Top Ten with Feargus

[Fionavar]

Well here's a new feature that I hope will serve to continue to develop our community here in the corner of cyber known as Obsidian. As many of you can appreciate the owners and developers are often really quite busy making games and such! With this tension in mind, I have received many PMs wondering about the Big Cheese and where he has gotten himself off to This got me to thinking and after bouncing ideas around with Feargus and the mod squad, we have arrived at a new feature: The Top Ten ...

 

So here is how it will work:

 

1) A thread will be stuck in Obs Gen that will encourage the community to post questions/items that you would like Feargus to address. As a suggestion, I would offer that the question should be as succinct and pithy as possible - a suggested format would be:

 

Question: How do you balance the needs of a new designn house and the energy that comes with such a fresh venture with the tension/reality of having to rely on the financial/resources of such influential companies as Lucas & Atari?

 

2) This thread will remain open for 4-7 days. As this process proceeds, it should be understood that this particular feature will be keenly watched for SPAM and trolling. Though we moderate these fora with a high level of tolerance

[kumquatq3]

Who will be at E3?

 

Will we learn more about PNJ or PG at E3?

[Pidesco]

What do you think of Obsidian's forum community?

[Craigboy2]

Are you planning at sticking with traditional RPGS? Or are you planning on doing a hybrid of some type?

[kumquatq3]

Your favorite game you've played this year

 

or, alternatively, The game that had an impact on your view of gaming/the industry the most and why

[Dagon]

Any Post Apocalyptic or S-F titles developed by Obsidian in the future?

[Gorth]

I'm cheating outragously and posting two questions in one post:

 

1) Business Development Manager being part of your description, what is in your personal assessment at the time of writing the most profitable (ROI ?) market gaming wise and will you/Obsidian have a go at that market ? Why/Why not ?

 

Not so much platforms, but game genres and demographic target groups.

 

2) How do you (and your fellow Obsidianites for that matter) feel about merchandising ?

 

Will we see g-strings with Obsidian logos, t-shirts with your resident artists concept art on them, coffee cup with your portrait on it etc.

 

I for one would buy at least 5 cups, one with each company founder on it, if it would support one of those less profitable isometric party based crpgs being self published and developed...

[Gorth]

Somebody ? Anybody ? I can't be the only one with questions...

 

 

From the tricky question department:

 

How do you (Feargus) feel about outsourcing of work overseas, on a personal level and on a professional level ?

 

If it was viable, would you outsource work to places like India, China, eastern Europe, whatever to lower the cost of development ?

[Tigranes]

1/ How representative do you believe is the online gaming community in general of the overall marketplace right now, and do you see its vocal and productive nature as a valuable part of the culture and of Obsidian's game design / production?

 

2/ The Infinity Engine, notably, integrated the strategic nature of D&D into RPG combat, especially through full party control - while others strived to bring out the more 'personal' side of combat (TES). What parts, if any, of the former direction do you believe are appealing and desirable in future CRPGs?

Edited April 25, 2006 by Tigranes

[Darque]

1) Will Obsidian continue to make "safe" games (i.e. those of established properties) or will it branch out and take the risk of creating its own settings?

 

2) If Obsidian is managed by 5(?) main owners... How efficiently does it run with so many bosses involved? Or does each have his or her own sphere of influence within the company?

[Cantousent]

Recently, the RPGCodex posted the following exchange between Feargus and a "german [sic] games magazine:"

 

"Q: How long will it take to beat NWN 2?

A: Its difficult to estimate it exactly, but you'll play 20 hours for sure. We want to ensure that a maximum number of players completes the game, and there are only few who play longer then 20 hours."

 

Can we get some sort of clarity on this matter? Did Feargus make these comments? If yes, can we get some context for these statements? For example, if Feargus believes the game will average at 20 hours of play, does that include substantial side quests or the main storyline?

[Fionavar]

The thread is now closed for collating and posting early next week.