Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[The Dutch Ghost]

Weren't some of these sales through that xbox pass in which you can play the game for one month for just one dollar?

 

[cvv]

For fuck's sake publishers, are you that keen on loosing money?

Outer Worlds sold like over 2 million sis

Game sales are often based on past successes. Millions of people bought Pillars of Eternity because of Baldur's Gate. Zero people bought PoE2 because of PoE1.

Millions of people bought Outer Worlds because of New Vegas. You can fill in the rest.

P.S. Also yeah, how many of those 2 million copies are the 1 dorra GamePass copies? Mine was one.

 

[vortex]

Obsidian is getting just as girl gang in writers as Bloodlines 2

Next Obsidian game is getting sjw-banged like Bloodlines 2.
fixed

 

[cvv]

Goddamn I really should check previous pages next time I feel like posting some "breaking news"'.

My bad.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

I was harping a bit too much about leftism which was not my intention (sorry for going social political) but outside that the quality of a lot of these writers is just terribly average in general.
Many of them are such fake intellectuals who pretend that their writing has deeper meaning or can actually inform and teach those who read it about certain subjects in for example philosophy, economy, or politics, when it requires a lot more than just using an NPC as a soapbox to shout some lines to really give context to these topics.
Add to that game design that never really is able to execute those concepts in the game world or in a very halfhearted way. No to mention those writers who want to "deconstruct" a concept and fail at it because they don't really get it themselves.

Make a good game first and then try to show people how smart you are.

No I don't think the intellectual heights of the next Obsidian game are going to be that impressive.

 

[RNGsus]

No I don't think the intellectual heights of the next Obsidian game are going to be that impressive.

What threw me off outer worlds was that it looked and played like gamebryo with guns. Its a reskin, not a game. The rp mechanics were also gimped. It was on my radar for a while, and then it didn't exist anymore.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

What threw me off outer worlds was that it looked and played like gamebryo with guns. Its a reskin, not a game. The rp mechanics were also gimped. It was on my radar for a while, and then it didn't exist anymore.

I get you, for me it was about the campaign itself and when I read how various solutions to problems are in general handed to you regardless of skills, even hinted at when you begin with them. I think part of solving the quests is also testing the player's own investigation skills along with the character's skills.
The writing itself also doesn't really help in how the factions are written and portrayed. The Board basically being a bunch of idiots for example.

At this point why even bother putting in a stat building system?

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

People still talking about this game? Unironically? Lol.

Also this:



You can tell Obsidian hired another quality writing asset. She will fit right in

From John Gonzalez and Chris Avellone to this:

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Isn't that your basic generic twitter writer?

 

[vortex]

Isn't that your basic generic twitter writer?

Than again Disco elysium was based on twitter.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Than again Disco elysium was based on twitter.

Oh boy, if I had any remaining interest in playing that game it is definitely gone now.

 

[Slaver1]

Males are mandatory for the nuts and bolts positions that get the games off the ground and onto the shelves. Progressive studios hire the likes of Jenny with the Gender Studies and Creative Writing degree to fill the diversity quota.

Unfortunately, they can't satisfy the quota while putting those people into useful positions like toilet cleaner, coffee maker or I dunno, keyboard wiper because they'll notify their allies and raise hell over it all over the press/social media. So into the creative positions they go, despite being the antithesis of the creative, independent, free-thinkers they need to be.

It's not only really tragic for us end users who have to consume the product they shit out, but also for everyone else designing the game who might feel genuine affinity for their work.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

 

[cvv]

And I actually had Outer Wilds on my wishlist for its Steam release.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

And I actually had Outer Wilds on my wishlist for its Steam release.

Eh, just get it when it is on sale. That is what most sane gamers do these days with the major releases.
Barely any expensive priced game these days is worth that much money.

 

[Haplo]

Game sales are often based on past successes. Millions of people bought Pillars of Eternity because of Baldur's Gate. Zero people bought PoE2 because of PoE1.

Millions of people bought Outer Worlds because of New Vegas. You can fill in the rest.

Well, I bought Deadfire because of PoE1, for one.

And I played OW regardless of FNV, which I didn't particularly like. On Gamespass, that is.

 

[RNGsus]

I bought Stick of Truth because of New Vegas.

 

[Flou]

They finally hire someone with actual credentials as a writer and codex still hates her. She doesn't even have they/them she/her stuff on her twitter. This is incline.

I would like to know who would you guys be happy with (other than the writers that have left Obsdian)?

 

[cvv]

I would like to know who would you guys be happy with (other than the writers that have left Obsdian)?

The writers that have left Obsidian.

 

[Butter]

They finally hire someone with actual credentials as a writer and codex still hates her. She doesn't even have they/them she/her stuff on her twitter. This is incline.

I would like to know who would you guys be happy with (other than the writers that have left Obsdian)?

I was going to say whoever wrote IWD, but that game doesn't even have a credited lead writer. Maybe BIS were on to something.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

They finally hire someone with actual credentials as a writer and codex still hates her.

Hello! I’m Kelsey, a game writer and narrative designer.
I’m the writer and one-third of the story/narrative design team behind the award-winning space adventure game Outer Wilds (2019), for which I’ve been named a 2019 Nebula Award finalist.

I recently wrapped a contract at Insomniac Games and have been contracting remotely while I search for my next on-site project. If you’re looking for an upbeat, highly collaborative writer, let's set up a time to talk!

Well...I'm not impressed. Besides, they are hiring people to be narrative designers as if this was a thing. FO, FO2 and PS:T didn't have narrative designers as a thing. You would need to be a programmer and a cRPG player that takes the responsibility of creating the quests. It is not surprising that most Obsidian games since New Vegas sucks. They created these nonsensical divisions that are pretentious, go against the standards of the past, fill them with people that are not bright and tend to have next to nothing in common with their target audience, etc.

 

[Sentinel]

They finally hire someone with actual credentials as a writer and codex still hates her. She doesn't even have they/them she/her stuff on her twitter. This is incline.

I would like to know who would you guys be happy with (other than the writers that have left Obsdian)?

What happened to hiring writers that were into actual videogame design? That's what the likes of George Ziets and Chris Avellone were into. Weaving the two is why PS:T, KotOR2 and MotB turned out interesting games. Obsidian's last games have been their usual epic failures of game design with a lame story tacked on. Even if games like MotB/KotOR2 didn't have exemplary gameplay, at least the gameplay was somehow connected to the excellent narrative of the game and the world.
Hiring people who write novels (lol) no one reads isn't gonna cut it.

 

[Roguey]

I was going to say whoever wrote IWD, but that game doesn't even have a credited lead writer. Maybe BIS were on to something.

IWD had no leads, so the designers did all the writing for their areas. This would be Avellone, Sawyer, Reginald Arnedo, Stephen Bokkes, John Deiley, Matthew Norton, Scott Warner.

 

[Tigranes]

They finally hire someone with actual credentials as a writer and codex still hates her.

Hello! I’m Kelsey, a game writer and narrative designer.
I’m the writer and one-third of the story/narrative design team behind the award-winning space adventure game Outer Wilds (2019), for which I’ve been named a 2019 Nebula Award finalist.

I recently wrapped a contract at Insomniac Games and have been contracting remotely while I search for my next on-site project. If you’re looking for an upbeat, highly collaborative writer, let's set up a time to talk!

Well...I'm not impressed. Besides, they are hiring people to be narrative designers as if this was a thing. FO, FO2 and PS:T didn't have narrative designers as a thing. You would need to be a programmer and a cRPG player that takes the responsibility of creating the quests. It is not surprising that most Obsidian games since New Vegas sucks. They created these nonsensical divisions that are pretentious, go against the standards of the past, fill them with people that are not bright and tend to have next to nothing in common with their target audience, etc.

This has been an industry wide problem arising from games becoming massive-team projects with higher budgets etc etc, rather than anything new Obsidian did, right? Not rhetorical, I actually don't know.

Ironically, if we went back 15 years and people said "we need more people who are actually good at writing to help us make video games", I don't think anyone would have argued against it. Tons of games back in the day had throwaway monkey-typewriter stuff. The problem is that too often we end up (1) not getting people who are actually good at writing (e.g. just the ones who couldn't get into novels/film), (2) not integrating any writing talent that does exist into the realities of what a video game is (e.g. 'celebrity writers' in kickstarters). I'm not disagreeing by the way. The easiest way out of this mess is indeed to focus on people who understand games as gameplay-driven and develop their game writing skills by having some understanding of how the rest of the pie is made. Don't care what degree they have (or if they don't have any), etc.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Tons of games back in the day had throwaway monkey-typewriter stuff. The problem is that too often we end up (1) not getting people who are actually good at writing (e.g. just the ones who couldn't get into novels/film)

Plenty of them are (mediocre) novel writers. That's a large part of the issue.
Most of the RPGs considered to have good writing were written by people who were writers that wrote for interactive fiction. Hell, when they were making Arcanum they specifically sought out a writer who never wrote for video games before(and never did after AFAIK) because they liked his D&D material.