I've said this before, and I will say it again.
IMO, the biggest mistake we made with DS3 was the name - which set expectations.
If we had called Dungeon Siege Alliance, or Dungeon Siege Legends, or Dungeon Siege Legions, or something similar where other games have used that as a precedent for an APRG instead of the kind of RPG DS1 and DS2 are.
On a personal level, I think DS3 is great. Each of the 4 characters plays very differently from each other and have different personalities that come through in the writing.
The writing is not as deep as Torment or MotB, but the Ehb Sourcebook George wrote *IS* that deep, or deeper. We had a lot of great ideas for expansions, dlc, and sequels which I hope will still happen since the game actually did make quite a bit of money compared to its budget.
Out of all the games I have worked, the only ones I have played through to completion, as a gaming experience, are:
Dungeon Siege 3
Fallout New Vegas
Alpha Protocol
That's it.
I don't blame anyone but us for people who bought our game and expected something similar to DS1 or DS2. I think that was a reasonable expectation for people to have, but that is not what we were ever going to make.
As much as I enjoyed playing DS1 and DS2 (and I REALLY liked the PSP DS game), I personally thought the lore and storytelling was pretty thin and subtle. I think people remember the world and gameplay more than they remember the actual characters and story. I think George mined the games and lore and really created something amazing with the Ehb Sourcebook and I truly hope we or someone else get to revisit it someday (hopefully us).
I agree with Rougey, there are truly some great and memorable conversation and story elements in DS3 if you look for them, the Dapper Old Gent is definitely amazing.
Also, GZeit's comments are actually 100% true. We did have a lot more CnC planned that we had to scale back on or cut due to time and budget constraints. We originally wanted to make each character's playthrough far more personal than it turned out. Notice also that GZeits doesn't think the game is bad, wrong, or a failure, just that it turned out differently than our initial plans. You know the old saying about 'plans' anyway. GZeits is also not a political animal trying to be diplomatic or anything with his statements, he just has a wonderful way of explaining things in a very neutral yet pointed way.
GZeits is also correct, loot and character advancement went through many revisions, I know, because I am the one who coded most of it at every single revision. I think I did level up alone maybe... 6 times... including the UI.
But the fundamental systems were ROCK solid, which is why we were able to add a lot of cool stuff in the DLC. For example, I added enchanting in like... 3 days... maybe less, because of how the looting system was coded.
Our goal at Obsidian was to release a fun, bug-free game, that still had an engaging narrative.
If I had to grade us, I would probably say:
Gameplay (fun): B-
Bug Free Game: A
Engaging Narrative: C+
The narrative grade could be lower or higher, depending on who you played through as, and how much you "got into it".
I know I'm kind of all over the place, but to wrap of with the question on job roles:
GZeits is a Writer, and an amazing one at that. While I'm sure he can do it, he is not a designer.
John Gonzales, whom I love and miss, is a Writer as well, and an amazing one too - but totally different from GZeits. He had a different style and... tempo, for lack of a better word. He has since moved on to other companies.
Travis Stout is a game designer who just happens to be a very funny and clever writer as well. He is a very skilled and pragmatic game designer who can write very well.
