Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Fenix]

Xzar and Montaron-style evil companions that join you in performing Lawful Good heroics until your reputation meter hits a certain point and then they leave = kind of stupid

Still they are more memorable and entertaining companions then all companions in PoE.

 

[MRY]

Sawyer has his own personal agenda - cruelty against animals is a despicable thing (he even had a t-shirt saying this exact thing iirc), I may not agree with him completely but I understand where he's coming from with these views, good for him to hold beliefs

In Pillars, there's a quest where you get a nice stat bonus if you collect some birds so a guy can eat them alive.

Glad to know there's still love for RPG geeks somewhere...

 

[Fairfax]

Sawyer has his own personal agenda - cruelty against animals is a despicable thing (he even had a t-shirt saying this exact thing iirc), I may not agree with him completely but I understand where he's coming from with these views, good for him to hold beliefs

In Pillars, there's a quest where you get a nice stat bonus if you collect some birds so a guy can eat them alive.

That was one of the few memorable quests in the game for me. However, the outcome seemed unusually wacky for the game, so I reloaded to see if I could get the rewards without letting him eat them. Turns out that if you give him the birds and pass the checks to dissuade him, you get the exact same rewards. Very disappointing.

 

[Roguey]

That was one of the few memorable quests in the game for me. However, the outcome seemed unusually wacky for the game, so I reloaded to see if I could get the rewards without letting him eat them. Turns out that if you give him the birds and pass the checks to dissuade him, you get the exact same rewards. Very disappointing.

That's Josh, he doesn't want to punish people for role playing.

Of course role playing prevented me from even getting that far because my character didn't want to lie to the person who kept one as a pet.

 

[Infinitron]

Stealing that lady's pet bird was a banally cruel thing to be able to do. It made my skin crawl.

 

[Fairfax]

That was one of the few memorable quests in the game for me. However, the outcome seemed unusually wacky for the game, so I reloaded to see if I could get the rewards without letting him eat them. Turns out that if you give him the birds and pass the checks to dissuade him, you get the exact same rewards. Very disappointing.

That's Josh, he doesn't want to punish people for role playing.

Of course role playing prevented me from even getting that far because my character didn't want to lie to the person who kept one as a pet.

The bird was being kept in a chest. At least by being eaten it could serve a greater purpose.

 

[axedice]

What he said in that interview:

At a specific level, in Eternity, the original premise of the companions I wrote (Durance and the Grieving Mother) was unpeeling the layers and discovering what they were at the core – unpeeling these layers involved slipping stealthily into their unconscious, a dungeon made out of their memories. There, the player could go through an adventure game-like series of interactions, exploring their memories using psychological items important to both your character and to them as emotional keys to thread your way through the memories – but carefully, without revealing your presence. The memory dungeon was to uncover their shared history, how it impacted you, and the core of who they were as people.

And their core was pretty unpleasant. Both of them were very bad, very weak people, committing not only violations on each other, but on the player as well. When faced with the discovery that your allies, even if they fiercely support you and fight for a larger cause, have some pretty horrid faults, what do you do? Do you pass sentence? Do you forgive? Do you assist them to reach an understanding? And what I found more interesting with the spiritual physics in the Eternity world is that a death sentence isn't a sentence – killing someone actually sets a soul free to move on to the next generation. So if you intend to punish someone in a world like that, either out of revenge or to correct their behavior, how do you do it when execution is not an answer?

The elements above got stripped out of the companions in the end, so I'm happy to share it here (and I may re-examine it in the future). Overall, I thought they raised interesting questions for the player to chew on, and it was interesting to explore those themes, as most game narratives and franchises wouldn't allow for such examinations – still, Eternity was intended to be a more personal project for Obsidian where we can stretch our narrative legs more, both in structure and themes.

Pillars could have been the true Torment game we expected, yet it was reduced to being the next IWD. News at 11 I know but this shit still makes me angry.

 

[Arnust]

I like how he freelanced in FTL:Faster Than Light, did some encounters n'such.

Hope he has a more notable impact on Into The Breach, the dev's upcoming game. Those games only need some more writing to be amazing.

 

[Roguey]

Avellone retweeted

Games writer/producer, events, diversity advocate. @GCAPConf, @GDAA_Oz, @gxaustralia. Formerly @BeamdogInc, @Obsidian. @developonline, @MCVPacific 30 Under 30.

I disagree. Paying money for a product or service entitles me to personally insult them if they did an unsatisfactory job.

 

[J_C]

Avellone retweeted

Games writer/producer, events, diversity advocate. @GCAPConf, @GDAA_Oz, @gxaustralia. Formerly @BeamdogInc, @Obsidian. @developonline, @MCVPacific 30 Under 30.

I disagree. Paying money for a product or service entitles me to personally insult them if they did an unsatisfactory job.

You can do that, if you want to look like an idiot. But if you want to look like a decent human being you criticise their work, tell them that it is shit. Not insulting their families and telling them to kill themselves.

 

[Cosmo]

tell them WHY it is shit

FTFY

 

[Jarpie]

Avellone retweeted

Games writer/producer, events, diversity advocate. @GCAPConf, @GDAA_Oz, @gxaustralia. Formerly @BeamdogInc, @Obsidian. @developonline, @MCVPacific 30 Under 30.

I disagree. Paying money for a product or service entitles me to personally insult them if they did an unsatisfactory job.

You can do that, if you want to look like an idiot. But if you want to look like a decent human being you criticise their work, tell them that it is shit. Not insulting their families and telling them to kill themselves.

You decide to go public with your name, face and work in the internet, you should know by now what it entails, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". You want the positive attention, adulation and visibility, you also have to then take the trolls, retards, and shitslingers too.

 

[Fenix]

Whom this Liam Im-all-for-woman is defending?

 

[Roguey]

You can do that, if you want to look like an idiot. But if you want to look like a decent human being you criticise their work, tell them that it is shit. Not insulting their families and telling them to kill themselves.

I don't recall ever doing either of those two things. I'd sooner tell them to find a job elsewhere.

I'm a pseudonym so I don't care about how decent I look.

 

[an Administrator]

Avellone retweeted

Games writer/producer, events, diversity advocate. @GCAPConf, @GDAA_Oz, @gxaustralia. Formerly @BeamdogInc, @Obsidian. @developonline, @MCVPacific 30 Under 30.

I disagree. Paying money for a product or service entitles me to personally insult them if they did an unsatisfactory job.

You can do that, if you want to look like an idiot. But if you want to look like a decent human being you criticise their work, tell them that it is shit. Not insulting their families and telling them to kill themselves.

Kill yourself

 

[J_C]

Avellone retweeted

Games writer/producer, events, diversity advocate. @GCAPConf, @GDAA_Oz, @gxaustralia. Formerly @BeamdogInc, @Obsidian. @developonline, @MCVPacific 30 Under 30.

I disagree. Paying money for a product or service entitles me to personally insult them if they did an unsatisfactory job.

You can do that, if you want to look like an idiot. But if you want to look like a decent human being you criticise their work, tell them that it is shit. Not insulting their families and telling them to kill themselves.

Kill yourself

'sup newfag? Truth hurts doesn't it? Go back to your little kindergarten where you can be mean with the others and act like a big boy.

 

[Prime Junta]

You decide to go public with your name, face and work in the internet, you should know by now what it entails, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". You want the positive attention, adulation and visibility, you also have to then take the trolls, retards, and shitslingers too.

 

[J_C]

Avellone retweeted

Games writer/producer, events, diversity advocate. @GCAPConf, @GDAA_Oz, @gxaustralia. Formerly @BeamdogInc, @Obsidian. @developonline, @MCVPacific 30 Under 30.

I disagree. Paying money for a product or service entitles me to personally insult them if they did an unsatisfactory job.

You can do that, if you want to look like an idiot. But if you want to look like a decent human being you criticise their work, tell them that it is shit. Not insulting their families and telling them to kill themselves.

You decide to go public with your name, face and work in the internet, you should know by now what it entails, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". You want the positive attention, adulation and visibility, you also have to then take the trolls, retards, and shitslingers too.

But why does it have to be this way? This part of the internet culture is fucked up. When you go out to the streets you don't expect strangers walking up on you and shouting into your ear: kill yourself faggot! But of course cowardly hiding behing the internet anonimity, it is easy to harass someone.

 

[Jarpie]

Avellone retweeted

Games writer/producer, events, diversity advocate. @GCAPConf, @GDAA_Oz, @gxaustralia. Formerly @BeamdogInc, @Obsidian. @developonline, @MCVPacific 30 Under 30.

I disagree. Paying money for a product or service entitles me to personally insult them if they did an unsatisfactory job.

You can do that, if you want to look like an idiot. But if you want to look like a decent human being you criticise their work, tell them that it is shit. Not insulting their families and telling them to kill themselves.

You decide to go public with your name, face and work in the internet, you should know by now what it entails, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". You want the positive attention, adulation and visibility, you also have to then take the trolls, retards, and shitslingers too.

But why does it have to be this way? This part of the internet culture is fucked up. When you go out to the streets you don't expect strangers walking up on you and shouting into your ear: kill yourself faggot! But of course cowardly hiding behing the internet anonimity, it is easy to harass someone.

It's a human nature you dumbfuck, as long as there's been celebrities, "celebrities" or public figures, they've gotten the idiots, retards, crazies etc accosting them, even on the streets...and when the traditional snailmail was still a thing, they used to get a lot of hatemail from idiots who couldn't tell their work, and the actor/artist/etc apart. Actor Bruce Dern shot John Wayne's character in the film The Cowboys, and he started to get hatemail and people yelling "You fucking bastard!" at him in the streets for killing John Wayne in the film.

This has just moved to the internet for all to see. I don't get why this is so hard to understand, many people who puts out their work and face in public does it to get positive attention, recognition, visibility, be it professional or just personal, and people should understand what it entails as there's been massmedia for over 100 years, and internet plus social media for over a decade. "It'd be nice if if if if if if...", yeah world ain't nice, welcome to the real world.

 

[Efe]

so you expect people to self-censor?
they wouldnt be serving us shit if they didnt want to be called names accordingly.

also kill yourself for actually defending safe spaces.

 

[Bester]

Gee I wonder which one will work

Meh, neither will. They still haven't admitted that anything was wrong with facial animations, even despite game "journalists" pointing it out politely. Nothing can breach their wall of smugness and reach them in their ivory penis tower.

 

[Jarpie]

It's a human nature you dumbfuck, as long as there's been celebrities, "celebrities" or public figures, they've gotten the idiots, retards, crazies etc accosting them, even on the streets...and when the traditional snailmail was still a thing, they used to get a lot of hatemail from idiots who couldn't tell their work, and the actor/artist/etc apart. Actor Bruce Dern shot John Wayne's character in the film The Cowboys, and he started to get hatemail and people yelling "You fucking bastard!" at him in the streets for killing John Wayne in the film.

If you act and insult public personalities like people with personality disorders do - when you are in fact sane - where does that put you on the personal responsibility spectrum ? I fear that using "because crazies do it" is a rather poor excuse. I do recognize that on the other end of the spectrum, it makes little difference on the receiver's end, but on the larger scale it just contributes to a sterile atmosphere where "safe space" (ie : creating a vacuum where every said word is sterilized) is the only proportionate answer - and while I agree this is a poor one, I feel it's on par with the immature campaign of trolling and harrassment that takes place on most social networks.

And though I think that places like the Codex, a "kitchen" where "everything goes" is necessary and has its benefits, it's still a place where one enters and participates willingly. To expand that kind of iconoclastic mentality on the whole Internet as if it was granted is just juvenile extremism.

When you create sterile atmospheres and places, it also stiffles the discussions, debates and arguments, because then everyone is too afraid of upsetting someone else. You have to take the good with the bad, it is just the reality of the world, what is so hard to understand? Sure there have to be personal responsibility, but what would be your solution? Prosecuting people for nasty words in intarwebz? Censoring the interwebz? Where would you draw the line, and who would do it?

Like I said, time to wake up to human nature, there are fucking shitton of assholes in the world, I learned to recognize the fact long time ago, and I've been happier person ever since. Also, people should learn to grow a thicker skin, I used to get shit for being fat in elementary school and what not, and you know what I did? I stopped giving a single shit, because those people are fucking retards anyway, and know what? They stopped when they saw that they can't affect me. Bitching and moaning will just invite more trolling, insulting and shit, when they see it doesn't bother you, they'll stop eventually.

When it comes to feedback, ignoring "Lol ur shit and ur wryting is shit asshole!" and taking the well-written feedback should be what devs etc should do, and what Bester said, they won't admit that they've done shit job with the facial animations, even if pointed out politely. One thing what I like in Chris Avellone is that he does recognize the feedback.

 

[Efe]

I do recognize that on the other end of the spectrum, it makes little difference on the receiver's end, but on the larger scale it just contributes to a sterile atmosphere where "safe space" (ie : creating a vacuum where every said word is sterilized) is the only proportionate answer - and while I agree this is a poor one, I feel it's on par with the immature campaign of trolling and harrassment that takes place on most social networks.

looks like validating safe spaces to me.
what should i call you then? safe space apologist?
i'm all for better communication as maxie so kindly demonstrated but dont you come out and say safe spaces are the answer.

 

[Prime Junta]

Nothing wrong with safe spaces. Most people need one.

What's wrong is the idea that the public forum ought to be a safe space. It's not. It's public. That's the point of it.

 

[Azarkon]

Well, his tweet clearly suggests he's talking about PoE1 to me.

And who knows how the edits or whatever influenced the character after he handed it over:

Two different ideas keep getting passed around. The first is that Avellone was responsible for writing Durance but much of it ended up being cut; the other is that Fenstermaker was responsible for actually writing Durance and Avellone only came up with the idea. Which is it?