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

[Darth Roxor]

GG WP.

No more GG may now be called.

 

[Maculo]

The only time I saw the Codex unified in this thread was when Chris Avellone jabbed at Infinitron. Sorry Infinitron, for the sake of Codex unity, you got to take a bullet from Avellone.

 

[Jasede]

When the master gives, the Codex must take...

 

[Mustawd]

All this talk about Obsidian makes me wonder if other studios are such dumpster fires. Even ones that seem successfully managed from the outside.

EDIT: One could argue inXile is an obvious choice, but I wonder if TTON was an isolated incident. Notwithstanding growing pain from trying to relearn making rpgs with WL2.

 

[Bohr]

The only time I saw the Codex unified in this thread was when Chris Avellone jabbed at Infinitron. Sorry Infinitron, for the sake of Codex unity, you got to take a bullet from Avellone.

He's getting his own back now though, the usual news section moderation approach is abandoned and we're all free to trash the thread

 

[Fowyr]

Oh God, don't bring GG here. Communism VS Capitalism AND Gamers Gate? This thread will be constantly derailed. And Chris told us he revealed only about 30% of what happened. I want to see this ride 'till the end, dammit (even if it never ends).

Fucking this. And most of you know that I'm your local racist pro-GG combatfag and old CRPG lover. Have some self-restraint, people.
I wanted to post several jokes already, from shitpost or two to passage from Illuminatus! about champagne socialists, but I stopped myself.

 

[Blaine]

Fucking this. And most of you know that I'm your local racist pro-GG combatfag and old CRPG lover. Have some self-restraint, people.

I always have, but given that pronoun-mongering fucktards don't have their own containment threads and that their feelings are under the protection of Codex staff, I'm beginning to lose that restraint.

I didn't sign up for this site to be Resetera on top and things that snowflakes don't like to hear on the bottom underneath the rug.

 

[Mustawd]

Fucking this. And most of you know that I'm your local racist pro-GG combatfag and old CRPG lover. Have some self-restraint, people.

I always have, but given that pronoun-mongering fucktards don't have their own containment threads and that their feelings are under the protection of Codex staff, I'm beginning to lose that restraint.

I didn't sign up for this site to be Resetera on top and things that snowflakes like to hear on the bottom.

Create your own SJW safe space. They will come.

 

[Alienman]

Find it interesting that lefties are always against GamerGate for some reason. The "movement" itself is non-political, it's just a response to shitty journalism within gaming.

 

[JBro]

Find it interesting that lefties are always against GamerGate for some reason. The "movement" itself is non-political, it's just a response to shitty journalism within gaming.

Considering the amount of rapists/pedophiles/abusers that are anti-gamergate, maybe the lefties are trying to tell us something.

 

[Blaine]

All this talk about Obsidian makes me wonder if other studios are such dumpster fires. Even ones that seem successfully managed from the outside.

EDIT: One could argue inXile is an obvious choice, but I wonder if TTON was an isolated incident. Notwithstanding growing pain from trying to relearn making rpgs with WL2.

You wouldn't have to wonder if it were an isolated incident if the Codex didn't relegate outing of SJWs to containment threads.

It's not isolated. There are many examples. When the writing staff begins to fill up with pronoun-mongerers, that's either the end or the beginning of the end. Wait and see if I'm not right yet again.

Find it interesting that lefties are always against GamerGate for some reason. The "movement" itself is non-political, it's just a response to shitty journalism within gaming.

Very interesting indeed, almost as though they read BuzzFeed, Jezebel, Reddit, Kotaku et al.

Personally, I don't give a shit about GamerGate, the movement. I give a shit about SJWs trashing good development studios. Ah, well; it's not as if anything said on the Codex will change it one way or another.

 

[Rivmusique]

No, see, Obsidian can hire SJWs, but if you hurt people's feelings by mentioning it, it has to be moved elsewhere.

What does this mean at the moment? By someone's measure, wouldn't it be true that they were always there? We saw Chris ignore you for antisemitism, I doubt the place was ever the grand utopia of people loudly proclaiming the superiority of one skin colour/gender/sexuality over another with no challenge/consequence. Is there a great game that's known to have came from such an environment? Is this a quest to recapture that magic?

 

[JBro]

Chris Avellone should give us his opinion of the rape epidemic in anti-gamergate.

 

[Athos]

pineapple-on-pizza eaters

I really hope nobody does that around here.

 

[Blaine]

We saw Chris ignore you for antisemitism, I doubt the place was ever the grand utopia of people loudly proclaiming the superiority of one skin colour/gender/sexuality over another with no challenge/consequence.

You're so right. No one's ever played racism for laughs before, especially people of colour. What kind of monster would do such a thing?

An industry legend is relentlessly naming the Jew for three days straight right before your eyes

Oh right, tons of people—including Jews, you fucking idiot. Not to mention many famous comedians who've complained about oversensitive idiots just like you sucking all the humor out of life.

Wait, what's this?

Is that a default Codex emote? MY GOD, THE RACISM!

If the pinkhair quotient continues to increase, it will instead be a grand utopia of people loudly proclaiming the inferiority of one skin color, one gender, and one sexuality—and unlike your disingenuous garbage, that ideology is for real. No one buys the FUCK WHITE PEOPLE pronoun-mongering shit, my dude. It tanks every time.

 

[Rostere]

pineapple-on-pizza eaters

I really hope nobody does that around here.

Does pizza with banana, pineapple, curry and cashew nuts count?

Background info here.

 

[Mustawd]

It's not isolated. There are many examples. When the writing staff begins to fill up with pronoun-mongerers, that's either the end or the beginning of the end. Wait and see if I'm not right yet again.

Meh. I'm talking about management effectiveness here.

It seems that Fargo is a pretty hands off guy in some respects, as TToN's budget apparently veered off the rails. I mean he might still interject his creative decisions, but it seems he left TToN mostly to its own devices. Unless I'm missing bits of info I'm unaware of.

 

[Diablo169]

A thread with loads of candid posts by MCA and it still degenerates into antisemitism, communism and Gamergate. Codex, Codex never changes.

 

[Quillon]

Gamergate

What is it? A gate that plays video games?

 

[JBro]

I just wanted Chris Avellone's opinion on Gamergate, but all these potential rapists got mad at me.

 

[Blaine]

Meh. I'm talking about management effectiveness here.

It's fairly likely that most development studio management is dysfunctional to some degree or another.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Nobody's interest in Gamergate, Nürnberg trials, or the best system to organize production in the context of this thread, sorry.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Every company bigger than 10+ people is dysfunctional to some extent.

It's just that not all of them are lucky enough to have a former owner heroically try to save the employees from oppression by ruining their relationship with clients and getting them fired, trying to sabotage important product launches and getting people in shit with the management by leaking that they're preparing to quit.

I wholeheartedly applaud these valiant efforts to improve atmosphere at Obsidian and make it a better workplace for all.

 

[Kz3r0]

Does pizza with banana, pineapple, curry and cashew nuts count?

Background info here.

That's ramen.

 

[Blaine]

Anyone who wants a real answer about SJWs and Gamergate isn't going to get it from Chris. I think we all know that. I never put the question to him, because I already know the answer.

And here it is, JBro:

Eh, I mean, "full-bore polarized" lets you "no true scotsman" every counterexample, but basically every great IF writer is extremely progressive, as are many Codex-beloved RPG designers (like Chris Avellone). That said, with the population of bad narrative game makers, perhaps left-wing politics are over-represented (though, as I said, in IF that representation is close to 100% for good makers, too).

There are 1990s-era polarized progressives, and then there are CURRENT YEAR polarized progressives. That genteel earlier generation of progressives is very tolerable (in fact, I reckon I'd have been considered a progressive circa the early 2000s) and usually capable. The new generation is not.

I see the Chris Avellones of the world as tragic figures: genuinely well-meaning people caught between the much more admirable progressive views of yesteryear and neo-progressive idiocy, walking a tightrope as best they can.

In other words, he cannot answer because he can't leave his tightrope. At the same time, it's incredibly clear that he is not, himself, what one would describe as a SJW, but rather a classical American left-winger.