sawyer wants rpg to evolve

[FeelTheRads]

Hey, if you can choose between a couple of different endings! Who cares about stats, skills, character development and other irrelevant stuff.

 

[LESS T_T]

FWIW Polish article by a journalist who apparently also attended the panel: https://www.gram.pl/news/2018/04/21...sie-radykalnie-ale-gracze-tego-nie-chca.shtml

May expect lost (or twist) in translation, but eh, more twist in the name of Google:

- Recipients of hardcore RPGs are very attached to traditional solutions - said Josh Sawyer from Obsidian Entertainment during Reboot Develop. - Fans are rather reluctant when it comes to changes. I do not want to generalize here much, but RPGs can be much more than they are today. You can do much more, make very radical changes.

- I deepen the problem myself. Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are very traditional RPGs, but this genre can go in many different directions, it's just a matter of defining the design framework and choosing the elements that will be combined.

- RPG elements are used in many games, development of statistics and features that have been defined in this genre. I'm starting to wonder if this is the heart and soul of games with role playing. When I'm working on RPGs, I see them playing a character that can have different personalities and whose story can go in different ways. In turn, statistics or the combat system can be much more flexible.

Sawyer points to Bethesda, who achieved success with the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series, as exemplary RPGs, which were implemented somewhat differently.

- Traditionalists probably do not like it very much, but RPGs and Bethesdy are completely different than isometric RPGs. They are more focused on action, on immersion. They are proof that there is much more room for the development of the RPG genre, and these games do not have to look like they did 20 years ago. It's just a matter of finding recipients who respond - he concludes.

 

[Delterius]

Remember when Dragon Age 2 pushed the envelope and innovated the entire genre?

Me neither.

 

[Cross]

Sawyer points to Bethesda, who achieved success with the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series, as exemplary RPGs

 

[Roguey]

90+ hours in Skyrim and 100+ in Fallout 4 seems pretty exemplary.

Meanwhile, all that pseudo-isometric nonsense gets single digit hours at best.

 

[Infinitron]

FWIW Polish article by a journalist who apparently also attended the panel: https://www.gram.pl/news/2018/04/21...sie-radykalnie-ale-gracze-tego-nie-chca.shtml

Sure he was there? Seems like this is just repeating what VG247 quoted.

 

[Citizen]

Genres are for faggots. Make good games and I will give monies, I don't care if you call it turn-based strategy/tactics rogue-lite with role-playing elements or something, just don't make shit.

 

[Viata]

If Wizardry 1 came out today, I’m not sure I’d consider it a CRPG either

It's like that thing Zed Duke of Banville talked about.
Also:

I'd complain about what he said, but I think Sawyer is the kind of retard that thinks Wizardry is not an RPG. And that is reason enough to ignore any shit he says.

 

[Luckmann]

The hardcore RPG audience is very traditional. Fans tend to skew towards the more hardcore cases and they tend to be fairly resistant to change.

No, they are not.

I don’t want to paint too broad of a stroke there but RPGs can be a lot more than we have done with them so far. There’s much more than we can do and its much more radical.

If by radical you mean popamole streamlined gameplay, then that's pretty much what everyone have been doing for the past 20 years. The result of this improvement is games like Skryim.

For Sawyer, role-playing games are defined by the player’s ability to alter the storyline of the game through his or her actions, rather than the amount of stat tweaking or hit points a player delivers in combat.

Role-playing games are defined by the player’s ability to alter the storyline of the game through his or her actions by means of a system that models his abilities with stats and skills. If you remove this feature, you are not talking about a cRPG anymore.

So many games use RPG elements, stat progression and characteristics that are defined by those in RPGs. I start to question about whether that is the heart and soul of what a role-playing game is about

That's like saying that chess should be more than combinations of pieces in a chessboard. I start to question whether you should be a cRPG developer in the first place. Besides, it sounds ridiculous to insinuate that traditional RPG elements have been properly implemented in cRPGs. Usually, in the few circumstances where stats/skills checks are present they are fluffy, character system is mostly cosmetical in most cRPGs, etc. Complaining about these features as if they were restricting the genre is absurd.

The way that I work on role-playing games, they tend to be more about playing a character that has a range of personalities and a way of going through a story that changes that story in a very significant way. The amount to which things like statistics or combat systems interact with that, really can be much more fluid.

In bold for emphasis. What he really meant, but can't say openly is that he doesn't want to fail in his choices and that SPs distribution should be so easy to the point that there is no challenge anymore.

The traditionalists probably get angry about this stuff, but Bethesda’s RPGs are very different from isometric RPGs.

Fuck you!

They’re much more action orientated, much more focused on the immersive experience. That shows there’s more room for RPGs to grow than just to be what they were 20 years ago. It’s really a matter of finding an audience that matches up with that

But that's where cRPGs have been for more than 20 years. So this manifesto of change is actually another dig at genuined cRPG fans and a defense of popamole games that ruined the genre. If anyone still had any doubts what they should expect from Obsidian, I guess this settles then.

I rate this post Brofist.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Keep using out of contex sentences by sawyer to further you agenda.

 

[Iskramor]

Keep using out of contex sentences by sawyer to further you agenda.

Who and how im abusing???

 

[Iskramor]

Keep using out of contex sentences by sawyer to further you agenda.

Its simple really you want to prove on basis of out of context quotes(no one watched full panel) that sawyer likes and enjoys open world 3 person action rpg and that he thinks that they are evolution of genre. Which he does not think he just fights stall states of rpgs.

 

[Sykar]

So does Sawyer realize that he is part of the problem or is he just dishing out empty rhetoric?

Cites Skyrim, does not cite Divinity: Original Sin 2, Age of Decadence, Tides of Numenera, Disco Pretentious

Or Underrail.

 

[Silva]

Genres are for faggots. Make good games and I will give monies, I don't care if you call it turn-based strategy/tactics rogue-lite with role-playing elements or something, just don't make shit.

 

[2house2fly]

This is literally the stupidest debate I've ever had the misfortune to wander into. 2nd only to the other dozen "wut r rpg" debates I've read here....if you "level up" in some way that increases your fucking POWER and you play a ROLE....then it's an rpg.

Please stahp now.

In the old God Of War games you increase your health and magic and earn xp which makes your weapons and spells more powerful. And you play the role of Kratos, servant of the gods. So it's a role playing game.

 

[2house2fly]

So does Sawyer realize that he is part of the problem or is he just dishing out empty rhetoric?

There's no way of knowing, apart from the bit where he's quoted as saying, literally, "I’m also contributing to the problem".

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

In the old God Of War games you increase your health and magic and earn xp which makes your weapons and spells more powerful. And you play the role of Kratos, servant of the gods. So it's a role playing game.

 

[mondblut]

What’s wrong with making interactive storytelling the foundation of the genre?

You are 40 years too late, brah, this piece of turf is taken. Find yourself another.

 

[The Wall]

I for one don't believe in theory of RPG evolution as taught by Joshs Soyerwin!

 

[Sykar]

There's no way of knowing, apart from the bit where he's quoted as saying, literally, "I’m also contributing to the problem".

Thanks for saving me the time to read that article.

 

[Elex]

he can do what he want, i will do the same with my money.

 

[frajaq]

he can do what he want, i will do the same with my money.

this, the free market will solve the problem itself

 

[Grampy_Bone]

So he wants to tell his emotional stories without all that gameplay nonsense. Go work for Telltale then.

 

[Micormic]

Well under Sawyer rpg's have evolved for sure. Most of the games black isle made were fun and now most of the games Obsidian have made are boring. I'll never buy another game from this company again, POE being boring was the last cash I give them(even if I got it on sale)

 

[Background Character]

Everybody here is thinking about RPGs evolving but nobody is thinking: What if RPGs evolve wrong?