People News SHOCKER: Chris Avellone leaves Obsidian Entertainment

[Stainless Veteran]

Avellone goes to potatoland to work on Cybersex 2077. You read it here first folks.

If only.

 

[FeelTheRads]

So who's left there for fanbots to pretend Obsidian has any value?
Tim Cain?

 

[Klarion]

I don't know if the others were joking but I will say this seriously:
Avellone will join Bethesda for F4llout.

Except that F4 is basically, well over half done already. So why hire him just now?

 

[Rivmusique]

Avellone goes to potatoland to work on Cybersex 2077. You read it here first folks.

Brolapsed for not being Melcar.

 

[Athelas]

I wonder why the fuck he left.

Wasn't having fun anymore? He was a creative director of a company that couldn't really afford to be creative.

PoE is the biggest fucking mystary for me. It was Obsidian's chance to shine (and their strength was always storytelling and dialogues, not combat), yet Avellone - their best writer - was barely involved. I assumed that he was working on something that was more important to Obsidian (but not necessarily to Avellone), which suggested that unlike inXile, Obsidian wants (or have to due to their size) to remain a mainstream developer and whatever mainstream title Avellone was working on was more important than PoE.

You may be assuming too much. As far as I know, there was no 'secret AAA project' in develoment at Obsidian at the time of the PoE Kickstarter (apart from Armored Warfare, which he obviously wasn't going to work on).

I don't know if the others were joking but I will say this seriously:
Avellone will join Bethesda for F4llout.

This would not surprise me at all. One of the biggest things FO3 got hammered on was the garbage writing and garbage story. Bethsoft has to know they need to up their fucking game in these departments.

Uhm, Fallout 3's writing was so well received that they won an award for best videogame writing.

 

[Kz3r0]

InXile seems to be having all the fun these days, while Obsidian's constantly between layoffs and knee-deep in canceled projects. So what would make a truly creative Creative Director leave the company he co-founded? Assuming he isn't sick or anything of that sort, it would be an opportunity to do what he really wants.

Let's be cynical and realistic here, when a cofounder leaves a company is because:
The others forced him to leave.
Money/Management issues.

The only romantic option is for creative freedom, very damning for Obsidian nonetheless.

 

[imweasel]

Let's be cynical and realistic here, when a cofounder leaves a company is because:
The others forced him to leave.
Money/Management issues.

Or to get away from Sawyer.

Spoiler

 

[Bleed the Man]

Who was responsible for the writing in New Vegas?

John Gonzalez was the lead writer and creative lead I believe.

 

[Latro]

Let's be cynical and realistic here, when a cofounder leaves a company is because:
The others forced him to leave.
Money/Management issues.

Or to get away from Sawyer.

Spoiler

Death to the false emperor Avellone, glory to the dark god of balance! Through Balance...Chaos!

 

[Curious_Tongue]

One of the biggest things FO3 got hammered on was the garbage writing and garbage story.

The only people who hammered them were the irrelevant fuckers here at the codex.

 

[pippin]

Who was responsible for the writing in New Vegas?

John Gonzalez was the lead writer and creative lead I believe.

From the credits

Design Lead / Lead Writer
John "Jongo" Gonzalez
"So far I'm enchanted."

Writers
Chris "MCA" Avellone
"Can I make a Speech check here? Because I really want to make a Speech check."
Eric "Dirty Fenster" Fenstermaker
"That's what she said"
Travis Stout

Additional Writing
Tess "I'm gay, not desperate" Treadwell
George Ziets
Jason "Monster of the East" Bergman
/taps watch "Just read the f%@#ing line."
Nick Breckon
Matt Grandstaff
Will "Badger" Noble
Andrew "Mojave, 'mo problems" Scharf
"We weren't sure what was going on so we had to check his package"
"HIS AI PACKAGE."

Complete with personal quotes for you to enjoy.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Who was responsible for the writing in New Vegas?

John Gonzalez was the lead writer and creative lead I believe.

I think this guy needs a bit of love.

 

[kain30]

i feel between and

 

[GrainWetski]

One of the biggest things FO3 got hammered on was the garbage writing and garbage story.

The only people who hammered them were the irrelevant fuckers here at the codex.

The only places I've seen people praise Fallout 3's writing is YouTube comments and reviews.

 

[Orma]

So who's left there for fanbots to pretend Obsidian has any value?
Tim Cain?

Yes, and Sawyer obviously.

 

[pippin]

One of the biggest things FO3 got hammered on was the garbage writing and garbage story.

The only people who hammered them were the irrelevant fuckers here at the codex.

The only places I've seen people praise Fallout 3's writing is YouTube comments and reviews.

To be fair, most of the internet agrees with stuff like this:

Spoiler

 

[Cazzeris]

Who was responsible for the writing in New Vegas?

John Gonzalez was the lead writer and creative lead I believe.

I think this guy needs a bit of love.

He got fired long ago, though.

 

[Kz3r0]

Let's be cynical and realistic here, when a cofounder leaves a company is because:
The others forced him to leave.
Money/Management issues.

Or to get away from Sawyer.

Spoiler

I think that Roguey was right, PoE was the dawn of the Sawyer era at Obsidian.
So it's management not only creative disagreements.

 

[LarsWestergren]

If this had happened 5-10 years ago, I might have gotten depressed from this news. As it is now - if he leaves the industry to brew beer and party, good on him. I like what I know of Sawyer, Cain et al and have enjoyed all of Obsidian's titles to various degrees, even Dungeon Siege 3. I think they will survive without him, plus there are many other good RPGs made now from studios probably looking for experienced devs if they don't.
If he joins Beth or Bio - great! The writing is the main weak spot of theirs IMO, I would love to see what you get if you pair a stronger plot with a AAA budget.
If he creates his own studio to create something completely new, Kickstarted or whatever, I will be extatic!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Guise guise guise.

Chris Avellone Happens to quit Obsidian at the same time Uwe Boll quits movies and all?

Uwe Boll has hired Chris Avellone to make video games to fund his movies!

 

[Darkzone]

So Fargo is building a new dream team Avallone, Zeits, Macomb and etc. for Van Buren. Not bad. Not bad.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Who was responsible for the writing in New Vegas?

John Gonzalez was the lead writer and creative lead I believe.

I think this guy needs a bit of love.

He got fired long ago, though.

Huh. Somehow I missed that, but you're right,

Lead Writer
Guerrilla Games
September 2013 – Present (1 year 10 months)Amsterdam, Netherlands
Up to something new. Couldn't be more excited.

Lead Designer, Narrative
WB Games
March 2011 – August 2013 (2 years 6 months)Greater Seattle Area
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Created main story of Talion and Celebrimbor (the Wraith), and co-developed major NPCs and side quests. Wrote all cinematic scripts for Celebrimbor's visions (his recovered memories). Co-designed the Nemesis System, leading design of its intricate AI-driven dialogue, and wrote or edited 12,000+ lines of Orc showdowns, death taunts, and more. Collaborated extensively with realization, audio, design, and cinematics staff on other features and assisted direction during voice recording.

(Open)1 project

Lead Creative Designer / Lead Writer
Obsidian Entertainment
December 2008 – February 2011 (2 years 3 months)
I was the lead story guy on Fallout: New Vegas. Thank you, God.

(Open)1 project

 

[Slow James]

Wasn't having fun anymore? He was a creative director of a company that couldn't really afford to be creative.

PoE is the biggest fucking mystary for me. It was Obsidian's chance to shine (and their strength was always storytelling and dialogues, not combat), yet Avellone - their best writer - was barely involved. I assumed that he was working on something that was more important to Obsidian (but not necessarily to Avellone), which suggested that unlike inXile, Obsidian wants (or have to due to their size) to remain a mainstream developer and whatever mainstream title Avellone was working on was more important than PoE.

Isn't it obvious? With Fallout 4 coming out this year, Obsidian has already been hard at work making a FO game that actually is good.


Fallout: Big Apple Release Date - December 2016

 

[Curious_Tongue]

If he and Obsidian are on good terms, then he can always come back as a contractor.

 

[Sensuki]

But why? They make boring games.