injurai
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Posts posted by injurai
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The idea is that romances are hard to implement, take a lot of resources to do, and are entangled with all the other writing that you are trying to do for a character. Since romances tend to end up as clumsy side additions to characterizations. Thus the effect is that they water down one's role-playing on other metrics. It's all about the issue of combinatorial explosion with choice and building out the written frame work for those choices. Rpg design is about the illusion of free choice and impactful change, but it's mostly all static content or heavily constrained emergent content with predictable outcomes. It's that doing romance right or better takes a lot of additional time and resources which scale poorly. Since the core of the story that they want to tell isn't centered around romances they don't want to just add those in for those who might want that as tertiary content. Because, the time and resources would pull from what they want to do and result in something they aren't satisfied with tacked on the side.
I'm not seeing anything in there about romance being universally harmful to role-playing. The context is that you have party members who's character arc is more than just being keen, and thus the romance would have to be written to entangle with everything else they have going on. Always getting back to romance being (in practice) awkwardly tacked on the side. Thus the time and resources. The comments about it not being positive to role-playing as to do with the structure of choice paths that get's build when you have to navigate both romance and other story concerns.
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The IP is probably still "attatched" to Obsidian, meaning if Obsidian wants to buy themselves back they might be able to cleanly take their IPs with them. Not that Microsoft would allow it, I'm sure they'd transfer away most of the IPs if they let Obsidian go, but if they deemed something of little interest that the owner's wanted another crack at then it's be far easier to just leave this stuff attached for now.
There's no such thing as buying themselves back. This isn't ownership by owning a majority of the shares of a company (Bungie and Obsidian were never publicly traded companies and never had stocks to buy) this is a full on acquisition similar to EA buying Bioware.
The only way Obsidian would ever stop being part of MIcrosoft is if Microsoft allowed it, in one of the following ways
1) they get closed down like Lionhead, Microsoft would keep TOW IP and whatever else Obsidian makes (Feargus himself owns Pillars) like they kept Fable and give it to someone else like they're giving Fable to Playground
2) Microsoft sells them off, unlikely. Companies offered to buy Lionhead but backed off when Microsoft wouldn't sell the Fable IP. Plus MS isn't hurting for cash
3) They get the Bungie deal and Microsoft LETS them split for economic benefit rather then continue to fund them. Unlikely again because Microsoft 2006 isn't the same as Microsoft 2018. Way different leadership, way different mindset and way different future plans. The biggest reason why Bungie split is because Microsoft wanted them to keep making Halo
Phil Spencer and Matt Booty are adamant on giving the studios they own 100% creative control, they're not going to lock them down to one franchise. In fact Obsidian is apparently working on another project aside TOW and Pillars right now too so they clearly are making new stuff and getting it 100% bank rolled, there's no reason for them to want to split.
Are you just using me as a target to get out your two cents out or are you actually trying to engage with what I said? I'm talking about the hypothetical future mobility in relation to Obsidian and it's IPs, which is in keeping with this thread's premise. Which is why I say "if Obs wants to buy themselves back," as "in the event that." Obviously they have good prospects with Microsoft right now, I don't know why you need to inform me on this. You know private shares are a thing right? Not sure why you think I need taught about hostile acquisitions. So "there is no such thing as buying themselves back," except apparently if one of three things happens. Well I'm referring to a Bungie-like scenario in my original post, and they were for example allowed to keep Marathon. Certainly not the valuable IP of the bunch. Though, why do you keep informing me of the very things that I touch on myself?
Then I also say that in departing it's unlikely Obsidian would keep the valuable IPs in such a scenario, hence me saying "not that Microsoft would allow it." Then you once again point out to me how unlikely it is that Microsoft would allow this. Like what are you even trying to say dude? You're trying to educate me on the very thing was was talking about, but additionally reading into things I didn't say just to educate me more or something? All while being hyperbolic with the premise of "there being no such thing." What in the outer worlds are you attempting here?
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Perhaps adding something like this? Please obsidian.
That should make this a shampoo dispenser so I can aim it at my head every morning.
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There is always someone who tries to paint allocation of finite resources this way. Their justification is well reasoned.
Personally I can't believe they won't let me define myself as a poor line-cook trying to impress my chef for a promotion. Can't believe they don't facilitate that important aspect of my character's identity.
“We really wanted to focus on you role-playing your character,” Boyarsky said, “developing the unique personalities of your companions as fully fleshed out people.”
Romance, he said, has a tendency to funnel gameplay and temper the decisions players make in the game in unusual ways. For that reason, they opted to leave it out.
“We had to pick what we were going to put our time into,” Boyarsky said. “Other people have explored the romance angle in different ways. We felt like sometimes it kind of waters down your roleplaying for your character because it turns into this mini game of how do I seduce this companion or that companion. So it was just one of the things we felt wasn’t really what we wanted to focus our time on. [...] We’re really trying to be focused on a specific experience so that we can polish that experience and give players the best version of that experience that we can.”
That quote says nothing about limited resources, and it's actually just about the worst reasoning I've ever seen. What other options would like they to take away to protect people bad at roleplaying?
All the posts on the first page celebrating this weren't about that either, which was my post was mocking. You're the one actually spinning here. The anti-romance sentiment that dominates this forum is not about a concern for resources.
“We had to pick what we were going to put our time into,”
"waters down your roleplaying..."
"wasn’t really what we wanted to focus our time on."
"trying to be focused on a specific experience so that we can polish that experience and give players the best version of that experience that we can."
Huh... nothing about limited resources? When is it ever not implicit that people are working with finite resources? Never, that's when. Bad at role-playing? This is a game with prepared content, this isn't the player going open ended on some companion pnp game. There isn't bad role-playing when you options are a result of planned features and content. Only "bad decisions" which is also designed feature content.
Your post quoted nobody, so I'm not sure why you expect anyone to read the exact context as related to other posts. It reads as a detached sentiment. Poe's law applying as always. People certainly do think about resources when it comes to features that they feel aren't that great when done, and further detract from what they consider better features.
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The IP is probably still "attatched" to Obsidian, meaning if Obsidian wants to buy themselves back they might be able to cleanly take their IPs with them. Not that Microsoft would allow it, I'm sure they'd transfer away most of the IPs if they let Obsidian go, but if they deemed something of little interest that the owner's wanted another crack at then it's be far easier to just leave this stuff attached for now.
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So the new question is -- did Microsoft also buy Dark Rock Industries?
The paperwork is still fresh after the merger, but it looks like DRIL no longer exists as an independent entity.
It may take a little while before all the records are updated, but OEI and DRIL each show unspecified merger filings as of November 30.
The likeliest scenario is that Dark Rock merged back into Obsidian for the purposes of the acquisition.
Edited for clarity.
I suspected this was probably the case. It didn't make sense to loose out on Pillars, and I hadn't seen any direct acquisitions. Looks like we will probably get a Pillars 3 and hopefully an Elder Scrolls competitor down the line.
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I keep hearing this other CDPR rpg that isn't a Witcher game. I'm not sure I've seen any proof of that. I do know they mentioned they'd like to continue the franchise and explore someone other than Geralt.
I look forward to what InXile has cooking as well.
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They are both legends.
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Why are people discussing atonement like it's a real thing? It's facetious language for will this game makeup for something that didn't fit my liking.
Does it need to fit one person's tastes? No. Should it try to meet a certain goal in relation to the type of game it is. Sure.
Should it atone least it be condemned to hell? Well it's already owned by Microsoft so maybe we are into deals with the devil now.
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I think there could be a Pillars 3, but I think it's not Microsoft's priority. It would be a feather in their Windows Exclusives Library of games possibly. Eora could also serve as the basis for Obsidian's own take on TES. If only PoE3 was made, I could imagine that getting greenlighted as a sort of goodwill. If a larger scale game would be made, I'd expect acquiring Dark Rock LLC was maybe part of the acquisition but It wasn't.
Which means I lean towards thinking that out of Obsidian's current IP portfolio (add Dark Rock), that they'd plan on cultivating The Outer Worlds. (Hell TOW2 was already referenced in context of there being enough the team wants to do that constraints will probably prohibit them from touching on the first entry.) Whatever is made for Microsoft is most certainly a new IP. Is it Josh's? Not necessarily, I think he was looking for a slight break after PoE1&2. I'd imagine Sawyer's historic rpg being at least the second project that Microsoft greenlights, but if nobody else has as fully formed of an idea as Sawyer than yeah maybe that will be the next project.
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Todd Howard also disposes of his leather jackets by boiling them into the stocks at soup kitchens.
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But you see, you choose the rhythm you choose the rhyme. It's never been better for some Eora Free Jazz time.
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Please be Pillars 3 a conclusion to the Watcher's story. At this point, I don't even care about the subgenre.
Rhythm game.
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This game will atone for the sins of the whole mankind.
The lineage of Cain is finally atoning for Abel's death.
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Welcome back, Monte Carlo!
(The one and only MC on these forums, IMHO. While others wear hypo helmets, he's got the full ABEK kit.)
@MC: From what we know so far:
-Setting: Two far-off planets, one successfully terraformed, the other not. It's like Borderlands 2, F:NV, and Rage have been rolled into one gameworld
-Story: Vying terraforming corporations, dark humour, light humour, sprinkled with alien gore, mirroring our own issues at Tellus
-Gameplay: FPS
-CRPG status: "Hardcore RPG", not full on open world, and no ARPG loot fest
It was terreformed? I thought one was habitable for human life, and the other major planet was thought to be but turned out not.
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I can see an argument to remove sexual tensions by having a mono-sexed team. It could be men or woman though, and it will still take the right grouping of men or woman. By controlling for sex you are just simplifying the complexity of things you are trying to control for.
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It's nice to know the team and company sees The Outer World as an IP with a future. Let's hope Microsoft feels the same. Apparently they are already ramping up the project for Microsoft, and the lead programmer is now on that project.
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Generally the main reason to not add 3rd person for a 1st person centric game, is how the player character model is rigged. But I'm guessing your party members can do all the things the player can, and that character creation is based on the same system that is more or less used for the NPCs. So a lazy 3rd person camera seems viable, even if the 1st person model is really just a floating pair of hands. The other reason sometimes has to do with not wanting a "dumb" camera for 3rd person, so by not offering it they don't have to throw their support behind a half-baked feature. New Vegas's third person mode was janky at best, but people did seem to appreciate it.
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If video game companies are only responsible to their shareholders, maybe people should stop buy games and start buying stocks. God damn the state of underhandedly altering products against the purchasers is a travesty against free consumerism.
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ME also had romance from the very first game, and since there was limited representation in that first entry, they've had to expand the cast and relationships in order to cover all bases. It's a form of feature that creep that scales incredibly poorly.For one romance tends to be modal, you flirt over a long period and then boom a relationship is conveyed different. It eats up a lot of the long term character development branching that can be written for characters, because now you have this side relationship story that needs similar branching factors to whatever quest this character is undertaking. Most people don't see this content, and when they do it tends to be rather samey. I know it was for ME2.
The other issue is that either you write characters who's sexual orientation disappoints the fanbase, or you make the character player sexual and it undermines the character from having a well defined identity. These characters aren't merely collapsed quantum states, they have lives before meeting the protagonists that needs reflected. If they are discovering themselves that should be something that isn't solely being a reflection of the player's own desires. That just leads to awful writing and I think most fans pick up on how unsatisfying and groan worthy it is.
I think the best way to have romance in an rpg is between party members, and the player get's to basically be match-make and/or crotch-blocker. But even then, limit it to a love triangle or something that you can interfere with. And the player's interference should probably be a function of actually trying to pursue some greater goal.
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No strong feeling as well. Given the art style I don't feel I need Quake-like gibs. I wouldn't mind some nice limp body physics, I think that might already be in the game, I might have to watch the gameplay again. Certainly some blood textures would be nice, especially for the alien creatures that we encounter.
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Oh god...
michael_scott_nooooooo.gif
GNU/Linux
in The Outer Worlds: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Posted
I'd love Linux support.