RPGCodex Interview with Carrie Patel (PE Narrative Designer)

[Sensuki]

ASoIaF has better characters, and dialogue/inner monologue. Tolkien was a grandmaster world builder.

 

If you look at a map of Essos and Westeros it is basically England plus Europe how they used to think it was shaped back in the day. Most of the things in ASoIaF are based on RL history and given a twist to disguise them.

[PrimeJunta]

If genre definitions become a straitjacket, that's a problem. As a shorthand way to categorize things so they become easier to find, they're OK.

 

Personally I especially enjoy genre crossovers. Perdido Street Station, to name one.

[Monte Carlo]

'Games Journalism.' LOL.

[Nonek]

 

Once again the RPG Codex's editorials humiliate the professional "game journalists," absolutely splendid article chaps.

I don't know what you're talking about. It's fine, but it's not all that different from any other interview I've read on the pro sites.

 

I swear, this weird antagonism people have towards something that's ultimately just another branch of entertainment journalism...

 

 

Having worked in print journalism as a lad i'm somewhat biased Ffordesoon, but apart from poor working practices and lack of objectivity, I simply believe that most game journalism is not fit for purpose. They are now on the whole merely indie PR firms, and do not exercise the necessary amount of criticism that one would expect of a journalist serving the public. However this is a personal opinion, and as I pointed out somewhat biased, feel free to think differently.

 

The editorials of the Codex are on the whole equal if not superior to most professional sites, as well as taking a far different view from the mainstream press' urge to streamline and feature strip under the umbrella term of innovation, and thus I regard them quite highly as a counterpoint to the steady degeneration of the medium.

 

That said I have not the mettle to venture onto their forums for any extended period of time, i'm fairly sure i'd never recover from the trauma.

[Endrosz]

I do not favor the Codex as a place to hang out and talk to other RPGeeks, but both their interviews and reviews are the best you can find on the Interwebs. Their Might and Magic X review told me literally everything I wanted to know about the game. They're thorough and they dig deep, and not afraid to publish a really long wall of text, expecting readers with decent attention spans to visit their site. So yeah, definitely at least as good as games journo sites.

 

This particular piece wasn't earth-shatteringly interesting, but it was a decent read.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Endrosz

[anameforobsidian]

 

Grayson at RPS is pretty good at embarrassing himself.  He doesn't need the Codex's help.  I'm feeling particularly put out at RPS for ignoring Serpent in the Staglands, and then reading Grayson's hostile interviews is painful.

 

That said, the comments section of the Codex is not the most magical place on the internet.

Okay. That still leaves the rest of games journalism.

 

 

Eugh.  

Eurogamer is the best of the bunch, and I read that pretty frequently.

Something Awful actually has pretty good game articles, but they come once every two or three weeks.

RPG Codex delights in being offensive, picks dumb fights, and does cheap reposts, but they do look harder for new information.

Gamasutra is good reading, but they're focused differently than a game-news site.  

IGN feels overtly commercial, and mediocre past that.  

Destructoid makes my computer hang every time I go there.  

I hate the format of most of the Escapist stuff, and find myself frequently disagreeing with the authors.  

ArsTechnica is prone to being not even wrong.  

Polygon refuses to recognize that concision is a virtue.  

I've never found Giantbomb interesting in the slightest.  

PC Gamer said Dragon Age 2 was the best game of the decade. 

Kotaku is Kotaku. 

Edited April 27, 2014 by anameforobsidian

[Monte Carlo]

Places like the Codex ask the questions I'd like to ask if I could.

 

Game's 'journalists' don't. Folks like RPS are about the writer's trying to look cool while others, as said above, are PR shills.

[Stun]

I hate the format of most of the Escapist stuff, and find myself frequently disagreeing with the authors.

Escapist, though, has a single shiny gem in its giant earth-mound of garbage: Yahtzee's ZeroPunctuation, which is the best game review site in the world, despite the fact that it goes out of its way to say: Don't take me seriously, you idiots!

[Hormalakh]

Places like the Codex ask the questions I'd like to ask if I could.

 

Game's 'journalists' don't. Folks like RPS are about the writer's trying to look cool while others, as said above, are PR shills.

 

The reason for this is that I asked the people at the Codex, gamers like yourself, for the questions. I asked one or two questions from Ms. Patel myself, but I personally think that interviews should be more crowd-sourced and the interviewer should just act as a filter/editor to pick the good ones and ignore the ones already answered.

 

Those questions came from those same people that are "rawdy, raucous, and the scum of the earth" that everyone here likes to poo-poo on.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Hormalakh

[IndiraLightfoot]

Hormalakh: That kind of journalism would definitely have its place in a world with internet, twitter, blogs, etc. As for people being abhorred or scared of some of the jargon over at RPGcodex, well such reactions come as no surprise really, and such bloated jargon certainly seeps into BSN or the Obsidian forums too for that matter (well, into most forums nowadays, it seems), but pay them no mind. What matters is what kind of contributions you make. And in your case, you seem to be a very sensible, inquisitive and constructive person, so just keep up the good work!

Edited April 27, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[Ffordesoon]

It's not a bad interview, I should clarify that.  It is, in fact, a very good interview.  It's just not any different from a good interview you'd read on any other site.  That's all.

[Sensuki]

The format we generally use for stuff like this is we put the questions open to the forum and then the most popular ones get picked for the interview. That's probably why it feels like 'the questions I would ask myself'.

 

We wanted to be fair to Carrie considering this is her first interview (!) since entering the industry that we focused a bit more about her in the beginning, rather than trying to mine information about Eternity from her. That's why it reads a bit more like a traditional interview, unlike our Q&A with Josh Sawyer from last year which was all basically Eternity mechanics questions.

 

There's a lot of information out there now about the game mechanics of PE and there's an NDA on anything to do with the story or themes, so when interviewing a Narrative Designer for the game the only real option you have is to explore the process.

 

What we've learned here is that Carrie's working on companions and critical path dialogue among other things, so that means she is playing quite a big role in the writing of the game.

 

I could see her writing Sagani perhaps?

[Fatback]

Like she would risk saying anything but what was already said in her first interview this is her big shot you think pressing her for details would have yielded something new. Lololololol

[Sensuki]

Like she would risk saying anything but what was already said in her first interview this is her big shot you think pressing her for details would have yielded something new. Lololololol

wow so edgy! such internets!

[Monte Carlo]

 

Places like the Codex ask the questions I'd like to ask if I could.

 

Game's 'journalists' don't. Folks like RPS are about the writer's trying to look cool while others, as said above, are PR shills.

 

The reason for this is that I asked the people at the Codex, gamers like yourself, for the questions. I asked one or two questions from Ms. Patel myself, but I personally think that interviews should be more crowd-sourced and the interviewer should just act as a filter/editor to pick the good ones and ignore the ones already answered.

 

Those questions came from those same people that are "rawdy, raucous, and the scum of the earth" that everyone here likes to poo-poo on.

 

 

Dude, it's a good interview but that doesn't mean the Codex isn't a fairly gonzo place that might not be to everyone's taste.

 

The we're-too-cool-for-school cynicism, cruelty and general trash-talk on the Codex is all part of it's charm. Except I don't find it charming but hey, it's the internet.

[Sensuki]

The Codex is simply honest.

[rjshae]

Good interview. Sometimes its just nice to get a feel for the people behind the process, and in so doing you can see what type of work they will produce.

Edited April 28, 2014 by rjshae

[Sannom]

This particular piece wasn't earth-shatteringly interesting, but it was a decent read.

As Sensuki said, I think the "reveal" that she writes some of the companions is a big enough information to take out of the review. Also, I must say that doing an interview with someone else than the usual suspects (Josh Sawyer, Chris Avellone, Feargus Urquhart) is a rather "bold" and interesting move.