Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Stainless Veteran]

Josh Sawyer's MCA nostalgia:

We should get a "Judas" rating among our button galore.

 

[Roguey]

AP had the best minigames ever. They were exciting, required good hand-eye coordination and they weren't about random luck. And they also fit the spy theme very much. The only problem with them is the shitty mouse support, they functioned better with a controller.

Hacking was an eyesore regardless of control scheme. The others were fine though.

(bypassing was also far easier with a mouse because you could follow the trail with your cursor instead of having to use your eyes)

(this is also a a bit moot because Avellone didn't have anything to do with any AP systems, just the writing)

 

[Lhynn]

Hacking was an eyesore regardless of control scheme.

it was the easiest minigame to me, i cleared it in seconds every time even on the highest level.

 

[Infinitron]

Avellone stream tonight: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-kickstarter-live.104619/page-29#post-4658285

Past my bedtime. Fairfax

 

[Anthedon]

Avellone stream tonight: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-kickstarter-live.104619/page-29#post-4658285

Past my bedtime. Fairfax

For a moment I thought he'd continue his Arcanum playthrough attempt.

 

[karfhud]

Here's a link to the replay (don't let the title fool you). The MCA/New Vegas bit starts at around 1h 25m:

https://secure.twitch.tv/nightdivestudios/v/80336144?t=01h24m05s

 

[Infinitron]

Here's a link to the replay (don't let the title fool you). The MCA/New Vegas bit starts at around 1h 25m:

https://secure.twitch.tv/nightdivestudios/v/80336144?t=01h24m05s

FYI, you can get a link directly to that time by using "Copy Video URL at Current Time" under Options (the gear on the bottom right)

 

[Fairfax]

New interview:



I should write a summary soon if it's any good.

 

[Fairfax]

It wasn't particularly good, but it was pretty short, so here it goes:

You may know of him already...but for those of you who don't, Chris is the designer and writer of such games as Torment, KOTOR2, Fallout 2/New Vegas, FTL: AE, Wasteland 2, Tides of Numenera, Divinity: OS 2, Prey, and... KS: System Shock (recently over-funded on Kickstarter).

I noticed the host didn't list Pillars of Eternity, then I checked MCA's twitter and he removed it from his bio there as well. I assume it was to make room for System Shock, but interesting nonetheless.

Host mentions MCA's quote about getting up, writing all day, sleeping after 11 hours and saying that it was a good day.
"Danny [host], you're lucky this is a podcast and there's no camera involved, because I'm not wearing any clothes right now, just full on natural [laughs]."



"How did it all start?" (question about how he got into the industry #8987712)

Fuck.

"Descent to Undermountain was the most confusing D&D game ever".

He ran the Van Buren PnP sessions because he was the only one working on the game and they couldn't do anything else. Says he had a pretty good time and that the feedback from 5-6 devs playing these sessions was very useful.

"What is your writing methodology?"
"It's different than what it was a year and a half ago", "I realized there's a lot I don't know about other genres", mentions writing for a roguelike, VR and action games as interesting experiences.
Says Prey and System Shock made him realize he had to be "more abbreviated in delivering text".

Doesn't want to disrupt what Looking Glass did in the original and has a lot of respect for Austin Grossman as an author, but is also excited about creating new content.

"What's been inspiring you lately?"
Says James Ohlen recommended the book Creativity, Inc. to him and it's fascinating, is amazed by their creative process and how much the films change.

Mention 2 important people that he runs ideas by: Ricardo Bare (Arkane) and George Ziets. Says G Ziets helped him with "course corrections" for some of his characters and that he's very calm and level-headed.

He can't convey how important editing is, and that even when working on RPGs people often didn't see the value of having an editor.

"I feel like I'm doing a lot of personal investigation right now", says he "got into a dialogue with his previous work" regarding the established formulas and that most of the writing in RPGs is in the same style and presentation. Thinks he needed to "wake up" to improve his writing.

He says you can't have a bad story anymore or you'll get blasted in reviews and that people now expect a good story. Jokes that story writers are celebrating this and is glad the industry realized the importance of stories in games. [I wonder how he got that impression, I feel like it's the opposite]

 

[LESS T_T]

:gasp:

 

[InD_ImaginE]

With his fondness of Fallout, I wonder what MCA truly thinks about the nu-Fallout, lore/writing wise. Of course he would answer "It is all good yadda yadda." in a formal interview. But have he implied not liking the new direction, or lack of it, of Bethesda Fallout?

 

[Roguey]

He says you can't have a bad story anymore or you'll get blasted in reviews and that people now expect a good story.

Good's pretty subjective. Game journalists consider Bioware and Bethesda writing good.

 

[Fairfax]

With his fondness of Fallout, I wonder what MCA truly thinks about the nu-Fallout, lore/writing wise. Of course he would answer "It is all good yadda yadda." in a formal interview. But have he implied not liking the new direction, or lack of it, of Bethesda Fallout?

In some ways, yes. In another interview he said he didn't like the voiced protagonist:

"The other thing is...I've always been divided on the concept of voice acting the player character. From the developer side it's such a huge budget resource...at the same time I also worry that it also puts some distance between you and role-playing your character, because you're not saying things the way you imagine your voice sounds, the game's providing that for you", "I'm not poo-pooing the VA in Mass Effect or Fallout 4, like FO4 specially the female PC actress [says the name, didn't catch it], she's got an amazing voice...and when I'm playing I get into that character, but when I step away from it I'm like...well, I don't know if I would have that same experience if I was imagining my character saying those lines".

Also, he always praises the exploration, atmosphere and their visual storytelling, but AFAIK has never (publicly) praised the story or writing.

Good's pretty subjective. Game journalists consider Bioware and Bethesda writing good.

And many journalists gave FO4 and ME3 high scores while criticizing the story and the writing.

 

[Infinitron]

Says James Ohlen recommended the book Creativity, Inc. to him and it's fascinating, is amazed by their creative process and how much the films change.

Brian Fargo is also crazy about this book, tells his employees to read it. Must be a thing now.

 

[Popiel]

MCA + MK will work on TES VI and make Elder Scrolls lore great again.

Okay, that would be really awesome. Someone make that happen now.

 

[Bester]

Doesn't want to disrupt what Looking Glass did in the original and has a lot of respect for Austin Grossman as an author

Glad to hear that. Austin Grossman is extremely talented. Just finished his "Soon I Will Be Invincible" and it's borderline genius. Maybe not pure genius, but pretty close.

He's also the identical twin of Lev Grossman who's just as good with his Magicians trillogy. They're genetically programmed to write amazingly well.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

MCA + MK will work on TES VI and make Elder Scrolls lore great again.

Okay, that would be really awesome. Someone make that happen now.

He's already working with Arkane, which is a subsidiary of Bethesda, so it's possible.

 

[Severian Silk]

When will the Codex become a subsidiary of Bethesda?

 

[Infinitron]

Chris Avellone Wasteland 2 novella status update:

 

[Bester]

After the PoE novella, I'm not so hot on this one.

I don't know whether it's me or it's some style he employed, but I didn't understand a single thing in his PoE novella, and then I just dropped it at 15%.

 

[Fairfax]

MCA joined the D:OS2 media tour:

 

[Ninjerk]

After the PoE novella, I'm not so hot on this one.

I don't know whether it's me or it's some style he employed, but I didn't understand a single thing in his PoE novella, and then I just dropped it at 15%.

Didn't he say he wasn't clear on how the soul thing worked?

 

[agris]

dude has chunked out

 

[Hobo Elf]

His head is shaped like a pear.

 

[Ninjerk]

Look at those guns