Game News Chris Avellone hates his day job

[MetalCraze]

He first proves his worth and establishes a name for himself in CRPG scene.

Descent to Undermountain - shit game
PS:T - very good game, in collaboration with PS lead designer
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - shit game
KotOR2 - mediocre game with a stupid ending
Alpha Protocol - shit game, a clone of Mass Effect

You wanted to say 'overrated'?

 

[yes plz]

He first proves his worth and establishes a name for himself in CRPG scene.

Descent to Undermountain - shit game
PS:T - very good game, in collaboration with PS lead designer
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - shit game
KotOR2 - mediocre game with a stupid ending
Alpha Protocol - shit game, a clone of Mass Effect

You wanted to say 'overrated'?

We have another time traveler!

 

[poocolator]

Another RPG design genius (one of Avelllone's acolytes?)

Ben Abraham
May 1, 2009 at 2:40 PM

Great write-up David. [Psst - in paragraph 6 I think you meant fallout 2, not 3 ;-)]

One genre convention I’d like to see overturned is that of player “death” - I want a game where I can’t ever die. Seriously, why waste my time by making me replay a section of game? Surely there have to be better ways of ‘punishing’ or teaching the player than making them perform actions over and over like a trained monkey.

LMAO

 

[Radisshu]

I knew it, good stuff always come from hate.

The idea of found another party doing exactly what you are doing on a game is really nice, too bad i have never see it . The only encounter near to that idea was found drizzt duorden on baldurs gate, but again, i never knew what the hell was that guy until i read about him on internet.

There was actually a pretty humorous ecounter like that in BGII: ToB. You could encounter an adventuring party, who normally would attack you. When you defeated them their leader would reload his game, return, and suck up to you instead.

 

[FeelTheRads]

There was actually a pretty humorous ecounter like that in BGII: ToB. You could encounter an adventuring party, who normally would attack you. When you defeated them their leader would reload his game, return, and suck up to you instead.

Link?

 

[Forest Dweller]

In Knights of the Old Republic 2, Avellone hated Star Wars and the Force. In particular, he hated the concept of predestination implicit within the Force. So he built the game’s story and characters around this idea. He focused on what a Jedi might gain from turning away from the Force or what they may lose when they embrace it.

And that is why it is so much better than the original.

Avellone realised that in all RPGs, the most powerful bad-ass in the world wasn’t the “big bad”, but the player-character’s adventuring party. So Fallout 3 was designed around there being another party of adventurers out there in the world at the same time as you. Over the course of the game you will encounter this other party and experience how their actions have influenced the world. Along the way you’d have to decide whether to cooperate or work against them.

Damn, that sounds awesome. I wonder if there is any chance that some modder may finish that game.

For his current project, the modern day espionage of SEGA’s Alpha Protocol, Avellone applied his hatred to character interaction. Most RPGs give you a dialogue tree where you select branching options, but can usually return to the top of the tree and start over again. Essentially, NPCs become information kiosks rather than real people.

In Alpha Protocol, every conversation is a once-through system where there’s no opportunity to return to the top of the tree. You choose your response at each juncture and that’s it, no second chances. With no danger of repeating dialogue, the idea is to create greater immersion by ensuring each conversation feels natural and plausible.

*sigh* Why does everyone forget Deus Ex? There was no repeated dialogue or choices in that game. I couldn't agree more with Avellone on that issue though. Being able to repeat stuff ruins immersion. You don't need to have a timed or paraphrased response in order to avoid that though.

 

[Shannow]

There was actually a pretty humorous ecounter like that in BGII: ToB. You could encounter an adventuring party, who normally would attack you. When you defeated them their leader would reload his game, return, and suck up to you instead.

Link?

http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldu ... post393057

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

He first proves his worth and establishes a name for himself in CRPG scene.

Descent to Undermountain - shit game
PS:T - very good game, in collaboration with PS lead designer
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - shit game
KotOR2 - mediocre game with a stupid ending
Alpha Protocol - shit game, a clone of Mass Effect

You wanted to say 'overrated'?

Baldur's gate: DA- was a pretty decent game for what it was (beat em up) and was rated well.

Alpha protocol- looks alright since pretty much all recent RPGs have sucked.

 

[MetalCraze]

We have another time traveler!

You can also call me - Game Info Reader.

 

[Jora]

PS:T - very good game, in collaboration with PS lead designer

Uh, pretty much every game is made in collaboration with others. Besides, Avellone wrote half of all the text in the game.