A bit more humor and silliness

[Gromnir]

What rhymes with Aumaua?

when we try and pronounce, it calls to mind otis day and the knights

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Katarack21]

 

If quest after quest is darker than the last, i.e. an animancers little wicht of a hollowborn daughter is let out of a locked trunk and tears his throat out, a women fearful of giving birth to a hollowborn baby finds out the medicine that will cure it doesn't do anything of the sort, that the local lord has murdered his wife and child, and that a dude who is a ghost of his former self decides to keep his dead lovers soul trapped in an adra necklace because he can't let go, well that drains people. You have to have some lighter stuff thrown in there to give players a little respite and variety.

 

That's why they have Hiraivis. That's why they have Iselmyr. Etc, etc. Pillars 1 was *dark*, it wasn't unrelenting depression. Besides, not everybody wants or appreciates the "lighter stuff". For some people it's just a distraction from the drama and they'd rather it go away.

[Thundercat710]

I agree with "more humor".  Yes, please.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

If there isn't a belt buckle belt item that's shaped like a ship's wheel, it'll drive me nuts.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

Here's an interesting exchange on FIG that gives some additional perspective.

 

http://imgur.com/a/pbdVv

Not surprising since Feargus was one of the primary culprits in establishing the over the top tone and going overboard with pop culture references in FO2. Then again, he doesn't really have that much influence for Deadfire's writing.

 

Sawyer likes to keep things grounded and he didn't appreciate some of the more whimsical characters from BG.

 

 

 

Didn't Sawyer include a big bunch of the Wild West items in FNV and write like all of the wacky stuff in Old World Blues?

 

I know Sawyer wrote the Something Secret quest in PoE 1, which is pretty hilarious if your mind goes to that angle.

[demeisen]

Fortunately, Pontius Pirate already appeared in Divinity: Original Sin.

[Gromnir]

 

 

Didn't Sawyer include a big bunch of the Wild West items in FNV and write like all of the wacky stuff in Old World Blues?

 

 

 

no. just no.

 

chris avellone were driving force and creative lead for old world blues.  josh took the reigns for honest hearts. notice a distinct difference in narrative tone?

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Katarack21]

 

 

 

Didn't Sawyer include a big bunch of the Wild West items in FNV and write like all of the wacky stuff in Old World Blues?

 

 

 

no. just no.

 

chris avellone were driving force and creative lead for old world blues.  josh took the reigns for honest hearts. notice a distinct difference in narrative tone?

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Chris Avellone and Josh Sawyer work quite well together. They balance each other out.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

no. just no.

 

chris avellone were driving force and creative lead for old world blues.  josh took the reigns for honest hearts. notice a distinct difference in narrative tone?

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

 

They're both listed as narrative designers for OWB though? 

 

Each of the Fallout: New Vegas DLC's was very deliberately taken in a different direction in terms of tone etc. -- my understanding was that wasn't so much "Avellone writes like this, Sawyer writes like this" as it was a conscious choice to make Dead Money a noir homage, Old World Blues a B-movie zaniness homage, etc., with basically each DLC taking on a different genre. 

 

I could have sworn I'd read a Somethingawful quote where Ropekid talked about deliberately writing more humor into Old World Blues but I could be wrong. I had also assumed he was responsible for the inclusion of  a number of rather silly Somethingawful in-jokes into New Vegas (Zybourne Clock / Johnny Five Aces specifically). He doesn't actually hate fun.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Aleh1811]

it's good that see they promise there will be more humor in to the game. for me that should not be concentrated in a couple of comic relief characters, but balanced around all important characters. please don't give me more characters that like cdurance and grieving mother that are all about depression and solemnity. put some light hearted aspects to them. it makes them more human and relatable.

[Gromnir]

 

 

no. just no.

 

chris avellone were driving force and creative lead for old world blues.  josh took the reigns for honest hearts. notice a distinct difference in narrative tone?

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

 

They're both listed as narrative designers for OWB though? 

 

Each of the Fallout: New Vegas DLC's was very deliberately taken in a different direction in terms of tone etc. -- my understanding was that wasn't so much "Avellone writes like this, Sawyer writes like this" as it was a conscious choice to make Dead Money a noir homage, Old World Blues a B-movie zaniness homage, etc., with basically each DLC taking on a different genre. 

 

I could have sworn I'd read a Somethingawful quote where Ropekid talked about deliberately writing more humor into Old World Blues but I could be wrong. I know that he wrote a number of rather silly Somethingawful in-jokes into New Vegas (Zybourne Clock / Johnny Five Aces specifically). He doesn't actually hate fun.

 

have no idea 'bout what you read at something awful, but you are taking way too much outta context from simple seeing josh named for writing credit o' owb.  is gonna be any number o' writers on even a small dlc such as owb.  not everything in owb were funny.  there were funny stuff in virtual every game obsidian has made, with the exception o' honest hearts, but such don't mean every obsidian writer is funny or likes humor.  

 

honest hearts were josh's baby.  he coulda added humor. or not.  went most decided with not.  

 

heck, can probable simple check for "humor" and "sawyer" on these boards and you is gonna see how josh prefers less silly and were very much disliking bg 1 style and degree o' humor.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited February 28, 2017 by Gromnir

[Leferd]

 

 

Here's an interesting exchange on FIG that gives some additional perspective.

 

http://imgur.com/a/pbdVv

Not surprising since Feargus was one of the primary culprits in establishing the over the top tone and going overboard with pop culture references in FO2. Then again, he doesn't really have that much influence for Deadfire's writing.

 

Sawyer likes to keep things grounded and he didn't appreciate some of the more whimsical characters from BG.

 

 

 

Didn't Sawyer include a big bunch of the Wild West items in FNV and write like all of the wacky stuff in Old World Blues?

 

I know Sawyer wrote the Something Secret quest in PoE 1, which is pretty hilarious if your mind goes to that angle.

 

 

Sawyer was ambivalent about the Wild Wasteland perk, but acquiesced by including it as an opt-in trait.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

have no idea 'bout what you read at something awful, but you are taking way too much outta context from simple seeing josh named for writing credit o' owb.  is gonna be any number o' writers on even a small dlc such as owb.  not everything in owb were funny.  there were funny stuff in virtual every game obsidian has made, with the exception o' honest hearts, but such don't mean every obsidian writer is funny or likes humor.  

 

 

honest hearts were josh's baby.  he coulda added humor. or not.  went most decided with not.  

 

heck, can probable simple check for "humor" and "sawyer" on these boards and you is gonna see how josh prefers less silly and were very much disliking bg 1 style and degree o' humor.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

 

Fair enough I suppose. I do know he wrote the "Something Secret" quest in PoE (Gordy and the March Steel dagger) which *is* funny, albeit a fairly dry kind of humor.

[Gromnir]

oh, and being relative humorless is not bad.  our linked post 'bove mentions elmore leonard's admiration for hemingway and hemingway were a decided humorless author.  you can be a funny guy and not be a funny writer.  can be a great writer and not be funny.  for poe2 to be having more humor do not require josh humor or josh appreciation o' humor.  even so, am not gonna imagine qualities into josh which has never been exhibited in previous games.

 

yxunomei.  is 'bout as funny as josh ever got with a character.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Heijoushin]

oh, and being relative humorless is not bad.  our linked post 'bove mentions elmore leonard's admiration for hemingway and hemingway were a decided humorless author.  you can be a funny guy and not be a funny writer.  can be a great writer and not be funny.  for poe2 to be having more humor do not require josh humor or josh appreciation o' humor.  even so, am not gonna imagine qualities into josh which has never been exhibited in previous games.

 

yxunomei.  is 'bout as funny as josh ever got with a character.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Josh wrote Yxunomei? I love that snake chick! (and Icewind Dale's humour in general). If that's Josh's sense of humour, I think there is hope.

[Leferd]

Josh wrote Ribsmasher. I suppose the concept was kinda funny.

 

[Lord_Mord]

 

I think this team has earned our trust.

 

And lost it again by whatever that was with Chris Avalone. I don't think, he's the genius some people want to see in him. But he created Durance and Grieving Mother. For me both characters, especially Durance are an integral part of the Dyrwood. It seemed to me just as if Eder and Durance were two sides of a coin, both representing different aspects of and views on the world. But the team doesn't seem to like Durance part. And without that component the whole story would seem kind of hollow / one sided to me. That's why I'm more than just suspicious when they say, they want to go for a lighter mood.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Lord_Mord

[Lorfean]

I liked the tone of PoE and the humor that was there usually made me chuckle -- but it all comes down to personal taste of course. One thing I am pretty confident in is that they won't take it to BG or F2 levels in terms of silliness and references. Carrie's comment of "this isn't dead baby world anymore" was immediately followed by sth along the lines of "but we're not gonna go full Baldur's Gate either". Seems a pretty clear indication of their preferences.

 

And, really, the BG games were super campy. I liked it as a teenager, and I'm used to it as part of that series, but nowadays I prefer the more mature tone Obsidian tends to go for in their games. KotOR2 and F:NV (OWB and the Wild Wasteland stuff aside) were similar in that regard -- more mature, intelligent, sophisticated, whatever you want to call it -- and you can still have humor in games like that, without going campy or silly.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Lorfean

[Leeuwenhart]

A Shrubberry i sayyyyyyy!

[tinysalamander]

…I do know he wrote the "Something Secret" quest in PoE (Gordy and the March Steel dagger) which *is* funny, albeit a fairly dry kind of humor.

Is that the one where you need Survival 4 to tell a kid that knife is dangerous? I’m not quite sure how their civilization still exists

[Karkarov]

 

 

I think this team has earned our trust.

 

And lost it again by whatever that was with Chris Avalone.

Yeah no.  If there was ever an over rated video game writer it is him.  I am not saying he is a hack, he is even one of the principle writers on what I feel was the best written Obsidian game ever... Alpha Protocol.  That said, you don't "need" him to have a good game.  He also handled the situation from Eternity 1 very poorly and made many public statements that were not super professional. 

 

In the end, the team does deserve the trust of it's fans, with or without him.

[molotov.]

"Two of the characters that many loved (durance and grieving mother) were for me far too long winded and distant. I had them at my party for mechanical reasons but I hated them to death." I couldn't agree more...

Kana Rua was my favourite companion, his dialogues were light and entertaining to read, he had some pretty funny comments about the world, well... it was funny if you knew about the lore, for example, one time I was near that BIG Adra Stone in the middle of the map and he said something like "try to not knock down that rock..." it was pretty funny if you knew about the stone war, It felt that he was part of that world and also connected with your world, because of his humour and happiness. Grieving mother and Durance were just too disconnected from the real world to be likeable... but I do understand why people liked them.

That being said... I agree with you, we need more humour, A LOT of humour.

[Heijoushin]

"Two of the characters that many loved (durance and grieving mother) were for me far too long winded and distant. I had them at my party for mechanical reasons but I hated them to death." I couldn't agree more...

 

Not sure where you get the idea that Durance and Grieving Mother are well loved... I agree with your statements though.

[Koth]

Yes humor is very important, even in a dark game.

 

To quote Bob Ross: "You need the dark to see the light.", and the reverse holds true as well. 

 

Moments of levity in a game only seek to highlight the sometimes bleakness of the task at hand. The best movies, books and games have often realized this and I sincerely hope that Deadfire will as well.

[Regggler]

Not sure where you get the idea that Durance and Grieving Mother are well loved... I agree with your statements though.

 

 

I actually like both of them, albeit for different reasons.

 

The Grieving Mother for me was just something new and unexpected - when have I ever had a virtually invisible midwife in the party. I also felt that the Birthing Bell story was a nice change of pace. Reasonably poetic imagery, undercurrents of horror and deceit, woven into a topic usually far from my mind.

 

As for Durance, I think he's a pretentious ass with an exaggerated opinion of himself.

Even if he's big enough to admit he was wrong in the end.

Most characters in other RPGs that I don't like I can more or less discount as "well, that's just is the neutral evil companion". Durance, however, managed to make me dislike him *as a person*. Therefore, I have to give props to the way he was written.

 

Back to topic: Both their stories are of course perfect examples of "dead baby world" grimdarkness. And I'm rather glad they got balanced out by things like Edér going "Hey pig! Woo pig! Ha ha, look at him with his little tail!". As they say, "Balance in all things". And really, I trust Obsidian to find this balance.