Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Roguey]

It worked for one game and even then I'd say it was Gonzalez's story who made it work, rather than any of the companions.

It's possible the tone and direction Gonzalez would have chosen would have been worse.

In NWN 2 and Pillars of Eternity, it obviously did not work.

NWN2 didn't have a creative lead; Ferret Baudoin was the guy responsible for all that. Sawyer didn't create the companions in Pillars either (at least not all of them). They probably would have turned out better if he had.

 

[Azarkon]

It worked for one game and even then I'd say it was Gonzalez's story who made it work, rather than any of the companions.

It's possible the tone and direction Gonzalez would have chosen would have been worse.

In NWN 2 and Pillars of Eternity, it obviously did not work.

NWN2 didn't have a creative lead; Ferret Baudoin was the guy responsible for all that. Sawyer didn't create the companions in Pillars either (at least not all of them). They probably would have turned out better if he had.

I'm not saying Sawyer is the problem.

I'm saying that it is increasingly obvious that Obsidian does not use its writers well, and one of the practices leading to this is that they don't allow the story writers to actually decide the story & characters.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Sawyer didn't create the companions in Pillars either (at least not all of them). They probably would have turned out better if he had.

Wishful thinking without any base on reality whatsoever.

 

[Roguey]

I'm saying that it is increasingly obvious that Obsidian does not use its writers well, and one of the practices leading to this is that they don't allow the story writers to actually decide the story & characters.

Was this not the case for Pillars of Eternity? As I recall, there was a competition, and Fenstermaker won somehow.

I'm also pretty sure George Ziets was responsible for conceiving the companions in Dungeon Siege III and not Chapman, and I know Annie then-Carlson conceived at least some of the cohorts from Storm of Zehir. For your claim to make sense, those two titles would have been praised for their writing, while New Vegas would have been derided.

Edit: Actually I take some of this back. I had momentarily forgotten George had said

My early drafts of the story were truer to my usual narrative tendencies. They were more personal - focused on the player – and they depicted a “grayer” version of the Legion. One of the storylines – possibly the one you remember – also included a lot more supernatural elements.

However, it was decided (above my pay grade) that we should keep the story focused on a threat that affected the nation or the world. Also, there was a desire to ensure that the Legion was clearly Good. I think the underlying impulse was to avoid a lot of narrative complexity, which makes sense in a franchise like Dungeon Siege.

So at that point, I started a long cycle of story revisions. Normally, the iteration process is where your story gets progressively stronger. But in this case, I remember feeling that we’d ended up with a weaker, more watered-down story than some of the earlier versions.

And since Avellone said his creative director job was meaningless, that means Richard Taylor's likely the guy responsible for watering down DS3's story.

 

[Fairfax]

It worked for one game and even then I'd say it was Gonzalez's story who made it work, rather than any of the companions.

It's possible the tone and direction Gonzalez would have chosen would have been worse.

In NWN 2 and Pillars of Eternity, it obviously did not work.

NWN2 didn't have a creative lead; Ferret Baudoin was the guy responsible for all that. Sawyer didn't create the companions in Pillars either (at least not all of them). They probably would have turned out better if he had.

What companions has he written for you to suggest that? Pallegina is boring as fuck and Arcade was literally based on himself.
I do think companions are a big deal in Fallout, but you're right that they're not necessary by any means (except 4, in which you can't finish the game unless you help one of them, but I don't consider it a Fallout a

At 40:55 he says one of the devs he worked with doesn't take feedback seriously unless they made an engine or something. Who is that? Josh I don't think he ever made an engine, only one I can think of is Tim Cain probably since he said he made the engine of Fallout 1.

"Worked with" doesn't mean it was someone at Obsidian, mind you. Could be someone from a publisher they worked with.
Still, if we consider Obsidian devs alone, some possibilities are:

- Rich Taylor. Project Director and Lead Programmer on DS3 ,when they made the Onyx engine. However, I don't think he was personally involved. He doesn't mention the engine here, at least:

Project Director for Dungeon Siege 3. Oversaw project goals and direction, responsible for day to day project level decisions, worked with all discipline leads leads to establish and maintain a project vision, and worked with team members to reinforce expectations of quality.

Could be a random arrogant dev from its Programming or CTG teams. "Tools programmers" perhaps?

Obsidian also made a complete overhaul of the Aurora engine for NWN2, so I guess this person could say they made an engine there.
In that case:

Tools Programming Adam Brennecke, Erik Novales, Steve Weatherly

Just saying, but Brennecke was also a programmer on DS3 and is one of the people MCA unfollowed on twitter.

 

[Fairfax]

An Ode to Star Wars from the Devs Who Make the Games

CHRIS AVELLONE - LARIAN STUDIOS - (Worked on KOTOR2)

My Star Wars worship went through highs and lows. It peaked around Empire Strikes Back, then ebbed when I discovered I didn't feel like rushing out to see Return of the Jedi, then a down period around the prequels, then a slow rise with the Clone Wars 5-minute shorts (which I loved, and were heavy influences on a potential KOTOR3, especially the Jedi-Sith duels).

It rose again while playing KOTOR1, which I thought was an amazing game. So amazing, in fact, I became frustrated at the idea of working on the sequel because the first game seemed to have already done everything cool in the Old Republic. I almost threw down my controller when I got to the part of the game when you're walking on the ocean floor of Manaan, and I was like, "$!@# this game." Hello, Dark Side. Of myself.

A scene from KOTOR 2

So all the ups and downs of Star Wars inspired me to go off on a detour when we got to do a sequel. The topics introduced in the prequels was the foundation of KOTOR2's narrative conflict (well, the second version of it - there was a terrible first draft that I wadded up and digitally burned after finally getting a chance to play KOTOR1, since true story: we didn't have a chance to play it nor were we given copies before we started work on KOTOR2 and asked to generate content).

The topics I was struggling with were (1) the concept of the Force as predestination, especially when it meant the universe had to burn for it, (2) seeing Obi-Wan go through a questionable series of acts while cloaked as a do-gooder (I always thought Obi-Wan was a big fat liar unwilling to trust others to handle the truth), and (3) the uncomfortable realization the Sith and the Empire had some damn good reasons for giving the galaxy a good smack to wake it up from its arrogance and in-fighting. All these elements became topic fuel for the main antagonist in KOTOR2, and she was the voice I could use to question those subjects. Being able to have a conversation through her with the PC as a sounding board allowed me to dig deeper into what I liked and didn't like about the franchise, and in the end, made me appreciate it all the more, and made me look forward to potentially doing the third installment of the trilogy. Who knows?

KOTOR2 was a story I couldn't have told outside the Star Wars universe - I was grateful for the opportunity, and I'm looking forward to where the next series of films take us and what new stories and characters are on the horizon.

 

[Jasede]

We got Chris a new gig? God, we rule!

And God knows Larian needs better writers...

 

[dukeofwhales]

Just saying, but Brennecke was also a programmer on DS3 and is one of the people MCA unfollowed on twitter.

I recognise that I'm only encouraging more of your stupid myspace top 8 friends conspiracy, but is there a way of tracking that MCA actually followed these dudes in the first place or are you just assuming that because he doesn't follow them right now that MCA obviously hates these Obsidian dudes in particular?

 

[Infinitron]

At 40:55 he says one of the devs he worked with doesn't take feedback seriously unless they made an engine or something. Who is that? Josh I don't think he ever made an engine, only one I can think of is Tim Cain probably since he said he made the engine of Fallout 1.

What

He didn't say feedback, he said resumes. He was talking about his hiring practices.

 

[Xeon]

Oh, my bad. Thank you.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

It seems January will be alert IHaveHugeNick month

Now you ruined my devilish plot to become Codex-famous.

 

[Roguey]

What companions has he written for you to suggest that?

Create, not necessarily write. He created all the companions in New Vegas.

Arcade was literally based on himself.

Is Arcade Gannon's personality based on your personality? At least a little bit? I could see you being interested in socioeconomic theories and speaking in Latin when it sounds cool.

He shares more in common with me than some of the other characters I've written, but no.

Are you aware of the fact that, after you revealed he was your tabletop character, Arcade has been criticized for being a Mary Sue on fansites? Do you think it's fair?

Jean-Baptiste Cutting was also my character in the same campaign. Is he a Mary Sue?

I think people know enough about my personality from interviews and the questions I've answered here to make that judgment on their own. The fact that I played the character in a tabletop campaign shouldn't have much bearing on it considering the variety of characters I played in that, and many other, campaigns.

That said, when I design characters that I am going to personally write or play in RPGs, I try to build up around subject matter I know. As with writing, role-playing about topics with which you are familiar is generally a good approach. There are parts of my cynicism and despair in Chief Hanlon, parts of my idealism in Arcade, and parts of my struggle to be honest with myself in Joshua Graham. Of those three, Arcade is the most like me, but he is not me and was not intended to stand in for me.

 

[an Administrator]

Arcade Gannon was gay...

 

[Immortal]

and parts of my struggle to be honest with myself in Joshua Graham

Already passing blame to Graham for how PoE turned out.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Very interesting this stuff you pulled out from the sewers of the internet, Fairfax You are doing God's work here.

Chris seems very agitated about working on Kotor 3 again and that could be very good indeed. I disagree with all his conclusions about Star Wars (lol at taking the prequels seriously), but I think he can make work a very new thing here for us fans to digest. And if he's in Larian officially now, yeah, that's a YUUUUGE step up for Larian

Edit: Take all this pseudo-analysing babble about Sawyer's sexuality and insecurities to the official Josh Sawyer Appreciation Temple thread. This here is MCA's thread, fuckers!

 

[Fairfax]

I recognise that I'm only encouraging more of your stupid myspace top 8 friends conspiracy, but is there a way of tracking that MCA actually followed these dudes in the first place or are you just assuming that because he doesn't follow them right now that MCA obviously hates these Obsidian dudes in particular?

I was being facetious about Brennecke, hence the parrot (I assumed that was its purpose). There's no reason to believe he had a problem with Brennecke, really.
As for a way of tracking, there's no way to see who a person used to follow, but I've posted here before that you can search tweets from one account to another.
In his case, there's only a couple of tweets between MCA and Brennecke.

The only case where I'm actually confident there was a falling out is between him and Sawyer.
MCA to Sawyer, Sawyer to MCA. (not just because he unfollowed him, of course, just in case anyone wants to see it)

Very interesting this stuff you pulled out from the sewers of the internet, Fairfax You are doing God's work here.

Chris seems very agitated about working on Kotor 3 again and that could be very good indeed. I disagree with all his conclusions about Star Wars (lol at taking the prequels seriously), but I think he can make work a very new thing here for us fans to digest. And if he's in Larian officially now, yeah, that's a YUUUUGE step up for Larian

Edit: Take all this pseudo-analysing babble about Sawyer's sexuality and insecurities to the official Josh Sawyer Appreciation Temple thread. This here is MCA's thread, fuckers!

He tweeted this one:


Also, he's not working full-time with Larian, that was probably MMORPG.com's fault:

 

[Irenaeus II]

Apparently fedora boy there missed the memo indeed. We all knew that about D:OS 2. Doesn't change my comment about him being a YUUUUGE improvement to Larian writing department, party time or 100%. Let's hope his shit doesn't get cut out like in Obsidian.

Hadn't notice his post before, but this dukeofwhales person seems like the dullest person on Earth. Jesus Cristo!

 

[Fairfax]

I don't think it'll be like PoE at all. I mean, Swen is a pretty straightforward, passionate guy, and it was very clear that he was extremely happy to work with MCA. Other writers there said they're fans of his work, and so is Swen. He didn't even care that they already had 7 writers working on the game, he went straight to MCA after seeing the requests and made it happen.

In that twitch interview he even said he'll write more stuff for it if they let him.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Awesome to hear.

 

[Viata]

"+++"
Clearly a man who is working happy now.

 

[Infinitron]

Hey, here's something everybody missed: https://www.startupgrind.com/events...y-hosted-chris-avellone-video-game-designer#/

 

[Fairfax]

Who's the current co-developer that rejected his submissions back then? ?

 

[Infinitron]

Who's the current co-developer that rejected his submissions back then? ?

One of the ex-TSR guys who's helping with Torment, most likely. Maybe Ray Vallese.

 

[Xeon]

Sound is a little bad. There is an echo or something and every now and then noises covers his voice.

15:10 He says the Project director is the top with the power to decide what stays and goes when there is creative differences.

I might be wrong but I think I saw a couple of others talks and he kinda always behaves a little differently when talking to women. He sounds kinda having fun.

25:50 recommends modding and hiring Jorge Salgado because of a mod.

No idea what he says in 33:30 about working with teams and whatever.

 

[Infinitron]

No idea what he says in 33:30 about working with teams and whatever.

He hints at wanting to put together a "pet project" of his own in the future, with his current activities as a kind of experience-building/talent-scouting project before that. It's at 33:00.