Gromnir

"he does not compromise his game design to appeal to the masses" at least as much as any single game designer can hope to... is not like josh had final say on any game he were part of developing. if you thinks that iwd2 were the game he wanted to make then you is crazy... which inevitably brings Gromnir back to jefferson. the developers of jefferson seemed almost universal in their optimism... they appeared to believe that they were finally getting to do a game the right way... or at least their way. ... anybody here think that the obsidian developers gots such genuine enthusiasm 'bout nwn2? HA! Good Fun!

"I've always assumed that Sawyer would end up at Obsidian, so it doesn't come as a surprise." shows what Gromnir knows. everybody keeps saying that they expected this, but it were a surprise for us. josh "nuke" sawyer coming to work at bis? rrrriiiiigggghhhhtttt. nuke working on nwn2? his first AAA title? HA! we got the, "i'm just here to help the team," kinda fluff from josh, which ain't a surprise, but the other stuff... HA! Good Fun!

josh is probably amused by the idle speculation more than he is annoyed... or maybe we is projecting. and josh can always ends the spec if he so desires. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

dunno... maybe. it were amusing to see how news o' josh leaving seemed to be the harbinger of bis doom for most people... inspite of fact that josh and others kept saying how josh's work on vb would be done before he left in november, and recognizing how limited josh's current role were on vb... a voluntary arrangement as josh not wanted to be lead post jefferson. fallout 3 were chris a's baby for years, and when he left there were very little news of it at major news sites. josh leaves bis and every on-line game magazine made it front page news. weird. HA! Good Fun!

already noted that k3 got timeline right... but is misleading. can probably find more posts if you wish... ones where josh says that he were pretty much just doing technical design when he were announcing leaving only a few months after chris a already left. only problem is the bis boards is gone. ask josh if you wish... that will clear it up... and maybe Gromnir is confused. HA! Good Fun!

p.s. found a puuk post "JE leaving was a big blow for all of us on the project, no way around it. However, the stuff he was working on, the technical side of the project (rules, interfaces, etc.), is nearly complete (I think there are only two more interfaces that need to be done, and they are simple ones). Josh made sure that part, the part he was responsible for, was done by the time he left, and I think that is a huge example of his integrity and his passion for doing a great job. "The story and areas for VB have been finished for a few months now, so his input has been received and applied. We are currently building maps and writing dialogues. Sean Reynolds has been creative lead almost since MCA left and has been doing a very fine job of making sure we knows hwo ta write good. "On a personal note, I have really enjoyed working with Josh, and have been very impressed watching him grow into a great lead designer. He is a person who learns from his triumphs and mistakes and grows from those lessons - and in this industry, that's almost impossible to find. He knows when to step in and when to step back, and knows how to empower his employees. He brings a lot to BIS and will be sorely missed. I wish him good luck in his future venture (no, it's not Obsidian) and I know he will develop great things when he gets there. "And VB keeps on chugging along..." HA! Good Fun!

Well, MCA was the lead for a short time, yes. Then I think it was Josh for the majority of the projects life and when he left it was SKR. I very well could be wrong, it was awhile ago now. But I'm sure JE can fill us in when he reads some of this, I'z gotz to goes, laterz. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> timeline you got right, but we think that it is misleading. chris a were lead... then it got dumped in josh's lap when chris a quit. so yeah, josh were lead for a short time. when josh left black isle he were only doing technical design. passed on torch before he left. HA! Good Fun!

chris a were lead... then sean k. maybe some few other folks were lead too at any given moment. if we recall right, josh were a ruelz monkey for vb... technical designer or some such. HA! Good Fun!

josh weren't a lead on vb... otherwise we coulda' added torn to the list too... and what does interplay have to do with gauntlet problems? *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

Gromnir not wanna be standing next to josh during a thunderstorm... given his crazy bad luck. iwd2 were doomed from start. jefferson, at opposite end o' the spectrum, seemed like the game that were finally putting together all those lessons learned by black isle folks over the years... were finally gonna be a crpg done right... so 'course it too had to die. gauntlet? am not privy to the details of its problems, but no doubt it is an.... interesting tell. in any event, we wishes josh "nuke" sawyer luck... good luck for a change. HA! Good Fun! p.s. did josh and fergie have a "moment" when they agreed to resume working relationships? bet there weren

That's a pretty tall order for anything intended as a persistent world. Anyway, I'm not going to Obsidian to jump in and start crescent-kicking people in the face for rule changes. Ferret, Frank, and the other peeps know what they are doing. I will be happy to work on area design for a change. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ... anybody else flash on bull durham? fergie as crash davis and and josh as nuke laloosh? fergie: It's time you started working on your interviews. josh: What do I gotta do? f: Learn your cliches. Study them. Know them. They're your friends. (fergie hands josh a small pad and pen.) f: Write this down. "We gotta play 'em one day at a time." j: Boring. f: Of course. That's the point. "I'm just happy to be here and hope I can help the ballclub." j: Jesus. f: Write, write--"I just wanta give It my best shot and, Good Lord willing, things'll work out." ... am just hopeful that chris a ain't playing the part of annie savoy. *shudder* HA! Good Fun!

our wording is changing? no it ain't. the vast majority complained that they not get 'nuff levels... period. people complained 'bout the levelling... period. you ascribe some specific meaning to our words that ain't there maybe. 7 were too few. people rarely went into huge detail when they complained... didn't note how many hours they played or how often they leveled in 10 hour periods o' time... they simply complained. there were complaints 'bout the cap being set too low for such a large/long game. there were also a recognizable group that complained that getting to level 4 or 5 were quick, but that getting from 5 to 7 were interminable. however, the vast majority o' folks complaining 'bout levels just ranted 'bout how 7 weren't 'nuff. HA! Good Fun!

you got an odd memory. sure, the hardcore players complained that they hit cap way too early, but complaints that there weren't 'nuff levels were near universal. HA! Good Fun!

if you disagree with wording you is missing the point. Gromnir ain't stating preferences... am just pointing out what happened. is not really a mater of opinion. people did complain 'bout lack o' levels in bg1. whatever you thinks folks REAL problem with bg1 levels aside, we is telling you what folks did complain 'bout. Co6 boards were full of such complaints. weekly. daily. hourly. levels is not important to Gromnir. a handful of levels in a 40+ hour game is okie dokie. that not change what were the complaints. oh, and the vast majority of folks did complain 'bout largely empty wilderness maps. revisionist history is popular... but you is getting the real story from Gromnir... likes it or not. HA! Good Fun!

is lots of assumptions made in the link above that not seem to match Gromnir's recollections. just one example: old skool bg1 had something like 7 levels, and folks is now ascribing kewlness to this fact. *shrug* one o' the most common complaints on the boards following bg1 were (along with people groaning 'bout largely unused and uninteresting wilderness maps that seemed to contain not much more than a couple bandit encounters and maybe a fed-ex quest,) the snail's pace o' levelling. the bis and bio developers listened and when iwd and bg2 were made, those games offered almost 2x as many levels... levels for a party o' 6 as did bg. now, when nwn gots made by bio they had choices to make 'bout levels. as the folks at bio were not retarded, they wasn't gonna do something so stoopid as to implement level progression similar to bg... 'cause that were something that the overwhelming majority o' folks were 'gainst. the bio developers also recognized that in nwn you would only be leveling a single character... not six. 6 characters that you got to level 'bout 5 times apiece (rarely got joinable npcs who were 1st level,) resulted in 'bout 30 level opportunities in bg. ... no doubt some folks is starting to see problem faced by developers of such games as nwn and kotor and kotor2. regardless, old skool kewl slow levelling were never kewl. it were a mistake that the developers tried to fix. HA! Good Fun!

playing jrpgs... ever eat ice cream too fast... get brain freeze sensation? playing jrpgs is a bit like having brain freeze for 20+ hours. stings at first... you wanna keep saying wtf over and over and over... but then you just kinda gets numb to the whole experience. is folks that actually enjoy such stuff... same as some peoples enjoy having sensitive body parts pierced. go figure. personally we avoid jrpgs... and as such the ps2 is not a console we would want for rpg entertainment. HA! Good Fun!

aesthetics of the box not concern us much, but the ps3 looks too much like our bose home theatre system... which does not appeal to our sense o' aesthetics neither. furthermore, japanese rpgs tend to be a bit... immature? got wacky stories and silly characters. *shrug* if current trends hold true, most o' the rpgs available for the ps3 will be japanese. crpgs and strategy games is what we play most. don't like shooters much. any news on whether they is finally gonna try to make some strategy games for the consoles? no? as such, the ps3 don't seem like something we will get much use out of... at least not for gaming.

am recognizing the irony. however, we thinks we has proved, on a number o' occasions, that Gromnir can write if he so desires... and even so, speaking as Gromnir we still does a better job o' communicating than many hereabouts. maybe that is the real irony. don't accept a passing grade in english 1a as evidence that you can write. heck, even an a or b in such a class is hardly meaningful. don't be passive 'bout your education. if a teacher or prof gots office hours, go see 'em and get personal attention... and if your prof is a crappy teacher, then find one that IS competent and ask for help. even in the publish or perish atmosphere o' typical universities, most profs want to teach... and finding a student who wants to learn, as 'posed to one who simply wants a good grade, is something that most profs get all giddy

Gromnir's advice: learn how to write. is good advice for almost every job worth having. at some point you is gonna have to write memos or reports or maybe just emails.... and if 'pon entering the job market you already know how to write, you will be a step ahead of 80% of your contemporaries. when Gromnir went to university, we were more than a little surprised by the number of folks in our classes who could not write... and we was going to possibly the best public university in the country. how did these folks who were 4.0 students in high school get to Cal w/o knowing how to write? some of 'em, like Gromnir, were athletes, bust as for the rest... mystary. you know, there is a reason why an essay has been added to the sat. *shrug* problem is worse now than it were 15+ years ago. we sees folks coming out of university and law schools all the time, and it seems like writing skills is decreasing every year. learn how to write. HA! Good Fun!

You couldn't be more wrong. Tolkien took most of his ideas (particularly lifeforms) from various mythologies, as most fantasy authors tend to do. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ... http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book...ary&va=sardonic *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

'cause it were tolkien who came up with dragons and elves and orcs and trolls 'n such. george lucas made american graffiti... a pretty innovative movie in terms of narrative style. and keep in mind that george lucas funded Empire... $30 million of his own money so that he could do his way, and most folks seems to think that Empire turned out ok. star wars were a pretty clever movie... took traditional hero myth and set it in space... and space movies were not all that profitable at the time... is why fox were willing to sell lucas the merchandising rights for star wars. can lucas write? no. his dialogues, in particular, is awkward and tends to be overwrought. oddly 'nuff, lucas admits that he cannot write. even more odd is fact that in spite of lucas' acknowledged shortcoming, he continues to write. am not a particularly enthusiastic star wars fan, but lucas deserves more credit than some gives him. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/featur...jul/fritzhaber/ science w/o morals... is a recipe for tragedy. HA! Good Fun!

creating a cartoon or comic book simply to sell toys is not meaning that the comic or cartoon needs be horrible... but sometimes it seems that way. HA! Good Fun!

-1 to Gromnir's con score. burst appendix. *grumble* is curious to consider that if such a thing had happened to Gromnir 100 years ago, we probably would be dead. as it is, we just feels slightly embarrassed for not having gone to the hospital sooner... when the pain first started. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

some writers not care what readers think... not matter if audience "gets it," or not. to such writers, what the author intended ain't near as important as whether or not the reader(s) was moved by the work... for whatever reason. other writers will burst blood vessels as they read reviews or listen to feedback... listen to folks who completely misunderstood or got bass ackwards. drives 'em nuts. one hopes that chris a is a relatively relaxed writer. people wonder why Gromnir is such a jerk to developers... never seems satisfied or content. "What is your problem?" is a question a number o' bis developers and bio developers and troika developers has asked or wanted to ask us over the years. *shrug* is chris a's fault we seems like such a curmudgeon. blame him. development of ravel in ps:t convinced Gromnir that crpgs were a medium that could support moments o' artistic virtue