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People News Ex-Obsidian Kevin Saunders Joins inXile as Project Director, Probably on New Torment Game

Infinitron

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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
villain of the story Except Torment wasn't sold against anybody's will. MCA could have told them to piss off and Brian would have made Bard's Tale 4 instead, or something.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
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Leonard actually approached Bethesda to offer help and they weren't interested in his contributions. inXile and McComb approached MCA about this, but it looks like it just might not be feasible at this time. That's a pretty significant difference, and I have no reason to think MCA's response isn't genuine.

Well, I guess the question is whether MCA is still going to do his Torment "spiritual successor"?

Why wouldn't he? Hell, he could join inXile later for another Torment project and work on that one. No one is permanently saying no to anything, in other words, it's just a matter of what can be done. Sometimes the circumstances just don't allow for the ideal process/project/team.
 

IronicNeurotic

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Why wouldn't he? Hell, he could join inXile later for another Torment project and work on that one. No one is permanently saying no to anything, in other words, it's just a matter of what can be done. Sometimes the circumstances just don't allow for the ideal process/project/team.

He doesn't even need to do that. AFAIK they want to expand the world of eternity after, and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem adding some sort of plane jumping thing to it.

That stuff doesn't exactly fall under property law except the name.
 

CMcC

Larian Studios
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Also, mentioning that Chris said he's ok with it has zero meaning. And if he weren't ok with it, would he suddenly drop etiquette and say "I poured my soul into PST and now you're attempting to go behind my back? fuck that shit, mang" ?

Here is what Leonard Boyarsky (of Troika) said post-mortem about Bethesda snatching the Fallout IP:

It sort of felt as if our child had been sold to the highest bidder, and we had to just sit by and watch
http://www.duckandcover.cx/content.php?id=63

That Chris said McComb has his blessings could be the truth, but more likely is retaining good form and etiquette. Bringing that up, however, is sort of bad taste. And this is also sort of counter-intuitive towards a likely MCA-PST game.


I guess the multiple conversations we had about this in which I specifically told him I wouldn't do it if he was uncomfortable with it weren't sufficient for him to tell me that he'd prefer I didn't. It was kind of him to spare my feelings and sense of decorum.

I can't help but wonder if McComb had unresolved feelings reaching back to PST because of the ways a lot of things in TSR canon were adapted and changed to Black Isle's vision of the setting and game mechanics.


I honestly don't know how to respond to this.
 

Infinitron

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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
He doesn't even need to do that. AFAIK they want to expand the world of eternity after, and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem adding some sort of plane jumping thing to it.

That stuff doesn't exactly fall under property law except the name.

Good idea. Heck, even this Torment could be shoehorned into Eternity's cosmology.

I honestly don't know how to respond to this.

Colin, meet Villain of the Story. He's not a very popular person.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
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Why wouldn't he? Hell, he could join inXile later for another Torment project and work on that one. No one is permanently saying no to anything, in other words, it's just a matter of what can be done. Sometimes the circumstances just don't allow for the ideal process/project/team.
He doesn't even need to do that. AFAIK they want to expand the world of eternity after, and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem adding some sort of plane jumping thing to it.

That stuff doesn't exactly fall under property law except the name.

Yip, for sure. I'm just saying he could. Doesn't have to, but could. Hell you could frigging merge Eternity and Torment into one glorious whole, depending on how the settings of both work. The options are manifold, I'm just saying it should be clear MCA isn't upset with inXile or McComb, it's more of a situational thing, and circumstances might be better later.
 

kaizoku

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Messages
4,129
I think that, instead of using something like X:Torment, they should make "Torment" the main part of the brand name and have something like Torment: Y. They could use "Torment" in the same way the "Final Fantasy" brand is being used, i.e. a collection of unrelated stories connected by the same approach/outlook/etc.

Torment: Gaider.

fixed!
DaveG.JPG


Torment 2 will be about resolving your middle life crisis with the power of... LOVE! :love:
 

jewboy

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May you live in interesting times. I'm kind of ambivalent about this news. PS:T was my favorite game of all time, being so good that it even transcended game-ness, getting into novel territory for me. At the core of the experience for me was the great story and the great writing/dialogue, at least for a computer game. With the possible exception of MotB, it was the only game ever made that actually had what I would call a good story.

A Torment sequel-in-spirit without MCA does give me pause, even with his blessing, but IIRC McComb and Maldonado did a lot of fleshing out and quite a bit of the actual dialogue for Torment. Yes, Chris did the outline, designed the overall structure of the tale and quite a few details as well, but writing is more about the details than the Big Picture, and I thought nearly all of the writing was superb. So both McComb and Maldonado deserve some real credit. Also consider the recent comments that MCA has made about his current views on game writing and walls of text. It makes it sound like he thinks New Vegas was some kind of model for the way game writing should be done. Not Torment, but New Vegas. If he really does believe that then he may no longer be the best man for a sequel-in-spirit. The only other guys I'd feel some confidence about doing the writing for a sequel-in-spirit would be McComb and/or Maldonado (both would be nice) and George 'MotB' Zeits. Of course George is also going to be busy with Project Eternity for awhile. Also keep in mind that McComb worked for TSR and was apparently responsible for quite a bit of the Planescape setting. Chris may deserve credit for PS:Ts great story, but not for the amazing setting. For me the ideal sequel-in-spirit to the greatest computer game ever made would be a collaboration between the current InXile and Obsidian.
 

Rake

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Messages
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May you live in interesting times. I'm kind of ambivalent about this news. PS:T was my favorite game of all time, being so good that it even transcended game-ness, getting into novel territory for me. At the core of the experience for me was the great story and the great writing/dialogue, at least for a computer game. With the possible exception of MotB, it was the only game ever made that actually had what I would call a good story.

A Torment sequel-in-spirit without MCA does give me pause, even with his blessing, but IIRC McComb and Maldonado did a lot of fleshing out and quite a bit of the actual dialogue for Torment. Yes, Chris did the outline, designed the overall structure of the tale and quite a few details as well, but writing is more about the details than the Big Picture, and I thought nearly all of the writing was superb. So both McComb and Maldonado deserve some real credit. Also consider the recent comments that MCA has made about his current views on game writing and walls of text. It makes it sound like he thinks New Vegas was some kind of model for the way game writing should be done. Not Torment, but New Vegas. If he really does believe that then he may no longer be the best man for a sequel-in-spirit. The only other guys I'd feel some confidence about doing the writing for a sequel-in-spirit would be McComb and/or Maldonado (both would be nice) and George 'MotB' Zeits. Of course George is also going to be busy with Project Eternity for awhile. Also keep in mind that McComb worked for TSR and was apparently responsible for quite a bit of the Planescape setting. Chris may deserve credit for PS:Ts great story, but not for the amazing setting. For me the ideal sequel-in-spirit to the greatest computer game ever made would be a collaboration between the current InXile and Obsidian.
This has cross my mind and it dissapoints me too. I quess i'll wait and see how P:E will turn out. They promised PS:T's level writing, and they have the ability to deliver. So if they don't their only excuse is that they didn't wanted to. If P:E turns like PS:T in the writing department all is good. If it turns like New Vegas, then perhaps it's for the better than inXile has also the opportunity to try for a spiritual succesor
 

tuluse

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Brother None I don't know, man. It's just how my wallet feels. It depends on when Brian really wants to start this thing.

You seem awfully heated up about it, though.

Heated? Sorry. No heat. I wanted to just stress that point of "what else can they do"? Mrowak seems to be fine with them just firing everyone and hoping they come back (and apparently Wasteland 2 will be released in May 2013? Go figure). That's basically the two alternatives, and if you want you can argue for the "fire everyone" alternative, but you can kind of see why inXile would prefer to do things differently.
I don't think asking fans for money repeatedly without any evidence of quality is a sustainable business model and it feels very exploitative. I understand that Fargo might be between a rock and a hard place in terms of getting the next game started, but I don't think the answer is going back to the crowd funding well with nothing to show.
 

IronicNeurotic

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May you live in interesting times. I'm kind of ambivalent about this news. PS:T was my favorite game of all time, being so good that it even transcended game-ness, getting into novel territory for me. At the core of the experience for me was the great story and the great writing/dialogue, at least for a computer game. With the possible exception of MotB, it was the only game ever made that actually had what I would call a good story.

A Torment sequel-in-spirit without MCA does give me pause, even with his blessing, but IIRC McComb and Maldonado did a lot of fleshing out and quite a bit of the actual dialogue for Torment. Yes, Chris did the outline, designed the overall structure of the tale and quite a few details as well, but writing is more about the details than the Big Picture, and I thought nearly all of the writing was superb. So both McComb and Maldonado deserve some real credit. Also consider the recent comments that MCA has made about his current views on game writing and walls of text. It makes it sound like he thinks New Vegas was some kind of model for the way game writing should be done. Not Torment, but New Vegas. If he really does believe that then he may no longer be the best man for a sequel-in-spirit. The only other guys I'd feel some confidence about doing the writing for a sequel-in-spirit would be McComb and/or Maldonado (both would be nice) and George 'MotB' Zeits. Of course George is also going to be busy with Project Eternity for awhile. Also keep in mind that McComb worked for TSR and was apparently responsible for quite a bit of the Planescape setting. Chris may deserve credit for PS:Ts great story, but not for the amazing setting. For me the ideal sequel-in-spirit to the greatest computer game ever made would be a collaboration between the current InXile and Obsidian.

You like taking things out of context don't you?

Also Chris repeadetly said a Torment successor would have lots of text whenever he talked about it this year.
 
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It's nice and cozy how the lot of you suck up to McComb but anyone has yet to address this:

And still, a game named Torment that is unrelated to PST and has no MCA sounds like a slamdunk. If it is the narrative quality of PST that you are after, you don't need the name Torment. The name Torment alone without the PS connection is just tacky. It's an obvious reference except they can't actually reference anything directly. Imagine making a Vampire themed RPG similar to Bloodlines and naming it just "Bloodlines", except without any direct connection or reference to VTM. It's stupid and sort of pretentious.

Also, this "Torment" will mostly likely be 3D, like Wasteland 2. Wouldn't PE approach be better? Who needs bloody 3D?
 

Infinitron

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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
Also, this "Torment" will mostly likely be 3D, like Wasteland 2.

I don't see any real basis for this assumption.

Wouldn't PE approach be better?

OBSIDIAN's PROJECT ETERNITY:Real-CRAP with Pause & KOOLaids-downs + Level-Scaling in TITTY angles
>>> CODEX PARTY + WHAT TO DO WITH $4000 [BROthread] • [RACE TRAITOR thread]<<<
Also see CODEXIAN [ DREAMS ] vs. [ PREDICTIONS ] vs. [ SURVEY ] vs. [ RACE TRAITORs ]
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
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5,673
Guys stop asking vots to keep his trolling straight. This stuff is complex!
 

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