Is Obsidian interested in Game Ideas?

[GameNerdVeggie]

Too bad there is no Career for Gameplay/Lore/Skill Designer ^^ I would have an Idea for a Game like The Outer Worlds but with Fantasy Races in Space and no Humans. I really loved the Choices in The Outer Worlds but they could have done so much more like cool Combat Skills and Perfect Stealth Gameplay.

[algroth]

2 hours ago, GameNerdVeggie said:

Too bad there is no Career for Gameplay/Lore/Skill Designer ^^ I would have an Idea for a Game like The Outer Worlds but with Fantasy Races in Space and no Humans. I really loved the Choices in The Outer Worlds but they could have done so much more like cool Combat Skills and Perfect Stealth Gameplay.

It seems like you're looking for an "idea guy" position, but that is, as mentioned many times before, not a very worthwhile role on its own. Everyone has ideas, everyone has their own worlds and stories they'd love to see made into a game, or their own mechanics they'd love to implement into one. But having an idea means very little in the process of actually implementing it, and what developers look for is people who can actually do and not merely think up.

Basically this: https://davidmullich.com/2015/11/23/sorry-there-is-no-idea-guy-position-in-the-game-industry/

Edited November 28, 2019 by algroth

[GameNerdVeggie]

I don't ment a Paid Job, I ment if they would be interested or would make a Game of Fan Creations if the Suggestions are interesting. ^^ If everyone has Ideas than why are there so many Games with no interesting Story and Gameplay? ^^ Or in other Words - Why is there no Star Wars Diablo, World of Starcraft and others. ^^

[algroth]

On 11/29/2019 at 3:00 AM, GameNerdVeggie said:

I don't ment a Paid Job, I ment if they would be interested or would make a Game of Fan Creations if the Suggestions are interesting. ^^

I mean, there's no harm in suggesting ideas, I suppose. It's also not as if Obsidian haven't implemented fan suggestions and content in their Pillars games for example, be it through backer content or else. I will say that most people do come into any creative medium with aspirations of their own about games they'd like to create, so it'd be hard to see them not giving their own ideas priority over those of a complete third party to the dev/publisher/investor, with no financial backing or means to take part in the actual production of that game.

On 11/29/2019 at 3:00 AM, GameNerdVeggie said:

If everyone has Ideas than why are there so many Games with no interesting Story and Gameplay? ^^ Or in other Words - Why is there no Star Wars Diablo, World of Starcraft and others. ^^

Well, some ideas are just plain bad ideas, for starters. What makes an idea appealing is very personal and not everyone shares the same enthusiasm or interest towards it as its originator. But then, even if you get a good idea, very often the same can be left wanting by the end product, either because of sheer bad design, or insufficient resources, or technological limitations, or corporate meddling, or because the idea was too ambitious in the first place, and so on. We all have an idea we think would make a "great game" in our heads, the devs do too, but that's an ideal which rarely translates to perfection to a finished product for any number of reasons. There's always a gulf between the concept and the realized product, and a lot of the things that made the concept interesting can be lost in that stretch.

And then there's the money factor too - a "Star Wars Diablo" sounds good in paper but it's a niche type of game built around a massive IP that is currently in control of EA, who have shown they're clearly not interested in making small-scale niche games with the property but massive twice-a-year blockbusters that can spread as wide a net on the gamer demographic as possible, and milk as much money out of every outing as they can in the process. Meanwhile new IPs are much riskier ventures because audiences don't know what they are and they can fail to garner attention if they fail to strike a chord with a large enough sector - so even if you create an IP "like Star Wars" for a Diablo clone, maybe people will fail to latch onto it for any number of reasons, ranging all the way from the IP being too niche or alien for most to the IP looking like just a Star Wars knockoff. The small companies that are in it to take risks and make the games they want have to struggle with keeping the doors open every day, whilst the big AAA companies are largely not satisfied with "modest hits". One needs the money and has to make concessions on their ideas to make their games appealing in order to survive, the other wants money and will get it by churning out tried-and-true formulas year after year until they're no longer meeting their expectations. What you're asking for with a World of Starcraft is the kind of project that to me sounds both risky and expensive, precisely the two words that haunt the sleep of most of the people with the money.

Again, it's not that there aren't ideas. Josh would make a historical turn-based classless RPG if he could - he just knows how hard it is for a project like that to be viable or of interest.

[Wormerine]

On 11/29/2019 at 6:00 AM, GameNerdVeggie said:

If everyone has Ideas than why are there so many Games with no interesting Story and Gameplay? 

Unless, someones sits on an enormous pile of money to bankroll development of the game they want to make, it is unlikely they will work on what they want to do - you go to publisher, they will consult their charts and try to chase the most profitable trends. you go to funs for crowdfunding, and they will consult their nostalgia and want you to make exactly the same game they enjoyed in the past.

Sure, you will not be the market leader, by being a market follower and bla bla bla, but it is easier said then done.

[GameNerdVeggie]

So if I have Game Suggestions, I can post them in the Developer Forum here? Are there people from Obsidian active there? Seems the last stuff was from 2018. ^^

[ShadySands]

I'm probably wrong but I thought someone mentioned, some time ago, that there are some legal reasons why they can't or don't use ideas sent to them or posted publicly. 

In crowd funded games devs have shown more flexibility with this but even then it's more in the form of listening to feedback on existing systems and whatnot more than sourcing new ideas.

Edited December 2, 2019 by ShadySands
Speech to text fixes

[Wormerine]

29 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I'm probably wrong but I thought someone mentioned, some time ago, that there are some legal reasons why they can't or don't use ideas sent to them or posted publicly. 

I find it difficult to believe, that a vague post, with a vague idea could be a basis for a lawsuit, but what do I know. Certainly not much about laws and such. But in case they do want to use an idea I threw around about space sim RPG, I would be happy to sign a waver form 

[Humanoid]

It's the same logic to why Weird Al doesn't generally take suggestions from the original artists for the purposes of his parodies. The only exception I know of was for Like a Surgeon, which happened via a mutual friend.

 

[Amentep]

22 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I find it difficult to believe, that a vague post, with a vague idea could be a basis for a lawsuit, but what do I know. 

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/04/stranger-things-lawsuit-trial

https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-zootopia-lawsuit-20170321-story.html

https://ktla.com/2019/08/21/judge-tosses-lawsuit-saying-idea-was-stolen-for-2014-thriller-nightcrawler/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/mar/17/news

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/books/22arts-TWILIGHTAUTH_BRF.html

https://slate.com/culture/2016/02/author-sherrilyn-kenyon-sues-cassandra-clare-for-copyright-infringement.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/disney-pixar-inside-out-lawsuit-childhood-development-expert-stole-idea-concept-story-a7800066.html

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/lawsuit-disney-stole-idea-for-pirates-of-the-caribbean-from-3-colorado-authors

https://www.tmz.com/2019/09/25/what-men-want-lawsuit-stolen-screenwriter-paramount-bet/

https://www.thedrive.com/news/18523/lawsuit-claims-jerry-seinfeld-stole-idea-for-comedians-in-cars-getting-coffee

etc.

[Wormerine]

That's fair. Which reminds me there was an actually a succesful lawsuit between some pop "artists", which as a musician I found absurd. 

I am still happy to sign the waiver.

[Amentep]

Most likely unless you're contracted as work-for-hire or an actual employee, anything creative sent Obsidian's way on spec is roundfiled before it could get to anyone who actually works on a game.

[Hurlshort]

I always felt the best way to become the idea guy without working your way up the ladder or having a boatload of cash is to write a decent book. Once you've established your own IP that way, you can shop it to companies to develop further.

But yeah, ideas are cheap.

[GameNerdVeggie]

So where should I post Game Suggestions? General or Developer? Do they read Suggestions when  Mailing with the Official Contact Option?

[daven]

Anything said here would be in the public domain wouldn't it?

[Amentep]

Not to my understanding, but I am not a lawyer.  I believe the US courts have maintained that just because something is put on the internet does not mean it is put into the public domain and that instead it counts as publication for purposes of copyright unless the terms of use put the ownership into the hands of the public domain (like Wikipedia) or the platform owner (like Facebook or twitter or one of those social media platforms a few years ago that got into a kerfluffle over claiming ownership of anything said on their platform).

I believe, IIRC, that the Terms and Services indicate that Obsidian doesn't claim the rights to everything published on their forums, so that would leave it back in the ownership of the person who posted it (or the person who otherwise created it) as I understand it (again, not a lawyer).