs.

Pillars of Eternity 2 seems like a given. I'm also expecting a bigger budget game with a publisher.

 

[Infinitron]

Josh did some ranting on Twitter last night after the stream:














I wonder what sparked this.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Being constrained by Elf Rules since early age, now I see why he was so adamant to have everything usable and completable by any race/class combination! Anyway, I completely agree with him here.

Also:

Fallout when it came out

 

[PlanHex]

I wonder what sparked this.

I'd like to know that too. Tweet at him and ask!
Who's in charge of the codex twitter? Crooked Bee?

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

He is totally right!
I remember during visiting the Piranha Bytes studio that Björn Pankratz told me basically the same thing: that all the choice they as developers can make are illusory ones, so it is about building the best illusion possible. That was back in... idk, 2008 or something like that.
And while it sounded smart I didn't entirely get it at the time, since even PB has made games with limited, but acutally actual choice in them up until this point.
So my guess is some celebrity figure inside the dev community said that stuff once, and now everybody believes it.

 

[Neanderthal]

Josh Sawyer just earned my fuckin thumbs up, tha can make multiple routes through a game, all this all choice is illusion is bollocks parroted by fuckin douches. Look at all choice when rescuin Tandi from Khans, thas got tons o choices, even to bein mistaken for Deaths Head imsen if your lucks high. Gaiders been parrotin this no choice shit for ages, its fuckin developers who don't wanna do a hard job who are excusin emsens in my view, wannin to pursue their naff cinematic vision.

 

[Athelas]

Now watch as Josh Sawyer leaves Obsidian to start an indie studio focused on making short C&C-focused RPG's.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Now watch as Josh Sawyer leaves Obsidian to start an indie studio focused on making short C&C-focused RPG's.

With Chris Avellone and David Gaider.

 

[Roguey]

JES says he doesn't want to have anything to do with running a business. He'd rather let Fergie take care of all that.

 

[Fairfax]

Finally one case where I strongly agree with Sawyer. "Choices in games are always illusions" is one of the most punchable arguments out there.
The irony is that PoE is filled with Biowarian illusions of choice.

 

[Neanderthal]

Cerberus/Grey Warden Agent: So will you work with us?
Upper right: Happy to, you're my new bestest friend, alright you murdered Admiral Kohaku/Jory an I killed/distrusted half your organisation a few months ago but lets all get along.
Middle right: Meh I don't care, wheres me romance an squeein.
Lower right: No I fuckin hate you cunts, i'm gonna tear your fuckin lungs out, cut Jacobs arms off an beat im to death wi wet ends, then rape Miranda til her fat arse is flat. You cunt munching, syphilitic pieces o genital herpes scratchings, i'd not piss on you if you were on fire.

Cerberus/Grey Warden Agent: Good to have you on the team.

 

[Rev]

Finally one case where I strongly agree with Sawyer. "Choices in games are always illusions" is one of the most punchable arguments out there.
The irony is that PoE is filled with Biowarian illusions of choice.

Well, to be honest he said that it's not "even hard if you make it a priority", on PoE it probably wasn't a major one (first they had to build the framework, evoke the feeling of the IE games, etc). On the other hand, he had the same role on New Vegas and there is a lot of reactivity there.

 

[Roguey]

The irony is that PoE is filled with Biowarian illusions of choice.

"a computer game, lacking an active moderator, is more restrictive, but it can still be built to provide a range of expressions and reactions"

Pillars does in fact have these things.

 

[Fairfax]

Finally one case where I strongly agree with Sawyer. "Choices in games are always illusions" is one of the most punchable arguments out there.
The irony is that PoE is filled with Biowarian illusions of choice.

Well, to be honest he said that it's not "even hard if you make it a priority", on PoE it probably wasn't a major one (first they had to build the framework, evoke the feeling of the IE games, etc). On the other hand, he had the same role on New Vegas and there is a lot of reactivity there.

Same role, different involvement. He wrote most of PoE's lore and the 1st pass on the main quest, for example.
I agree that it wasn't a priority, but they did promise a lot of reactivity back in the Kickstarter campaign.

 

[Infinitron]

Same role, different involvement. He wrote most of PoE's lore and the 1st pass on the main quest, for example.
I agree that it wasn't a priority, but they did promise a lot of reactivity back in the Kickstarter campaign.

Josh has never said he wrote the main quest of PoE, you're confusing it with New Vegas.

 

[Bubbles]

I wonder what sparked this.

Sounds like he's talking about Fallout 4 imho

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

Same role, different involvement. He wrote most of PoE's lore and the 1st pass on the main quest, for example.
I agree that it wasn't a priority, but they did promise a lot of reactivity back in the Kickstarter campaign.

Josh has never said he wrote the main quest of PoE, you're confusing it with New Vegas.

BTW, Fairfax keeps saying this even though there's literally no evidence supporting it (and it's not the first time that he is pointed at that!).
Fairfax, bro, that's not cool.

 

[Fairfax]

Same role, different involvement. He wrote most of PoE's lore and the 1st pass on the main quest, for example.
I agree that it wasn't a priority, but they did promise a lot of reactivity back in the Kickstarter campaign.

Josh has never said he wrote the main quest of PoE, you're confusing it with New Vegas.

I'm pretty sure there's an interview linked somewhere in this Obsidian forum where it's said that he wrote the first pass on the critical path. Maybe he just outlined it, but it was him.
He also designed most of PoE's combat and class design, whereas FNV already had most of its mechanics in place.

Anyway, my point is that FNV is one of the CRPGs with the most misguided praise out there, and Sawyer's role as director is part of it. Not just him, though. Every couple of days MCA corrects people on twitter who thank him for "making such a great game" or for his "fantastic story".

 

[Infinitron]

It's true that it's not FO:NV either: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...reciation-station.101693/page-25#post-4282790

So I don't know where this first pass critical path thing came from at all

 

[Kazuki]

Poor John Gonzalez, never had a praise he actually deserve from the rest of fallout community.

I think Josh summed it best.

“John Gonzalez, who actually wrote the entire main story and many of the game's central characters (Benny, Caesar, Mr. House, Vulpes Inculta, etc.) has seemingly been erased from the collective memory of the gaming community. I think it's really unfortunate. He also wrote all of the Survivalist logs in Honest Hearts (and some of the Happy Trails Caravan)."

 

[Duraframe300]

It's true that it's not FO:NV either: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...reciation-station.101693/page-25#post-4282790

So I don't know where this first pass critical path thing came from at all

From the very link you posted (well, imo not directly, but its mentioned)

The high-level design of the companions and areas in F:NV (outside of the Strip) was entirely mine,

And my and others memory took care of the rest. Though I'm pretty sure the initial quote this came from is older than that and Akil Hooper was mentioned.

 

[Duraframe300]

Poor John Gonzalez,

He suffered from not really having any part in the Fallout franchise or Obsidian/Black Isle (or for crpg players) before that. The vast majority of players I came across believed Chris Avellone wrote it. (Van Buren connection additionally hurt)

The only other thing he did was (I THINK) write Anjali in Dungeon Siege III.

Other than that Tom Clancy's: End War and a kind of obscure XBOX/PS2 game were his only other credits.