Chris Avellone interview

Ausir said:
Er, he did?

Well, technically not. It took lots of other people to "do FNV," too. MCA was only one of the leading writers and a senior designer.

:look:
 
Ausir said:
Er, he did?

I guess he meant it as a "Chris Avellone had no say in the core design of the game", which I presume it's true since he joined mid-project, though it's still an exaggerated way to express it.
 
Well, I wouldn't say he "had no say", since even when he wasn't a designer, he was still Obsidian's creative director and had lots of input.
 
I agree with Ausir.

Even though what I said meant like Chris had some physical input.
But that doesn't matter. FNV wasn't going to be reconstructed or changed from FO3 anyway. He and others gave that game something like a soul, it had a function besides money making.
 
Seems like we need some pics of MCA "doing FNV" or it didn't happen.
 
Ausir said:
Well, I wouldn't say he "had no say", since even when he wasn't a designer, he was still Obsidian's creative director and had lots of input.

Yes, but he didn't design the elements that made FNV better than F3.

On the whole team (non-additionals) he was probably the guy that contributed the least amount of stuff. (Both Eric Fenstermaker and Travis Stout did Area Design aside from Writing) Granted, that also has to do with Ulysseus beeing ripped out of the game towards the end of it but still.

Giving Avellone the credit here (aside when you specify his actual contributions) is wrong.
 
Avellone was the lead designer for Van Buren and it's clear that much of the "ground work" for NV was recycled from Van Buren. Methinks MCA did an awful lot of work then (in terms of characetrs etc) that was re used in NV.
 
His influence is far more palatable in most DLCs, where he was director from day 1 (save for Honest Hearts, Sawyer directed this one no?). Dead Money in particular is pure, distilled Avellonism, and Lonesome Roads seems to be headed that way from all the foreshadowing.
 
C2B said:
Ausir said:
Well, I wouldn't say he "had no say", since even when he wasn't a designer, he was still Obsidian's creative director and had lots of input.

Yes, but he didn't design the elements that made FNV better than F3.

On the whole team (non-additionals) he was probably the guy that contributed the least amount of stuff. (Both Eric Fenstermaker and Travis Stout did Area Design aside from Writing) Granted, that also has to do with Ulysseus beeing ripped out of the game towards the end of it but still.

Giving Avellone the credit here (aside when you specify his actual contributions) is wrong.

You're right, giving him all the credit is wrong. The whole team takes the credit.

But what was here to design if they had no designers plan or someone to direct the way FNV is going to be. Or the game world. Playing with 3D models is always easier than to make an actual functional plan how the whole system or the game should work and not end up brain dead. Saying that he did not have to do anything with FNV is the same as saying he had to do everything. But I do wonder what would FNV turn out to be if he had no part in the makings.
 
I completely agree with Avellone's answer regarding Fallout 3...it is a lot of fun to explore. I love the music, as well...it's a little amusing to me how nostalgic I feel whenever FO3 music starts playing in FO:NV (although, not nearly as nostalgic as in the very rare moments when the Modoc background music from Fallout 2 starts playing, which happens occasionally in Honest Hearts and Old World Blues.)

Unfortunately when you, for some reason, stray into the main quest of Fallout 3, it's a horrible mistake. Not that I'd expect him to say that in an interview...or want him to. We want Bethesda to like Obsidian...
 
I think that is a fair assessment of Fallout 3. I did enjoy the exploration aspects of it on that first play through. Once you've done that once, though, there wasn't much to inspire a replay. The main quest was just atrocious. I still can't quite believe that they actually won awards for writing. The writing in Fallout 3 was just awful.

With New Vegas they at least made a logically consistent world.
 
Fallout 3 had inconsistent world and mediocre to bad writing, but I enjoyed it immensely exactly for its exploration/atmosphere aspects. I loved walking in that landscape, seeing corvega factory in the distance...music was really good too.

NV is of course much better game, thanks to its vastly superior writing and more thought through design all around, but I am still glad I bought and played Fallout 3. And who knows, maybe Skyrim will be better.

Though I wish they would give Fallout 4 to Obsidian, of course.
 
LinkPain said:
But what was here to design if they had no designers plan or someone to direct the way FNV is going to be. Or the game world. Playing with 3D models is always easier than to make an actual functional plan how the whole system or the game should work and not end up brain dead. Saying that he did not have to do anything with FNV is the same as saying he had to do everything. But I do wonder what would FNV turn out to be if he had no part in the makings.

Except that was Sawyers responisiblity. And in terms of narrative John Gonzalez.

Avellones Work as the Creative Director of Obsidian consits of giving feedback and playtesting. Thats his OWN words.

Also, while a lot of the work was based on stuff from Van Buren. It was still massivly changed and reimagined.


Why is it so incredibly hard for you to give credit to other people than Avellone?


Edit: I really have to say something here. I belong to the BIGGEST Avellone Fans you can find. Yet, it really angers me when people try to shift here credit for others work towards him. John Gonzalez almost gets never mentioned around here. Yet, he wrote FNV, creative Lead (Lead Writer) it and wrote the Survivalist in Honest Hearts which got a lot of praise from here too.
 
lmao said:
I completely agree with Avellone's answer regarding Fallout 3...it is a lot of fun to explore. I love the music, as well...it's a little amusing to me how nostalgic I feel whenever FO3 music starts playing in FO:NV

Kind of ironic. I don't like exploring that much unless it's quest-related, and the music was a complete mess - what a rehash of The Elder Scrolls. The Younger Scrolls, that is. I don't even like 50s music - the tracks in the original game were much, much better. Besides, isn't it over violent listening to relaxing jazz while blowing heads to pieces? :)
 
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