RPGCodex's Feargus Urquhart interview

[Tannhauser]

RPGCodex has posted another interview, only three hours after their last; and this time they feature Feargus Urquhart, founder of Black Isle and CEO of Obsidian. The interview has done a good job of covering the interesting segments of Feargus' career: the heyday of Black Isle; the downfall of Interplay; and past, present, & future of Obsidian. Fallout earns a brief mention at the end, but the entire interview is an interesting read for a RPG fan.<blockquote>16) Our final question: having been previously connected to the development of the Fallout series, what do you feel about Bethesda acquiring the license – and the fanbase? Were you disappointed or relieved that you didn't get the license? After all, you can be quoted as once having said that that "Fallout fans are the worst".

They are the worst! However, I am disappointed that we won't be able to make anymore Fallouts. While there has always been arguments about who was really responsible for Fallout and I've always said that Tim, Leonard and Jason are principally responsible for a lot of what the original Fallout was about, I also know the amount of creativity, time, energy and love that I put into both Fallouts. I hold Fallout really close to my heart and if there was a chance at some point to make another one, I would jump at it.</blockquote>Obsidian also has an intriguing Aliens RPG in development, though outside NMA's scope.

Link: Feargus Urquhart interview at RPGCodex.

 

[mortiz]

Funny Fergus is getting snuggly with Fallout now; he's had opportunities to attempt to create a game in Fallout's mold but showed no real interest in doing that. You know you can say all you want about the realities of the games industry today and about how companies for forced to bow to company pressures, but those who can generally do.

Look at Troika, granted, their games were buggy as hell, sometimes to the point of being unplayable (anyone remember the game-stopper in Bloodlines?) but you could never say they were kidding themselves. They always took on and pursued projects in a way that was true to what type of developer they were, CRPG developers.

You look at Urquhart’s outputs while he's been at Obsidian and it's sometimes difficult to see the connection with the projects he's pursued and his history at Interplay; apart from sticking "RPG" on the box. Hell, maybe what he's doing now is because of what kind of developer he is and I've misjudged him.