J.E. Sawyer

Mature themes, to us, means exploring concepts in a frank manner from many angles through the story and the characters in it. Dead Money explored obsession. Honest Hearts explored religion. Even when dealing with alien (or elven[?!?!]) cultures and magic/technology, themes should relate back to what players would understand as part of the human condition. E.g. a film like District 9 is good at triggering sensitivities to (real world) racism and dehumanization in the audience even though the aliens are fictional.

BTW, these sorts of questions (and many have been asked in different threads) are the ones I think we're most interested in hearing your thoughts on. I certainly have my own opinions on things I'd like to change from the standard operating procedure (e.g. resting mechanics), but you folks are the customers.

That is original concept art for Project Eternity.

I also believe that all types of characters should have a good range of options from moment-to-moment in combat. I think that IWD2 and (especially) ToEE gave fighters (for example) more to do than BG and IWD and I think that was a good thing. While target selection, battlefield placement, and weapon selection are tactical considerations, if those are the only choices I make for a character (even in a party-based game), that's not very deep or satisfying, IMO.

This is something that's very important to me and I fight for it (practical but good-looking armor on female characters) whenever it comes up. For me, the goal isn't to be prudish, but to be practical and egalitarian about it. BTW, this is a very good site: http://womenfighters.tumblr.com/

To everyone who has contributed, is considering contributing, or is just checking out the site: thank you so much for your interest and support. The site has had some ups and downs due to the high traffic, but we appreciate your questions and comments and will be trying to catch up with them as quickly as we can. To see such a dramatic outpouring of support from the community is truly astonishing. Thanks again.

Not going to lie: 100% intentional.

Oh. Hello there. I wanted to put some ideas into words to help express what it means to build a world at Obsidian. It takes a lot of time and effort from a boatload (dirigible-load) of people, but there are some guiding principles that keep us focused on building worlds we love that we hope players will love, too. No matter what the flavor of the setting may be -- fantasy, sci-fi, modern day espionage... a town in Colorado -- worlds are places we want to explore filled with characters we feel passionate about. Curiosity makes us want to explore. An interest in the unknown. Fascination and wonder at what we'll see if we go left instead of right. Visuals are part of it, but it's about the atmosphere and the feeling we get from stepping into a place we've never been part of before. When we see the way the world and the folks in it work, what drives it and them, no matter how mundane or fantastic, we believe in it. To feel for characters at all, we need to make a connection with them. To make a connection with them, we need to believe that if we were put in their shoes, maybe we'd follow the same path they're on. When we talk about mature themes, we're not describing arterial spray. We're talking about character motivations that we sympathize with in the setting. When we get to our nemeses after hunting them down for 50 hours and they say, "Man, do you see what I have to deal with?" we nod and say, "Yeah, I guess I do..." even as we're reluctantly beating their faces in with a morningstar. But it's not a one-way street. Those characters need to be with you. They need to pay attention to who you choose to be and how you choose to conduct yourself. It's why we love writing conversations as dialogues, exchanges with give and take. If we've built a world you believe in, your choices won't feel like random button clicks. They'll be decisions that make you think, maybe trouble you, possibly annoy you from time to time. And when your companions, friends, enemies, lovers, haters, et al. react with jeers, whooping, or the RPG equivalent of a sustained Citizen Kane clap, you won't feel the invisible hand of the market designer at work. You'll feel like you're at home in the world we, and your choices, have shaped. When you get down to it, we want to make places and lives you want to be a part of as much as we do. It seems a lot simpler than it is when it's written down like that, but through all of the complications and doubts, knowing what we're shooting for helps us move foward day after day and year after year. Hopefully you'll want to be part of where we're going next. It should be a hoot.

This thread just got ugly.

I am hired muscle for the world's skinniest-armed strongman competition.

Nerd herd.

Doing my speculation jig right now irl.

I think the camera needs to make the tactical gameplay enjoyable and it needs to help convey the right atmosphere/vibe of the world. If the environments are built for the camera (as this one is), these distances/angles work well.

This game is both has both tactical and strategic elements. Games like the Front Mission series show that you can have challenging AI and deep strategic gameplay on a console (even last-gen). There's really nothing, logistically, that prevents solid AI on a console (especially when it's turn-based).

Jailer is arguably The Worst attribute because there's really no counter to it. If you're melee, you're basically just stuck. At least Frozen gives you time to maneuver.

Some of those pictures are pretty old. I don't even know where all of them came from! I think the one of me in the white NCR shirt is from Gamescom... 2010?... in K

If you want a cyberpunk world that's difficult to comprehend, E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy already exists. http://youtu.be/RzDf5lzVTd4

Yes, 5 million to retailers. I do not know anything about THQ's statement, but publishers generally refer to sell-in, not sell-through.

F:NV sold-in 5 million units during its first three weeks.

I think Atari owns the Darklands property, but the "IP" is essentially the 15th century HRE.

I own a 102 year-old farmhouse in Wisconsin and an 8 year-old Volkswagen. VW was founded by Ferdinand Porsche so maybe that counts.

Because, like most of the general townsfolk, the player should probably earn negative karma for killing them. They almost invariably cower when combat breaks out, so a player who kills them is more-or-less executing them or spraying areas with a kill-'em-all attitude.

It blows my mind that people think 4th Ed. is more munchkin-oriented (or min-maxer) oriented than 3.5E/3E or 2nd Ed. In previous editions, I could get away with stat murder compared to what's possible in 4E (IME, of course).

It's set in Zion National Park.

Poor phrasing on my part. The book belongs to a friend, who is not Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.