RPG Codex Interview: Chris Avellone on Pillars Cut Content, Game Development Hierarchies and More

[Prime Junta]

They can't. The claims are too severe. They'd have to categorically deny them. And should Chris provide more evidence, that wouldn't be possible. Unless Obsidian has much more industry influence than we think, it's be hard for them to shut out news media from this drama.

Oh, they won't be able to shut out the news media. But the news cycle is short and other than a few bitter grogs the public's memory is even shorter. This will get lost in the general noise soon enough unless they themselves keep it going. The news will stop writing about this the minute there's nothing new for them to write, and the only way that could happen is if they do add fuel to the fire, like in a lawsuit for example.

Which isn't to say they won't do it, people do ridiculously stupid things all the time.

 

[StrongBelwas]

You guys are jumping too far ahead. Right now there must be dozens of people at Obsidian, many of them new employees, who are excited to be working on a new IP by the original creators of Fallout. Avellone drama doesn't relate to them.

"And all you little shits best behave, or I'll have Sawyer send the Black Hounds after you!"

 

[Sigourn]

Puffy Sawyer.

 

[Goral]

wishing for Obsidian to fail is stupid, since most people there probably had no influence on it and would become collateral damage

What collateral damage? Most people there would find better paid jobs in no time (especially programmers and artists), gaming industry (especially RPG part of it) is rather poor in comparison with banking, movies, more popamole studios, etc. Also, if you think that your average PoE gamer knows who the creators are and what goes on in the studio or cares you're retarded. Even if every gaming site will pick this up the effect on sales will be minimal, there are way too many BG fans (and PoE fans too) who want to throw fireballs only, level up and kill dragons.

 

[ga♥]

It's official now. We are no longer Obsidian fanboys. Welcome the new era of Beamdog Era of infinite incline!

 

[2house2fly]

So you call SJWs retarded for boycotting Vavra’s KCD, because they interpret his edgy tweets as sign of being a Nazi. Urqhart being a cutthroat corporate a—hole is a legit reason though. Talk about hypocris.

what
one is purely politics the other is a company being absolute piles of shit with one of the longest, most respected employees they have while knowing he's in a very tough personal situation. Not only that, knowing a very close relative was in a bad situation, they try to leverage that to their advantage.

Do you not see the difference?

Yes, of course. In the case of Obsidian, you object to a private company treating their employee in the way they feel will best protect their financial investment within the law. I don't disagree with communism per se, but if you're bent on attacking capitalism in this way may I suggest that a forum about video games isn't the best place to do it?

 

[Infinitron]

They can't. The claims are too severe. They'd have to categorically deny them. And should Chris provide more evidence, that wouldn't be possible. Unless Obsidian has much more industry influence than we think, it's be hard for them to shut out news media from this drama.

Oh, they won't be able to shut out the news media. But the news cycle is short and other than a few bitter grogs the public's memory is even shorter. This will get lost in the general noise soon enough unless they themselves keep it going. The news will stop writing about this the minute there's nothing new for them to write, and the only way that could happen is if they do add fuel to the fire, like in a lawsuit for example.

Which isn't to say they won't do it, people do ridiculously stupid things all the time.

I think it's also possible that the games press is too snobbish to treat "forum posts on the Codex" as news - no matter how explosive. We'll see.

 

[AwesomeButton]

They can't. The claims are too severe. They'd have to categorically deny them. And should Chris provide more evidence, that wouldn't be possible. Unless Obsidian has much more industry influence than we think, it's be hard for them to shut out news media from this drama.

Oh, they won't be able to shut out the news media. But the news cycle is short and other than a few bitter grogs the public's memory is even shorter. This will get lost in the general noise soon enough unless they themselves keep it going. The news will stop writing about this the minute there's nothing new for them to write, and the only way that could happen is if they do add fuel to the fire, like in a lawsuit for example.

Which isn't to say they won't do it, people do ridiculously stupid things all the time.

I think it's also quite possible that the games press is too snobbish to treat "forum posts on the Codex" as news - no matter how explosive. We'll see.

I was thinking the same. Knowing the mainstream, the news will probably get ignored because of the source it's coming from.

 

[ga♥]

but he still has the shares.

Doubt it. Else supporting Obs means supporting MCA :D

I don't think he's happy of having retained the ownership of the shares (obviously I don't know if what I said is correct).

 

[Sentinel]

So you call SJWs retarded for boycotting Vavra’s KCD, because they interpret his edgy tweets as sign of being a Nazi. Urqhart being a cutthroat corporate a—hole is a legit reason though. Talk about hypocris.

what
one is purely politics the other is a company being absolute piles of shit with one of the longest, most respected employees they have while knowing he's in a very tough personal situation. Not only that, knowing a very close relative was in a bad situation, they try to leverage that to their advantage.

Do you not see the difference?

Yes, of course. In the case of Obsidian, you object to a private company treating their employee in the way they feel will best protect their financial investment within the law. I don't disagree with communism per se, but if you're bent on attacking capitalism in this way may I suggest that a forum about video games isn't the best place to do it?

"Attacking capitalism"
lol. Fuck off.

 

[Haba]

Actually, the smart thing for Obs to do would be to buy MCA. Pay him his dues and make him sign a more specific NDA on those matters.

 

[Blaine]

My forum alerts since this controversy has emerged:

 

[Prime Junta]

Actually, the smart thing for Obs to do would be to buy MCA. Pay him his dues and make him sign a more specific NDA on those matters.

Bit late for that, don't ya think?

 

[Fry]

Well sure, but then let´s hold them accountable after we have some evidence, prefereably after it’s been sorted out in court if perjury and/or harassment happened. While I tend to believe CA, I’d still at least wait for the response from Obsidian, because at the moment we don’t have the full picture.

Don't hold you breath. Obsidian can't and won't respond here, and I think Chris knows that.

 

[Projas]

We'll see.

Am I reading this right as "I'm contacting IGN as we speak"?

 

[MRY]

Actually, the smart thing for Obs to do would be to buy MCA. Pay him his dues and make him sign a more specific NDA on those matters.

Bit late for that, don't ya think?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Laughing my ass off at all of the righteous indignation over Feargus' bad behavior. Did you guys think Obsidian was an anarcho-syndicalist collective? They're a private company that exists to maximize profits, like any other business.

The unusual thing here is that most CEOs know not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. The great flaw of Feargus is not that he's a scumbag (which goes with the CEO territory), it's that he's a moron.

 

[Bohr]

Even if other sites don't want to use 'Codex forum posts' as a basis for an article, I bet MCA will be getting a few more requests for interviews in the near future.

 

[Quillon]

the smart thing for Obs to do would be to buy MCA

They can do a figstarter for it! Go Obs!

 

[agentorange]

So you call SJWs retarded for boycotting Vavra’s KCD, because they interpret his edgy tweets as sign of being a Nazi. Urqhart being a cutthroat corporate a—hole is a legit reason though. Talk about hypocris.

what
one is purely politics the other is a company being absolute piles of shit with one of the longest, most respected employees they have while knowing he's in a very tough personal situation. Not only that, knowing a very close relative was in a bad situation, they try to leverage that to their advantage.

Do you not see the difference?

Yes, of course. In the case of Obsidian, you object to a private company treating their employee in the way they feel will best protect their financial investment within the law. I don't disagree with communism per se, but if you're bent on attacking capitalism in this way may I suggest that a forum about video games isn't the best place to do it?

There's such a thing as ethical capitalism. Also if they are perfectly free to be assholes in how they practice their business then we are perfectly free to call them assholes and, most importantly in a capitalist structure, not buy their stupid shit. There's absolutely nothing anti-capitalist about protesting against a company by not buying what they produce, in fact that is one of the foundations of capitalism.

 

[Infinitron]

While I tend to believe CA, I’d still at least wait for the response from Obsidian, because at the moment we don’t have the full picture.

Well, if Chris was indeed fired or otherwise forced to leave, I think most people would assume there are reasons for that beyond problems with his work on Pillars of Eternity...

 

[Tovias]

You guys are jumping too far ahead. Right now there must be dozens of people at Obsidian, many of them new employees, who are excited to be working on a new IP by the original creators of Fallout. Avellone drama doesn't relate to them.

Avellone's "drama" reflects the upper management treatment of their employees, if anything they ought to be the first to see it.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

i think Obsidian is full of shit.... Fuck this guys

 

[AwesomeButton]

Laughing my ass off at all of the righteous indignation over Feargus' bad behavior. Did you guys think Obsidian was an anarcho-syndicalist collective? They're a private company that exists to maximize profits, like any other business.

The unusual thing here is that most CEOs know not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. The great flaw of Feargus is not that he's a scumbag (which goes with the CEO territory), it's that he's a moron.

This is true. I also can't help but be puzzled how can people spend such a long time working together and never develop enough of a personal connection in order to speak plainly about problems related to their current project.

 

[Prime Junta]

Well sure, but then let´s hold them accountable after we have some evidence, prefereably after it’s been sorted out in court if perjury and/or harassment happened. While I tend to believe CA, I’d still at least wait for the response from Obsidian, because at the moment we don’t have the full picture.

Don't hold you breath. Obsidian can't and won't respond here, and I think Chris knows that.

Also you fucking liberal bothsiderists, apply basic source criticism here.

What does MCA have to gain from spilling this?

What does he have to lose?

If you think about it for a moment, the only thing on the gain side is eventual peace of mind once he's through the shitstorm, whereas on the loss side is a massive pain the ass... and this if he's telling the God's own truth with every word. And if he's not telling the truth, he is going to be utterly fucked for the rest of his life: hammering nails into his kneecaps would hurt less and cost less.

Therefore, the only plausible interpretations are either that (1) the material facts he's stating are true, -- OR -- (2) he's completely lost his marbles and needs to be committed into involuntary psychiatric care, stat. And I think we can also fairly safely discount (2) as that kind of shit doesn't happen overnight, and he hasn't shown any indications of failing sanity up to this point.

And the material facts he has stated are really incredibly fucking damning. Losing his stake in the company, "upper management" leveraging his economic and family situation to pressure him into signing a balls-to-the-wall evil NDA/non-competition agreement and then cutting his health insurance. That is so vicious words fail me.