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Chris Avellone leaves Obsidian


mkreku

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Clearly this is just a ploy to increase ratings for a season. He's still going to show up as an ascended being from time to time until the next ratings slump and they can advertise that they're bringing him back full time.

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"Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
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Any word on what MCA is doing after Obsidian?

 

I'm more curious what Obsidian is doing after MCA.

 

The tank game, an expansion to PoE.  Anything else?  Seems like ages since Obsidian made a game I was looking forward to (that wasn't Kickstarted).

 

 

Brian Heinz is the lead designer/project director on an unannounced RPG, per Antony Davis.

 

What is the history of this Brian? WHat projects he had a notable role in the past?
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Any word on what MCA is doing after Obsidian?

 

I'm more curious what Obsidian is doing after MCA.

 

The tank game, an expansion to PoE.  Anything else?  Seems like ages since Obsidian made a game I was looking forward to (that wasn't Kickstarted).

 

 

Brian Heinz is the lead designer/project director on an unannounced RPG, per Antony Davis.

 

What is the history of this Brian? WHat projects he had a notable role in the past?

 

Project New Jersey/Seven Dwarves

"Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
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  • 2 weeks later...

Off to Bethesda ? :p

That is the last place he would go. If he is leaving Obsidian and still wants to work in gaming he is either forming his own studio or just going to act as a contractor on projects he finds interesting. I don't see him becoming a cog in a large developer like Bethesda.

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I'd say it was probably due to the fact he wasn't assigned any major role since Alpha Protocol and the FNV DLCs. Betwen cancelled, released and ongoing projects, they had 7-8 game where he wasn't lead designer, lead writer or project lead.

 

That's basically 5 years working on the sidelines, even though MCA was co-owner, creative director, and co-founder. He wouldn't leave unless he had a fundamental disagreement with someone there, but I'm not sure he's even allowed to explain it. Probably signed some NDA.

 

Cant EDIT: I'm moving this post to the Computer and Console thread.

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I believe either he had already finished and submitted it/them for editing, or he confirmed he would finish them.

The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

Devastatorsig.jpg

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I imagine the scene of Mr Avellone's departure proceeding somewhat like this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLakgUosAsM

 

Well not really, i'm sure the parting was far less dramatic and far more amicable, I just like to post Mr McGoohan brilliant statement from time to time.

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Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

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  • 3 months later...

y'know, chris didn't actual answer the freaking question.

 

HA! Good Fun!

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"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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y'know, chris didn't actual answer the freaking question.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

No, but he implied that he left because:

 

1) There was some project or projects he wanted to do but wasn't able to.

 

2) He was tired of fighting turf wars over his authority.

 

 

he implied, or you inferred?  is such a gray area.

 

yes, chris observed that his role were unclear to him even after multiple years at obsidian.  yes, he he made axiomatic observation that there were projects that obsidian would not and could not do.  he also rambled on 'bout his role in alpha protocol and offered up chestnuts o' wisdom regarding difficulties employees got following conflicting direction from multiple bosses (welcome to teh rheal world,) but he never actual answered the question.

 

regardless, is the kinda response that different folks is gonna read into it what they wish.  

 

HA! Good Fun! 

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"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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y'know, chris didn't actual answer the freaking question.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

No, but he implied that he left because:

 

1) There was some project or projects he wanted to do but wasn't able to.

 

2) He was tired of fighting turf wars over his authority.

 

 

he implied, or you inferred?  is such a gray area.

 

yes, chris observed that his role were unclear to him even after multiple years at obsidian.  yes, he he made axiomatic observation that there were projects that obsidian would not and could not do.  he also rambled on 'bout his role in alpha protocol and offered up chestnuts o' wisdom regarding difficulties employees got following conflicting direction from multiple bosses (welcome to teh rheal world,) but he never actual answered the question.

 

regardless, is the kinda response that different folks is gonna read into it what they wish.  

 

HA! Good Fun! 

 

For me he did answer, it was indirect but it was still an  answer?

 

He left because he felt he could impact no meaningful change in the direction that Obsidian was and is going. He felt he was ultimately handicapped around design choices of various games.

 

I can understand this being frustrating but I can also see the Obsidian perspective 

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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^Now that's inferring. The first thing he said in reply to the question was that there were projects that Obsidian couldn't or wouldn't do. That suggests that the primary reason for his departure was projects that were never made, not "design choices" in the games that were made.

Edited by Infinitron
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I guess we all got different interpretations from his "answer". Probably projecting a bit of ourselves into our interpretations. I read it as not being happy with "creativity by committee". Not really related to the answer other than in a tangential way, I still haven't finished PoE and one of the things that keeps holding me back is, it almost feels "over produced". Like a boy band that has been through the 27th pass in the hands of the producer, making it good craftsmanship but devoid of the madness, bold ideas, risk taking and spontaneity that appeals to me.

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“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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Making it good craftsmanship but devoid of the madness, bold ideas, risk taking and spontaneity that appeals to me.

 

That's actually a pretty spot on critique for me as well, at least in comparison to their other games. A strength and weakness of the studio to be sure. That they can produce a well made game, but it will lose soul - or they can make a soulful game, but it tends to be a wee bit buggy and wrought with less than optimal mechanics.

 

That said I thoroughly enjoyed PoE and Sawyers direction - and while the game lacked Avellone's madness I was happy to see it didn't lack ambition.

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Fortune favors the bald.

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