Chris Avellone interview?

[funcroc]

http://www.nuevebits.com/?p=1744

 

Sorry. I posted this thread with a phone.

[Labadal]

I only I understood what it says.

[WorstUsernameEver]

for example, one of our design impositions by SEGA was that your weapon skill affects your accuracy and dispersion, which is something that our study is totally against, and you can see the consequences of this discrepancy in a number of mechanics required in the game.

 

Wut? (from the Google translation, thanks funcroc)

[Flouride]

for example, one of our design impositions by SEGA was that your weapon skill affects your accuracy and dispersion, which is something that our study is totally against, and you can see the consequences of this discrepancy in a number of mechanics required in the game.

 

Wut? (from the Google translation, thanks funcroc)

 

Seriously? What the....

 

Anyone able to translate the whole article properly?

[agonz]

Hi everyone!

 

I am working on translating the full interview into english and will hopefully have it online in a day or two : ) I'll post the link here once it's up, thanks for the interest! ^^

[Bendu]

That would be awesome!

[agonz]

Here is the link: http://www.nuevebits.com/?p=1768

Forgive me if there are any mistakes or weird structures, my english may not be bad but it's not perfect : )

Don't forget to comment your thoughts on Alpha Protocol, this game needs more love ^^

[Starwars]

Thanks very much for that, interesting interview!

[Flouride]

Not very smart mandate by Sega....

 

Anyways thanks for the interview and for the translation.

[Starwars]

Probably not good for critical and mainstream reception, nope.

 

But I must say, I for one actually like the way aiming works in the game and have no problem with how the weapon skills affect accuracy and such.

[Labadal]

Thank you very much for your translation.

[Flouride]

Probably not good for critical and mainstream reception, nope.

 

But I must say, I for one actually like the way aiming works in the game and have no problem with how the weapon skills affect accuracy and such.

 

I don't mind it either. I can play it just fine how it is, but for mainstream success which they were aiming for that mandate was just retarded. Not to mention their cunning plan to push the release date after both Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell, but I won't complain about that any further I think I've said well enough about that decision prior to this interview...

[C2B]

Comte/Patrick just confirmed it

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthrea...3#post392028548

 

Sega

 

I wonder why they wanted that in the first place? Deus Ex?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Most likely Mass Effect, actually. Also, SEGA did complain about the game not being enough of an RPG in a leaked internal review of an early build, so it's not as much of a surprise as it may seem now.

 

There sure has been a fallout in the SEGA-Obsidian relationship though, considering how readily they're politely throwing the hot potato at each other even a year after release.

[Flouride]

Most likely Mass Effect, actually. Also, SEGA did complain about the game not being enough of an RPG in a leaked internal review of an early build, so it's not as much of a surprise as it may seem now.

 

There sure has been a fallout in the SEGA-Obsidian relationship though, considering how readily they're politely throwing the hot potato at each other even a year after release.

 

Not hardly a surprise there though. First they cancel Aliens: RPG leading to massive layouts and then they completely **** Obsidian with their mandates, lack of marketing (initially at least) and release date pushback on Alpha Protocol. How hard would it have been for Sega to come out early on with a statement telling they are pushing back the release date because they wanted to market the game more and were looking for a better release date. Instead they waited until the last minute and didn't give any reason which lead people to believe the game wasn't ready for release. And we've since learned that pretty much no one worked on the game after Sega decided to release on a more "favourable" release date. Not to mention the issue with patching AP. I wonder if anyone from Obsidian actually worked on those patches.

 

Yeah, I don't like Sega. Too bad they release Creative Assembly's games

[pmp10]

First they cancel Aliens: RPG leading to massive layouts and then they completely **** Obsidian with their mandates, lack of marketing (initially at least) and release date pushback on Alpha Protocol.

That is a little one sided view of things.

The 'publishers fault' is not a new issue that comes about when defending obsidian games and frankly they aimed at AAA status but delivered a game that failed to even reach 70% on metacritic.

I could certainly see reasons why sega would not be happy with obsidian.

 

The whole fiasco look like a mess of conflicting expectations.

I think sega wanted a more straight up RPG while obsidians plan were for a 3rd person action game with NPC interaction and C&C.

[Flouride]

First they cancel Aliens: RPG leading to massive layouts and then they completely **** Obsidian with their mandates, lack of marketing (initially at least) and release date pushback on Alpha Protocol.

That is a little one sided view of things.

The 'publishers fault' is not a new issue that comes about when defending obsidian games and frankly they aimed at AAA status but delivered a game that failed to even reach 70% on metacritic.

I could certainly see reasons why sega would not be happy with obsidian.

 

 

And what were the biggest complaints people had about Alpha Protocol? Oh yeah the fact that skills have huge effect on your shooting abilities which was mandated by Sega. And It was Sega that pushed back the release date not Obsidian. Was Obsidian supposed to market the game all by themselves?

Yes, I'm sure Obsidian didn't perform as well as they hoped either. Like MCA said the a.i and few other things weren't as well implemented as they wanted.

 

But the fact is that the shooting mechanics played a huge factor how people felt about the game. It's like Sega didn't do any market research at all. All they had to do was read enough Mass Effect / Fallout 3 (or Vampires) reviews to see how much people really like skill points effecting the actual shooter part of the game. I can't even imagine how much all the retarded videos about the shooting mechanics in the game hurt the sales.

 

And it sure as **** didn't help that Sega decided to release game after Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell which some would consider the games biggest/only competition when the game was all set for release.

[pmp10]

And what were the biggest complaints people had about Alpha Protocol?

Oh yeah the fact that skills have huge effect on your shooting abilities which was mandated by Sega.

That was just one of many complaints raised against the shooting mechanics and it mostly steamed from the fact a lot of them were badly introduced and counter-intuitively executed.

Even if the shooting was absolutely perfect there was a host of other issues involving cover, stealth, gadgets ,h2h fighting, boss battles etc.

You can't really lie them all at segas feet.

I find it really hard to imagine that some exec came to obsidian and simply demanded that the stealth system be unresponsive.

[C2B]

And what were the biggest complaints people had about Alpha Protocol?

Oh yeah the fact that skills have huge effect on your shooting abilities which was mandated by Sega.

That was just one of many complaints raised against the shooting mechanics and it mostly steamed from the fact a lot of them were badly introduced and counter-intuitively executed.

Even if the shooting was absolutely perfect there was a host of other issues involving cover, stealth, gadgets ,h2h fighting, boss battles etc.

You can't really lie them all at segas feet.

I find it really hard to imagine that some exec came to obsidian and simply demanded that the stealth system be unresponsive.

 

I agree on the part that Obsidian also had fault in it, however most of these things also were a result of said changes/mandates by the publisher. What would have been needed was a mostly drama free development time. Which APs just wasn't.

 

In fact from the things we know now its probably the Obsidian game with the most DRAMA! involved.

Edited May 26, 2011 by C2B

[Flouride]

Yes some complained about gadgets (really?), h2h (lack of block?, other than that can't really figure out what's wrong with it), stealth, boss battles (because they made a char that was bad) or about cover issues. But pretty much every damn review mentioned the shooting mechanics, which is pretty bad if your game is hybrid between crpg and a shooter.

 

And I never planted all of the fault at Sega's feet...

 

I specifically said the shooting mechanics hurted the game most in addition to the release date **** up and their lack of communication&marketing. Even you can't say that messing up with the release date the way Sega handled it was just fine in the eyes of gamers and media. Not to mention how much it hurt the ratings the game got since it was released after (not before like it was originally planned to) Mass Effect 2.

 

Better marketing initially, keep the original release date and scrap the shooting mechanics that pissed off pretty much every mainstream gamer / reviewer and your average review rating is way above the 70% it got.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Sega's demand wasn't unreasonable, Mass Effect got great reviews with similar shooting mechanics. And the delay was probably because there wasn't much interest in the game (as indicated by pre-orders for one thing), but realistically, there was never going to be. But yes, Sega isn't exactly the tightest run ship in the business, but let's face it, neither is Obsidian.

[Flouride]

And the delay was probably because there wasn't much interest in the game (as indicated by pre-orders for one thing), but realistically, there was never going to be.

 

Because there was no marketing. Not sure if the company they had hired for the marketing dropped the ball or what happened, but I remember them changing the PR company they use in US and after that we could actually see some marketing for the game.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Sega just can't afford a huge marketing budget. New IP's are a tough sell in any case, and RPG's are somewhat niche in addition. What's there in AP to appeal to a huge mainstream audience?

[pmp10]

In fact from the things we know now its probably the Obsidian game with the most DRAMA! involved.

Possibly but how would we know?

It's certainly the worst received obsidian game to date.

We have an chicken or egg problem here.

 

Better marketing initially, keep the original release date and scrap the shooting mechanics that pissed off pretty much every mainstream gamer / reviewer and your average review rating is way above the 70% it got.

Sadly I'm not so sure about that.

The psychological barrier at 70% separates the games that got major elements to an ok levels from the rest.

I'm doubtful whether the stealth system as implemented in AP would qualify.

 

And the delay was probably because there wasn't much interest in the game (as indicated by pre-orders for one thing), but realistically, there was never going to be.

Because there was no marketing. Not sure if the company they had hired for the marketing dropped the ball or what happened, but I remember them changing the PR company they use in US and after that we could actually see some marketing for the game.

There was never going to be a major marketing campaign for AP. It simply didn't have the graphic or cutscenes to generate serious hype.

It's promotional material was pretty standard for obsidian (i.e. pretty low budget).

They played strongly the c&c part of the game but the reality is that long term plot developments and npc interaction don't make much impression during trailers.

 

And AP still sold reasonably well but at the expense of obsidian reputation.

[Flouride]

Sega just can't afford a huge marketing budget. New IP's are a tough sell in any case, and RPG's are somewhat niche in addition. What's there in AP to appeal to a huge mainstream audience?

 

I get that, but that doesn't explain the complete lack of marketing initially. They did eventually spend some money on the marketing after the whole release date shuffle.