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Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
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Guess Josh never paid attention to that big article where Feargus said Bethesda offered it and they turned it down because Star Trek was terrible at the time (it still is, but somewhat more popular). :P
 

Fairfax

Arcane
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Jun 17, 2015
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Sawyer in 2004 reminiscing about the BIS days:
Josh Sawyer said:
Some of the designers used to wonder why I held meetings in the corner of Interplay's executive row. There were three reasons:

1) It had direct sunlight coming through the windows and between the blinds, so sometimes I would imagine that Damien Foletto was a gumshoe in an old detective film.

2) Joking about stealing the various awards around the room (which used to be Brian Fargo's office) never got old.

3) Herve's assistant, Emilie, was exceptionally pretty. Even more beautiful than Darren Monahan!

3) certainly doesn't sound like something he'd say today. :M
 

Fairfax

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Jun 17, 2015
Messages
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This time I actually feel sorry for Sawyer. He believed Joseph/Josan's gossip nonsense and actually thought some former colleagues disliked him. It may have been true, but just by looking at some of the guy's posts, he was an avid anti-BIS troll who acted like a former dev just because he moderated the Interplay forums.
 

Fairfax

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Roguey

Codex Staff
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Oh hey, my other obsession posted on that board. Pity she and Josh never interacted.
 

pippin

Guest
JES is best anime girl.

I've been replaying IWD and 2 and while they are not mediocre, they aren't really great. They still are the closest thing we ever got to the Gold Box games during the IE days.
 

pippin

Guest
IWD2 allows for more freedom than 1, in many many aspects. Mechanically it's the best game. But IWD1 had more personality.
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
Rough transcript:

He mostly reads history books and doesn't read much fiction. He read some Tolkien, Martin, Herbert. In the games industry many designers read lots of fiction and that's good, but the industry has to read other authors and cannot only rely on these sources for inspiration.
He's interested in history, for example the history of the Holy Roman Empire or witch hunts and hagiography and thinks that historical figures are more interesting than fictitious figures, for example this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Bohm and this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Stefano_Menochio and her https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen

He uses these characters for inspiration and hopes they make their stories more interesting. He thinks that many designers only use fantasy (fiction) stories, but if they only use these sources, their stories are boring. We need different inspirations from different sources.

He likes hiking, camping and nature and uses all these sources in his stories. He used Zion National Park in Honest Hearts and Yosemite and many places in California. And he hopes that all these sources can make his stories better.
 
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Prime Junta

Guest
Gotta hand it to Herr Sawyer, it takes balls of brass to record a video in a language in which you're not completely fluent. :salute:
 
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Josh is slightly insane, but I will always have an immense amount of respect for his willingness (eagerness?) to explain his thinking and reasoning. These videos are perfect examples of the sort of thing that, were I in his position, I might consider doing and then think "Fuck. That will take hours out of my day. And I already work a 50-60 hour week and am really tired. And I could spend that time indulging in escapism and/or getting shitfaced. Fuck sacrificing that time for some dumb internet nerds."

Regardless of what you think of his design sensibilities, he clearly has a passion for the medium, and that's becoming rarer and rarer these days.

I'm not trying to excuse him making fairly consistently mediocre games, but I do sort of suspect that, if given creative freedom (and if the Codex can get over its ego butthurt), Josh Sawyer's Fuck You Suck My Dick Historical RPG will be a very popular game around these parts.

Still have to see what he does with Deadfire of course. After the creative disappointment that was PoE, I'm slightly worried. Everything we've seen about Deadfire looks more promising, strange, and ambitious than PoE, but Josh's only strong writing credit is Hanlon, and Carrie Patel (assuming she has the CL title this go around) is a mixed bag from what I've seen. It does really seem as though after MCA's self-imposed exile OES just didn't know what to do in the writing department and handed Josh the keys to the kingdom in panic.


I guess we'll see how that works out in the next two years or so.
 
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karfhud

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It does really seem as though after MCA's self-imposed exile OES just didn't know what to do in the writing department and handed Josh the keys to the kingdom in panic.

Eric Fenstermaker held the writing reins on PoE, so Josh Sawyer wasn't really handed any keys to any kingdom...

Regardless of what you think of his design sensibilities, he clearly has a passion for the medium, and that's becoming rarer and rarer these days.

This is so true.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Eric Fenstermaker held the writing reins on PoE, so Josh Sawyer wasn't really handed any keys to any kingdom...

He's probably referring to Josh being appointed to the role of "Design Director", well after PoE's release and MCA's departure.
 

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