Two more in the pre-release interview wave of Fallout 3. GameSpy interviews Emil Pagliarulo.<blockquote>GameSpy: The Fallout franchise is known for its use of dark humor, and we're assuming that we'll see more of that in Fallout 3. How hard is it to write humor, both the situational and dialogue-driven varieties?
Emil Pagliarulo: It's incredibly difficult. The biggest problem is trying too hard. You do that, and any jokes fall flat. So a lot of times it's best to just play it straight. With Fallout, the jokes are very situational. The humor comes naturally from the environment, and the violence, and the situations these people find themselves in. So a lot of times, we can simply create a unique character, maybe an eccentric character, and dark humor comes from seeing how he or see is coping with the world around them. I think one of my favorite examples of this is Andy, the Mister Handy robot you meet at the beginning of the game, in Vault 101. You have an opportunity to catch up with him later in the game (I won't say where or how!), and you can sort of see the predicament he's gotten himself in.
GameSpy: As the writer, what do you personally think is the most entertaining path to take the first time you play through the game: Good, Neutral, or Evil?
Emil Pagliarulo: I think taking the evil route is always a lot of fun, simply because you can let your inhibitions go and do whatever the hell you want. Be a murderer, be a thief... just go nuts and have fun with it. Of course, I say that, and then when I go to play the game myself, I take on the role of a complete goody two-shoes.
I think for a lot of people it all comes down to how they feel about Mister Burke. You meet him really early in the game, in Megaton, and he wants you to destroy a whole town. So he sort of sets the tone of true evil for the entire game. Burke makes a pretty convincing pitch, so if you hear him out, and take him up on his offer -- and it's kind of hard not to -- then I think you'll stay on that dark road through the entire game.</blockquote>As does Gaming Nexus.<blockquote>Like Oblivion the game has a moral choices though out the game, based on customer feedback/your own stats do most people tend to play it good, evil, or somewhere down the middle? Does that impact your design decisions at all?
I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, I love designing “evil” gameplay. I love letting the player get into that really dark place, and experience something really sinister. I always have a sense of humor about it, but it’s something I can’t resist. That sort of started with some of the work I did in Thief 2, and definitely carried over into the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion, and boy of boy is there some of that stuff in Fallout. I mean, even beyond the gameplay videos that have been released. You have no idea! But part of this – and this is the interesting thing – I have real difficulty playing an “evil” character in a game. So I love designing that stuff, but when it comes time to playing it, I just can’t do it. I think I have a serious Catholic guilt complex, to be honest.
Fortunately, most people don’t seem to share my aversion, and love to play the evil characters, so at least I know it’s not wasted work! Bottom line, it’s just really fun to let loose and be evil and do whatever the hell you want – which is to say, everything you can’t do in the real world.</blockquote>
Emil Pagliarulo: It's incredibly difficult. The biggest problem is trying too hard. You do that, and any jokes fall flat. So a lot of times it's best to just play it straight. With Fallout, the jokes are very situational. The humor comes naturally from the environment, and the violence, and the situations these people find themselves in. So a lot of times, we can simply create a unique character, maybe an eccentric character, and dark humor comes from seeing how he or see is coping with the world around them. I think one of my favorite examples of this is Andy, the Mister Handy robot you meet at the beginning of the game, in Vault 101. You have an opportunity to catch up with him later in the game (I won't say where or how!), and you can sort of see the predicament he's gotten himself in.
GameSpy: As the writer, what do you personally think is the most entertaining path to take the first time you play through the game: Good, Neutral, or Evil?
Emil Pagliarulo: I think taking the evil route is always a lot of fun, simply because you can let your inhibitions go and do whatever the hell you want. Be a murderer, be a thief... just go nuts and have fun with it. Of course, I say that, and then when I go to play the game myself, I take on the role of a complete goody two-shoes.
I think for a lot of people it all comes down to how they feel about Mister Burke. You meet him really early in the game, in Megaton, and he wants you to destroy a whole town. So he sort of sets the tone of true evil for the entire game. Burke makes a pretty convincing pitch, so if you hear him out, and take him up on his offer -- and it's kind of hard not to -- then I think you'll stay on that dark road through the entire game.</blockquote>As does Gaming Nexus.<blockquote>Like Oblivion the game has a moral choices though out the game, based on customer feedback/your own stats do most people tend to play it good, evil, or somewhere down the middle? Does that impact your design decisions at all?
I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, I love designing “evil” gameplay. I love letting the player get into that really dark place, and experience something really sinister. I always have a sense of humor about it, but it’s something I can’t resist. That sort of started with some of the work I did in Thief 2, and definitely carried over into the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion, and boy of boy is there some of that stuff in Fallout. I mean, even beyond the gameplay videos that have been released. You have no idea! But part of this – and this is the interesting thing – I have real difficulty playing an “evil” character in a game. So I love designing that stuff, but when it comes time to playing it, I just can’t do it. I think I have a serious Catholic guilt complex, to be honest.
Fortunately, most people don’t seem to share my aversion, and love to play the evil characters, so at least I know it’s not wasted work! Bottom line, it’s just really fun to let loose and be evil and do whatever the hell you want – which is to say, everything you can’t do in the real world.</blockquote>
