Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: Obsidian's Carrie Patel on Pillars of Eternity

[Arkeus]

Tolkien is a linguist, and it shows- he is fucking good when it comes to wordsmithing.

He is... less so when it comes to plot.

 

[Gragt]

Studying linguistics do not magically grant mastery over the words, despite the common misconception. It merely means that one studies languages and more specifically their inner workings. Tolkien was notorious for mumbling and muttering in his lectures and reading, so it would appear that he was a typical functionary worker, having great technical knowledge of his field but poor practical skill to transmit it. As another exemple of this think of Noam Chomsky who is a noted linguist but a poor public speaker, especially when he covers fields outside his area of expertise.

It's easy to see that functionary mind at work in his writings, borrowing both style and substance from archaic sources and focusing on linguistic minutia. It's no surprise Tolkien became jealous over time of his pal C.S. Lewis, a better writer and reportedly better speaker than he was.

Edit: for a real exemple of wordsmithing, try Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

 

[Tramboi]

Eco would be a great RPG or adventure inspiration for a Baudolino epic adventure or a Foucault's Pendulum paranoid trip (no, Broken Sword doesn't qualify).

 

[KazikluBey]

You think JRRT is better than GRRM?

Gee idk lol. Let's go through an example of their work and see if we can detect any differences in quality.

In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.

All save one.

And run he did. Jesus, what is this tripe?

Last time I tried re-reading LotR I was 13 but already couldn't stomach this ridiculous style of writing, and the whole "Someone mentions Mordor, and suddenly BLACK CLOUDS GATHER ACROSS THE SKY, AND FLOCKS SCREECHING OF BIRDS ARE AGENTS OF SAURON FLYING BACK TO REPORT THEIR FINDINGS, OH AND EVERYONE SHIVERS BECAUSE THERE WAS SUDDENLY A COLD DRAUGHT" and of course the corollary "Aragorn does something noble and kingly again and suddenly the clouds part and rays of light shine homoerotically upon him and he gains a great regal air that inspires everyone nearby and fills them with awe.

Haven't read GRRM though. Doubt I will. Fantasy writing always seems to strike me as rather jejune.

Oh. And nice interview, I guess. Not much fun until we find out how she actually performs though.

 

[Applypoison]

Tolkien's inspiration was to write some sort of "greek mythology" for his own country. The point of his writing was to create a vast fantasy world, put it in peril, and walk the reader through all four epic corners of that world, encountering all sorts of races, landscapes and dangers... hence why some might feel that the plot/characters aren't sufficiently "fleshed out". It just wasn't "the point", so to speak.

On the games front, my big formative experiences were with the old Sierra adventure game series -- King's Quest, Quest for Glory, the Colonel's Bequest. I loved playing through stories that were also puzzles, and it was always satisfying to explore, explore, and explore again and finally find the thing (an old boot, a soup bone) your character inexplicably needed. It was fun even though it was way too easy to play yourself into an unwinnable corner without realizing it.

Word. As a non-native english speaker, I think solving everything through text was part of what made those games so fun. Although, I'm a little disapointed there's no mention of Police Quest in there

 

[NotAGolfer]

[good fiction] presents complex characters and makes them somehow sympathetic, even when they're not the kind of people you can pull for.

Very true, at least in my reading experience. On the other hand many of the games I had fun with did not have complex characters at all, and my experiences with that popular Skyrim mod called Interesting NPCs, a mod I had zero fun with, nearly convinces me of the opposite, at least for games. Too much talking, too little gameplay, why can't these NPCs stop telling me their live story or trying to impress me? Fuck off already!
But then again there is PS:T so I guess it all depends...

Mildly interesting read btw, ty for the effort. I like some of the answers, but most of it seemed reasonable but obvious.

 

[commie]

Never read Stephenson. Always seemed like Gibson for casuals to me. Maybe there's some truth to that.

Just stepped in because I can't let it be said that Stephenson is any more casual than Gibson. Both are equally entertaining. There's not only Snow Crash & Diamond Age. Read Cryptonomicon and Anathem.

Also, Stephenson, Mass Effect, Name of the Rose and Dune. Yeah, that's some really challenging litterary references right there. Now to wonder why writing in video games is always so unoriginal. (I mean, I liked those too, but I don't write professionnally. Couldn't someone who does this as a job have some more varied sources of inspiration ?)

Yeah, I can imagine a game based on Joyce...Can't wait for Finnegan's Wake to be made as a FPS.

 

[GarfunkeL]

style of writing, and the whole "Someone mentions Mordor, and suddenly BLACK CLOUDS GATHER ACROSS THE SKY, AND FLOCKS SCREECHING OF BIRDS ARE AGENTS OF SAURON FLYING BACK TO REPORT THEIR FINDINGS, OH AND EVERYONE SHIVERS BECAUSE THERE WAS SUDDENLY A COLD DRAUGHT" and of course the corollary "Aragorn does something noble and kingly again and suddenly the clouds part and rays of light shine homoerotically upon him and he gains a great regal air that inspires everyone nearby and fills them with awe.

Good thing that the books are not filled with that kind of shit then, only the movies, you illiterate pleb.

No Timmy, they did not live happily ever after.

Doesn't even reach the top for bleakness in Silmarillion, IMHO, especially as saga of Hurin/Turin is pretty much lifted straight from Väinämöinen.

 

[clemens]

Yeah, I can imagine a game based on Joyce...Can't wait for Finnegan's Wake to be made as a FPS.

When you put it like that, yeah, sure. But putting some Mervyn Peake or Salammbô in your standard Tokien fantasy couldn't hurt either, right?

 

[KazikluBey]

Good thing that the books are not filled with that kind of shit then, only the movies, you illiterate pleb.

Ooh, bringing up the movies, what a zinger. Granted, it's been a very long time since I read it, but I remember examples of both that convinced me to just stop reading at some point during TTT.

 

[GarfunkeL]

The example of the former (the ravens) is actually speculation between Gandalf, Aragorn and Frodo. They don't know whether Sauron or Saruman utilizes birds as spies, but Gandalf says it is possible, so they should avoid even flocks of birds, if at all possible. Obviously, that's not possible.

The few examples of "cold draught" are there to illustrate the supernatural origin of Nazgul's, because it happens in their proximity, not randomly and all the time, and underscores how they are creatures of death and despair. Tolkien also wanted to point out how speech and words can have power, which is why the few instances of Black Speech cause visible physical reactions in listeners - this is an ancient trope from old legends and not just Tolkien being a hack.

So really, you were a juvenile moron and misread parts of the first book and then decided to ignore the greatest fantasy epic. Go fucking read them again and then criticize them for actual faults.

 

[Akratus]

The example of the former (the ravens) is actually speculation between Gandalf, Aragorn and Frodo. They don't know whether Sauron or Saruman utilizes birds as spies, but Gandalf says it is possible, so they should avoid even flocks of birds, if at all possible. Obviously, that's not possible.

The few examples of "cold draught" are there to illustrate the supernatural origin of Nazgul's, because it happens in their proximity, not randomly and all the time, and underscores how they are creatures of death and despair. Tolkien also wanted to point out how speech and words can have power, which is why the few instances of Black Speech cause visible physical reactions in listeners - this is an ancient trope from old legends and not just Tolkien being a hack.

So really, you were a juvenile moron and misread parts of the first book and then decided to ignore the greatest fantasy epic. Go fucking read them again and then criticize them for actual faults.

I'll add this to the list of posts I need to brofist once I am able.

 

[KazikluBey]

The example of the former (the ravens) is actually speculation between Gandalf, Aragorn and Frodo. They don't know whether Sauron or Saruman utilizes birds as spies, but Gandalf says it is possible, so they should avoid even flocks of birds, if at all possible. Obviously, that's not possible.

The few examples of "cold draught" are there to illustrate the supernatural origin of Nazgul's, because it happens in their proximity, not randomly and all the time, and underscores how they are creatures of death and despair. Tolkien also wanted to point out how speech and words can have power, which is why the few instances of Black Speech cause visible physical reactions in listeners - this is an ancient trope from old legends and not just Tolkien being a hack.

So really, you were a juvenile moron and misread parts of the first book and then decided to ignore the greatest fantasy epic. Go fucking read them again and then criticize them for actual faults.

As I said, the instance I mentioned of re-reading LotR was in fact already a re-reading. I liked the books the first two or three times I read them in the years before, along with Silmarillion, The Lost Tales, The Hobbit of course and some other works of his, the only one which I remember being Farmer Giles of Ham.

I started swallowing fantasy novels when I was 8 or 9, but gave up on the genre by the time I was 14 or 15. There's enough quality literature out there that I don't think I'll be returning to it any time soon.

 

[Abelian]

In recent years, games have moved towards a more cinematic approach, and that has clearly impacted game writing as well. How do you feel about the medium today?

As technology improves, developers will inevitably make use of those advances (particularly for AAA titles). As you indicate, that will sometimes lead to a focus on more cinematic games, which may lend themselves to more linear narratives: the player is more deliberately shepherded from one plot point to the next, meaning that the "open world" feeling may diminish but the game may track the story arc more closely (also, maintaining that cinematic production value for a more open game can be cost-prohibitive). I don't see this as a good or bad thing so long as we continue to have variety, and games like Pillars of Eternity demonstrate that there's still a lot of interest in other styles and that it's possible to be epic without being cinematic.​

Emphasis mine. Wonder if that was a subtle dig? Shepard'ed would be a fitting term for a cinematic, overproduced 'rpg' that is ultimately shallow and linear.

There aren't many jobs where you get paid to make things up, and I don't have the stomach for politics.

I like her style. I'm feeling a little bit better regarding the narrative and characters after reading her interview.

 

[NotAGolfer]

The example of the former (the ravens) is actually speculation between Gandalf, Aragorn and Frodo. They don't know whether Sauron or Saruman utilizes birds as spies, but Gandalf says it is possible, so they should avoid even flocks of birds, if at all possible. Obviously, that's not possible.

The few examples of "cold draught" are there to illustrate the supernatural origin of Nazgul's, because it happens in their proximity, not randomly and all the time, and underscores how they are creatures of death and despair. Tolkien also wanted to point out how speech and words can have power, which is why the few instances of Black Speech cause visible physical reactions in listeners - this is an ancient trope from old legends and not just Tolkien being a hack.

So really, you were a juvenile moron and misread parts of the first book and then decided to ignore the greatest fantasy epic. Go fucking read them again and then criticize them for actual faults.

I'll add this to the list of posts I need to brofist once I am able.

You made a list? Really?

 

[Akratus]

Do you want the alphabetical, or the chronological version?

Spoiler

Both are non existant