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Hi All, My partner has just started a blog for all things gaming, fantasy, fiction and scifi. He is an aspiring novelist (watch this space), but in the meantime he's just started to build up his portfolio starting with a blog. He's got a tonne of ideas and is busy writing his 3rd blog today (BIG mug of tea in hand), but he'd love some feedback from his target audience, and even some input on what you the reader would like him to "unpack". There's a "contact me" page on his site, go nuts! He'd love some traffic on his page, but fighting anxiety all the time means he's holding off on advertising his arrival to the blog scene... which is where I come in! >>>> www.packupyourdinosaurs.com <<<< Anyway, the reason this is relevant to this forum is that his last post was a comedic review of The Outer Worlds. If you're at all curious, please feel free to go and have a read. It would make his day! Afterall, it's not like any of us are short on time at the moment! Enjoy

Since we have now a few "What game would you like to see?" - topics I thought we could start this topic: There is a lot of talk about stories gamers don't like (biggest offender: "i was bored!"), but where there also any stories you would've liked to rewrite, just because they didn't live up to their full potential? If yes, why and how? Rules for this thread: - Name the game. - Write what problems the story had. - Write your suggestions. - Hopefully have fun writing them. - Profit. I will start with Dragon Age: Origins (and hope you've played this one). While not a bad game, the first Dragon Age bores me to death. The main reason is that the story gets really uninteresting after the origins, because I didn't played my origins character but a Grey Warden from that point on. Thing is: I never got a real idea what a Warden supposed to be. Sure, we got to know Duncan and Alistair, but the infos we got out of them were minimal at best (and let's be honest, Alistair isn't a credit to his order). So the connection to our order was mostly nonexisting and Ferelden really didn't live up to it's potential as a "barbaric" nation. So what could they have changed? Answer: Put the game in the northern nation of Andersfels. Why? - It's the homecountry of the Grey Wardens and their HQ could have been a nice hub. - The nation is very poor and it's king has only power in it's capital, which could have been a good explanation why the farmers depend on the Grey Wardens, with whom the King has some political tensions. - It's close to Tevinter and the Qunari, so the game could have introduced us to these nations, without stretching the plausability of the setting (I mean the mages came down to the south of Ferelden, just for a few slaves. You could have those cheaper, buddies^^). - Killing the king of Anderfels wouldn't have changed as much, as crowning the new King of Orzamar, because Anderfels is a very desolate country. - I could have an explanation why everyone is a Grey Warden and why they are immune to the poisonous blood of the Darkspawn, which was a thing ... at the beginning of the game. Okay, that's for the setting, how about the structure of the story? I would keep the "one adventure per location" - structure of the original, but would have burned down the smaller City after the halfpoint of the game, to raise the stakes. The players should feel a connection to the people living there, before I kill everyone. The role of the main-antagonist should also be divided between - The King of Anderfels (doesn't want to lose his crown and values the independence of his people) - The Grandmaster of the Grey Wardens (wants tighter controls on everything and turn the Grey Wardens in some kind of private army of the chantry and kill pagain traditions that might have survived the centuries). So I wouldn't change as much, just details to tighten up everything a bit and give the player more room to identify which the organisation he's supposed to be part of.

Alright, so I backed Pillars on Kickstarter, watched in joy as it was developed and run, enjoyed the dev commentary, appreciated the race and class previews, and I thought it all looked great. And I started playing and noticed few problems (aside from the bloody Kickstarter NPCs whom I ignored), but more and more built up as the game progressed. Finally, I came to a terrible conclusion as I attempted a second playthrough: This writing is dreadful. Not the dialogue, no, that's fine. Purple sometimes, but generally pretty good. What sucks is the epilogue and the player 'choices' made in-game, as well as the marginalization of classes in gameplay/story integration. For starters, I played a Monk. Yeah, I remembered Monks being lame in DnD, but I assumed that in Pillars, based on the previews, it'd be fun. And it was fun, until every encounter became slogging it out with broad-sword wielding thugs in plate or Elder High Mega Dragons, or Invisible Deathtouch Demons or what have you. Monks lack the durability, dodging power and damage to be fantastic PCs... but what annoyed me the most was the supposition that every class would have something interesting to contribute to the story. For example, if I were say, a follower of Eothas, I could go to the temple or talk to Edir or do all sorts of things and get a little snippet in relation to the plot at large or just giving more insight into the characters and the world around them. Priests, Paladins, Cyphers, Wizards, all of them get little extra options and such they can choose. Oh, except the Monk. The class that doesn't even get an NPC partymember. The only five Monks in the game outside of the waves of cannonfodder I carved through are one dying messenger who was mauled to death by a mountain lion, and his four brothers who waited patiently in a tavern while their companion was mauled to death by a mountain lion. Speaking of that tavern, I have words for that as well. There's no real plot important reason to go into that place. You can just saunter past it accidentally, as I did three times. I did the Monk Scroll quest and then left, assuming nothing more. SPOILER ALERT: If you don't talk to one ordinary looking man named "Frightened Man", the entire city of Gilded Vale is exterminated in the epilogue. Whoopsy. The village I went on a long, epic quest to save, defeating an entire castle of badasses over is now dead. Oh well. Sometimes a random NPC just spontaneously returns to life and invalidates all your work. If they'd wanted to live they'd have given a messenger five gold to actually deliver the message instead of relying on gossip, right? Well, then there's the other problem of the people of the Dyrwood. They're all horribly monstrous, evil scumbags barring maybe ten individuals and the Glanfathans. Cultists of Skaen, Cultists of Woedica, the Volunteer Anti-Cypher Nazis, the Knights, one cruel, decadent, evil group after another. And then, then, after you bend over backwards and ensure that everything is perfect to make sure the Soul Arts get a fair trial? DIDN'T MATTER! An evil reincarnating wizard jumps into the body of the defendant lightnings to death the entire city aristocracy, causing a mass riot to break out and destroy everything, including murdering all the Soul Doctors. If you switch off the evil machine in the Northwest of the city instead of blowing it up? OOPS! NO ONE STUDIED IT! SOMEONE SWITCHED IT ON AGAIN AND IT KILLED EVERYONE! So you understand why I think the "Choice" system is overhyped and doesn't really matter. It's either "Do what the lead writer wants or 100% of the population dies" or it doesn't matter at all because Woedica Ninjas jump out of a closet and murder 100% of the population. Why would I want to play in this setting? Hell, why would I want to save the Dyrwood? Apparently EVERYONE is evil and stupid! So yeah. It's a game with POTENTIAL for a good series, but it has little to no replay value. ...Also I played it when it first came out so it was pretty dang buggy too, but honestly they weren't really that bad for me. If pressed for a rating I'd say Pillars was an above average game, but it could have been excellent with more writing and polish and... well, MORE in general.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/06/game-writer-resigns-after-social-justice-warriors-crucify-him-for-conservative-opinions/ Honestly while these are not Opinions I'd endorse, It doesnt seem to me, That this should have blown up as it has. I'm seriously afraid of what might happen/ Will the situation repeat another time with less controversial remarks because of the slippery slope of Appeasment ? Will it impact the story ? because if this company encouraged the writer to resign because of this, It could signal that Obsidian will shy away from the deep writing and avoid Philosophical questions and other things that could be considered remotely controversial, and That could make it significantly harder to create Great Game like the KOTOR 2. I dont even know If Raedric Hold would make it into the game. If PoE 1 were made today, The Atmosphere certainly changed with certain segment of population believing that Art should not be sorely for Art but for the message and for the influence of said message to "guide" the society. I think there could be Worthwhile discusion of both this case,what it might signal and in general the direction obsidian might be taking in terms of story, storytelling and ultimately Narrative.

Okay so apparently Eders writer resigned or was resigned. From what i gathered its because on reddit subreddit Gamerghazi identified him as man who wrote those posts http://i.imgur.com/n8Moni6.jpg (there is suspicion that someone on RPG codex snitched on him) Now i normally i wouldnt be one questioning employee resigning over controversy but in current societal atmosphere and Obsidians mishandling of the Limerick Incident it think its reasonable to ask if Similar case happened again. Especially considering this is not stupid Limerick that isnt going to impact the game But Writer Departing due to this incident Whetever Voluntarily or by the way of being Volunteered, Is going to impact the game. And with People such as Chris Avelonne Leaving Obsidian. It makes me think if Obsidian is changing into something more Mainstream, And With Sawyer being The one of the only Senior members at Obsidian it makes me bit wary, Considering in GameDev business you need someone to tell you. No that is bad idea. Look at Molyneaux. I dont want Molyneaux type situation to happen with Sawyer.

I love strongly narrative games; The Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, Planescape Torment, Fallout, Lands of Lore, and more recently Shadowrun Returns...these are the kinds of games that inflamed my imagination both when I was younger and kept my creative spark smoldering as I've matured over the years. After noting the Senior Narrative Designer position posting on Obsidian Careers, I began to wonder what kind of experience qualifies one as a writer for games and how to garner that experience if you aren't already in the gaming industry. I've been writing on and off for over 30 years now, but never officially in the gaming industry and I don't really have a portfolio of work to show off that would necessarily lend itself to suggesting that I'd be a good fit for a gaming-related writer. So...I suppose I'm posing a question to the writers already working for Obsidian, less about how they got their jobs but more about how they garnered the experience that led to them writing for games and the specific challenges that someone who enjoys crafting stories but is inexperienced in writing for games might face when trying to get into that aspect of the industry. Good Journey.

On the FIG comments I complained about the small number of available companions in PoE2 and that it would be great to have more of them, offering a much bigger choice whom you take along for your adventure. To me the wide array of diverse companions was one core feature that made BG2 great back in the days. That's what Feargus answered to my complaint: While I understand the desire to "put more into each companion" I'd really like to know what that actually means. What is it that needs so much effort when writing a companion? Then I tried to remember how companions worked in PoE and how they were integrated in the player's adventure. By coincidence I just read a long rant/analysis about the state of game writing on the RPGcodex. While there is a lot of stuff in there and you certainly don't need to agree with anything there was a passage about Durance's writing in PoE that is especially insightful for the question above (the article was actually recommended by Chris Avellone himself in Twitter, acknowledging own mistakes and shortcomings): Let's brake that down a bit to what is important here (and skip all the personal rant about the storyline in PoE, it's pretty irrelevant for this thread). The important message is that much of the narrative that went into Durance isn't exactly used to explore his relationship to the player charachter (=PC) or the party abut to transport as much lore about himself but also the whole setting as possible. Almost every dialogue the PC can have with Durance in PoE is about his past, about what he did and felt during another time. Many dialogue options that the writers constructed in the dialogues with Durance are not based on the stuff that actually happens in the game but about the PC's reaction to what happened to Durance in the past. And I get the concept of opening up and to talk about the stuff that occupies you. The question is though how much of that is needed in order to make an interest character and what else has to be sacrificed in order to do so. Is Durance a deep character because he has so much to say about his past or because he had an interesting life? What makes a deep character, and more important, what makes an interesting character? Feargus stated above that they have the goal that companions can do more in the game and that they can change - and I really like that approach because it's concentrated on the present, on the stuff that actually happens in the game. Imo interesting characters are those who do interesting things, who make interesting comments about the present events, who contribute to the present relationship to the PC and the group dynamics. Lore exposition doesn't make them that interesting, quite the opposite. The constant exposition to their backstory throughout almost the whole game can soon become boring and even annoying, taking away from the possibilities to react to the stuff that happens in the game itself. Ask yourself: What would you prefer? A character who tells you in hundreds of lines in various dialogues about everything he did in the past? Or a character that concentrates on commenting and reacting to your adventures and what it means for the relationship to the PC? In my opinion, Obsidian should really stop using companions for the overexpositon of lore and they should stop mistaking a huge backstory for an interesting companion. Of course some bits of backstory help to define a character and to make his actions understandable for the player but you don't need hundreds of lines of text for that, together with costly voice acting and overly branching dialogues. If your funds and personal is limited, concentrate on the present, not the past. Interestingly, the constant wish for "romances" in the fanbase covers this topic as well. A "romance" between the PC and another character is a concept that only works in the present. It's about an ongoing evolution of a relationship that happens during a game and it's not something that happened to a character long before the actual action started. So it seems I'm not alone in my wish for a much bigger concentration on the present, on reactive characters, on interesting relationships in the present. I do know that this is often against the very interest of the writers. Writing a deep and compelling backstory to a certain character is much more comparable to writing a traditional story or novel than writing individual story bit for reactive dialogues, reactive relationships and dynamic events with often different characters. I get it that it's much more difficult to write that stuff because it's way more abstract and a lot of different concepts must work together to pull it of. But it pays off in the end because it result in a dynamic party that explores the PC's actions - and therefore creating agency - instead of just letting the player explore the decisions of his companions in the past. So Obsidian, cut the slack. Everything interesting you can come up with should happen IN the game, not before it. Every meaningful dialogue with companions should be of meaning in the context of the events that happen in the game and of meaning for the direct relationship between the PC and the companion. Your lore on PoE is solid, you don't need to cram us full with it at every possible occation and surely not in the very costly dialogues with companions. Use them for meaningful stuff that is of core interest to the agenda of the PC and his actions in the game. Good writers can give you an impression about the character, beliefs, agendas etc. of a companion in just a few lines. There is no need for hundreds of lines of dialogue for that, resulting in endless dialogues about stuff that would fit an external book better than its purpose in the game. I think you should ask every writer who wants to become involved with writing ©RPG companions whether they can make a mute character interesting - with actual proof. It's possible. But it certainly needs different means, means that are desperately needed for the writing in PoE2... So I wonder how much of the effort Obsidian planned to put into the few companions in PoE2 actually will go into the present and how much will go into the past. If most of the effort goes into the former and therefore not more "deep" companions are possible, I'm satisfied. But if the latter is the case (again) and the writers are mostly occupied with writing elaborate backstories that are to be exposed to the player again during the course of the game I'm not happy at all. If PoE is anything to go to I'm at least dubious about it. What do you think? What makes an interesting character for you? Do you prefer a dynamic companion who mostly consists of re/actions in/to the present adventure or do you prefer a character who mostly consists of stories about the past?

So, I've been wanting to become a writer for a long while now and ever since I've begun to play RPGs as a kid, I've been wondering how one goes about getting a job as a newbie writer in the games industry. I mean, proving one's skill should be obvious, but how does one go about it with no prior employment in the field? Where would I even begin, since I have yet to find a job posting that doesn't require prior experience. Granted, I still have some time to go due to my studies and I definitely would want to get more practice in, but the curiosity still remains. I also heard sometimes accomplished novelists are drafted to help with the creative writing process and other times, writers are brought in fairly late in the development process. If possible, I'd love to hear people's experiences and maybe a tip or two to get started after I finally get my Bachelor's. Love, Linarahn

As the title says, really curious about that, been a dream for along time to write Video games.