If I compare Fallout NV Old World Blues with PoE, this is my thought process:
1. That introduction exposure in Big Mountain is way too long! It takes almost two hours non-stop reading! It has to be paced!
2. Damn, it might be long, but it really is great! I do have a big smile all that time. Even while I have seen it multiple times.
3.
The more I think about it, the more I like it. And, while exploring Big Mt, it never becomes dull. That big smile keeps on happening.
But that seems to have been the last time. I didn't play the South Park game, so I'm not sure.
In the ramp up to Wasteland 2 and PoE, Chris mostly tweeted and posted about him not making much, if any, content, but being mostly in "an advisory role", and spending a bit of time on multiple projects.
Hm. That doesn't sound like there is any commitment.
I know how that works. It happened to me many times. It is called: change of management. And the new management wants things Organized. Or, rather, done Their way. Being known for having your own opinion will get you fired, ASAP.
So, which management? Because, Chris is part of it.
This requires some explanation.
Obsidian wasn't rolling in money. Making ends meet was a challenge. That makes people uncertain. "Am I doing the right thing?"
That is, because very few people think things through, form their own coherent picture and make their own decisions. Most everyone else just does whatever everyone else is doing.
Except, there is one person at Obsidian who is very outspoken and self-assured. About mostly everything. So, when things go wrong, that person becomes a beacon. And when his projects work out, he becomes the savior.
Except, that his solution to any problem is very mechanical. Literally. He uses math to explain and motivate it. And it has to be consistent.
That consistency is interesting. Because it depends on variables and assumptions. If your first question is: "Does magic exists?", and you answer "Yes", you just threw all laws of nature, together with all common sense out of the window. But it makes things a lot simpler.
You still have to decide if instant healing is an issue, but of course it is. And the Fireball spell only harming enemy targets. As long as you don't make two spells that use different rules, all is well.
So, the rules of the game are drawn. The story has to follow, and stay between those lines.
Let's switch back to Chris:
...
...
Eh, .. ?
Pardon me? In the past, we designed the story first, and made the mechanics follow that.
Sure, we want it to be consistent, but isn't the story, the setting, the atmosphere what counts? Isn't that what makes the events happen? With the right story, everything else is obvious and falls automatically into place! So, what is this all about my stories not fitting your holy framework? It's arbitrary!
And, as they say, the rest is history.
