People News ObsidiLeaks: The Chris Avellone May of Rage Archive

[Calm]

Isn't the defining characteristic of a sociopath precisely a lack of empathy?

Feargus is not a sociopath. What Feargus has is pre-millennial entitlement and a lack of empathy.

He continually makes decisions concerning employees without taking the time to ask how he would feel if situations were reversed. I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about the employees – ex: the refusal to pay back the paychecks for people who sacrificed - these employees understood empathy.

When he makes a decision, the decision is governed by how it benefits him, and if it feels fair – to him. So when Feargus told me he never promised to pay back employees, he was being genuine - he was focused on the promise part, not what was right.

This isn’t the best way to view a situation because if you're convinced the sun revolves around you, it's really hard to see the universe any other way.

Even putting employees aside, this entitlement caused tremendous problems with publishers, which I've already discussed. Even more concerning was when Feargus directly experienced being “unfairly” treated by publishers, that didn’t stop him from using the exact same practices with contractors and employees reporting to him – he didn’t take the time to translate his own experiences and see how they might apply to others should he do the same thing – he just passed the bad behavior along.

One could argue he has empathy and disregards it, but the end result is the same: he makes decisions accordingly.

More accurately - and probably more usefully - I'd be interested to know how Feargus ranks on either the HEXACO or Big 5 (OCEAN) personality inventories, particularly the Agreeableness or Honesty/Humility parts of them. But power - even just a little - often does strange things to us all, especially if not checked by self-examination.

 

[Glaucon]

Inflamatron, I like it.

Sounds like the name of some flamethrowing robot you fight in Fallout or Wasteland or something.

Sounds like medication for menstrual cramps.

 

[jaydee2k]

Chris you're a shitlord. You only played Gothic 3. No wonder your writing is getting shittier for years when you're to busy playing Todd's mastermind rpgs and praise bethestards dumbfuck simulators to death only to get a big paycheck. Salty sell out.

EDIT: Ah almost forgot, it's really easy to decorate oneself with foreign feathers. I guess you're praising Guido Henkels existence to this day. Credit where credit is due.
You here me you Codex fucks?
Now go on with your faggot worshipping cult. I'm out.

Look at him! It will haunt you in your dreams

"He also made the claim that his overall influence on the game was greater than that of Chris Avellone, Eric Campanella, or Dave Maldonaldo, but since a producer often has to make unpopular decisions his role was later downplayed."

Oooh the irony. Does this sound common to you Chris?

 

[Chris Avellone]

Chris you're a shitlord. You only played Gothic 3. No wonder your writing is getting shittier for years when you're to busy playing Todd's mastermind rpgs and praise bethestards dumbfuck simulators to death only to get a big paycheck. Salty sell out.

EDIT: Ah almost forgot, it's really easy to decorate oneself with foreign feathers. I guess you're praising Guido Henkels existence to this day. Credit where credit is due.

Did I praise Guido? Sorry, I don't even exactly know what you're on about, but happy to clarify, I just... well, need to understand where you're coming from, first.

 

[Chris Avellone]

I always thought that having all those problems with brilliant but flawed games spoke more of Fergus’ skills as an administrator and manager than the talent he had around him, and Obsidian’s record with publishers speaks for itself
As for repeating the same behavior as the publishers who put him and his employees under such pressure is a dog eat dog mentality that really are the bleak picture of the videogame industry... just think of it; the videogame industry makes more money than the movie and sports industries combined and they don’t have even an union exactly because of the wage mongers like Fergus who exploit talent and then go home thinking they are the “good” guys

It can be a cycle that creates its own problems.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Did I praise Guido?

everyone should praise guido

 

[Curious_Tongue]

More accurately - and probably more usefully - I'd be interested to know how Feargus ranks on either the HEXACO or Big 5 (OCEAN) personality inventories, particularly the Agreeableness or Honesty/Humility parts of them. But power - even just a little - often does strange things to us all, especially if not checked by self-examination.

Peterson fanboy detected?

 

[Grauken]

Chris Avellone actually, this has always interested me, not sure this was ever asked, did you have much interaction with Henkel on PST and how was the relationship, what was your impression of him?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

More accurately - and probably more usefully - I'd be interested to know how Feargus ranks on either the HEXACO or Big 5 (OCEAN) personality inventories, particularly the Agreeableness or Honesty/Humility parts of them. But power - even just a little - often does strange things to us all, especially if not checked by self-examination.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that Feargus's speech pattern telegraphs a person who is extremely neurotic.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Well, for one, Cleve doesn't seem to have fueled the same sort of strange personality cult around him.

No, he would need to release a good game first before that could happen.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Did I praise Guido?

everyone should praise guido

Without him we might never have Realms of Arkania HD.

 

[jaydee2k]

Chris you're a shitlord. You only played Gothic 3. No wonder your writing is getting shittier for years when you're to busy playing Todd's mastermind rpgs and praise bethestards dumbfuck simulators to death only to get a big paycheck. Salty sell out.

EDIT: Ah almost forgot, it's really easy to decorate oneself with foreign feathers. I guess you're praising Guido Henkels existence to this day. Credit where credit is due.

Did I praise Guido? Sorry, I don't even exactly know what you're on about, but happy to clarify, I just... well, need to understand where you're coming from, first.

"He also made the claim that his overall influence on the game was greater than that of Chris Avellone, Eric Campanella, or Dave Maldonaldo, but since a producer often has to make unpopular decisions his role was later downplayed."

This is where I'm coming from. Guido said this in a german PCGames interview from the early 2000's.

Little deja-vu in there...

 

[Grauken]

Yeah, I remember that as well, but I somehow doubt it as nobody else has ever corroborated this in any way. Sounds a bit fishy, but then as with MCA, probably not a lot of people coming forward to corroborate his story, so its a he said she said situation, but I think MCA's insight into this would be interesting

 

[jaydee2k]

His insight
"Guido didn't do shit on this!"

 

[Grauken]

I hope for a longer, more juicy answer as he has done recently with his friends in Obsidian's upper management

 

[Chris Avellone]

Chris Avellone actually, this has always interested me, not sure this was ever asked, did you have much interaction with Henkel on PST and how was the relationship, what was your impression of him?

It's a long story, but Guido got fired b/c the VP (Trish), Feargus, and Parker all got sick of him (I'll be blunt - I was sick of him 4 days after he started because of how he treated people, but then he pissed off people with a lot more authority than me, which is the death knell). I almost quit because of Guido's management during Torment and went to Westwood, longer story. I'm glad I hung in there, though.

To save face (which arguably, should be a nice thing to do), Feargus allowed Guido to act as if it was "resignation." (When Feargus doesn't like someone, he encourages them... actively... to quit.)

Even though I got the real story later on, I will say his resignation definitely wasn't by choice to everyone hearing it when it happened (he had to tell the whole team in the conference room and very suddenly) - Feargus was sitting by him the whole time while he was making the announcement, being the crushing, you better-behave-and-stick-to-script invisible hand on his resignation shoulder as Guido, pouting and upset, told the room he was resigning. Guido didn't look happy or content at his own news, for sure, which is when I got suspicious.

Usually, people resigning are like, "I wish you all the best," and "fuck yes," and "happy to keep working in 2 weeks, then I'm out of this dump, AMF" (although Black Isle wasn't doing as badly as the rest of Interplay), but Guido's expression wasn't that of someone who was a-joy with his own news, and it wasn't something that a very cold-looking Feargus needed to be there for. It was pretty creepy.

Based on that and asking later for confirmation, I was told by Feargus it wasn't Guido's choice at all - he really had only one choice. But in truth, I didn't need that - because Chris Parker had told me almost a month before (thank god for beer), "Avellone, I don't think you'll have to worry about Guido for much longer." I just had to make sure that Parker hadn't been drinking too much for confirmation, which Feargus provided. Admittedly, he could have been lying.

But to be clear, Guido's firing wasn't because of me - I genuinely believe Guido just pissed off people at a higher grade than me, and they hit back - hard. I can't say I wasn't glad to see him go, since he had checked out of Torment long before (our leads used to catch him working on his DVD review website at work, and had lectured him about it). Also, while I doubt this was the reason, Feargus also kept getting upset b/c Guido kept saying the paycheck he (Guido) agreed to was too small.

There's other stories about his, but I'm just answering the Grauken question - I didn't have much interaction with him, I didn't think he was a good PD, and he seemed more focused on fighting with his former partners on Realms of Arkania vs. the project he was on. Overall, when Ken Lee took over as lead producer (and then was also mistreated by Feargus, which I thought was unfair), I was incredibly relieved.

Guido had less impact on PST on anyone he mentioned vs. his face on the cover of the game (which he orchestrated without telling anyone), and it's something that can be checked with metrics. I would have gladly replaced Guido with a clone of any of the three people he disparaged (even me, and I'd have killed the clone quickly to prevent it from taking over my life), and the game would have been far better for it. I thought his comments on the Deadfire name for Pillars 2 was hilarious, and a perfect example for how he acted at Interplay.

 

[Infinitron]

Oh hell yes.

Chris Avellone It's been said that he devised the game's janky radial UI, is this true?

 

[Latro]

Chris you're a shitlord. You only played Gothic 3. No wonder your writing is getting shittier for years when you're to busy playing Todd's mastermind rpgs and praise bethestards dumbfuck simulators to death only to get a big paycheck. Salty sell out.

EDIT: Ah almost forgot, it's really easy to decorate oneself with foreign feathers. I guess you're praising Guido Henkels existence to this day. Credit where credit is due.
You here me you Codex fucks?
Now go on with your faggot worshipping cult. I'm out.

Look at him! It will haunt you in your dreams

"He also made the claim that his overall influence on the game was greater than that of Chris Avellone, Eric Campanella, or Dave Maldonaldo, but since a producer often has to make unpopular decisions his role was later downplayed."

Oooh the irony. Does this sound common to you Chris?

NEVER trust anyone who sits indian-style in their chair, NEVER

 

[Bohr]

Damn, now that was an answer. How long before "Guido's Folly" arrives to respond...

 

[jaydee2k]

MCA = Midlife Crisis Avellone
"Everyone is shit except for me"

 

[Chris Avellone]

Oh hell yes.

Chris Avellone It's been said that he devised the game's janky radial UI, is this true?

While he was the cause of that UI, he didn't design it, no - and before you use that as a negative to the one who built it, the developer who built the UI did it as a way of helping the project and moving forward b/c the other UI ideas were frozen in limbo, so much respect to them - he saw a problem and worked actively toward a solution. That's what a true developer does, my hat's off to them.

Also, to expand, I think UI was one of the reasons Guido checked out of Torment (he definitely gave off the vibe like he had given up except for his face on the cover) and focused on Neverwinter Nights as a way to leave his mark and have more control - but then ran into problems with upper management once they started interacting with him.

 

[Mustawd]

I'd have killed the clone quickly to prevent it from taking over my life

Or even worse:




Wait...that's not... Ehh fuck it. Couldn't find the Prestige clone gets killed clip.

 

[Chris Avellone]

MCA = Midlife Crisis Avellone
"Everyone is shit except for me"

Happy to give you the rundown of my failings and my failing with every game I've worked on, inc. copying from other sources. I'm not a saint, and I have made a lot of mistakes, for sure.

 

[MechMessiah]

...
You here me you Codex fucks?
Now go on with your faggot worshipping cult. I'm out.

Look at him! It will haunt you in your dreams ...

... and that is why it's not recommended to drink like a bitch when you are commenting on forums.

 

[Mustawd]

I'm not a saint, and I have made a lot of mistakes, for sure.

Do you have any examples of Managers who at one time were bad and then eventually became good managers? Or is it hard for an old dog to learn new tricks in this industry?