People News Chris Avellone talks about life as a freelancer at Reboot Develop 2016

[Fairfax]

Is that of ANY surpsise to anyone who play's their games? lol

Yes. It seemed like it was the case in FO3, but I think they've abandoned the wiki. A 10 second search would've prevented their pre-war Jet bullshit in FO4.

 

[himmy]

rpg codex > I don't cry as much.

 

[Infinitron]

Is that of ANY surpsise to anyone who play's their games? lol

Yes. It seemed like it was the case in FO3, but I think they've abandoned the wiki. A 10 second search would've prevented their pre-war Jet bullshit in FO4.

I'm pretty sure FO3 also has "pre-War Jet". People just re-noticed it in FO4.

 

[Grotesque]

"So more what I want is to get involved in companies that have all that set up, and I can just get involved in just a creative capacity."

here's his cry for help.

 

[Manmower]

When is he gonna admit he was fired because he got into a physical fight with another Obsidian employee?

I'd pay good money to see that. Just imagine it: Avellone the Exiled vs. Josh the Balancemaster wrestling match.

I don't believe he will be ever given his own game to make again. Unless Fargo does something crazy.

What do you base this assumption on?

 

[Hoodoo]

He let what would be a good clue to an actual physical confrontation when he said something along the lines 'to look for that red and purple t-shirt if you wanted to find out why he quit'.

 

[Manmower]

to look for that red and purple t-shirt if you wanted to find out why he quit

Maybe he was talking about Carrie Patel's girl days of the month?

 

[ZagorTeNej]

He let what would be a good clue to an actual physical confrontation when he said something along the lines 'to look for that red and purple t-shirt if you wanted to find out why he quit'.

Like anyone at Obsidian (and beyond) would risk a physical confrontation with Avellone.

 

[Manmower]

Who'd win a Sawyer vs. MCA deathmatch?

Josh has reach and vegan farts, but Chris is like one of those pretend-nice squirrels from Happy Tree Friends.

 

[Black]

play's

Really bro?

 

[hpstg]

When is he gonna admit he was fired because he got into a physical fight with another Obsidian employee?

I'd pay good money to see that. Just imagine it: Avellone the Exiled vs. Josh the Balancemaster wrestling match.

I don't believe he will be ever given his own game to make again. Unless Fargo does something crazy.

What do you base this assumption on?

He wanted to escape responsibility and focus exclusively on writing. You can't trust a person like that to run expensive endeavors like games, you trust people like Sawyer with that, who will ideally manage input from people like Avellone. I don't believe that Avellone himself would want the weight of a whole game on him any more. It's not just the writing involved.

 

[Hoodoo]

If it was that he would have just stated it directly in the first place instead of acting like there's another reason to his sudden resignation. Sudden resignations are usually caused by incidents and you don't just leave a company you founded unceremoniously unless you're being pushed out of it. There's an awful lot of cases of 'we would prefer not to fire you, so please resign' cases in the work industry at large.

He was doing next to no work at the end. 'creative supervisor' sounds like an artificial position you give someone who founded the business with you but can't keep up with the pace at all.

 

[acer palmatum]

Elves are only good for one thing.

Three things actually: Cooking, cleaning and vagina.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

If it was that he would have just stated it directly in the first place instead of acting like there's another reason to his sudden resignation. Sudden resignations are usually caused by incidents and you don't just leave a company you founded unceremoniously unless you're being pushed out of it. There's an awful lot of cases of 'we would prefer not to fire you, so please resign' cases in the work industry at large.

He was doing next to no work at the end. 'creative supervisor' sounds like an artificial position you give someone who founded the business with you but can't keep up with the pace at all.

I think Avellone is too much of a loose canon to be given his own project anymore, wildly creative, eccentric types like him are just not a good fit for today's extremely risk averse gaming industry. Sure, everyone wants to use him as an RPG mascot, hire him for "creative feedback" or to write a character, design an area or a quest here and there for their otherwise utterly bland and mediocre game but that's about it. He became a sort of an advertising prop.

I could be wrong of course, maybe he doesn't want the burden of leadership anymore and is happy doing bits and pieces in other people's games. All I know for certain is that I'd really love to play another full-fledged Avellone game instead of the ones where his influence is barely felt.

 

[Manmower]

you trust people like Sawyer with that, who will ideally manage input from people like Avellone

For all of Sawyer's managerial abilities, he has one fatal flaw - he thinks he himself is a content creator, and meddles in a process he's entirely unsuited for. You can see it with PoE. It's a bland, soulless excrement of a game (disregarding for a moment its many other mechanical flaws), and Sawyer's partly to blame. Ideally, you'd have someone like MCA handling creative, and Saywer doing management. Instead, we got the opposite.

I don't believe that Avellone himself would want the weight of a whole game on him any more. It's not just the writing involved.

Fair enough. Man's entitled to his opinion and choices.

If it was that he would have just stated it directly in the first place instead of acting like there's another reason to his sudden resignation. Sudden resignations are usually caused by incidents and you don't just leave a company you founded unceremoniously unless you're being pushed out of it. There's an awful lot of cases of 'we would prefer not to fire you, so please resign' cases in the work industry at large.

There's probably truth in this. Who knows WTF happened at Obsidian. But MCA's subtle jabs at the company and its employees, and the fact that he doesn't follow anyone except Carrie Patel on Twitter, hint at anything but an amicable resolution.

He became a sort of an advertising prop.

So sad. All that potential, wasted.

 

[abnaxus]

I thought freelancer was an euphemism for being on welfare.

 

[Ninjerk]

Who'd win a Sawyer vs. MCA deathmatch?

Josh has reach and vegan farts, but Chris is like one of those pretend-nice squirrels from Happy Tree Friends.

Josh has a flanged mace.

 

[Manmower]

That vegan faggot probably has trouble lifting his 5lbs. bags of tofu. Meanwhile, MCA looks like he curls hundreds and eats the discarded placenta of local homeless women. Dat dere celltech and shiiieeeet.

 

[hpstg]

If it was that he would have just stated it directly in the first place instead of acting like there's another reason to his sudden resignation. Sudden resignations are usually caused by incidents and you don't just leave a company you founded unceremoniously unless you're being pushed out of it. There's an awful lot of cases of 'we would prefer not to fire you, so please resign' cases in the work industry at large.

He was doing next to no work at the end. 'creative supervisor' sounds like an artificial position you give someone who founded the business with you but can't keep up with the pace at all.

Wait, so his resignation was sudden and unexpected, while he wasn't doing anything in the studio anyways. Aha.

Spoiler

 

[Lady_Error]

I've got another idea: Grimoire has only 1.2 micro-issues left and most of it is content creation (side-quests). Who wouldn't want to get on that bandwagon?

Of course, payment would have to be in post-apoc food rations and super-seecret gym workout tips.

 

[Hoodoo]

If it was that he would have just stated it directly in the first place instead of acting like there's another reason to his sudden resignation. Sudden resignations are usually caused by incidents and you don't just leave a company you founded unceremoniously unless you're being pushed out of it. There's an awful lot of cases of 'we would prefer not to fire you, so please resign' cases in the work industry at large.

He was doing next to no work at the end. 'creative supervisor' sounds like an artificial position you give someone who founded the business with you but can't keep up with the pace at all.

Wait, so his resignation was sudden and unexpected, while he wasn't doing anything in the studio anyways. Aha.

Spoiler

Have you worked a single day in your life?

 

[hpstg]

If it was that he would have just stated it directly in the first place instead of acting like there's another reason to his sudden resignation. Sudden resignations are usually caused by incidents and you don't just leave a company you founded unceremoniously unless you're being pushed out of it. There's an awful lot of cases of 'we would prefer not to fire you, so please resign' cases in the work industry at large.

He was doing next to no work at the end. 'creative supervisor' sounds like an artificial position you give someone who founded the business with you but can't keep up with the pace at all.

Wait, so his resignation was sudden and unexpected, while he wasn't doing anything in the studio anyways. Aha.

Spoiler

Have you worked a single day in your life?

Now I wonder if you have. If you do, you deserve your Codex title.

 

[Hoodoo]

A company founder in an active position announces a well planned retirement months in advance. Queues farewell parties and internal/external reporting especially from a company like Obsidian. A company founder also typically has shares and other ties to the business than the desk job he held there, this is very uncommon for a founder to abruptly break all ties in this fashion, even if they want to 'experience new horizons'.
A sudden and abrupt departure is what we're used to seeing in high profile media cases after a blunder, think Firefox founder for example. We know for a fact Avellone was not on friendly terms with some Obsidian high rankers. And he still refuses to declare the specific reason behind his departure, even if it was just a drop in a glass already filled.

 

[Manmower]

Avellone was not on friendly terms with some Obsidian high rankers

What do you guys think, what is just MCA vs. Sawyer creative differences, or did Avellone step on another founder's toes?

 

[hello friend]

I think Sawyer would beat Avellone in a fight. Sawyer has that spergy determination. That goes a long way.