Feargus Urquhart on South Park, Pillars of Eternity, and More - Matt Chat - Part 1

[ktchong]

Edited August 28, 2014 by ktchong

[Marceror]

Per Feargus, PoE will "definitely ship this year".

 

Release date may be announced in a couple of weeks.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Marceror

[Freshock]

Really interesting, great interviewer. Should post this in the PoE-forum as well, nice to hear they are this confident in release date and that the game will turn out good. Can't wait!

[Leferd]

The Kung Fu RPG concept would have been hilarious. Hope the Doctors get back in the business. I'm assuming they may have signed a timed non-compete clause as part of their severance package with EA.

 

Zombies and Cowboys? I'm in!

Edited August 29, 2014 by Leferd

[ktchong]

The Kung Fu RPG concept would have been hilarious. Hope the Doctors get back in the business. I'm assuming they may have signed a timed non-compete clause as part of their severance package with EA.

 

Zombies and Cowboys? I'm in!

 

I think the Kung Fu RPG concept turned into Jade Empire.

 

FYI, non-compete agreements are automatically void as the matter of law in California, where Electronic Arts is based.  (In other states like New York, non-compete clauses are enforceable.)  However, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk may have signed a non-compete agreement with EA in Canada.

 

Non-compete agreements and clauses favor big companies at the expense of employees and little people.  Even though in California non-compete agreements are not enforceable and may even be illegal, companies still frequently require new employees to sign those agreements.   Companies are using ignorance and "lawfare" to enforce the agreements - i.e., either employees do not know that non-compete agreements are actually useless in California, or companies are willing to take employees to court, deliberately drag out cases to financially exhaust those employees.   The companies know they would not win in the end and would have to settle out of court.  However, the purpose of lawfare is not to win but to intimidate.  Unfortunately, many individuals simply do not have the financial resources to fight a prolonged lawfare against big companies.   Apple (which is based in California) in particular  is  infamous for using lawfare to enforce their illegal non-compete employment agreements.  It is really a bullying and intimidation tactic.

Edited August 29, 2014 by ktchong

[Gromnir]

am a big fan o' planescape setting, so keeping to rule-of-three, we will make essential our third near identical post regarding the video...

 

if pazuzu makes an appearance in our sunroom, we blame leferd for the trinity invocation.

 

 

at the moment, a december release of a stable and polished PoE product strikes us as optimistic bit o' prognosticating at best, but we got no idea how much progress is being made on bug hunting. currently, we would describe the game as unplayable in any meaningful sense, but it is beta and the majority o' problems we has observed appear to have been known issues. am gonna be patient, but am doubting our patience lasts much past a major patch.

 

heck, we still don't have a meaningful talents catalog.

 

as for future games, Gromnir has frequent pushed the idea o' a kinda pony-express time period game (admitted a very limited window) set in US mid west or south west but with magic n' such. that being said, we has never been a fan o' zombies, and the past decade has solidified that distaste into something approaching genuine loathing.

 

*shrug*

 

regardless, end o' 2014 is not all that far away when one is speaking o' game developments. how many folks is gonna be working 18 hour days and sleeping at office to make winter 2014 a reality? next patch should be a good indicator.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 29, 2014 by Gromnir

[GhostofAnakin]

Feargus seems so jovial in his interviews.

[ktchong]

Hope the Doctors get back in the business. I'm assuming they may have signed a timed non-compete clause as part of their severance package with EA.

 

 

My guess is EA's non-compete agreements are usually valid for a year after an employee quits.  When Richard Garriott ("Lord British" of the Ultima series) resigned from EA-Origin System in 2000, his non-compete agreement with EA expired after a year.   A bunch of Swedes quit EA DICE in 2011, and then left and start their own studio in 2012.  (It's the same old story: EA bought out the studio; then, after a few years, things did not work out between EA and the original founders/owners of the studio.  So those people left and, after a year or two, started another studio.)  

 

So Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk's non-compete agreement with EA should have expired by now or will expire soon.  I expect to see a Kickstarter from the doctors soon.

Edited August 29, 2014 by ktchong

[ShadySands]

Seems like a solid business model.

 

 

Note to self- Dear Sir and/or Madam to whom this may concern:start a studio, sell out to EA, take a long vacation, start a new studio and do it all over again. Warmest fuzzies,me.

[GhostofAnakin]

It was interesting that Feargus mentioned specifically not wanting to release PoE the same time as Dragon Age.  I'm not sure they're really direct competition, given a lot of DA's sales will probably come from its console gamers.

[Leferd]

Or else, the Doctors can continue to Scrooge McDuck it up in their Moneybin from the major $$$ they got from selling off (out?) to Elevation Partners and EA...

 

...and avoid all the grief that goes with running a startup independent video game company.

[kirottu]

@Matt, Up The Irons!

[TMZuk]

Deadlands as a CRPG? Oh yeah! Sign me up!

[Amentep]

Deadlands as a CRPG? Oh yeah! Sign me up!

 

You and me both, I love the P&P game, and have wanted to play a video game set in that world.

 

Sadly Headfirst (CALL OF CTHULHU: DARK CORNERS OF THE EARTH) are the only developer I know got the license to make a video game of Deadlands and they didn't last long enough to complete it.

[Gromnir]

 

Deadlands as a CRPG? Oh yeah! Sign me up!

 

You and me both, I love the P&P game, and have wanted to play a video game set in that world.

 

Sadly Headfirst (CALL OF CTHULHU: DARK CORNERS OF THE EARTH) are the only developer I know got the license to make a video game of Deadlands and they didn't last long enough to complete it.

 

deadlands setting is something we like a great deal, but magic system were kinda silly... and did we mention we loathe zombies? we would really enjoy a quasi-deadlands game, just not deadlands per-se. really, the magic system were just too clunky.

 

we did a short-lived pnp 3rd edition gurps quasi version o' a deadlands-like setting back in the 90s... had fun with it, but we used magic to explain how native americans/indians were not necessarily all driven back onto reservations, and the african black shamans had sent prospective slavers packing, eliminating the triple trade... we had a couple o' black players in our pnp group and we knew they didn't want their characters to be treated like second-class citizens, so we made appropriate adjustments. worked pretty well.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Monte Carlo]

16:16

 

"Combat's super-smooth."

 

Ahem?

[IndiraLightfoot]

Super-smooth as in strained slush, with combat being the light bulb in the midst of the erratic flights of moths...

[Amentep]

16:16

 

"Combat's super-smooth."

 

Ahem?

 

He'd just had his wizard cast "Grease" you see, and...

[Gromnir]

 

16:16

 

"Combat's super-smooth."

 

Ahem?

 

He'd just had his wizard cast "Grease" you see, and...

 

it is possible that the build iteration feargus and their QA is using is a bit more refined than what we are getting with backer beta. one almost needs to assume that the beta in the hands o' QA is more refined or else we is very much dismayed by the certitude o' a december (or pre-december) release. that is unless the already-in-development expansion is being viewed by obsidian as a kinda super-patch for PoE.  'course, such a perspective would require substantial cynicism on our part, and our reputation is for assuming sunshine and rainbows, yes?

 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

I'm curious as to when the actual interview was conducted as I got the impression that it's a bit out of date as South Park has been out almost 6 months now

[Freshock]

I'm curious as to when the actual interview was conducted as I got the impression that it's a bit out of date as South Park has been out almost 6 months now

 

It's probably less than a week old, it was uploaded yesterday, I think the interviewer just failed on remembering when it was released, seemed like Feargus tried to correct him politely. 

[ShadySands]

My guess is mid-Julyish (a little over a month old) but I don't have anything to back that up other than that's when DA:I was delayed but I'm probably just not paying close enough attention and reading into things

 

Not like it matters, I'm just bored

Edited August 29, 2014 by ShadySands

[Gromnir]

I'm curious as to when the actual interview was conducted as I got the impression that it's a bit out of date as South Park has been out almost 6 months now

in the interview, doesn't feargus say that the game (south park) were released "few" months previous? we would need to rewatch, but that would make the interview probable june-july, yes?

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 29, 2014 by Gromnir

[TheChris92]

Feargus seems to be onboard with lots of things -- I hope his interest for a New Vegas sequel or just another Fallout in general is still sound. Gonna assume that the Star Wars RPG he was thinking about ain't happening now. So sad.

Edited August 29, 2014 by TheChris92

[Amentep]

Sound to me like its

 

MATT: ...and just now came out with...I mean just maybe last month right? That south park...

Feargus: uh...a few months ago.

MATT: Yeah a few months ago we got South Park the Stick of Truth...

 

Unless they're more specific later on, that's what I remembered (and double checked, about 1:20 in on the video).