Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Major_Blackhart]

Maybe Feargus is just a lousy negotiator?
Maybe he has a habit of overpromising and his team either underdelivers, or if they deliver it's rushed and looks it?
Maybe his team has a habit of just not meeting deadlines?
People hated Bobby Kotick over his not wanting to do business with that company Double Fine, but he said from a business perspective it didn't make sense due to XYZ factors. I remember he said in one interview they weren't a good investment because they routinely missed deadlines. Could be the same reputation Feargus has brought with him.

 

[Prime Junta]

Come on people. He's running a company with 170 employees and managing to keep it afloat, without having a reliable, continuous source of income. He's managed to do so for 13 years, starting in a post-crisis economy, through one huge global downturn, and through several major shifts in the market he's in. All that while looking like a plump, hopeful hamster. That is not a small feat. IMO it would be more interesting to try to figure out what he did right than what he did wrong.

 

[Fry]

I'd actually love to know how the Russkie tank thing came about. If he initiated that pitch and managed to convince them that a studio known for nothing but RPGs could make their tank MMO, I'm impressed.

 

[Infinitron]

My all-time favorite Feargus move is how he managed to drag out South Park's development for years and years through two different publishers. Kept a team occupied for like half a decade!

 

[Quillon]

My all-time unfavorite Feargus move is how he turned down GoT rpg before GoT was kool.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

My all-time favorite Feargus move is how he managed to drag out South Park's development for years and years through two different publishers. Kept a team occupied for like half a decade!

You think the collapse of THQ was down to Feargus?

 

[Flou]

My all-time unfavorite Feargus move is how he turned down GoT rpg before GoT was kool.

It kinda depends though... how freely can they work on the IP. GRRM is highly protective of his material, so is it just the book/tv series done in crpg mode or something completely different? While it may sound like a deal everyone would take in heartbeat (even before the tv series), since we don't know the exact details it's hard to judge him by it. What else did they have on the table at the moment etc.

 

[Fairfax]

My all-time unfavorite Feargus move is how he turned down GoT rpg before GoT was kool.

It kinda depends though... how freely can they work on the IP. GRRM is highly protective of his material, so is it just the book/tv series done in crpg mode or something completely different? While it may sound like a deal everyone would take in heartbeat (even before the tv series), since we don't know the exact details it's hard to judge him by it. What else did they have on the table at the moment etc.

GRRM has no creative control over licensed products, including the show, though in some cases he was asked for some input, like the RPG and the graphic novel. Feargus said he didn't take the deal because he thought the setting didn't allow "standard role-playing fantasy things".

 

[Flou]

GRRM has no creative control over licensed products, including the show, though in some cases he was asked for some input, like the RPG and the graphic novel. Feargus said he didn't take the deal because he thought the setting didn't allow "standard role-playing fantasy things".

I thought GRRM was really strict when it comes to licensing. Obviously with the tv show he lost all that, since HBO can license the shit out of the tv show into other merchandise as well. Isn't the Telltale Game of Thrones license based on the tv deal?
I wouldn't just blame Feargus though. Someone at the office should have promoted the shit out of that IP. Like Feargus said in the IGN interview sometimes projects need a champion, that IP needed a champion and apparently had none at Obsidian. But then again what projects did they have at hand back then?

I personally would have taken the deal based on book IP alone. There's just so much you can do, if you aren't forced to use the same time as the tv show and books. Though with GRRM's masterful writing, anything else would have probably felt like cheap fanfiction like the tv show.

 

[Abu Antar]

Can't listen to it right now, but Fenstermaker makes an appearance, talking about Aliens RPG.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/podca...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[Quillon]

Said he's gonna freelance for Pillars 2 at the end [if it works out], will write Eder again.

 

[2house2fly]

Aw man, he'd have been working on the New Vegas DLCs if he wasn't on South Park. He'd have probably done a better job of the Honest Hearts companions if he'd been on that.

Good to hear he was at least involved with Pillars 2 pre-production, I hope they get him back for some writing.

 

[Infinitron]

Can't listen to it right now, but Fenstermaker makes an appearance, talking about Aliens RPG.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/podca...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Watched this. Except for a few minutes near the beginning where he talks about New Vegas, the entire interview is about South Park, up until the last five minutes.

 

[Infinitron]

Somebody from the PoE2 Fig comments has started a petition to Activision to let Obsidian make an Arcanum game: https://www.change.org/p/ir-activis...ease-the-arcanum-ip-to-obsidian-entertainment

 

[Fry]

Probably shouldn't remind them they have the IP. They'll turn it into a Dishonored clone.

 

[Infinitron]

Another Feargus story about the development of Baldur's Gate:

Feargus
DEVELOPER

William D. - I do understand your frustration, and it is a constant balance for us. Back in the day, we got a lot of feedback and frustration from people on BG1 because they could only get their characters to Level 5 to 7 (depended on the class) - that was a lot of gameplay hours without much leveling. The reason for that was to make it so BG2 would not have the player needing to start off by killing gods. I'm exaggerating a bit here, but it was an issue that had to be dealt with, and there were A LOT of conversations about it. [BTW when I say we here, I was involved in a lot of the conversations, but I don't mean to say I developed BG1 or BG2, that was BioWare - I was just at Black Isle at the time and we worked closely with them during the days of BG - they were responsible for 99.99% of the games]. So, flash forward a lot of years (man I'm old) and we had to decide between limiting leveling on PoE 1 for PoE2, or doing the re-set. We decided the later.

 

[exe]

This maybe the wrong thread, but I want to give NWN2 OC + MotB a try, is there a mandatory fanpatch or anything like that?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

Latest confirmation of the Tim Cain game just to get y'all hyped:

Feargus
DEVELOPER

Tim isn't work on Deadfire this time around. While that may sound disappointing, Tim is working on something new. It's nothing we can talk about yet, or for a while, but when we can - I think everyone is going to be super excited over what it is.

 

[Rev]

They can't talk about it for a while, so no news until at least the next year, I guess?

 

[EnthalpyFlow]

Latest confirmation of the Tim Cain game just to get y'all hyped:

Feargus
DEVELOPER

Tim isn't work on Deadfire this time around. While that may sound disappointing, Tim is working on something new. It's nothing we can talk about yet, or for a while, but when we can - I think everyone is going to be super excited over what it is.

Tim Cain's game? As in Tim Cain Lead Designer? Oh boy, here we go.

I had no idea he was designing anything as of now. Good news.

Also, please, forgive my Bethesda, first post.

 

[Flou]

They can't talk about it for a while, so no news until at least the next year, I guess?

Something like that yes. Boyarsky joined Obsidian ~13th of April last year and they were working on it back then already. Though probably with not that many people. From looks of it some of Tyranny team transferred to that project and maybe some of the staff from Armored Warfare. So I would say they are still in pre-production / late pre-production

 

[EnthalpyFlow]

Well, let them take their time. It was a shame that Avellone left, let's hope Leonard gives us another good cRPG.

 

[undecaf]

Tim Cain's game? As in Tim Cain Lead Designer? Oh boy, here we go.

Get ready to be massively disappointed. Fargo and Sawyer were the second comings at a time too, and now look at what people think. :D

 

[EnthalpyFlow]

Mmm, that warm fuzzy feeling of Codex's disappointment I've been hearing about...