Jason D. Anderson interview

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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GameBanshee got the chance to catch up with Jason D. Anderson on the Interplay MMO project (the Fallout MMO). They can't officially discuss the project, but a few questions are of interest to us:<blockquote>GB: Just to clarify as there is some confusion - are you working on an unannounced MMO that isn't Fallout Online?

Jason: Interplay is working on one MMO. It has not been "formally" announced, so I am not able to talk about it yet.
(...)
GB: If you could name one or two things you want to improve when it comes to MMO standards, what would they be?

Jason: The 2 big things that I always think about improving upon are the storytelling and the character development, because I personally have not been happy with it in any of the MMOs I've played.

I think the core storytelling methods used in current MMOs could be improved on. A lot of the concepts of the worlds I've visited feel very convoluted to me. When you have a couple thousand quests that are given out sporadically, it is very hard to keep the story together. The story can easily get lost in the noise produced by the designers attempting to be creative with their quests. And this can make the world lack cohesion.

True character development is another thing I would like to see improved. It seems like most MMOs have reduced characters to a grouping of stats and a configuration of skills. I don't want to go into details about my ideas at the moment, but I will say that I believe there needs to be a feeling that you are making choices in the world and at the very least I believe these choices should affect your character personally.
(...)
GB: Can we ever expect to see you back in the single-player RPG business?

Jason: Well of course. As I've stated in other interviews, I love games. All types of games. Heck, I'd love to work on a tactical turn-based strategy game too. As I stated earlier, something like that will come along, just give it some time.

I will be occupied with this project for a few years, so it might not be me that rebirths the genre, but it will definitely happen. I have no doubt of that. And when it does I'll be right there with the rest of you guys - ready to play!</blockquote>Link: Interplay MMORPG Interview.
 
Jason: Well of course. As I've stated in other interviews, I love games. All types of games. Heck, I'd love to work on a tactical turn-based strategy game too. As I stated earlier, something like that will come along, just give it some time.
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Doesn't he know, that he shouldn't want to make a turn-based game, because now there are real time games?
 
Jason: Even though I have been away from the game industry for the past couple of years, I have kept in contact with people. Hervé has wanted to do this project for a long time, but has not been in a financial position to move forward. He and I have been talking about it for nearly a year and he has worked steadily to get the project up and running. I have always felt that it was one of the few projects that could entice me back into the game industry. I am very happy to finally get a chance to work on it.
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Ok, now I won't believe anymore that they are not working on FOOL.

But this guy is great. We may really see something interesting in this MMO. He is willing to create a game with a good story and character development (that may be just hype but at least his hype is better than most game devs nowdays.
 
I wonder if they'll look up information on the Fallout setting in The Vault as well. :)
 
Ausir said:
I wonder if they'll look up information on the Fallout setting in The Vault as well. :)
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I doubt it. Jason D. Anderson knows Fallout a lot better than Bethesda does, and better than you do, too.
 
Sure, he knows Fallout better, but he might not know all about Fallout 2 and 3 (which they'll probably will try to be consistent with), and he won't be the only person on the team.

Anyway, I hope that even if the game itself turns out to be bad, Jason and his team will add some new good stuff to the Fallout canon. IMHO it would be nice if they incorporated some of the Van Buren stuff into canon.
 
Can Interplay even make a Fallout MMO now that Bethesda has the rights to the Fallout name? Everyone else on this forum would know the answer better than me.

Knowing how long games take to get to beta means what ever MMO Interplay is making means it will be a long time before we ever see anything.
 
Serbaside said:
Can Interplay even make a Fallout MMO now that Bethesda has the rights to the Fallout name? Everyone else on this forum would know the answer better than me.

Knowing how long games take to get to beta means what ever MMO Interplay is making means it will be a long time before we ever see anything.
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Interplay kept the rights for a Fallout MMO .

I think the core storytelling methods used in current MMOs could be improved on. A lot of the concepts of the worlds I've visited feel very convoluted to me. When you have a couple thousand quests that are given out sporadically, it is very hard to keep the story together. The story can easily get lost in the noise produced by the designers attempting to be creative with their quests. And this can make the world lack cohesion.
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nicely said !!!
because most of the MMO's today don't have any interesting quests or stories.
 
The real pain is that MMOs don't really offer any kind of choices and consequences, making SHIT out of RPG.
In a crpg you can, let's say, destroy a city. How would you implement that in a MMO, where it has to affect every single player?

I wonder if Fallout MMO will be another typical MMO, maybe Grindout.

"hai guise im farming deathclaws cause they r dropin plasma rifles +1"
 
Sure, he knows Fallout better, but he might not know all about Fallout 2 and 3
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I'm pretty sure he knows all about Fallout 2 - he was one of designers. But why "3"? Bethesda forgot about Interplay's Tactics and BoS, Interplay forgot about Bethesda's Oblivion add-on. Бизнес по-русски :roll:
 
He was one of the designers, but the Troika Trio left early during the design process.

You don't miss any opportunity to pimp your Wiki, do you?
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I've missed some opportunities...
 
Would be funny if Herve just tossed Jason the Van Buren designs, maps and engine and told them to make a MMO out of that, in order to make things cheaper.
 
Hmm, how many Pre War Prisons can be blown up, space shuttles take off and orbiting space stations armed with ballistic missiles can be explored?
 
I dare to think ausir may know (or have in wiki) more than Jason about fallout. I'm not counting things like how did the developement look like.
Simply Jason doesn't have to remember much detail. He did his job and had fun but doesn't have to be a maniacal fan of his work :P
 
Still, he knows more about background stuff that didn't actually make it into the game.
 
globbi said:
Simply Jason doesn't have to remember much detail. He did his job and had fun but doesn't have to be a maniacal fan of his work :P
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As he put it in his developer profile:
Leonard. Leonard was my biggest art influence on Fallout. I shared an office with him, so I suppose this was only natural. Leonard drove the look and feel of the art in the game and some of what he was doing with the game I was familiar with, but some of it he introduced me to. In regards to art style, I was truly following his lead as to the look and feel of the game. Although, after spending 3 years sharing an office with him, I pretty much nailed down the look and feel of Fallout. Ask me a question now - I know it all.
 
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