Edge Online interviews Tim Cain

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Brother None

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Edge Online interviews Tim Cain about Carbine studio, plus here's the two questions we saw snippets of before:<blockquote>What are your impressions of what you’ve seen of Fallout 3? Do you think that they’re doing that franchise justice?

TC: I do like what I’ve seen about Fallout 3. I’ve talked to those guys at Bethesda about it and they know that it’s their IP now and they’ve gone in a certain direction that I find very intriguing. It’s not necessarily the direction I would have gone, but I can tell you I have my Fallout 3 pre-ordered. I want my life-sized Pip-Boy and I’m going to be all ready to play that at the end of the month.

What direction would you have taken it? The way that they describe it is they’re basing it more off of the feel of the original Fallout rather than Fallout 2, obviously with their own twist on it. But what would you have done different?

TC: I’m not sure. I’ve hardly thought about Fallout. I did think more about the online version of Fallout, because I’ve also talked to the guys at Interplay about Fallout Online. The biggest problem I have with expanding the game currently is the single player games were designed to make you feel like you’re one of the last people on earth. With Fallout 3 and the online version, I’m curious how they handle making the game not feel too crowded, like there’s not a lot of life out there that’s left after the war. But I’m not sure. I like how they did called shots. It’s an interesting way of adding called shots into a game that otherwise has real-time combat. I’m still waiting to see how the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. survives the transition into real time, but to be honest I’m approaching Fallout 3 as a consumer, not a developer. I just want to play it and enjoy it. </blockquote>
 
Its quite depressing read, to be honest.

Maker of the best singleplayer RPGs ever, Fallout, Bloodlines, Arcanum.. plays 4 MMOs and is about to make yet another one? : (

And I have a feeling he is lying about "hardly thinking about fallout at all". After all, Troika themselves were about to make post-apo RPG, and I am sure if they secured the license + got money for production, Fallout 3 would look like that canceled game.
 
It's amusing how he talks about his new game being more teen oriented than his previous games, especially that most of Fallout fans that I know in RL were young teenagers when they played it first and it's atmosphere worked great for them.

Paul_cz said:
Maker of the best singleplayer RPGs ever, Fallout, Bloodlines, Arcanum.. plays 4 MMOs and is about to make yet another one? : (
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It would be more depressing if he was working on a MMO game without playing any :P .
 
Sorrow said:
It would be more depressing if he was working on a MMO game without playing any :P .
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Not really, for me its depressing all the same, cause I loathe MMOs and won't play it either way : ).


...unless it ends up being very much story driven with emphasis on choice and consequence plus dialogues, with social MMO atribute as a bonus...

Heh, I guess thats not gonna happen though.
 
Sorrow said:
It's amusing how he talks about his new game being more teen oriented than his previous games, especially that most of Fallout fans that I know in RL were young teenagers when they played it first and it's atmosphere worked great for them.
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Underestimating one's audience is a common mistake. I can kind of see why one would try to target teens but at the same time, most gamers are in their twenties and early thirties, so if you're going to target an age group, why not target them? People generally react more favorably to content which they feel treats them like intelligent human beings so I think it's a mistake to dial down content for a younger audience. That said, I doubt that he's the one to make that choice.
 
Has anyone ever seen Tim Cain criticizing someone, or something? Every time i see something written about him, it seems like he's a Ned Flanders kind of guy :).
 
UncannyGarlic said:
Sorrow said:
It's amusing how he talks about his new game being more teen oriented than his previous games, especially that most of Fallout fans that I know in RL were young teenagers when they played it first and it's atmosphere worked great for them.
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Underestimating one's audience is a common mistake. I can kind of see why one would try to target teens but at the same time, most gamers are in their twenties and early thirties, so if you're going to target an age group, why not target them? People generally react more favorably to content which they feel treats them like intelligent human beings so I think it's a mistake to dial down content for a younger audience. That said, I doubt that he's the one to make that choice.
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There is a lot of books that are mandatory for teenagers and are darker and more serious than a lot of M games.
I mean, they must read Illiad, Oedipus the King, Antigone, etc. (these are mandatory for 13 year old teens in Poland.) and all that drastic/graphic/perverse/serious/tragic ancient stuff but can't play games like Fallout? That's absurd.
 
I hate the politics of the Game Developer World. You can never seem to know how they truly feel... unless they have a breakdown and start ranting.

General statements like these though do tend to give me that Warren Spector "Deus Ex 2: IW" vibe. Proving how someone so awesome can do something so very not awesome. Hopefully it's nothing. :|
 
Grey_Ghost said:
I hate the politics of the Game Developer World. You can never seem to know how they truly feel... unless they have a breakdown and start ranting.
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I don't think there is much politics. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's just that guys like Tim Cain are mature. I'm sure that when he plays it and he doesn't like what Bethesda did, he's going to personally be distressed. However, if you rant and rave in public, calling every non-turn based game a POS, like that guy who is working on that roman-theme post apoc game, then you just sound stupid.
 
That's the "politics" Grey Ghost was just talking about. You can't potentially piss off people from whom you may be asking for a job, or their friends, especially in the relatively tight world of video game developers.

There are, after all, only a few medium-to-large dev houses, fewer that don't go under after a few years, and a very, very few number of people with the money to give a project a 'green light' and see it through to the end, paying... who knows how many programmers, PR people, testers, etc. (or getting interns to work for a pittance or no pay).

So, like I said, tis a small world for game developers. Tim, even if he was really, really really *really* mad at Bethsoft for Fallout 3, wouldn't say anything bad. It would make him look stupid, irresponsible and immature, and possibly screw up his chances for more work.
 
Plissken said:
However, if you rant and rave in public, calling every non-turn based game a POS, like that guy who is working on that roman-theme post apoc game, then you just sound stupid.
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No, it just makes you sound like a person whose bread and butter doesn't depend on having good relations with big developers and their audience.
 
It actually makes you sound idiotic and stupid. Still, Vince doesn't call every non-turn based game a POS. Go ask him.
 
I refered to actual VDwellers behaviour, not the "every non-TB game is stupid" hyperbole :P .
Oh wait. You're right :P .
 
Well I think we can all agree his comments aren't negative enough.

Did Bethesda bribe him, too?
 
I think it's safe to say Bethesda is so wily they bribed Tim Cain before he made Fallout.
 
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