RPG roundtable at Iron Tower forums

[Starwars]

Thought people here might be interested in this. Age of Decadence loveable teddybear Vault Dweller got a few RPG developers together to share their views on a few things, developers include Chris Avellone, JE Sawyer, David Gaider, George Ziets (who wrote MotB), people from Mysteries of Westgate and a bunch of other cool guys.

 

It's a very interesting read, and I highly recommend taking a look.

 

Setting: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php?topic=330.0

 

Story: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php?topic=342.0

 

Characters: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php?topic=343.0

[Xard]

Yay!

[Xard]

I can't believe that was only post to this topic

 

Seriously, great read. Best interviews I've seen in a while

[Pavlos]

Great show from all involved, particularly the guys from Obsidian, I feel.

 

I prefer to focus on meaningful player choices. An overarching storyline can be essentially linear, but the player can be offered critical choices at pre-defined points in that storyline. (And by critical choices, I’m talking about choices that have visibly different consequences, or lead to branches in the story structure.) That way, the design team maintains control over the number of possible outcomes and paths, while players understand that their choices matter, and result a distinctly different experience. And *all* choices should have consequences, or they shouldn’t be offered at all.

 

This one measly little paragraph should be the bible of all aspiring game designers.

Edited May 24, 2008 by Pavlos

[Xard]

Yeah, too bad Mitsoda wasn't in. I wonder why is that as they managed even to track down Ziets (all fans of Obz miss you )

[Morgoth]

I liked what Josh and MCA wrote about Aliens, that human greed and angst is a bigger threat than acid-spitting monsters.

[kirottu]

Those interviews were epic.

[Starwars]

Vince mentioned that more devs would be joining in later (from the Witcher for example), maybe they can get Mitsoda on there as well. They had tried to get a hold of Bethesda devs as well, who said yes, but Pete Hines put a stop to it. Would've been interesting to hear what they had said, some of the ones on the Bethesda forums "developer thread" are pretty cool.

 

I like what Josh said about non-linearity, hopefully we'll see more of that kind of stuff in Obsidians upcoming games. I also really liked George Ziets input, and I think that his description of semi-linearity was pretty much dead-on in Mask of the Betrayer.

 

EDIT: And oh yeah, thanks to the Obsidian devs (past and present) and everyone else for being in the interview. It's pretty inspirational stuff I think, and a lot of fun to read the different views on things. It's very interesting to read as a RPG fan.

Edited May 24, 2008 by Starwars

[Tigranes]

The snippet I saw was MCA talking about his methods, which I have seen a few times before - still think it a very weird method, but hey, you can't argue with the result.

 

Good of them to give us something to read, I'll check it out later tonight.

[samm]

Thank you

[Jorian Drake]

I like this from Chris:

 

In addition, characters need to be

[Kelverin]

"Chris Avellone

 

I believe in non-linear

[BicycleOfDeath]

I would have to say; I agree with this thread.

[Humodour]

Great show from all involved, particularly the guys from Obsidian, I feel.

 

I prefer to focus on meaningful player choices. An overarching storyline can be essentially linear, but the player can be offered critical choices at pre-defined points in that storyline. (And by critical choices, I

[Vaultman]

We've added Michal Madej (The Witcher's lead designer) and Leonard Boyarsky, so in case you guys are interested in that kind of read, take a look.

[Xard]

Cool, Leonard (I still haven't played Witcher though as I'm waiting for new edition)

 

Say, any chance we get Mitsoda sometime?

[Monte Carlo]

I pick on BG2 here because it is often held as a paragon of RPG gaming, not because it is a bad RPG.

 

Krezack, I think your point is well made. BG2's plot is what I'd call "loop-the-loop linear" (i.e. we're all ending up at the same destination just via slightly different aerobatic moves). Imagine if the Throne of Bhaal had two completely separate end battles depending on your decisions? I'd have happily given up a lot of the other content for that.

 

Having said that, I still see it as a paragon of CRPGs. Why? Simple - it's generosity of spirit. Bioware tried, heroically, to be give almost everything you'd want from a D&D computer game. It was vast, it had loads going on, it was completely over-the-top and we all loved it. The fact that people are still modding it and playing it eight years on (I still have a game on the go, although I only play for about an hour a month, so I got pretty good value for money out of it!) says it all.

 

Nobody would describe it as perfect. But it was a fantastic attempt at getting there, and no single CRPG since has given me the same stay-up-all-night buzz. IWD 1 & 2, were they bigger with joinable NPCs would have been close, but no cigar.

 

Cheers

MC

[H]

Bioware tried, heroically, to be give almost everything you'd want from a D&D computer game.

Except turn-based combat. Seriously, this is the heart of D&D.

[Xard]

lol pwned

 

BG2 is great game though and apart from that very faithful.

 

edit: though Infinity GUI... GRRRRRRR

Edited June 19, 2008 by Xard

[Monte Carlo]

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