Editorial RPG Codex Report: PAX East 2014

[Humanity has risen!]

It was always obvious that Schaefer was a hack hipster.

 

[Monty]

Damnit Tim Schaefer, why are you doing this to me?! I loved you! I loved you!

You may have thought you did... but you were doing it wrong.

 

[VioletShadow]

Really nice write-up, you made me a lot. Roberts seems like a nice guy and dat meat tornado YUM!

But yeah, you pretty much summed up the reasons I'd never go to one of those conventions -commercial, consoletardized, banal, lots of people running around like headless chickens

 

[Bluewave256]

Seriously how do you play.. Do you have prosthetic arms like these? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Army_prosthetic.jpg

 

[Menckenstein]

THE GAME WAS TOO EASY FOR OUR BRAAAAAAAIIINS

:shits pants:

 

[mindx2]

I don't think anyone should condemn Chris Roberts for using a gamepad. Sure it is not a joystick, but simulators are the one genre that play well by a controller, since it has analog input.

Not for me...

(Honestly tho, how DID you type out all that?)

Seriously, I'm also interested in this. And how do you play? It is quite an accomplishment.

For gaming I started out like any good computer gamer and used a keyboard back in the day. One of the toughest games for me back then was Descent but man it felt great to finally beat it! For the last decade and a half the two input devices that have been a godsend to me are my Microsoft Trackball Explorer mouse and the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. The shape and position of their multi-button layout makes gaming great. Also, the "way I am" is one major reason I've always gravitated to cRPGs as these tend not to be twitch-infested.

Whether Tim was serious about whether we were "playing it wrong" depends on the tone he took. I'd also be disappointed if he honestly believed it.

I went in to my encounter hoping he would be the funny go-lucky persona he portrays himself as in the media and his documentary. That's why I thought he'd have more "fun" with my encounter then he did. He was clearly annoyed and his answer to me (and the Codex) was far from jovial. Granted, I don't fault him for this. It clearly was not the opportune time to have that type of discussion and having some Tyrion Lannister knock-off insult your game... eh, who can blame him. I do think his answer speaks volumes to his "design philosophy" today.

:shits pants:

I've ALWAYS wanted to do something like this for Halloween!!

edit: I'd make a great extra on The Walking Dead

 

[Scroo]

Really good and funny write-up. But man, who would've thought about Tim Schafer being such a dick

 

[J_C]

(Honestly tho, how DID you type out all that?)

Seriously, I'm also interested in this. And how do you play? It is quite an accomplishment.

For gaming I started out like any good computer gamer and used a keyboard back in the day. One of the toughest games for me back then was Descent but man it felt great to finally beat it! For the last decade and a half the two input devices that have been a godsend to me are my Microsoft Trackball Explorer mouse and the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. The shape and position of their multi-button layout makes gaming great. Also, the "way I am" is one major reason I've always gravitated to cRPGs as these tend not to be twitch-infested.

Hats off to you Sir.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

For gaming I started out like any good computer gamer and used a keyboard back in the day. One of the toughest games for me back then was Descent but man it felt great to finally beat it

I remember how confusing the game was at the beginning. You had to really work hard to synchronize the controls, avoid and destroy enemies. Sometimes it was really confusing since you were inside a spacecraft, where up was turning down and vice versa. All those sissies complaining about difficulty in today's games should met you.

 

[Metro]

“Tell them they're playing it wrong.”

 

[evdk]

“Tell them they're playing it wrong.”

He's right. Playing it at all was clearly a wrong approach.

 

[Hormalakh]

What I learned today:

Chris Roberts is actually not a dick and a really cool guy, going against all I had thought about the guy. Will look into his game. Must find WCs now...

Tim is a dick, also going against what I thought about the guy. Maybe he was having a bad day. So offended by his lack of RPGCodex knowledge... EVERYONE MUST KNOW US AND FEAR US

 

[cherry blossom]

The thing is, Tim Schafer might have been the lead back in the day but in the end, and especially true for those days when games were made by small-er teams, a game's character is defined by several people. So it's sad that Tim's name had stuck up the most to the point we associate all the greatness of those games singularly with Tim.

As an example, I just read an article about BioShock today and how one guy in the team helped bring the game together:

[...] the art team couldn't find a strong style for the game. "The project struggled at the beginning to develop a visual identity," says Chey, director of product development at Irrational at the time. "There was a period of time where the levels looked like typical grey industrial space corridors and the opponents were the usual mutated monsters that you'd fought a hundred times before."

[...] "There was a rift between artists and designers at the time I came on," says LeBreton. "Early in 2006, we hired a new level artist named Hoagy de la Plante. He picked up on the same cultural tensions within the team and asked for permission to work with me on a week-long experimental level-building process, in which we collaborated closely on a small space."

"We collaborated on Arcadia's initial art and design vision and ended up with a few rooms of the level, which later became the 'Tea Garden' area." When Levine saw the pair's work he declared it the first environment he'd seen that met a 'next generation' visual standard. "Ken showed off our work to the entire studio as an example of a great BioShock space [...] says de la Plante.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-17-the-true-story-of-bioshock

How much direct input does Tim really have in Broken Age? I suspect a whole lot more than he had back in the day, especially without suits breathing down his neck. And I suspect that is partly the reason why the game has nothing on the old classics.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

mindx2, I had always pictured you as a nice guy with nary a trollish bone in your body. I feel like I must revise my opinion after you've confessed to repeatedly abusing your disability to get preferential treatment, as well as explicitly referring to the Codex as a "prestigious magazine" in a conversation with Tim Schaefer. Hats off, my good sir.

Now we just need someone to quote this article on NeoGAF to produce some additional butthurt.

 

[Tigranes]

That meat tornado is pretty standard fare based on my three years thus far on the East Coast.

 

[shihonage]

Tim probably meant that many autistic nerds blow past narrative content without smelling all the roses. His game really seems to be the "experience" sort, rather than "gameplay" sort.

 

[Kingston]

That was a fun read.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Tim's just too far gone.

Brian Fargo and Feargus Urquhart on the other hand... if they don't deliver, you shouldn't have any qualms about interrogating them.

 

[evdk]

They can't deliver on the hype, better adjust your expectations.

 

[HanoverF]

:patriot: :kwanzania:

 

[mindx2]

going all the way to boston's waterfront, not having seafood.

I live in Maine, as well as the Bahamas for a time, so seafood isn't something I go out of my way to find.

 

[mindx2]

https://twitter.com/TimOfLegend/status/458379281442172928

Tim Schafer ‏@TimOfLegend 33s
@oasis789 That's a joke from the documentary. When I was typing on my keyboard, saying "Dear, so and so. You're playing the game wrong!"

If that's so I totally missed the joke so "My bad, Mr. Shafer. You were a good sport after all"

edit: Since I don't do the Twitter thing there's no way for me to let him know... .*

*

Spoiler

Still didn't like what he did with BA, though. Nothing like his classics of old which I still think he's a bro for making!

 

[evdk]

https://twitter.com/TimOfLegend/status/458379281442172928

Tim Schafer ‏@TimOfLegend 33s
@oasis789 That's a joke from the documentary. When I was typing on my keyboard, saying "Dear, so and so. You're playing the game wrong!"

If that's so I totally missed the joke so "My bad, Mr. Shafer. You were a good sport after all"

Your game is still ass though.

 

[Metro]

Also presumes we watched the shitty money pit that was the documentary.

 

[Menckenstein]

lol video game documentaries.