David Gaider is now the Creative Director of Beamdog

[Infinitron]

http://blog.beamdog.com/2016/02/beamdog-welcomes-david-gaider.html

 

 

We're very pleased to welcome David Gaider to the company as our new creative director. Originally we advertised for the position of senior writer, but when David contacted Trent about the position, we upgraded the role.

David is well known for his design and writing work on Baldur’s Gate 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins. He brings 17 years of experience to our little team and we couldn't be happier to work with him. David will lead the writing team and direct new creative endeavors for the company.

Welcome, David!

 

In before their next game uses the Pillars of Eternity techbase, making it a reversal of the old BioWare-Black Isle relationship.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Infinitron

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

So did he leave bio or is this a side thing?

[Leferd]

He left Bio couple weeks ago.

[Amentep]

Good luck to him and Beamdog on whatever he's going to be doing!

[Jotra]

Also Brent Knowles joined Beamdog too. He might not be as well known as Gaider, but he was a (lead) designer on many of the older BioWare games.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Jotra

[Leferd]

I like the idea of the Bio Old Guard getting back together to make BG style games.

[Gfted1]

Oy, I hope Beamdog does not ape PoE. That ruleset is diametrically opposed to my ideas of "fun".

[Tigranes]

It's good news, Gaider is an OK writer and a good designer, and Brent Knowles is cool. Who knows if SoD will be any good, but having started as a pointless cashgrab company they're getting an interesting team together and clearly looking to produce solid RPGs in the future. 

[Tale]

He writes some of the most fun characters and I hope his new position will allow him to continue that.

[Gromnir]

Oy, I hope Beamdog does not ape PoE. That ruleset is diametrically opposed to my ideas of "fun".

poe did indeed have features that were less than fun, but sadly such stuff were necessitated to appease the reactionary and vocal element that wanted poe to more closely resemble bg.  with each build poe lost some fun in favor o' conciliation.  poe fighters made sense as durable front-line combatants, and paladins were ideal suited to be a low-maintenance support class.  unfortunately, the bg fans wanted more dps from fighters and paladins.  why?  is not that paladins were bad support or that fighters were bad as a tanky class.  sadly, the irrational but predictable expectations o' the fanbase forced the developers to incrementally skew the game towards something more closely resembling bg and its offspring. token xp grants to appease bg and ie game fans were an utter waste o' time and resources.  the inexplicable anger regarding the developer goal o' eliminating dump stats were a comical but constant obstacle.  the poe elimination o' pre-combat layering o' immunities that made so many bg/ie game combats a forgone conclusion were a positive change that unexpected drew ire o' bg purists. etc.

 

poe lost some o' its fun 'cause the developers were responsive to fans.  one wonders what poe mighta been like if the developers had been able to build their best game rather than weighing it down with ie game trappings. is 'cause for regret, but am understanding why the developers felt the need to mollify the grognards.

 

that being said, we will once again note that beamdog coulda' motivated Gromnir to pay $100 per game if they had done the ee games with the iwd2 rules.  that "single" improvement woulda' been worth a franklin. black isle's implementation o' 3.5ish for iwd2 were such a vast improvement over the other ie game mechanics that we woulda' paid considerable money play a bg2 with 3.5e... which were kinda an incremental step towards rationality o' poe rules.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Nonek]

I hate to be the first naysayer in the thread but I find most of Mr Gaider's content very underwhelming: I can spot his writing style a mile off after reading "The Stolen Throne" and my opinion of his prose is less than stellar, based on that and his game work. I also am no fan of his design techniques, the false choices and creative vision over player choice. The less said about the recycled Joss Whedon squeeing humour the better.

 

I was considering purchasing the re-released editions of BG based upon Mr Avellones recommendation of Siege of Dragonspear Castle, however this casts doubt upon that. Then again Mr Knowles original plans for Neverwinter Nights were very attractive, and that gentlemans views on design are far more attuned to my own notion of enjoyment, so i'm in somewhat of a mixed bag.

 

I will probably wait on a review from the esteemed gentlemen of the RPG Codex, one has found them to be an excellent source in this respect.

[Infinitron]

I hate to be the first naysayer in the thread but I find most of Mr Gaider's content very underwhelming: I can spot his writing style a mile off after reading "The Stolen Throne" and my opinion of his prose is less than stellar, based on that and his game work. I also am no fan of his design techniques, the false choices and creative vision over player choice. The less said about the recycled Joss Whedon squeeing humour the better.

 

I was considering purchasing the re-released editions of BG based upon Mr Avellones recommendation of Siege of Dragonspear Castle, however this casts doubt upon that. Then again Mr Knowles original plans for Neverwinter Nights were very attractive, and that gentlemans views on design are far more attuned to my own notion of enjoyment, so i'm in somewhat of a mixed bag.

 

I will probably wait on a review from the esteemed gentlemen of the RPG Codex, one has found them to be an excellent source in this respect.

 

Gaider joined Beamdog literally yesterday, whatever happens his impact on Siege of Dragonspear will be minimal

[rjshae]

So... does this mean that Minsc will be officially turning gay?

[Nonek]

True Infinitron, but i'm already on the fence regarding these re-released versions, they do not seem to have enough enhanced features to warrant their title in my opinion. Which I will admit is rather draconian, and decidedly grognard-ish.

 

If I am expected to buy the games for a fourth time, then I will need to be wooed far more effectively.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Nonek

[Gfted1]

~snip~

One mans trash and all that...

 

The most damning thing for me in PoE was the combat. I can hand wave any story, but I loves me some combat and sadly I just couldn't "get it" with PoE. I haven't actually played since the second to last beta but I'm fully in acceptance that the problem lies between the chair and the keyboard. For me, every single battle devolved into a pileup in the middle and me spastically machine gunning the space bar to try to get a handle on what was going on.

[rjshae]

If nothing else, the addition probably gives BeamDog instant credibility for producing new titles, rather than rehashing the old.

[Tigranes]

I hate to be the first naysayer in the thread but I find most of Mr Gaider's content very underwhelming: I can spot his writing style a mile off after reading "The Stolen Throne" and my opinion of his prose is less than stellar, based on that and his game work. I also am no fan of his design techniques, the false choices and creative vision over player choice. The less said about the recycled Joss Whedon squeeing humour the better.

 

I was considering purchasing the re-released editions of BG based upon Mr Avellones recommendation of Siege of Dragonspear Castle, however this casts doubt upon that. Then again Mr Knowles original plans for Neverwinter Nights were very attractive, and that gentlemans views on design are far more attuned to my own notion of enjoyment, so i'm in somewhat of a mixed bag.

 

I will probably wait on a review from the esteemed gentlemen of the RPG Codex, one has found them to be an excellent source in this respect.

 

Gaider's very boilerplate, but I still rate things like Ascension, and even HK-47, cliche-filled one-dimensional internet meme he is, is at least funny, i.e. cliche done right. In an industry where 90% of writers write things that you literally forget the second after you read them, and 90% of designers just get different things wrong rather than doing anything right... 

 

We all love Avellone, but he is known to be very positive in public about other games. He'd recommend anything, and basically has in the past. 

 

 

If nothing else, the addition probably gives BeamDog instant credibility for producing new titles, rather than rehashing the old.

 

Well that's the thing. They now have a lot of quality BG1/2 modders like Avenger (Rogue Rebalancing mod, etc), and original Bioware big guns like Gaider. So are they turning? They started off with a horrible BGEE that made the game worse in many ways, and eventually by the 3rd (!) EE they could claim to at least improve a few things while making others worse. Are we going to see Dragonspear finally prove that they can create decent original content, and then get even stronger with these veterans on board? I guess we'll know soon enough. Or others will, I can't bring myself to buy BG:EE just to play Dragonspear unless everyone tells me it's amazing...

[Nonek]

 

I hate to be the first naysayer in the thread but I find most of Mr Gaider's content very underwhelming: I can spot his writing style a mile off after reading "The Stolen Throne" and my opinion of his prose is less than stellar, based on that and his game work. I also am no fan of his design techniques, the false choices and creative vision over player choice. The less said about the recycled Joss Whedon squeeing humour the better.

 

I was considering purchasing the re-released editions of BG based upon Mr Avellones recommendation of Siege of Dragonspear Castle, however this casts doubt upon that. Then again Mr Knowles original plans for Neverwinter Nights were very attractive, and that gentlemans views on design are far more attuned to my own notion of enjoyment, so i'm in somewhat of a mixed bag.

 

I will probably wait on a review from the esteemed gentlemen of the RPG Codex, one has found them to be an excellent source in this respect.

 

Gaider's very boilerplate, but I still rate things like Ascension, and even HK-47, cliche-filled one-dimensional internet meme he is, is at least funny, i.e. cliche done right. In an industry where 90% of writers write things that you literally forget the second after you read them, and 90% of designers just get different things wrong rather than doing anything right... 

 

We all love Avellone, but he is known to be very positive in public about other games. He'd recommend anything, and basically has in the past. 

 

 

Personally I was not impressed at all by Throne of Bhaal, or the ascension version of it, it was far too linear, safe and somewhat boring for dealing with such a potentially interesting topic. I'm afraid to say that I also did not really warm to HK until the second game, he seemed far too scene breaking and out of place for some reason. Probably just a personal issue, however I find most of the gentlemans work similarly fails to amuse me, or downright repulses me. Then again we all have our peculiarities what?

 

You're absolutely right about Mr Avellone, he seems to be a very positive individual, probably because he has such a good vent for his dark side in his game making.

[Tigranes]

Oh, I agree ToB was a disappointment in those ways, but Ascension I thought was a big improvement on the release version. Anyway, sure, it can well be that you don't jive with his work. 

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm not sure how I feel about Gaider because I'm not sure how much of BioWare's drop in story telling is his fault.

[Gromnir]

folks do recall that tob were an expansion, yes?  criticize linearity is always a bit silly in our estimation 'cause we suspect that folks don't actual mean what they says.  wanted more optional and tangential sidequests available in a sandbox kinda game setting?  fine.  "linearity" is not what folks is actual railing 'gainst.  nevertheless, complain 'bout lack o' the optional side-quest content or sandbox for an ie game expansion is silly or misguided or just plain stoopid-- take your pick.

 

as to gaider, am thinking that like so many immediate recognizable crpg writers/developers, he takes too much blame from critics, and likely gets too much credit from fans... and am certain that the work he is most proud of is not the stuff that is most often discussed by fans or critics. 

 

*shrug*

 

am suspecting that one thing that made gaider so well liked is also the reason why other folks hate his writing.  "boiler-plate"?  no.  that being said, gaider always were responsive. gaider listened to fans.  heck, you could see how his romance characters (which Gromnir loathes regardless o' who wrote 'em) evolved.  gaider clear listened and responded to feedback between writing anomen in bg2 as 'posed to fenris in da2.  gaider cared 'bout fan opinions and wanted to give 'em what they desired.  'course Gromnir has always warned that giving folks what they want is a mistake.  as a writer you gotta surprise folks to make 'em appreciate you.  give 'em what they actual ask for and many/most will complain that you is offering boring and cliché. nevertheless, gaider were responsive.  strength and weakness.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

Interesting.  I'll reserve judgement until something (preferably of substance) comes of this.

[Zoraptor]

I'm not sure how I feel about Gaider because I'm not sure how much of BioWare's drop in story telling is his fault.

 

Probably minimal fault for the 'how the story is told'/ technical aspects of story telling, that was pretty consistent across all of Bioware's games whether Gaider was working on them or not, and will probably stay much the same now he has left.

[Tigranes]

Gromnir, yes, my disappointment was that TOB was downscaled to an expansion, rather than being a full game. As an expansion it was a metric ton better than almost any expansion pack out there.

[majestic]

Gromnir, yes, my disappointment was that TOB was downscaled to an expansion, rather than being a full game. As an expansion it was a metric ton better than almost any expansion pack out there.

 

Two hourish DLCs nonwithstanding I would argue that the unmodded ToB is amongst Bioware's weakest exansion packs, just only barely pulling ahead of Awakening. The best I would say were the NWN expansions. They even managed to salvage the utter shice that the original campaign was.