People News SHOCKER: Chris Avellone leaves Obsidian Entertainment

[Ogg]

But... I don... it's...
Hhh! Please, just... don't leave us.
I... love you, Avellone-sensei

 

[Athelas]

What delicious timing:



It's only a snippet of the whole thing.

 

[Cthulhu_is_love]

The Lord of Lore shall perish
But in his doom he shall spawn a mob of butthurt codex cuntz
Hate will be sown from their posting
So sayeth the wise Cthulhu

 

[Lockkaliber]

So I'm a fucking fanboy and all, but still, MCA's touch has pretty much been the only factor that has made Obsidians games as memorable as they are for me. Hell I wouldn't even be half as invested in cRPG's or Obsidian if it wasn't for the guy. This is shit news, I really really hopes he ends up continuing developing cRPG's in a non bethesda/bioware environment. Otherwise my already dwindling interest in video games will drop by about 70%.

Long live MCA-sama.

 

[DeepOcean]

Common, I still need to play an Avellone led RPG (no action, no shooter, no console game) on this decade! Goddamit!

 

[Gondolin]

In the dead of night, the powerful wizard Chriss Manygold fled the Obsidian Durance with only the clothes on his back (leaving behind an unfinished Arcanum LP) on a quest to stop Junior Sawyerson, wielder of the Dark Balance, from enslaving the world with necromancy. He was last seen around the town of New Farms asking for the whereabouts of Faran Brygo, a middle-aged honest trader.

 

[Kz3r0]

Common, I still need to play an Avellone led RPG (no action, no shooter, no console game) on this decade! Goddamit!

If we will buy all their games, if we will be nice to them they will make the greatest RPG of all times for us, you will see...

Spoiler

NOT.

 

[Drax]

Holy shit...
I hope he goes to InXile. Or get's to be the lead on Fallout 5 in 15 years.

 

[Morality Games]

Somehow this seems both surprising and inevitable.

My interest in Obsidian has dropped substantially, although I'm not sure why since Chris's creative direction got displaced at the ground level a long time ago.

I'll still wait to see Pillars of Eternity 2 and whatever they do with Pathfinder before writing them off as a low graphics Bioware with slightly better design and writing -- aka the Drakensang.

On a more personal level:

Chris Avellone for Head Writer on Seven Dragon Saga!

 

[Immortal]

Hahaha.. Oh god..

 

[aratuk]

People should know better than to suggest a project as far along as Fallout 4 would be taking on new writers.

I think the "4" part might be correct, only suffixed to 'Bard's Tale'. There is a currently ongoing Kickstarter for that game, and Fargo likes to pull the same rabbits out of different hats for his marketing campaigns. The same "publisher kid" and "pirate amnesty" jokes, the same reveal of in-engine footage as an update to keep the Kickstarter momentum going …the same involvement of Chris Avellone as an update, to drive additional press coverage and increased pledges. During the Torment Kickstarter, remember that adding Avellone as a stretch goal was an effective tactic – money accelerated as a result. I would not be surprised if Avellone is the next rabbit out of the Bard's Tale hat.

A good question is under what circumstances that would be something Avellone would want to leave Obsidian to do. Would have to be very enticing circumstances…

 

[Diablo169]

Oh Jesus Christ I come back from a merry drinking session at the pub and read this. I was so happy, now I'm just sad. Please go to Inxile, for fucks sake.

 

[Necroscope]

 

[Morality Games]

Well, crap.

 

[Immortal]

People should know better than to suggest a project as far along as Fallout 4 would be taking on new writers.

This is prime time for a writer to be hired for the next game (Why go to Obsidian if you can get the Milk for free). Skyrim was announced a year before it came out. FO4 is likely being wrapped up on Dev work and now we need a story for
Fallout 4: That Other Game On The Same Engine

I'm not saying it's a sure thing.. but god it's a pretty heck of a coincidence. It also means Obsidian is getting short changed.. Feargus hasn't made any public statement sending off MCA.. Butt hurt maybe?

I can't help but gossip monger.. this is so interesting.

 

[Crispy]

I don't see MCA wanting to inject himself into lore that's already as well-established as Bard's Tale's is. It doesn't fit his style. He wants to work on something new and unique that he has complete creative control over, or at least on something that he had near-complete control over once before. Lots of his hard work got lol-shitcanned in PoE so he said fuck that.

My bet's on him joining Fargo and going all-in on VB.

 

[IDtenT]

Tom Hall. Team up with Tom Hall.

 

[mindx2]

PoE will forever be known as the game that made Avellone leave, what a legacy

My signed copy of POE with an Avellone smiley just went up in value 100 fold.

Yeah, that one and my Fallout NV Collector's edition I snagged a signature from him at PAX East... now priceless . But I'm sad because I'll never get that personal tour of the Obsidian offices he offered if I made it out to California...

 

[Deleted member 7219]

PoE will forever be known as the game that made Avellone leave, what a legacy

My signed copy of POE with an Avellone smiley just went up in value 100 fold.

Yeah, that one and my Fallout NV Collector's edition I snagged a signature from him at PAX East... now priceless . But I'm sad because I'll never get that personal tour of the Obsidian offices he offered if I made it out to California...

Hope you are ready to write us an article on all of this, when the truth comes out.

 

[Darkzone]

Yeah, that one and my Fallout NV Collector's edition I snagged a signature from him at PAX East... now priceless . But I'm sad because I'll never get that personal tour of the Obsidian offices he offered if I made it out to California...

Now you can visit the inXiles Newport Beach offices and take there the tour, after swimming in the ocean and in the evening make a barbecue with the crew.

 

[Lockkaliber]

The worst part about him maybe joining Bethesda or Bioware or any other dev besides maybe inXile, is that no one outside of Obsidian cares about branching paths and CnC in any meaningful way. I mean, compare the quest design in NV to F3, and you'll realize that regardless of MCA's writing skills they will be severely limited with that type of design philosophy.

 

[Blackstaff]

So, there isn't any communication from Obsidian on his departure for now.

Someone else saw from that linkedin link that he is supposed to have quit OE last month already.

Sounds like a butthurt and drama-induced move

 

[A user named cat]

 

[tuluse]

I don't see MCA wanting to inject himself into lore that's already as well-established as Bard's Tale's is. It doesn't fit his style. He wants to work on something new and unique that he has complete creative control over, or at least on something that he had near-complete control over once before. Lots of his hard work got lol-shitcanned in PoE so he said fuck that.

My bet's on him joining Fargo and going all-in on VB.

Yeah, MCA is totally known for all those creative setting he came up with like... uh... Alpha Protocol (adapted from Brian Mitsoda's original ideas of course).


And working with a licensed setting totally goes against his style established with Fallout, Planescape, and Star Wars.

 

[Crispy]

I meant previously well-established by other writers outside his circle. And Bard's Tale has always been a whimsical, shallow lore. Not MCA-like in any way.