George Ziets

[Cantousent]

I don

[Pop]

Pics or it didn't happen.

[kirottu]

Pics of scantily cladded developers in hot humid Obsidian office!

[Starwars]

Kevin and George wanted to come up with a story that followed from NWN2, but relocated the player character. Both men were “sick of medieval fantasy,” and so the wilds of Rasheman it was.

 

Hooray! Away with you, evil standard medieval fantasy.

 

Thanks for the write-up. And now just where is that review of MotB...?

[Gorth]

You should have asked if all male Rashemen berserkers have pet hamsters

 

Nice read, now put the game on the street already (don't even think about mentioning the ch****mas sale word)

Edited August 20, 2007 by Gorth

[Hurlshort]

Great interview!

 

I really like hearing about Turbine. They are definitely an interesting developer, in fact I'd say the best in the MMO business. Some of my best gaming days were had playing Asheron's Call.

[Zoma]

Thanks for the interview!

 

Review please! With sugar and honey on top!

[Morgoth]

So Ferg now hires MMO developers to let them write the story.... must make total sense.

[Hurlshort]

So Ferg now hires MMO developers to let them write the story.... must make total sense.

 

Yeah, that's like hiring a magazine editor and having them work as a book editor! Insanity!

[Morgoth]

So Ferg now hires MMO developers to let them write the story.... must make total sense.

 

Yeah, that's like hiring a magazine editor and having them work as a book editor! Insanity!

Eh?

[Walsingham]

Pics of scantily cladded developers in hot humid Obsidian office!

 

Finally a fan request the devs can agree with!

[Alvin Nelson]

Pics of scantily cladded developers in hot humid Obsidian office!

 

Finally a fan request the devs can agree with!

 

I can get behind this.

[Hurlshort]

So Ferg now hires MMO developers to let them write the story.... must make total sense.

 

Yeah, that's like hiring a magazine editor and having them work as a book editor! Insanity!

Eh?

 

George was a writer with Westwood and Turbine. He's now a writer with Obsidian. What exactly does your comment mean? The implication seemed to be that MMO writers are somehow tainted and shouldn't be allowed to work on single player RPG's, but perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

[Zoma]

George was a writer with Westwood and Turbine. He's now a writer with Obsidian. What exactly does your comment mean? The implication seemed to be that MMO writers are somehow tainted and shouldn't be allowed to work on single player RPG's, but perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

 

Uh huh. Same thought runs through me brain too.

[Cantousent]

George crafted a truly excellent story for MotB. Whatever his past, he will make a name for himself with MotB. This is an expansion, but it plays like a full title. I plan on writing the review sometime this week, while I'm traveling, but my take is that Obsidian is quite happy with George's work. If they're not, they should be. Most of you guys will be.

[Zoma]

After reading the recent preview in this thread: http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewt...1&forum=121

 

plus your word Cant...

 

My soul is totally utterly sold to Obsidian, even though at this stage its just a hype.

 

Dammit, screw international release! I wanna play! >_<

 

At times, I really cannot help though but to think, MotB is what NWN2 should had been.

[Monte Carlo]

Given that I now have to wear bionic eyes specially grown in a lab after reading all that text in Planescape, can somebody guarantee me that I'm not going to wear these ones out on this game.

 

I know it's heresy on this forum (PST fanbois are as passionate as the Fallout variety, but ridiculously mellow), but the text in Planescape made my eyes bleed. It was too much of an interactive novel for me, TBH.

 

So, bigger text size options please. And if the text takes up 50% of the GUI that's a clue that you've written too much.

 

Cheers

MC

[Cantousent]

Given that I now have to wear bionic eyes specially grown in a lab after reading all that text in Planescape, can somebody guarantee me that I'm not going to wear these ones out on this game.

 

I know it's heresy on this forum (PST fanbois are as passionate as the Fallout variety, but ridiculously mellow), but the text in Planescape made my eyes bleed. It was too much of an interactive novel for me, TBH.

 

So, bigger text size options please. And if the text takes up 50% of the GUI that's a clue that you've written too much.

 

Cheers

MC

 

I am an unabashed PS:T fanboy. Of course, that assumes that a fanboy is someone who prized the game without insulting folks who didn't share the same level of enjoyment. For the "fanboy" term to have meaning outside of "fan," it should be used sparingly.

 

On the other hand, I don't really take offense. I don't mean any either.

 

For folks who didn't like the amount of text in PS:T, I think you'll have a much easier time with MotB. It's the general quality of the writing that makes it PS:Tesque, as well as some specific aspects of the game. There is less writing, and the writing takes up less of the page. The player can click through dialogue in the same way that he could in NWN or NWN2. Barkstrings, of course, carry some of the weight, and there is a lot of voiceover work that helps move the dialogue without resorting to long passages.

 

Now, I won't say that all of the dialogue is perfect. It's not. However, there are fewer of the errors I thought detracted from KotOR 2, and the writing is, in my opinion, far superior to NWN2. Moreover, there are fewer NPCs in MotB than NWN2. That could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. I unreservedly think of it as a good thing, and the quality of the NPCs is one of the reasons I put it on par with PS:T, even though I think it could have more writing. It also shies away from the same level of pseudo-philosophical diatribe. The story in MotB is refreshingly personal.

 

Any other thoughts I have on this particular issue will wait until I do a full review (carefully using only information available in current reviews, of course).

 

EDIT: I also concur about Nathaniel. He went out of his way to be welcoming to community members. Of course, "community member" mostly means the folks on the Bioware forums over at Obsidz, but we do have some devs who frequent these pages. Maybe not as many... or as frequently. :Eldar's wolfish grin icon:

Edited August 21, 2007 by Cantousent

[Monte Carlo]

Thanks. It's not that I'm a total philistine. Quality writing over quantity is good enough for me, and I know that brevity is challenging and takes good writing skills, a bit like playing the piano badly.

[Pavlos]

Hmm, interesting stuff there. Thanks for sharing it with us. I'm looking forwards to reading the review of the game. I'm wondering how critical you can be of it, though, and how that might affect the accuracy of the article. Would Obsidian allow one of its employees to note poorer aspects of a game that hasn't even been released yet?

 

Edit: Regardless, the needle of my anticipation meter rises and twitches with every preview I read .

Edited August 21, 2007 by Pavlos

[Cantousent]

I'm not an Obsidian employee. Moreover, I've no intention of making another foray into game development of any kind. (Well, I might actually do real work on a NWN2 mod, but I doubt it.)

 

I am undoubtedly biased. Nevertheless, I will do my utmost to be honest in my review. There are aspects of which I will be critical. It is not a perfect game. What game is perfect?

 

Overall, however, I honestly believe in the title. I wrote, some months ago, that Obsidian had failed to set itself apart from the pack, that it aspired to greatness but had not achieved it. I believe MotB is a turning point for the company. It's more polished, more finished, and more deserving of critical aclaim than their previous two titles. With MotB, Obsidian will no longer living in the shadow of BIS.

 

As for the integrity of my review, I will let you judge that for yourself. :Cant's friendly smile icon:

[Alvin Nelson]

*slips money under the table*

 

I kid, I kid!

[Cantousent]

Yeah. Yeah. I know. The check is in the mail. :D

[Zoma]

Sounds like MotB will become a cult classic amongst RPG players.

[Cantousent]

Oh, I'm sure it will sell well. I'm hoping for more than a cult classic, but that's mostly because I see it as validation of long past design decisions. I will say, hands down, that I prefer PS:T to MotB.