People News SHOCKER: Chris Avellone leaves Obsidian Entertainment

[Crispy]

and its future is all but secured

WHOA WHOA LET'S NOT GET TOO FAR AHEAD OF OURSELVES, BRO.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

If by "timely wink-wink" you mean "a big surprise" tweet it was a fake.

Nonetheless this is not a friendly separation and Fargo would have handled this differently if he knew in my opinion.

I wasn't denying that part, you know.

 

[Ismaul]

SSSSAAAAAAWWWWYYYYYEEERRRRRRR

more like
FEEEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRGGUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

[Kem0sabe]

Yet now the mobile development studio announced its third TB RPG and its future is all but secured, whereas Obsidian is working on a fucking tank MMO, card game, and its last 3 games are Dungeon Siege 3, Stick of Truth, and PoE, while struggling to stay afloat.

Well... wasteland 2 was not the experience they hyped it would be, several bullshots and countless patches later... it's still to be seen if they won't do the same with their other KS projects, it's Fargo after all.

It's a small studio entirely dependent on the goodwill of crowd funding to continue playing with the big boys, not the must stable work environment.

 

[Vault Dweller]

and its future is all but secured

WHOA WHOA LET'S NOT GET TOO FAR AHEAD OF OURSELVES, BRO.

If inXile stays small (growing too big was Obsidian's biggest mistake) and keeps making TB RPGs, slowly getting better at it and hiring good writers/designers, they will be fine. Fargo is good at hyping and promoting and the media loves him.

If by "timely wink-wink" you mean "a big surprise" tweet it was a fake.

Nonetheless this is not a friendly separation and Fargo would have handled this differently if he knew in my opinion.

That depends.

Fargo secured Van Buren (and mentioned it recently) for a reason. To make a Van Buren game he needs Avellone. Suddenly, Avellone leaves Obsidian. I bet VB will be the next inXile's Kickstarter and Avellone will be the lead designer.

 

[MoonlitKnight]

Look at the bright side
Now you don't have to interested in Fallout 4 any longer

 

[Night Goat]

I don't know why anyone thinks Bethesda would want Chris Avellone. Fallout 3 won a best writing of the year award and made a lot of whole lot of money, and outside the Codex its banalshitboring good vs evil plot is regarded as a triumph of storytelling. Ask a typical member of Bethesda's target audience, and he'll tell you that Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim had good stories, but New Vegas was too complicated and just didn't feel like a Fallout game. Good writing doesn't contribute to an AAA game's success, if anything it's detrimental.

 

[Athelas]

Fargo secured Van Buren (and mentioned it recently) for a reason. To make a Van Buren game he needs Avellone. Suddenly, Avellone leaves Obsidian. I bet VB will be the next inXile's Kickstarter and Avellone will be the lead designer.

You might have a point if you ignored Avellone's involvement in every previous InXile Kickstarter. Who's to say his involvement in Van Buren isn't similar to his much-hyped contributions to WL2 and T:ToN?

Fargo didn't know about Avellone's departure from Obsidian until very recently, apparently.

 

[Jasede]

You're making that "Best Writing of the Year Award" up, right? Right?

 

[Daedalos]

Best news I've heard in a while, frankly.

It seems clearer and clearer to me, that MCA simply wasn't happy in the place he was in, and weren't getting his abilities put to full use.

A waste of his talent - a sin - is what I would call it, which he finally realized, working for Obsidian. So here's to better times, for us and for him.

We need to cherish the few good writers, designers and game directors in the industry, he is one of them. Give him whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, and good things will come of it.

Question is, who will be the one to do it, or what.


#Just join InXile and convince Fargo you're calling the shots!

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yet now the mobile development studio announced its third TB RPG and its future is all but secured, whereas Obsidian is working on a fucking tank MMO, card game, and its last 3 games are Dungeon Siege 3, Stick of Truth, and PoE, while struggling to stay afloat.

Well... wasteland 2 was not the experience they hyped it would be, several bullshots and countless patches later... it's still to be seen if they won't do the same with their other KS projects, it's Fargo after all.

It's a small studio entirely dependent on the goodwill of crowd funding to continue playing with the big boys, not the must stable work environment.

As stable as selling games online where you're dependent on the goodwill of gamers. Overall, WL2 was well received (second highest votes on the Codex, 85% on Steam, 81 on Metacritics). Fargo may not be good at managing a large publishing house, but he's good at hyping and promoting. From now on he can grab 3-4 mil on KS whenever he pleases, plus inXile will be stronger with every game - game they own, unlike Obsidian that gets paid to do the work and then gets nothing.

So yeah, I wouldn't worry about Fargo. He's in his element now.

 

[kain30]

and its future is all but secured

WHOA WHOA LET'S NOT GET TOO FAR AHEAD OF OURSELVES, BRO.

If inXile stays small (growing too big was Obsidian's biggest mistake) and keeps making TB RPGs, slowly getting better at it and hiring good writers/designers, they will be fine. Fargo is good at hyping and promoting and the media loves him.

If by "timely wink-wink" you mean "a big surprise" tweet it was a fake.

Nonetheless this is not a friendly separation and Fargo would have handled this differently if he knew in my opinion.

That depends.

Fargo secured Van Buren (and mentioned it recently) for a reason. To make a Van Buren game he needs Avellone. Suddenly, Avellone leaves Obsidian. I bet VB will be the next inXile's Kickstarter and Avellone will be the lead designer.

you can´t imagine how much i wish for that Vault Dweller you can´t imagine... since i first heard of van buren in NMA i was hyped as shit.and with the news of the cancellation of the game i felt like a knife stabbing my back.

 

[Zeronet]

Fargo secured Van Buren (and mentioned it recently) for a reason. To make a Van Buren game he needs Avellone. Suddenly, Avellone leaves Obsidian. I bet VB will be the next inXile's Kickstarter and Avellone will be the lead designer.

That would make my year, decade, century, millennium. I wouldn't hold back on a MCA led kickstarter, i'd throw myself into a higher tier than the base game.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

If Fallout 4 is at the trailer stage and rumoured for a 2015 release, Avellone can't be involved unless he's been working for them secretly for the past two years or more, which would surely be in breach of his contract at Obsidian and interfere with his duties to inXile, not to mention all the other small things he has done.

I also can't see Bethesda announcing a Fallout spin-off either, not until Fallout 4 is out the door, so it isn't them. inXile is looking likely, but Fargo said the news was surprising on Twitter earlier which would be a lie if he had hired Avellone - unless he meant the news was surprising to other people.

Anyway, inXile is the safest best. Bethesda are busy with Fallout 4. BioWare are on the decline. inXile is full of Avellone fanboys like Fargo, McComb, Ziets. Just not sure why Fargo is keeping schtum.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

I don't know why anyone thinks Bethesda would want Chris Avellone. Fallout 3 won a best writing of the year award and made a lot of whole lot of money, and outside the Codex its banalshitboring good vs evil plot is regarded as a triumph of storytelling. Ask a typical member of Bethesda's target audience, and he'll tell you that Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim had good stories, but New Vegas was too complicated and just didn't feel like a Fallout game. Good writing doesn't contribute to an AAA game's success, if anything it's detrimental.

Didn't really hurt New Vegas though, it sold more than Fallout 3. Avellone also wasn't responsible for New Vegas, he was responsible for 3 self-contained DLCs, and Bethesda really likes making these.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Fargo didn't know about Avellone's departure from Obsidian until very recently, apparently.

Would he tell anyone if he knew? IF it's a VB game, now is not the time to hype it.

 

[Cthulhu_is_love]

-MCA will go to Bethesda --> Fallout 4 will be good
-Sawyer can now work freely --> next Obsidian game will be good
-InXile will not go bankrupt
-liberal laws for gay marriage will spread over the world

CODEX GOES:

 

[Metro]

Jaesun if MCA is hired by Bethesda will you be first in line to buy FO4 as a show of solidarity?

 

[Infinitron]

Jason D. Anderson is at inXile after all.

Nope.

Heard of a recently released game called Evolve? Yeah, that.

 

[Night Goat]

You're making that "Best Writing of the Year Award" up, right? Right?

You poor poor men.

http://www.gdconf.com/news/game_developer_choice_awards/fallout_3_littlebigplanet_reig.html

It was also nominated for the BAFTA best story and character award, and the Writer's Guild of America award for videogame writing:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073664/awards

 

[Metro]

Fargo didn't know about Avellone's departure from Obsidian until very recently, apparently.

Would he tell anyone if he knew? IF it's a VB game, now is not the time to hype it.

Exactly this. If MCA is going to InXile I assume he'll primarily be working on VanBuren which is still in concept stages. So they aren't going to announce that. Nor is Fargo going to say: 'yeah we've been negotiating his departure from Obsidian for a year now.'

 

[Lockkaliber]

and its future is all but secured

WHOA WHOA LET'S NOT GET TOO FAR AHEAD OF OURSELVES, BRO.

If inXile stays small (growing too big was Obsidian's biggest mistake) and keeps making TB RPGs, slowly getting better at it and hiring good writers/designers, they will be fine. Fargo is good at hyping and promoting and the media loves him.

If by "timely wink-wink" you mean "a big surprise" tweet it was a fake.

Nonetheless this is not a friendly separation and Fargo would have handled this differently if he knew in my opinion.

That depends.

Fargo secured Van Buren (and mentioned it recently) for a reason. To make a Van Buren game he needs Avellone. Suddenly, Avellone leaves Obsidian. I bet VB will be the next inXile's Kickstarter and Avellone will be the lead designer.

you can´t imagine how much i wish for that Vault Dweller you can´t imagine... since i first heard of van buren in NMA i was hyped as shit.and with the news of the cancellation of the game i felt like a knife stabbing my back.

A Van Buren game wouldn't be much like what F3 was supposed to be though. They used to much of those ideas in NV. It would be post apoc though, and using some of the design ideas of VB, like the competing adventuring parties. It would be cool I think.

 

[Infinitron]

Fargo didn't know about Avellone's departure from Obsidian until very recently, apparently.

Would he tell anyone if he knew? IF it's a VB game, now is not the time to hype it.

I have spoken to inXile people and they don't believe anybody there knew before yesterday, Fargo included.

It could of course be a huge conspiracy, but I prefer to take them at their word.

 

[Azarkon]

I don't know why anyone thinks Bethesda would want Chris Avellone. Fallout 3 won a best writing of the year award and made a lot of whole lot of money, and outside the Codex its banalshitboring good vs evil plot is regarded as a triumph of storytelling. Ask a typical member of Bethesda's target audience, and he'll tell you that Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim had good stories, but New Vegas was too complicated and just didn't feel like a Fallout game. Good writing doesn't contribute to an AAA game's success, if anything it's detrimental.

As popamole writers are the idols of the unwashed masses, so MCA is the idol of popamole writers. To work besides a master auteur is the lifelong dream of hacks - that which validates their existence. For it is only through the recognition of one's own limitations that greatness is perceived and appreciated.

 

[Night Goat]

I don't know why anyone thinks Bethesda would want Chris Avellone. Fallout 3 won a best writing of the year award and made a lot of whole lot of money, and outside the Codex its banalshitboring good vs evil plot is regarded as a triumph of storytelling. Ask a typical member of Bethesda's target audience, and he'll tell you that Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim had good stories, but New Vegas was too complicated and just didn't feel like a Fallout game. Good writing doesn't contribute to an AAA game's success, if anything it's detrimental.

Didn't really hurt New Vegas though, it sold more than Fallout 3. Avellone also wasn't responsible for New Vegas, he was responsible for 3 self-contained DLCs, and Bethesda really likes making these.

New Vegas was a semi-sequel to Fallout 3, riding its coattails. For most players, Fallout 3 was the first Fallout game. And most of them seem to think that Fallout 3 had the better story.