Eternity Josh Sawyer reflects on his failures with Pillars of Eternity

[Steamboat Willie]

To a dude afraid of his own shadow.

The dumbing down defenses are an ex post facto rationalization of his own fecklessness. If he really hated BG like he pretends to now he'd have never signed on for PoE in the first place.

Exit the warrior, today's Josh Sawyer.

I'm shocked - shocked - that a guy with a Tumblr blog who posts selfies on Twitter all day could be such a pussy.

 

[Butter]

More shocking is it's the guy who made Icewind Dale 2.

 

[bataille]

i don't think i have the critical insight to understand how to move forward with the series. the quality of the game is my responsibility, so if it's really that bad, it's my fault. still, by the numbers we had, general awareness was low outside of our core leading up to the launch.

I wonder why, Sawyer. Who could imagine...

Sorry to keep posting these but I think this one post is worth it

"sUbVeRsIvE."

Nothing screams "creatively bankrupt" louder than the notion to mock a desire to make something new, even if the method is as unimaginative and mechanical as subversion. He sounds like a level-headed background guy that should help someone with a racing creative mind not to lose their bearings. The fact that managers/architects-at-heart are forced to fill certain roles as ersatz visionaries speaks volumes of the void of imagination that the medium is currently suffering from.

 

[Desiderius]

"sUbVeRsIvE."

Nothing screams "creatively bankrupt" louder than the notion to mock a desire to make something new, even if the method is as unimaginative and mechanical as subversion. He sounds like a level-headed background guy that should help someone with a racing creative mind not to lose their bearings. The fact that managers/architects-at-heart are forced to fill certain roles as ersatz visionaries speaks volumes of the void of imagination that the medium is currently suffering from.

He sounds like an asshole.

 

[Trashos]

The fact that managers/architects-at-heart are forced to fill certain roles as ersatz visionaries speaks volumes of the void of imagination that the medium is currently suffering from.

I think it can work. It worked for New Vegas. But for New Vegas Josh worked with greatly creative and talented people, so they complemented each other perfectly. This wasn't the case later, certainly not for Deadfire.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

i don't think i have the critical insight to understand how to move forward with the series. the quality of the game is my responsibility, so if it's really that bad, it's my fault. still, by the numbers we had, general awareness was low outside of our core leading up to the launch.

I wonder why, Sawyer. Who could imagine...

Sorry to keep posting these but I think this one post is worth it

"sUbVeRsIvE."

Nothing screams "creatively bankrupt" louder than the notion to mock a desire to make something new, even if the method is as unimaginative and mechanical as subversion. He sounds like a level-headed background guy that should help someone with a racing creative mind not to lose their bearings. The fact that managers/architects-at-heart are forced to fill certain roles as ersatz visionaries speaks volumes of the void of imagination that the medium is currently suffering from.

I feel weird after reading this.

 

[TT1]

This post from Sawyer is EXACTLY why Deadfire sold so poorly. He is completely detached from the reality and he also don't have any idea what players want. He is not even trying.

 

[Riddler]

I think it’s one of the best innovations in Deadfire.

I feel sorry for him

how bad your sequel has to be that you praise some camera shit and call it one of the best innovations

Well, it is from the same company that made a game that had multiple camera modes to pick from that were all equally shitty.

NwN2s camera makes me seethe to this day

 

[Crichton]

I always thought the problem with Deadfire's plot wasn't that you couldn't try to fight Eothas but that the game constantly expected you to try to oppose him even though there was no rational way to do so. The number of times (even playing as a priest of Eothas) where you are given the option to show support for Eothas can be counted on one hand. I kind of like the Eothas storyline but the player has no place in it; there's nothing he can do to stop it and Eothas doesn't need any help.

It would have been infinitely preferable if the plot had been about trying to take advantage of the destruction left in Eothas' wake. Ex. a Rauatai fortress has just had all of its inhabitants harvested by Eothas but been left otherwise intact. Do the player and his crew try to seize it for one of the factions or establish it as their own pirate's cove?

 

[Desiderius]

Are you kidding me?

Nope.

T-level loss is real and it's spectacular(ly devastating).

Not sure about the eye-rolls. It's a real thing. It's also not irreversible. We got mine back up and now have twin two-year-olds. Wife and I both in 40s.

He's not a lost cause but all the signs are there.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Not sure about the eye-rolls. It's a real thing. It's also not irreversible. We got mine back up and now have twin two-year-olds. Wife and I both in 40s.

He's not a lost cause but all the signs are there.

What'd you do?

 

[Desiderius]

Not sure about the eye-rolls. It's a real thing. It's also not irreversible. We got mine back up and now have twin two-year-olds. Wife and I both in 40s.

He's not a lost cause but all the signs are there.

What'd you do?

Lifting (squats) + Clomid.

 

[Alphard]

Is someone putting something in the water?
There has to be a rational explanation for the madness of modern society.
When I was a kid I didn't imagine growing up in a world where gender reveals, pipe bombs and genderlessness are mentioned in the same sentence

They don't need to put it in the water. They put it on the television.

Was gonna say this. Tv plus all others form of media

 

[Desiderius]

Is someone putting something in the water?
There has to be a rational explanation for the madness of modern society.
When I was a kid I didn't imagine growing up in a world where gender reveals, pipe bombs and genderlessness are mentioned in the same sentence

They don't need to put it in the water. They put it on the television.

Was gonna say this. Tv plus all others form of media

Modernism hitting the other long tail.

 

[vortex]

Good to know that Sawyer is back in his twenties. The best years in life.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Best Drunk Boy. 5 ''Fuck this'' of 10

 

[Roguey]

He strikes me as someone who can't resist correcting other people's mistakes, even when it's inappropriate or he's actually in the wrong, although he's probably polite about it. Roguey?

I wouldn't say I'm a dick. I do let people know what I think about their ideas, but I don't think I'm mean-spirited about it. If someone thinks that being critical = being a dick, they must have lived a very sheltered life.

He lacked/probably still lacks tact. As Fairfax will tell you, he was really disliked at Interplay.

Nothing screams "creatively bankrupt" louder than the notion to mock a desire to make something new, even if the method is as unimaginative and mechanical as subversion.

People who set out to subvert expectations without any thought, e.g. Rian Johnson, deserve to be mocked.

 

[Desiderius]

He lacked/probably still lacks tact. As Fairfax will tell you, he was really disliked at Interplay.

The problem isn't tact. It's how he models the mental states of the other intelligent beings with which he shares the planet.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

If someone thinks that being critical = being a dick, they must have lived a very sheltered life.

That stands out to me.

To me it sounds like he isn't that aware of his emotions and feelings (or maybe he doesn't feel them that keenly), and thus isn't aware that the people around him have a greater degree and range of sensitivity based on their self-awareness.

 

[Roguey]

If someone thinks that being critical = being a dick, they must have lived a very sheltered life.

That stands out to me.

To me it sounds like he isn't that aware of his emotions and feelings (or maybe he doesn't feel them that keenly), and thus isn't aware that the people around him have a greater degree and range of sensitivity based on their self-awareness.

Someone on the Obsidian forums made this during the Project Eternity days. I saved it because it was appropriate.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

On point!

 

[DeepOcean]

You start as some random dude on a caravan and the first mission is to get some red berries to cure some guy diarrhea, your entire caravan is killed by a bunch of random murder hobos and the game forces you do super entertaining combat of killing a whole party of copy paste muder hobos with only two characters, some random magic pink tornado almost kill you then the game proceeds and you get on a dungeon, after killing some ultra exciting monsters like giant spiders and oozes, you solve some babies first puzzles then you get out.

Some random dude is using some machine and your companions that you barely know are killed, you have nowhere to go but go foward, you arrive on a grimdark village, on grimdark village, some random dead lady says for you to seek Maerwald because you are a Watcher (some random dudes telling what to do is quite a pattern on PoE), you have a few options, 1) to finish the Raedrick castle quest that has one of the hardest fights of the game on the very first town if you do it at this level, 2) Explore the town dungeon with Eder and be murdered by shadows, just, kidding, your only option is: 3) Being hentai raped by shadows and chain stunning specters on some ruined castle.

Hummm, after all this work and 1000 shadows/fampyrs killed, you get to finally meet Maerwald, he is a crazy dude that talk a bunch of irrelevant shit and the game just give you a castle (without anything fun to do with it) and some incredible ultra vague hint of going to the major city of the game to finally discover what the fuck the story of this game is about. After all that, maybe those people that didn't finish act 1 were the wise ones.

 

[RK47]

Don't forget to kill backer NPCs for their drops.

 

[frajaq]

 

[Desiderius]

"I was someone who, I grew up playing D&D, I played a tonne of it at university, too much at university, and I kind of just assumed that everyone understood how to play D&D, and so I designed combat and counters that were just ruthless, and brutal, and psychotic."

https://twitter.com/benmekler/status/1194507442576510977

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