Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[DosBuster]

The interview is back on track, folks. 2 interesting infos in the first answer already. Looking promising. :D

What was the first question?

No one answered, "What can change the nature of a man?"

Simple: Money, Women and Religion

 

[I ASK INANE QUESTIONS]

It's interesting, but I can't even name a single influential female developer. I'm sure there has got to be some out there. I just can't think of any who's game or design contribution influenced the rest of gaming in a positive way.
If it turns out that I can't think of any, because there aren't any. Then that is not the fault of men.
And no, trannies don't count. You have to have been born with double X chromosomes to qualify.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

There are plenty of women who have made significant contributions to the computer game industry, but holy shit, that is perhaps the worst, least readable graphic I have ever seen on an internet message board. What the fuck man?

 

[laclongquan]

Say what you will but the Japanese females count at least 1/3 of those number. ONE THIRD.

Where's your equality now kwans?

 

[Beastro]

All deathclaws were originally furry? Imagine Fallout fanart if Bethesda Fallouts had those.

FO2 ready built for Loverslab?

Say what you will but the Japanese females count at least 1/3 of those number. ONE THIRD.

Where's your equality now kwans?

The Far Easts got some odd social changes going on. In this case it's the shift to daughters being the ones to carry on building the family fortune while the sons bare the hard burden. Sons inherit the farm, daughters go off to get into business and such, especially in South Korea.

One has to also factor in that this is Japan, too. Wonder what games they work on.

Reminds me of that comment Nintendo caught flak for years ago about wanting to make more female friendly games, as in console games that moms could easily play with their young kids.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I would also name Sharon Shellman, who did a lot of work on Fallout, Starcraft and Arcanum http://www.terra-arcanum.com/sierra/developers/developers-bios.html

 

[Roguey]

This is for the best, from what I've read I don't believe there's anything left of Avellone in it.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"What can change the nature of a man?"

Change is the nature of man.

 

[Alienman]

I'm starting to think it wasn't an awkward office kiss that got him to leave.

 

[Starwars]

I'm starting to think it wasn't an awkward office kiss that got him to leave.

I think we need some Sawyer + Avellone rule 34 right about now.

 

[Prime Junta]

I'm starting to think it wasn't an awkward office kiss that got him to leave.

I think we need some Sawyer + Avellone rule 34 right about now.

Sawyer didn't work on Tyranny though

 

[Starwars]

Can we be *really* sure that he wasn't there in some capacity, just to spite Avellone? I think not!

 

[oldmanpaco]

Spoiler

So I see that my all-time favorite Atari game was programmed by a woman. Who knew!?

Also no Daniella Berry? Its 2016 people!

 

[Harold]

This is for the best, from what I've read I don't believe there's anything left of Avellone in it.

Just checked.
He's actually the 1st name listed under narrative designers.
Pretty big case of the reverse sour grapes imo.

 

[Fairfax]

Fairfax = vindicated.

 

[ArchAngel]

Say what you will but the Japanese females count at least 1/3 of those number. ONE THIRD.

Where's your equality now kwans?

More like asians are known as nerds and white females are busy running around looking for sugar daddies.

 

[Fairfax]

Part II of his controversial sugarbombed interview:
http://sugarbombed.com/forums/threa...s-the-chris-avellone-interview-part-ii.21180/

 

[Crooked Bee]

I did a post about companion design based on this learning experience a while back on the Obsidian forums, but I don't know if it's still up there (Obsidian locked me out of my profile after my departure, and they've refused to delete my account).

lol

 

[Fairfax]

CA: I don't know if there were any conversations on differentiating New Vegas from New Reno, the level designers for the city might know (I don't know if they played Fallout 2).

Shots fired.

I did a post about companion design based on this learning experience a while back on the Obsidian forums, but I don't know if it's still up there (Obsidian locked me out of my profile after my departure, and they've refused to delete my account).

So that's what he was talking about back then. It's still there, by the way.

(Oh, and to say it, LucasArts was pretty good to work with, too, they also had their shit together.)

Huh...

I have a lot of respect for Pete Hines - if you see him on the trenches at E3, he takes his job seriously and isn't fucking away on his mobile phone while journalists ask the developers shitty questions that PR should be listening to and monitoring (sorry for the tirade, am channeling past experiences).

More shots.

Also, this is part 2/4. These guys are milking the shit out of this interview.

 

[Roguey]

The companion system design principles are not being used in recent Obsidian titles, so it may have been removed.

I looked at the list and I'm not really seeing any areas where PoE and Tyranny deviated.

 

[Bohrain]

I wonder what he thinks about the Obsidian/Bioware way of making companions wikipedia articles of their background faction. I recall him saying JRPG's usually introduce party members better since they tend to have something like a designated story arc or something along those lines.

 

[Fairfax]

The companion system design principles are not being used in recent Obsidian titles, so it may have been removed.

I looked at the list and I'm not really seeing any areas where PoE and Tyranny deviated.

I don't think he's saying they deviated, only that they're not necessarily designed with these principles in mind.

- Combat/Challenge-viable.
All companions in both PoE and Tyranny are viable if you play it on normal, or even Hard. Then again, so was Myron, he was just worse. If severely weaker counts, Tyranny fails with Barik, and I felt Sagani was useless when I played (don't know in the latest patch).

- Companions should be optional.
Both games did it.

- Next, assuming the players like the companion, the companion should serve as a sounding board for the theme of the game.
Tyranny: I don't think Lantry did much of a good job here.
PoE: I think it succeeded for the most part, but Kana Rua and Sagani are so forgettable that I'm not sure.

- The companion needs to ego-stroke the player in a variety of ways.
I guess both have this. This is one principle I'm not convinced it's necessary. I think a companion can be interesting without stroking the player's ego and having its own agenda. Not sure if MCA meant it as mandatory, though.

- A visual and vocal/audio hook.
PoE: successful with almost every companion. Edér might be the only one without anything unique about his visual or audio design, but I thought he was still a good companion.
Tyranny: Lantry has no visual or audio hook at all. The other do, but showed how it can backfire. Eb's look and voice only made me hate her even more.

- Foreshadowing.
Durance definitely had it, so did Lantry (in a smaller scale), but I can't remember any other examples. Chris clearly says it's something you can do, so again, don't know which principles he considers a must.

- Reactivity, not just to player’s actions but to the environment and events taking place.
Both games succeeded.

He does mention 3 more principles in the comments:

companions shouldn't be (1) more powerful than the player, to the point where they can handle the combats by themselves, (2) upstage the player, and (3) seem to have used the ruleset in ways the player cannot to their advantage (ex: they're allowed to have stat allocations that no normal player could have made). All these things can breed resentment.

1 is a problem in Tyranny. Sirin can solo most encounters once she becomes strong enough, as shown here:



2 is not a problem in either game.
3 maybe. Depends on what he'd include in "stat allocations". Pallegina has a unique racial trait and a paladin order the player can't pick, and all companions in Tyranny have unique talent trees.

 

[Excidium II]

- Next, assuming the players like the companion, the companion should serve as a sounding board for the theme of the game.
Tyranny: I don't think Lantry did much of a good job here.
PoE: I think it succeeded for the most part, but Kana Rua and Sagani are so forgettable that I'm not sure.

Isn't Eder's unique aspect in how much of a laid back normal dude he is compared to everyone?

And I think Lantry does a good job at being the resigned and rational voice about the whole evil won thing, it's p. unique and refreshing view compared to everyone else you meet. Also Eb is p. hot and Kana is an alright dude

 

[Roguey]

I felt Sagani was useless when I played (don't know in the latest patch).

Rangers are pretty good, they get a free unlimited-duration summon.

 

[Fairfax]

By the way, to give credit where it's due, Robert Land seems to have followed these principles to the letter with Sirin, except for being more powerful than the player.

- Next, assuming the players like the companion, the companion should serve as a sounding board for the theme of the game.
Tyranny: I don't think Lantry did much of a good job here.
PoE: I think it succeeded for the most part, but Kana Rua and Sagani are so forgettable that I'm not sure.

Isn't Eder's unique aspect in how much of a laid back normal dude he is compared to everyone?

And I think Lantry does a good job at being the resigned and rational voice about the whole evil won thing, it's p. unique and refreshing view compared to everyone else you meet. Also Eb is p. hot and Kana is an alright dude

(I think you quoted the wrong part?)

Edér does stand out for it, but it shows one the flaws in the game's writing. He shouldn't stand out for being the only laid back character in the entire game.
As for Lantry, that's true as well, but he still doesn't have unique visual/audio hooks in the sense MCA was talking about. Look at his examples:

This may be the result of many, many years of comic books, but whenever possible, I try to suggest a variety of “visual ego signatures” that can be integrated into the character design, and audio hooks as well. For example, when doing the Fallout New Vegas: DLC, Dead Money, the visual signatures were Dog/God’s bear trap that was still clamped on his arm (along with his name carved in his chest so it could be seen in reverse in a mirror), Dean’s dapper lounge singer suit to contrast with his ghoulish appearance, and even something as simple as Christine’s throat scar (which we had to position carefully so the bomb collar wouldn’t obscure it). All of these things serve to tag the character and helps make them stand out. Each had their own vocal hooks as well (Dog/God’s voice would change based on his personality, Dean had the drippy smooth singer voice, and Christine’s vocal hook was she didn’t speak at all).

I guess looking and sounding like an older guy is unique within the party, but still a generic "wise old man" VO. Not that it's a bad VO, but he could've had something unique about his diction and specially his visual design.

I felt Sagani was useless when I played (don't know in the latest patch).

Rangers are pretty good, they get a free unlimited-duration summon.

Back when I played that sounded good in theory, but I didn't get the impression Sagani's fox was particularly strong. I heard she got much better from 2.0 onwards, though.
I forgot to mention Pallegina, by the way. She was a bad tank and a bad damage dealer (plus boring) before the Paladin class got major buffs.