Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Butter]

Didn't even know Overwatch had a story.

There are a lot of retards who want lore for their PVP competitive games. Dota 2 has tomes of ad hoc lore developed to satisfy these cretins, and as you can imagine it's all completely pointless.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Overwatch only excels in its art imo.

And that art isn't being made by blizzard.

 

[NPC451]

And that art isn't being made by blizzard.

God bless blender.

 

[Ging_Sama]

Brandon Adler you work on Avowed ? Bobby Null too ?

 

[Duraframe300]

Brandon Adler you work on Avowed ? Bobby Null too ?

Bobby Null is on Grounded.

 

[Nano]

Does anyone have any idea what Chu wrote in KOTOR2?

As far as designers go, Chris Avellone wrote the overall story, most of the companions, Peragus and a chunk of Nar Shaddaa, but we had a number of designers who made the story and the project what it was, Michael Chu (Worlds of Warcraft) was responsible for much of Telos and the lightsaber quest plus some Nar Shaddaa quests, along with Mandalore and Bao-Dur. Kevin Saunders (Zero Hour, Shattered Galaxies) worked on Nar Shaddaa and did much of the game mechanics and workbench design. Tony Evans (Secret Weapons over Normandy) made the prologue kick-ass and helped with four other planets to get them into the shape, including Korriban, Dantooine and Dxun / Onderon). John Morgan just started, going the production route; he did text edits plus many, many lists, and quest design for Nar Shaddaa. Scotty Everts did technical design, and we also had two designers transition off the project. One was Ferret Baudoin (Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries) who went on to become the lead for Neverwinter Nights after working on Dantooine, Korriban, Dxun / Onderon and mini-games. The other was Dave Maldonado (Dark Alliance 2) who did part of Telos.

http://wayback.archive.org/web/20041225133127/http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/575/575166p2.html

 

[Ghulgothas]

His style isn't really minimalistic, it's more of a "the teacher said we need to have 500 words minimum so I recycled three phrases over and over again through the whole thing"

Was he one of the guys behind the catalogue of milquetoast OW comics? I've been aware of Overwatch's utterly barren writing for years now but I've been wanting to read through every non-game thing they've put out to sample it for myself.

 

[KVVRR]

Didn't even know Overwatch had a story.

it really, really doesn't. It has ""backstory"" at best, despite Blizzard's best efforts to trick people otherwise. You can go into Overwatch's 2 official website right now and it will show you this. Overwatch's 1 story takes place AFTER RECALL

 

[Ghulgothas]

Michael Chu (Worlds of Warcraft) was responsible for much of Telos and the lightsaber quest plus some Nar Shaddaa quests, along with Mandalore and Bao-Dur.

Something horrible must have happened.

 

[KVVRR]

His style isn't really minimalistic, it's more of a "the teacher said we need to have 500 words minimum so I recycled three phrases over and over again through the whole thing"

Was he one of the guys behind the catalogue of milquetoast OW comics? I've been aware of Overwatch's utterly barren writing for years now but I've been wanting to read through every non-game thing they've put out to sample it for myself.

Yes, he was, along with Chris Metzen for the first ones (who left shortly after the game was released, he's credited for a lot of how the heroes turned out to be). They've pretty much stopped making those about a year after launch, and it's been getting worse in the lore department year after year. I stopped playing years ago and I think I can count the amount of things they've added to the lore so far with one hand.

If you want to read comics for a team based fps, just read the TF2 ones instead. They'll never be finished but they have SOUL

 

[Ghulgothas]

If you want to read comics for a team based fps, just read the TF2 ones instead. They'll never be finished but they have SOUL

I did, the day each was released! But I must know the contrast, especially if there's going to be so much more to look forward to in the future...

 

[KVVRR]

If you want to read comics for a team based fps, just read the TF2 ones instead. They'll never be finished but they have SOUL

I did, the day each was released! But I must know the contrast, especially if there's going to be so much more to look forward to in the future...

It's just really, really bland. The cool shit isn't expanded on at all and almost all of the stories end up with "so now I'm joining Overwatch to make the world a better place!!"
the only barely interesting character that is moving the plot foward is Doomfist and even then it's kinda eh

 

[DalekFlay]

Think about it this way: Overwatch's entire appeal is that its universe is filled to the brim with potential for fun storytelling.

If the entire appeal of an online tournament shooter is the "potential for storytelling" then I'm not sure this Chu guy was the real problem.

 

[KVVRR]

Think about it this way: Overwatch's entire appeal is that its universe is filled to the brim with potential for fun storytelling.

If the entire appeal of an online tournament shooter is the "potential for storytelling" then I'm not sure this Chu guy was the real problem.

Before the game came out the vast mayority of the trailers were jacking off to the characters and the "story", going as far as to play some small teasers for them in cinemas. I remember reading some old people even thought it was supposed to be a movie. Half the fun of the game are the characters, and, by extention, their kits. The problem isn't really that they wanted to focus on it, is that they lured a bunch of people in with the promise of more only to put the matress from under them and say "lmao jk it was esports the whole time"
and then proceed to have some of the worst balance patches I've ever seen

but anyways obsidian. if you think outer worlds was bland just wait until you get a load of the Chu

 

[Flou]

Wait Michael Chu is back at Obsidian? What? Or is that just contract work?

OG Obsidian Crew right there.

His LinkedIn still has him as Lead Writer on Overwatch 2, but according to Twitter he left Blizzard in March. Seems like contract work while covid has stopped people from working normally, that and helping a friend.

Obsidian is still looking for a Narrative Designer, but with Chu's experience and working history he would be at a Lead level and that position got filled with Lucien Soulban

 

[Flou]

Someone on Resetera claims that Avowed is Project Alabama. Illinois and Mississippi still left as the unknown projects (one of them got cancelled though).

 

[Mexi]

Is Tyranny dead? Just wondering because I've never played it, and if they won't make a sequel, it's not worth playing a game that supposedly ends in a cliff-hanger. I mean they made/ar making 3 sequels to PoE.

 

[Roguey]

Is Tyranny dead? Just wondering because I've never played it, and if they won't make a sequel, it's not worth playing a game that supposedly ends in a cliff-hanger. I mean they made/ar making 3 sequels to PoE.

There's an ending if you pledge loyalty to Kyros, but yes, it's dead.

 

[Butter]

If Obsidian start consistently making money for Microsoft, maybe they could afford to buy the Tyranny IP from Paradox and then do something with it, but it makes more financial sense to just create an ersatz Tyranny instead.

 

[vortex]

If Obsidian start consistently making money for Microsoft, maybe they could afford to buy the Tyranny IP from Paradox and then do something with it, but it makes more financial sense to just create an ersatz Tyranny instead.

Harebrained Schemes could do new Tyranny.

 

[2house2fly]

It's not exactly a cliffhanger, but the ending note is very much "the adventure will continue" and then of course it never did

 

[LESS T_T]

Is Tyranny dead? Just wondering because I've never played it, and if they won't make a sequel, it's not worth playing a game that supposedly ends in a cliff-hanger. I mean they made/ar making 3 sequels to PoE.

I find it interesting that Paradox put Tyranny the second highest tier in the currently running Humble Bundle, alongside Battletech, and that they never do deep (75%+) discount on the game. Maybe they want to do something with the IP.

 

[DalekFlay]

Is Tyranny dead? Just wondering because I've never played it, and if they won't make a sequel, it's not worth playing a game that supposedly ends in a cliff-hanger. I mean they made/ar making 3 sequels to PoE.

As 2house2fly said, I wouldn't say cliffhanger so much as just open for more. It's not like someone holds a knife to your throat and the credits come up, it's just that you solve this particular issue but the world state still is what it is. That's how I remember it, anyway.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Tyranny looks so cool in concept. But reading all that you guys say really makes me sad. And this realtime combat...

 

[Fedora Master]

If Obsidian start consistently making money for Microsoft, maybe they could afford to buy the Tyranny IP from Paradox and then do something with it, but it makes more financial sense to just create an ersatz Tyranny instead.

Harebrained Schemes could do new Tyranny.

Or we could all just forget about this stupid-ass setting.