Chris Avellone at Gamespot

[Mad_Scientist]

Gamespot just put up an article in which they discuss stories in games with "five master storytellers", one of which is Obsidian's own Chris Avellone. I haven't read it yet, but I'm about to. You can find it here.

[Volourn]

Crhis Avellone rules. He's the best amongst all 5 of those punks. His current fave games include NWN! Take that! Plus, I like what he'd do if someone told him that all RPG stories suck! LOL

[Ivan the Terrible]

Chris Avellone's "Confession":

 

"I am never going to do an Empire Strikes Back ending again in a game, even if they put branding irons to my feet. I still want to do a high school-based RPG set in the 1980s. And I think some of the potential projects coming up from Obsidian should make role-players pretty happy."

 

Since, as a lead designer for the company, the guy can hardly come on the board and screams 'I ADMIT IT! KOTOR II's ending was HORRIBLE!', it's good to see him take a more subtle approach to letting us know he didn't approve of the way things turned out, either.

[Volourn]

I think it's more the fact he is disspaointe din all the rnating about the ending; not that he actually hates the ending... <>

[Ivan the Terrible]

I think it's more the fact he  is disspaointe din all the rnating about the ending; not that he actually hates the ending... <>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

'Hates the ending' would be too strong, which is why I kept it to a milder 'didn't approve of the way things turned out.'

 

Nevertheless, it's been my experience that often a good author or writer has no greater critic of his own work than himself. I'm not sure who wrote the ending sequences, but I think if so many people around the world have had such a strong, negative reaction to the end, then I would venture to guess he saw the flaws well before we did.

[Volourn]

True. But, that's just the writer being picky. <>

[Ivan the Terrible]

On an unrelated subject, anyone else getting the feeling that Tim Schafer has all the enthusiasm of an impotent man in a brothel for this article?

 

Geez, Tim, you aren't restricted to a paragraph, you know.

[Judge Hades]

So its NWN is Chris A's fave games. Just because he is a good game writer doesn't mean he has taste.

[Aurora]

On an unrelated subject, anyone else getting the feeling that Tim Schafer has all the enthusiasm of an impotent man in a brothel for this article?

 

Geez, Tim, you aren't restricted to a paragraph, you know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I was rather disappointed in his comments, too, and not just because of the shortness. He, um, doesn't really seem too thrilled with his work or the gaming industry in general. =/

 

I find Ragnar T

[GhostofAnakin]

I think gamespot got one of Chris Avellone's old high school year book pics. :D

 

Oh and yeah, reading that article, it sounds like that Tim Shafer guy didn't even want to be a part of the interview. Everyone else wrote full descriptive paragraphs for their answers, he wrote simplistic "ugh, why are you bugging me with these questions" type ramblings. <_<

[Ivan the Terrible]

I was rather disappointed in his comments, too, and not just because of the shortness. He, um, doesn't really seem too thrilled with his work or the gaming industry in general. =/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I find it rather depressing that an interview of 5 of gaming's MASTER STORYTELLERS reveals that.....a good proportion (2) of them think all stories in games suck.

[Aurora]

I find it rather depressing that an interview of 5 of gaming's MASTER STORYTELLERS reveals that.....a good proportion (2) of them think all stories in games suck.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, it's not terribly promising.

[Yst]

Wow, yeah:

 

Confession: "I am never going to do an Empire Strikes Back ending again in a game, even if they put branding irons to my feet.

 

CA was already my hero, but hearing his take on this particular topic, with this particular point of view openly and cogently stated, can only redouble my fanboyism.

[Meshugger]

Chris Avellone's "Confession":

 

"I am never going to do an Empire Strikes Back ending again in a game, even if they put branding irons to my feet. I still want to do a high school-based RPG set in the 1980s. And I think some of the potential projects coming up from Obsidian should make role-players pretty happy."

 

Since, as a lead designer for the company, the guy can hardly come on the board and screams 'I ADMIT IT! KOTOR II's ending was HORRIBLE!', it's good to see him take a more subtle approach to letting us know he didn't approve of the way things turned out, either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No suprise really, he even admitted asking Lucasarts to re-do ending and other cut elements from KotOR II, i still like his way of telling it though

[dabise]

So its NWN is Chris A's fave games.  Just because he is a good game writer doesn't mean he has taste. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I'm trying to figure out the reasoning behind Hades' hate towards NWN. Any chance he gets to bash it, out comes the hammer

 

Is it because it is not Star Wars related? hehe.

[Drakron]

I dont want to complain but the "Masters Storytellers" are from Sierra adventure games of old.

 

Looking at that list makes me sad ...

[Ace]

Overall it seems like-

 

Avellone: Gameplay and story are things that go hand in hand for good games.

Kojima: I don't write stories... I make game and story come in... Yes. (Not meaning to insult Kojima, but either the translation Gamespot used was poor or he really couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that anyone would want to ask him about the plot of his games)

Levine: Gameplay and stories both go hand in hand. ...and I hate cutscenes. EMERGENT GAMEPLAY!!!111 TEH WARREN SPECTORZ!!!

Tim Schafer: Game stories suck. Why am I here? You thought my games' stories were good?

Ragnar T

[Judge Hades]

So its NWN is Chris A's fave games.  Just because he is a good game writer doesn't mean he has taste. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I'm trying to figure out the reasoning behind Hades' hate towards NWN. Any chance he gets to bash it, out comes the hammer

 

Is it because it is not Star Wars related? hehe.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I hate Star Wars more.

[Volourn]

"I'm trying to figure out the reasoning behind Hades' hate towards NWN."

 

Hades doens't hate NWN. He rated it 75%, bought both expansions, still plays the game, and will buy NWN2. That is not hate.

[Judge Hades]

I haven't touched NWN in months, Volourn. I like NWN's concept, but the execution was less than desirable. Its an average game and one of the top ten worse games that I have played.

[Volourn]

"Its an average game and one of the top ten worse games that I have played."

 

How cna it be "average" and be one of the worst? Unless you have play 19-22 games total that's impossible!

[Judge Hades]

That is simple. I have 10 games that I think are the pinnacle of good gaming and 10 games that are the worse in gaming and then I have everything else in the middle. Keep in mind that NWN is in the 10th position so I could play a worse game in the future, which is more than likely that would give NWN enough of a boost out of being my top ten worse.

 

It only will take one more game to knock NWN out of that list.

[Volourn]

"It only will take one more game to knock NWN out of that list."

 

I can make suggestions. <>

[Judge Hades]

Um, no.

[Azarkon]

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm quite excited to see the different approaches/opinions to stories in games. I agree with all five points of view, if that's possible, and I dearly hope that all five sides have their place in the gaming industry.

 

Part of what interests me most about the game genre as opposed to literature/comics and film/animation is that games do not suffer from the dictatorship of the story. In literature/film, the first thing people will tell you is that the story is everything: without a story you have nothing, and so you always start with the story board; film and literature are simply two ways of representing stories: one linguistic, the other visual. This isn't to say that there's anything wrong with this, but it is a limitation because not everthing in life is experienced through stories.

 

Games do not have the same limitations. They may *engage* in storytelling and indeed allow the story to dictate the game, but they can choose not to and still result in a very good game. In this respect, the game dictates the story, not the other way around, and that's a good thing, because in one sense it's a step beyond film/literature. You CAN make a game that's all story - it then becomes a film(or novel, if it's text based). But you can also make a game that has little/no story - that's unprecedented and has no equivalent in film/literature. Therefore, games allow an extra dimension of freedom, and this, I argue, gives it greater potential than either film/literature in the capturing of basic human experiences.