Obsidian (and BIS) Politics

[qaz156]

I was just wondering if any of the devs or staff would like to comment on whether or not their political inclinations ever seep into the games. Of course, anyone knows that most writers unconsciously write on themes that are salient to them in some way or another, even if they aren't consciously realizing it. So certain things that have affected or are affecting someone may turn up in the writing.

 

For instance, Fallout 2 dealt with themes of Xenophobia: (Enclave/Vault City.) Corruption, (no surprise here), but also "good institutions" doing "bad" things for profit, i.e. Vault City supplying drugs. Kotor series dealt with themes of corporate crime/corporate monopolies (of course Obsidian just kept this theme from what Bioware had created). PST obviously dealt with the central question of "what can change the nature of a man" (I guess this is less political.)

 

There are probably much better examples. I guess I just sort of listed ideas the designers have dealt with before.

 

Now, I'm pretty sure the devs would probably say that any political parrallels are incidental, or unconscious and that they served the story first. I'm just interested to know if some political event while they were making the game, or world event, triggered a certain area, or quest or character etc...

[mkreku]

Good, but potentially dangerous question. I can imagine myself getting really irritated by the writing in one of Obsidian's coming games, if I find out that one of the writers is (for example) a right wing extremist. My mind will unconscously filter every piece of dialogue and writing through those views to try to find flaws and stuff to annoy myself on.

 

I know that happened when we had a political thread in Way Off Topic a long time ago and one of the Obsidian employees came into the thread and defended the Bush administration and the Iraqi war. Or was it the Gulf war?

[Colrom]

Didn't someone say something like - if you have a character in your mind you can write a story - but if you have a point to make you would be better to write an editorial.

 

I thought that Icewind Dale II had a nice little story involving politics and some stories involving religious and/or ethical behaviors too - mostly tragic.

 

I didn't know that there were supporters of the war at Obsidian. I guess they are everywhere. That could explain all the killing.

Edited July 25, 2006 by Colrom

[Fenghuang]

First thing I noticed about Kreia was that she seemed to have stolen Dak'kon's way of thinking ("In enduring grow stronger.").