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Let's twist MCA's words until they don't sound retarded

Lumpy

Lumpy

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http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art39332.asp
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art51731.asp

Lisa: If you were making Planescape: Torment right now, are there things you would do differently from the original release?

Chris: Probably start off with more combat - the beginning is very slow and exposition-heavy, and I don't think that helps get the player into the mystery of his character. This is something I tried to correct in the future opening levels of Black Isle games (notably IWD2, where you're in trouble the moment you step off the boat in Targos). Also, I would work more extensively in creating more dungeon and exploration areas, and do another pass on the combat mechanics in the game - the story and quest structure in the game ended up becoming the primary focus of design, and I think the game suffered as a whole when it came to combat.
Click to expand...
Then thank God he isn't making it now.

James: You worked on the groundbreaking Planescape: Torment, one of the most critically acclaimed games for writing in history. How would you say that it holds up against or compares to modern games that receive praise for their writing, like Bioshock or Half-Life 2?

Chris: Probably not as well, because Bioshock and HL2 took a better route with story presentation, and integrated the story more into the environment and scripted event placing, which I feel works much better for games than reading text.
Click to expand...
:facepalm:
 
Murk

Murk

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Overly humble, or accidental brilliance?

YOU DECIDE
 

spiwak

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May 31, 2008
Messages
94
Well OK, to be fair, they're RIDICULOUS questions. The game was made 10 years ago, how can you ask the guy what he would have done differently if he had made it today... "umm, everything, I guess."

Bioshock and HL2 are also from a totally different genre, not to mention made many years later. Chris just answered the bullshit with bullshit because there was no better way out of that situation.

EDIT: spelling fix.
 
Jasede

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Not really, spiwak. MCA has been giving retarded responses when it comes to PS:T since the beginning of time, when interviewed.
 
Lumpy

Lumpy

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Messages
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Yeah. If MCA were to post on the Codex under a different nickname, he would probably be torn apart for his blasphemous ideas.
Still, Jesus could probably join a dirty lawless biker gang, and people would still love him. Just like we still love Chris.
 

Chefe

Erudite
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Feb 26, 2005
Messages
4,731
Well, that does it. I'm throwing in the towel. There is no hope for the future of RPGs.

So long, suckers.
 
Vaarna_Aarne

Vaarna_Aarne

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MCA Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
How many times has MCA done this already? I recall that this happens at regular intervals.

I still believe he is just overtly humble and respectful towards others.
 
Lumpy

Lumpy

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Vaarna_Aarne said:
How many times has MCA done this already? I recall that this happens at regular intervals.

I still believe he is just overtly humble and respectful towards others.
Click to expand...
Then what's the deal with the "Needed moar combat" thing?
 
Suchy

Suchy

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MOAR COMBAT?!
The thing I didn't like about PS:T was way too much combat...

Also
25.jpg
 
DraQ

DraQ

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Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Lumpy said:
Vaarna_Aarne said:
How many times has MCA done this already? I recall that this happens at regular intervals.

I still believe he is just overtly humble and respectful towards others.
Click to expand...
Then what's the deal with the "Needed moar combat" thing?
Click to expand...
I blame the failure of the free market.

He did have a point with better combat, though.

Also, one could argue for scripted sequences better for presentation, but not at the expense of text - castrating PS:T's beautiful writing would be teh utter fail of epic proportions.
 
Vaarna_Aarne

Vaarna_Aarne

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MCA Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
Lumpy said:
Vaarna_Aarne said:
How many times has MCA done this already? I recall that this happens at regular intervals.

I still believe he is just overtly humble and respectful towards others.
Click to expand...
Then what's the deal with the "Needed moar combat" thing?
Click to expand...
He's been saying that a lot of times. Usually in different forms. Basically it seems to me he'd make the combat better (certainly something to improve) and make the game feature more combat for those who are playing a gung ho psychotic.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
Re: Obsidian developer bashes PS:T

Lumpy said:
James: You worked on the groundbreaking Planescape: Torment, one of the most critically acclaimed games for writing in history. How would you say that it holds up against or compares to modern games that receive praise for their writing, like Bioshock or Half-Life 2?

Chris: Probably not as well, because Bioshock and HL2 took a better route with story presentation, and integrated the story more into the environment and scripted event placing, which I feel works much better for games than reading text.
Click to expand...
:facepalm:
Click to expand...

Well, he's right. Bioshock and HL2 both presented their stories better than PS:T did. Which game had the better story is debatable.
 
Jasede

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Rename this thread "let's twist MCA's words until they don't sound retarded".
 

Sodomy

Scholar
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Jun 25, 2007
Messages
365
I still don't understand why MCA is so revered around here. Aside from PS:T (itself overrated, if very fucking good), his track record is spotty at best. Case in point: NWN2 OC vs. MOTB. Contrary to what most people seem to think, he actually had a much larger role in the OC (where he wrote every major character according to the review linked in the first post) than in MoTB (where he only wrote two characters), and I don't think anyone needs to be reminded which of those two games is better. And, of course, lets not forget that masterpiece IWD2. And Descent to Undermountain.

There are people far more worthy of the worship. Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Richard Garriot, the guys who did PtD, and, hell, even Jeff Voegel are/were able to create quality far more consistently.
 

Annonchinil

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I think MCA is a very good designer but I am not sure if he is a good lead designer. It seems like he is trying to make PS:T a more popular BG like game instead of focusing on its unique strengths and flaws; class balance, weak ending gameplay and I am sure the roleplaying elements could have been pushed further.

I also don't agree that Bioshock and HL2 presented their stories well, HL2 has good ambience and presentation (this can be a lot of things, like cool explosions) but not much of a story with the important bits presented in what are basically scripted cutscenes where you can move around. Bioshocks unique 'recorders' are basically voiced diary journals/letters that many games often use, except you have to suffer through boring gameplay to find them. Again the best bits of the story like 'would you kindly' are heavily scripted.

Some people might say that the environments presented the story well and were subtle. I don't agree with some of this, mostly since both of the games used a lot of headline writing to get the message across but I can see something like the opening level of HL2 being an example of great environment use. Even then its a more creative form of walking into a dungeon and seeing skeletons. I think PS:T had that too, but do to engine limitations could not do something of the style of HL2, I mean isn't talking to random characters and reading the narrative and interacting with them similar? What those games did better in that regard was VO, animations and character expressions, again engine limitations.
 

Azarkon

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Messages
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Sodomy said:
I still don't understand why MCA is so revered around here. Aside from PS:T (itself overrated, if very fucking good), his track record is spotty at best. Case in point: NWN2 OC vs. MOTB. Contrary to what most people seem to think, he actually had a much larger role in the OC (where he wrote every major character according to the review linked in the first post) than in MoTB (where he only wrote two characters), and I don't think anyone needs to be reminded which of those two games is better. And, of course, lets not forget that masterpiece IWD2. And Descent to Undermountain.

There are people far more worthy of the worship. Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Richard Garriot, the guys who did PtD, and, hell, even Jeff Voegel are/were able to create quality far more consistently.
Click to expand...

How many of those guys are still working in the CRPG industry? There's your answer for why people worship MCA.
 

Sodomy

Scholar
Joined
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Messages
365
Then they should transfer their worship to Voegel, who has been much more consistent AND still works in the CRPG industry.

I stil fail to see how a record of about 50% is worthy of worship, especially when 2 of the 3 good games he worked on (FO2 and MOTB) were games where he didn't have that much input.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
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Messages
24,924
Vogel is a BIo fnaboy, though. Plus, his writing is dreadful. Codex only likes him because he makes turn based games.

Plus, Codex likes their sequels.

L0L

Um.. He's one of the bosses art Obsidian so I'm sure he LOTS of say for MOTB. And, he did some awesome stuff for FO2.

I think PST is a tad overrated espicially the writing which is very good; but not 'god's gift to writing' that some want to fanwank.

MCA is a great writer. one of the best in the industry for sure.


"Tim Cain,"

Overrated because of 1 game whose writing wans't that good. And, FAILED when he was his own boss.

" Leonard Boyarsky"

Same as Tim Cain; but is actually better.

", Richard Garriot,"

He's adventure games right? Meh.

" the guys who did PtD"

Whatever.

", and, hell, even Jeff Voegel"

L0L0L0L0L0L0L0LOLLIP0P


"are/were able to create quality far more consistently."

Did you nmean consistently out of work/losing bussiness? Consistently doing sequel after sequel after sequel?

HAHAHA!
 
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