The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Obsidian's first-person sci-fi RPG set in a corporate space colony

[Monocause]

I'm somehow not surprised to see that maybe 5% of this thread is about the game itself while everything else is men ranting about God knows what.

 

[Riddler]

1. If you are designing a character or a faction, make sure that you could pass an “ideological Turing test” for both the character and the opposite point of view and their view of the character/faction; otherwise you won’t be able to create interesting situations/challenges/conflicts for that character/faction and the resulting narrative will be unengaging. In other words, make sure you understand the point of view of whatever you are writing about and the opposing point of view.

You are expecting the writer, a valley girl, to have enough self-awareness to pass a Turing test. That itself is folly my friend.

I wonder what there reasoning is here. "Let's save money by hiring brainlets for our most important department, that is the only reason we still are in business"?

I have not played TOW, so I am judging from previous efforts [/disclaimer]. Your post was absolutely on point, Riddler. What I personally have trouble understanding is that important members of the current writing team were hired while MCA was still there. It is really-really hard for me to understand how he let that happen.

I thought Fenstermaker was the one with control over hiring decisions. Care to weigh in Roguey ?

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

I'm somehow not surprised to see that maybe 5% of this thread is about the game itself while the remaining is men ranting about God knows what.

Sleep easy knowing that you contributed to that terrible ratio.

 

[cvv]

Gotta say boyz, the last few days since TOW released have been a blast.

Can't wait for TOW2.

 

[fantadomat]

My sense is that the developers who perform tasks associated with "area design" in the past would have also done the writing for those areas. Professional game development have evolved towards separating and specializing those roles.

It is more of a devolution and waste of corporate resources. The games are becoming more a industrial conveyor product and the devs are becoming more of a factory workers. The time of passion and desire to show your imagination and skills is gone,now it is time of professional workers doing for the money and delivering soulless bland products.

 

[Nyast]

So Obsidian is the new Bethesda and the Outer Worlds is "bloody brilliant" !

 

[Infinitron]

Seniority analysis - what's the earliest Obsidian game each worked on?

Leads

Tim Cain: South Park (Black Isle & Troika veteran)
Leonard Boyarsky: The Outer Worlds (Black Isle & Troika veteran)
Charles Staples: Alpha Protocol & Fallout New Vegas
Tyson Christensen: Alpha Protocol

Area Design

Jesse Farrell: Neverwinter Nights 2
Constant Gaw: Neverwinter Nights 2
Scott Hafner: Tyranny
Brian Heins: Neverwinter Nights 2
Denise McMurry: Fallout New Vegas
Marc Soskin: The Outer Worlds
Olivia Veras: Pillars of Eternity
Sydney Wolfram: Fallout New Vegas

Jonathan Lee: Pillars of Eternity 2

Robert Lee: Alpha Protocol & Fallout New Vegas
John Cotto: Pillars of Eternity 2
Connor Richards: Pillars of Eternity
Ryan Torres: Pillars of Eternity

Narrative Design

Kate Dollaryhyde: Pillars of Eternity 2
Paul Kirsch: Pillars of Eternity
Chris L'etoile: The Outer Worlds (BioWare veteran)
Daniel McPhee: Armored Warfare
Carrie Patel: Pillars of Eternity
Nitai Poddar: Pillars of Eternity 2
Megan Starks: Tyranny

 

[Murk]

I'm like 10 pages behind but I find it hilarious that 'Gogol' which is an actual name can't be used because it means... uhh... something in some language?

 

[fantadomat]

That fat pile of cucked shit is still alive?!?!? LOL

 

[frajaq]

ehhhh he still makes some good videos about this shithole gaming industry so I'll give him a pass on this one even if he's wrong, no one needs to have 100% perfect opinions all the time

 

[Prime Junta]

How many characters in FO are deep? I don't mean long-winded, but deep. Very few, if any.

I'm not really sure I understand what you mean by "deep." I do think most characters in FO are fully realised and well grounded in the setting.

 

[Haplo]

I'd argue that Planescape: Torment goes far beyond well executed craft. Unless you meant Numa-Numa.

Well some here would claim TOW writing is well executed craft. That's not what I mean. I have much higher standards.
Plus if you really wanna further highlight one of those highlights it'd be Witcher 3, not Torment.

Sorry, but IMO Witcher 3 is just that - a well executed craft. Its map design perhaps goes further, but writing? I don't think so.

Comparing PST and TW3 does not look favorable for the latter.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

So Obsidian is the new Bethesda and the Outer Worlds is "bloody brilliant" !

Jim is such strange dude. He made some legit good videos then he brain fart then pull this shit..

This game is nothing like a Bethesda game and people delusional if one bad Bethesda and good Obsidian game gonna change anything. Btw I bet Jim himself gonna suck Elders Scrolls 6's dick when comes out.

 

[Van-d-all]

ehhhh he still makes some good videos about this shithole gaming industry so I'll give him a pass on this one since he's wrong, no one needs to have 100% perfect opinions all the time

His opinion is aligned with his worldview. I can respect that.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Kate Dollaryhyde: Pillars of Eternity 2
Paul Kirsch: Pillars of Eternity
Chris L'etoile: The Outer Worlds (BioWare veteran)
Daniel McPhee: Armored Warfare
Carrie Patel: Pillars of Eternity
Nitai Poddar: Pillars of Eternity 2
Megan Starks: Tyranny

No FNV or MotB vets among the writers. Explains a lot.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

That fat pile of cucked shit is still alive?!?!? LOL

Still alive, still makes at least 10 times more than you.

 

[Prime Junta]

I'm like 10 pages behind but I find it hilarious that 'Gogol' which is an actual name can't be used because it means... uhh... something in some language?

I think it's an ethnic slur for Ukrainians. Russians spell it хохол (khokhol) but Ukrainians use the letter g for almost the same phoneme. I think Nikolai Gogol picked it as his nom de plume as a self-deprecatory pun.

Edit: this was fake news, please disregard (HT Magnat)

 

[Popiel]

This game is a steaming pile of unbearable, feminist shit. I don’t apply such labels lightly mind you. It’s the biggest failure in fuckin’ years, yes, in part also ‘cause of expectations that came with some (now forever shamed) names associated.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

In the golden age most games didn't even have "writers" listed in the credits, just designers, programmers and artists, with those brackets often overlapping.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I'm like 10 pages behind but I find it hilarious that 'Gogol' which is an actual name can't be used because it means... uhh... something in some language?

I think it's an ethnic slur for Ukrainians. Russians spell it хохол (khokhol) but Ukrainians use the letter g for almost the same phoneme. I think Nikolai Gogol picked it as his nom de plume as a self-deprecatory pun.

His name was not a nom de plume and Nikolai Gogol subscribed to the doctrine of the triune Russian nation. And as far as hohol is concerned, it's written exactly the same in Ukrainian as in Russian.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

This game is a steaming pile of unbearable, feminist shit. I don’t apply such labels lightly mind you. It’s a biggest failure in fuckin’ years, yes, in part also ‘cause of expectations that came with some (now forever shamed) names associated.

Tee-hee Hey guys, I'm gender-neutral. I'm an artist and I can make the same games nerds did, only better. Tee-hee

 

[Prime Junta]

His name was not a nom de plume and Nikolai Gogol subscribed to the doctrine of the triune Russian nation, though. And as far as hohol is concerned, it's written exactly the same in Ukrainian as in Russian.

You're right, I appear to be mistaken on both counts. Sorry about the fake news.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Gotta say boyz, the last few days since TOW released have been a blast.

Can't wait for TOW2.

Can't wait for the VtM:B 2 thread!!!

 

[Heroic Liberator]

His name was not a nom de plume and Nikolai Gogol subscribed to the doctrine of the triune Russian nation, though. And as far as hohol is concerned, it's written exactly the same in Ukrainian as in Russian.

You're right, I appear to be mistaken on both counts. Sorry about the fake news.

All good, idealist friend.

 

[cvv]

Gotta say boyz, the last few days since TOW released have been a blast.

Can't wait for TOW2.

Can't wait for the VtM:B 2 thread!!!

Since I loathe everything with vampires, werewolves or zombies in it I've never played Bloodlines and probably won't play B2 either.

Why, is this shaping up as woke garbage too?