Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[luj1]

Sorry that hurt your feelings Infinitron

Like I said, never heard of him prior to Pillars. And after Pillars I kinda see why

 

[santino27]

In Sawyer's balanced utopia, the broken chair leg you use as an improvised weapon during a bar fight is as useful as a holy weapon forged by the gods themselves.

Wait a minute...a system where nobody is better than anybody else and all power is distributed equally? Isn't there a name for that?

And why does it sound so eerily familiar when Sawyer keeps repeating that real balance has never been tried before?

Yeah, he is a Californian hipster commie.

To think that at one point he was considered a decent writer.
If only we knew.

I don't think he was ever considered a decent writer? He was never in a writing role at all... he was Black Isle's web dev then associate designer then lead designer.

He was thought of as a somewhat based grognard by at least some people though before his decades in california and an apparent overabundance of estrogen turned him into a social media dwelling grandmother with a penchant for sex workers.

 

[Roguey]

I don't think he was ever considered a decent writer? He was never in a writing role at all... he was Black Isle's web dev then associate designer then lead designer.

The writing he did for New Vegas was good. His contributions to the Icewind Dale games were certainly interesting.

 

[luj1]

He was probably a good designer back in the day. Just an awful, awful lead. And it's possible he went crazy in the meantime too.

No one is great all the time, not in sports, not in this industry either. Look at Fargo, Tim, Leo. At least I don't know of any gamedevs who consistently produced cult classics.

 

[9ted6]

I don't think he was ever considered a decent writer? He was never in a writing role at all... he was Black Isle's web dev then associate designer then lead designer.

The writing he did for New Vegas was good.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

He was probably a good designer back in the day. Just an awful, awful lead.

Sawyer has always been an effective lead in the sense of being a project manager who can bring his project to completion in time and within budget. He's just a terrible designer with a horrendous misunderstanding of RPGs, who should have been booted into the role of producer two decades ago.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

The writing he did for New Vegas was good.

Honest Hearts is the only DLC Sawyer did any writing for.
This, as well as most of OWB's bizzare humor, was likely Avellone's doing.

 

[Roguey]

The only thing Avellone regrets from Old World Blues are the penis jokes (too many people on the team liked them and wouldn't let him remove them when he felt the post-penis regret)

 

[Athena]

when he felt the post-penis regret)

Avellone is trans now?

 

[luj1]

Sawyer has always been an effective lead in the sense of being a project manager who can bring his project to completion in time and within budget.

We have vastly different definitions of effective

 

[9ted6]

The writing he did for New Vegas was good.

Honest Hearts is the only DLC Sawyer did any writing for.
This, as well as most of OWB's bizzare humor, was likely Avellone's doing.

Honest Hearts has two things people say are good in terms of writing, the Survivalist and Joshua.

The Survivalist wasn't written by Sawyer. The guy who wrote his entries was Gonzalez who also wrote most of vanilla New Vegas. It blows that Avellone and Sawyer get most of the credit when Gonzalez apparently took Fallout seriously while Sawyer barely did anything and Avellone wanted it to be either a Rick and Morty episode or his philosophy blog, with disastrous results both ways.

While Joshua's pretty well written and it's a wonder Sawyer didn't write him as an aggressive atheist parody of religion like he did with Pentiment he still has light dialogue and his questline is rushed and short. He's alright but he's not amazing, he's just significantly better than whatever Sawyer tried to write in later games.

I don't think Sawyer's a good writer and whatever credit he gets for New Vegas is way overstated in my opinion. His best contributions were the guns.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

It blows that Avellone and Sawyer get most of the credit when Gonzalez apparently took Fallout seriously while Sawyer barely did anything and Avellone wanted it to be either a Rick and Morty episode or his philosophy blog, with disastrous results both ways.

IIRC he specifically cited Venture Bros as inspiration.

 

[9ted6]

It blows that Avellone and Sawyer get most of the credit when Gonzalez apparently took Fallout seriously while Sawyer barely did anything and Avellone wanted it to be either a Rick and Morty episode or his philosophy blog, with disastrous results both ways.

IIRC he specifically cited Venture Bros as inspiration.

Same idea though. Quirky reddit level humor that isn't funny in between pop culture references and pretending to be smarter than it actually is. Getting one of the Venture Bros VAs to voice one of the scientists likely didn't help them cut back on the Adult Swim shit either.

It's surreal that the army vet struggling to find a reason to live after losing his family and suffering in nuclear fallout and the cartoon scientist computers making nonstop dick jokes are one DLC apart.

 

[Sannom]

IIRC he specifically cited Venture Bros as inspiration.

Wasn't that specifically about Dr. 0 because he had James Urbaniak voicing a mad scientist ?

 

[luj1]

Quirky reddit level humor that isn't funny

This is all over the game

 

[Infinitron]

 

[frajaq]

the Rare Fat Sawyer Pictures

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

By the way, is Sawyer tall? Roguey probably knows that.

 

[Butter]

By the way, is Sawyer tall? Roguey probably knows that.

6'1" IIRC. He was fat in college and they made him a bouncer at the frat house because he looked like he had retard strength.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

IIRC he specifically cited Venture Bros as inspiration.

Wasn't that specifically about Dr. 0 because he had James Urbaniak voicing a mad scientist ?

I think opening sequence of the DLC, specifically the scene where all brains are talking about PC was inspired by one episode.

 

[Shadenuat]

Mca is not a writer for fallout. I understand this because i know the type. The schizo DM that comes with crazy shit on the fly and remembers billion references from popculture
Laconic things are just not for him. His writing also is just too obvious. Any character you meet made by him, you know was written by him.

 

[9ted6]

Quirky reddit level humor that isn't funny

This is all over the game

And all of Fallout after 1 really.

 

[Kedar]

By the way, is Sawyer tall? Roguey probably knows that.

I met him IRL and he's about my height. Hope that helps.

 

[luj1]

Quirky reddit level humor that isn't funny

This is all over the game

And all of Fallout after 1 really.

It's almost impossible to play Fallout 2 without encountering pop culture references, but that is not quite the same thing as the idiotic zany humor of the 10s found in FNV.

Also, Fallout Tactics, the dark horse of the franchise, has none of either.

 

[Roguey]

Also, Fallout Tactics, the dark horse of the franchise, has none of either.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_Tactics_cultural_references
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Springfield_(mission)