People News ObsidiLeaks: The Chris Avellone May of Rage Archive

[Nael]

Hmmm...

Well....

This is all very interesting, but when are we getting the Trump buttons back?

 

[Taluntain]

Uh, yea, that cca 100 pages doc stands about as much chance of being read by most people as the entire 200+ pages thread. Now someone who knows all of it by heart (I'm sure there are a dozen people here already, at least) can sit down and prepare a 5-10 pages executive summary-ish version for those of us interested in reading more, but not interested enough to read the Life and Times of MCA novel.

Infinitron already made a google document, I'm sure you'll be linked to it soon enough.

Uh that's what he's talking about, it's linked right there in the post.

It's an improvement! Maybe somebody can add an index or something.

Uh yea, I did mention it in my post... it's nearly 100 pages. I'd like to read the executive summary version listing just the most important and interesting aspects and not every random game-related question included.

This is going to turn into a Borges story, where an entire society comes to subsist on this matter, some posing questions to Avellone, some disrupting that thread, some collating the legitimate questions and answers into a Google doc, some complaining that the doc is too long, some digesting the Google doc into an appropriate summary, yet more summarizing the digest into pithy tweets, a single tireless moderator frantically posting about each of these incarnations across the internet, and the entire society waiting bitterly and fruitlessly and yet boundlessly optimistically for the day in which some major gaming news site will cover it, as all the while, from afar, one man cackles at the total incapacitation of the site that once reveled in Darth Roxor's PoE review. And then the Borgesian twist is that a summary of a summary of a summary is itself Borgesian...

RPG Codex
>nothing you've ever done or will ever do is good enough

 

[Chris Avellone]

Loving that stone-silence from the games media at large. They don't dare risk shitting on their precious Obsidian.

Actually, most news sites in my experience get an on-the-record comment before posting if they consider it news at all. I don't know about every country, however. A number did ask Obsidian for comment.

Sorry I ignored you, Obsidian developer IHaveAHugeNick.

He did. It was a private message here on the Codex, not an email.

Did he say why he wanted you to post it or didn't want to post it himself? (Because he did post later responses directly.) I'm asking because that's an odd disconnect - and also, I hate to say it, it made me think you posted his email without his permission, so I'm glad that wasn't the case.

 

[Infinitron]

Did he say why he wanted you to post it or didn't want to post it himself? (Because he did post later responses directly.) I'm asking because that's an odd disconnect - and also, I hate to say it, it made me think you posted his email without his permission, so I'm glad that wasn't the case.

No, he didn't say why. I would assume it was an (ultimately failed) attempt to avoid getting dragged into the mud.

 

[Chris Avellone]

"Eric Fenstermaker is a little BITCH" - new unanswered allegation from the greatest video game writer in history

Easy, now. That wasn't why I was asking.

 

[Lycra Suit]

Chris Avellone while we're on the subject of bashing other writers what are your thoughts on the kind of literary talent hired by Obsidian that produces work like Kills-in-shadow?

Did you observe Obsidian's story telling slowly heading toward a new, different direction?

 

[Chris Avellone]

He didn't say why.

I would assume it was an (ultimately failed) attempt to avoid getting dragged into the mud.

Did he offer to have you post it or did you ask if you could post the response and he agreed? (The latter makes more sense, but asking you, not assuming.)

I wouldn't assume what you said about trying to avoid mud-slinging (it doesn't make sense) because either way, the email was something Eric said, and if he asked you to post it, it doesn't change someone reacting to it - it's the same thing, really, unless I'm missing something or there was some context to the discussion that's not clear.

 

[Chris Avellone]

Chris Avellone while we're on the subject of bashing other writers what are your thoughts on the kind of literary talent hired by Obsidian that produces work like Kills-in-shadow?

Did you observe Obsidian's story telling slowly heading toward a new, different direction?

I don't know much about the writing in Tyranny - when I departed, we were only a slight ways into production, and all my writing time was on Eternity, not Tyranny (so was our other writer). I do think Obsidian had a lot of good writers, and I don't know all of the ones there today.

The only thing story-telling wise I noticed in PoE1 is we were dispensing with speech paths and having combat as a foundation. And at least on Tyranny I read later on that people were getting exhausted designing reactivity and wouldn't mind making things more linear (I enjoy the opposite, but I can understand someone wanting to cool their jets on something different). Nothing really revelatory.

 

[Korron]

How about more exposure through the context of a being on the front page?

 

[Tigranes]

Uh, yea, that cca 100 pages doc stands about as much chance of being read by most people as the entire 200+ pages thread. Now someone who knows all of it by heart (I'm sure there are a dozen people here already, at least) can sit down and prepare a 5-10 pages executive summary-ish version for those of us interested in reading more, but not interested enough to read the Life and Times of MCA novel.

Infinitron already made a google document, I'm sure you'll be linked to it soon enough.

Uh that's what he's talking about, it's linked right there in the post.

It's an improvement! Maybe somebody can add an index or something.

Uh yea, I did mention it in my post... it's nearly 100 pages. I'd like to read the executive summary version listing just the most important and interesting aspects and not every random game-related question included.

This is going to turn into a Borges story, where an entire society comes to subsist on this matter, some posing questions to Avellone, some disrupting that thread, some collating the legitimate questions and answers into a Google doc, some complaining that the doc is too long, some digesting the Google doc into an appropriate summary, yet more summarizing the digest into pithy tweets, a single tireless moderator frantically posting about each of these incarnations across the internet, and the entire society waiting bitterly and fruitlessly and yet boundlessly optimistically for the day in which some major gaming news site will cover it, as all the while, from afar, one man cackles at the total incapacitation of the site that once reveled in Darth Roxor's PoE review. And then the Borgesian twist is that a summary of a summary of a summary is itself Borgesian...

Already, more Codexers are reading threads about Chris's posts than the posts themselves! I await the 7 reviews of Prime Junta's executive summary

 

[Infinitron]

He didn't say why.

I would assume it was an (ultimately failed) attempt to avoid getting dragged into the mud.

Did he offer to have you post it or did you ask if you could post the response and he agreed? (The latter makes more sense, but asking you, not assuming.)

I wouldn't assume what you said about trying to avoid mud-slinging (it doesn't make sense) because either way, the email was something Eric said, and if he asked you to post it, it doesn't change someone reacting to it - it's the same thing, really, unless I'm missing something or there was some context to the discussion that's not clear.

No, it was the former.

And anecdotally, I wouldn't say it's the exact same thing. When it's you yourself posting in the thread it attracts more attention, and it becomes more tempting to get involved further.

 

[Roguey]

people were getting exhausted designing reactivity and wouldn't mind making things more linear

I wish I was at Bioware.

This game is too reactive.

My fingers hurt.

I'm tired.

 

[Drax]

Infinitron at the end it says "full of inanity", you meant "insanity", right?

 

[Fairfax]

Loving that stone-silence from the games media at large. They don't dare risk shitting on their precious Obsidian.

Actually, most news sites in my experience get an on-the-record comment before posting if they consider it news at all. I don't know about every country, however. A number did ask Obsidian for comment.

The other party should always be reached for comment, but if they won't say anything on record, that doesn't mean it's not news. One can always include the official "no comment" at the end, which isn't uncommon for stories like this.

 

[Chris Avellone]

No, it was the former.

And anecdotally, I wouldn't say it's the exact same thing. When it's you yourself posting in the thread it attracts more attention, and it becomes more tempting to get involved further.

I don’t want to debate it too much, but it is the exact same thing in the end result (esp. in the status updates where you make reference to his contribution, too - that's hardly distinct from a direct post).

That's why him offering to let you post it for him is weird when it leads to the same destination and is clearly... well, a response from Eric, and he has an account. That's why I thought you might have asked, because that makes more sense.

Again, I was just glad it was from Eric and you didn't post it without his permission because I was worried about that from the lack of context.

Don’t worry, I’ll have more questions about it in 3-4 minutes, I’m sure.

 

[Chris Avellone]

Infinitron at the end it says "full of inanity", you meant "insanity", right?

I thought "inanity" worked, and respected the word choice. : )

 

[Lycra Suit]

wouldn't mind making things more linear

I think we all share your sentiment. An RPG without reactivity is basically an action game.

 

[Sensuki]

I don’t want to debate it too much, but it is the exact same thing in the end result (esp. in the status updates where you make reference to his contribution, too - that's hardly distinct from a direct post).

That's why him offering to let you post it for him is weird when it leads to the same destination and is clearly... well, a response from Eric and he has an account. That's why I thought you might have asked, because that makes more sense.

Again, I was just glad it was from Eric and you didn't post it without his permission because I was worried about that from the lack of context.

Don’t worry, I’ll have more questions about it in 3-4 minutes, I’m sure.

I got the impression that Eric sent a PM to Infinitron to post a reply without attracting too much attention but your response to his message to Infinitron caused him to log in and post himself, probably not the best idea on his part. Wouldn't be too surprised if he got a message from Obsidian telling him not to reply further, as well.

 

[MechMessiah]

Oh, Chris, can i ask one question?
Did you ever complete Arcanum Let's Play? I searched Youtube, but found only 10 videos.
I sure gladly view the full playthrough!

 

[Chris Avellone]

Oh, Chris, can i ask one question?
Did you ever complete Arcanum Let's Play? I searched Youtube, but found only 10 videos.
I sure gladly view the full playthrough!

No, the three big things on "task beasts of forever that must be slain" were (1) finish Fairfax's Codex interview (which turned into this), (2) revise and publish the WL2 novel/novellas, and (3) finish the Arcanum Let's Play (which I'd start over from scratch).

Of the three, I thought I could finish the first one easily, but we see how that turned out... and that only took 2 years (not your fault Fairfax, all me).

 

[Wunderbar]

Is this a new thread to read Chris' insights, or both will continue to be active?

 

[Drax]

Infinitron at the end it says "full of inanity", you meant "insanity", right?

I thought "inanity" worked, and respected the word choice. : )

Fair enough.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Chris, in the previous thread you haven't answered a few non-idiotic questions. What is more likely: (a) you have just missed them or (b) you haven't answered them intentionally? I.e. is there any sense to repeat them? And I am not talking only about my own questions.

 

[Fairfax]

Oh, Chris, can i ask one question?
Did you ever complete Arcanum Let's Play? I searched Youtube, but found only 10 videos.
I sure gladly view the full playthrough!

No, the three big things on "task beasts of forever that must be slain" were (1) finish Fairfax's Codex interview (which turned into this), (2) revise and publish the WL2 novel/novellas, and (3) finish the Arcanum Let's Play (which I'd start over from scratch).

Of the three, I thought I could finish the first one easily, but we see how that turned out... and that only took 2 years (not your fault Fairfax, all me).

It's fine. I chose the format, after all. And if anyone thought it wasn't worth the wait, I'm sure the thread itself changed their minds.

 

[Chris Avellone]

Chris, in the previous thread you haven't answered a few non-idiotic questions. What is more likely: (a) you have just missed them or (b) you haven't answered them intentionally? I.e. is there any sense to repeat them? And I am not talking only about my own questions.

I thought I finally answered your question about Josh (?), but for anything else, I likely missed it, there were a lot of questions.

Some I caught while searching for other posts, but I'm sure I missed many more. I think I tried to answer others I missed in the Gamestar interview.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised the Google doc is so long, but I did try to answer everything I could (I try to do the same thing in AMAs).