Gamasutra interviews Emil Pagliarulo

[Crni Vuk]

The sad part is, that awards like these have some influence in setting a general standart in the industry, for the quality of writing in games. So these brown nosing parasites of the media are fucking it up for everyone

The worst part is that it isn't just the media, they got awards from the industry award thing as well.

The only idea I have is that it all works hand in hand.
They blow one's own horn with the awards and praise coming from one company to the other I guess. I am not a pro, but if I think about it, some award here another one there, and in the end you can release the most crapy story or content but you still get the 10/10 for it. Its a nice thing for a company if you think about it, no more reason to spend any resources on story and really intelligent writting, when I say intelligent I am not meaning a quality of Shakespeare or Descart. I mean intelligent in the sense of different writting for different roles, that when you play a character with 100 (or more) in science that he does REALLY sound like a character that has a clue about science and not just repeats the obvious (so fighting for the good fight eeh ?).

That seems to have been loost somewhere over time where the dialogue of your character realy represents the role that you are playing either from a medic, to a scientist or if you want a battle hardened veteran.

 

[Public]

Indeed, there is no rational explanation for Fallout 3 beating out GTA IV on writing, dead on there mr Pagliarulo.

That's right, no rational explanation! Fallout 3's best writing award is a mystery to us all...

 

[Nexuiz]

Indeed, there is no rational explanation for Fallout 3 beating out GTA IV on writing, dead on there mr Pagliarulo.

That's right, no rational explanation! Fallout 3's best writing award is a mystery to us all...

They just counted the lines of text. Fallout3 had more. Winner. Easy.

 

[cronicler]

Lets see; a love struck idiot boy who is chasing after his fathers footsteps avoiding the giant story holes the size of carrier capable drydocks sauced with seriously elementary writing and old 2 games' ashes....

On the other corner we have an east European: borderline psycho, hard-line cynic and down on his last bullet; trying to live the American Dream with decent story, nice writings, side dish of social interactions and girlfriends and whatnot.

Sure it is clear what is better! GTA was too complex for the retarded generation!

 

[UncannyGarlic]

Some people have been really saying that single-player is dead.

Like who? I've honestly never heard this before but I hardly consider myself up to day on what's hip in gaming.

Our goal, anyway, is to capture a little bit of that magic of PC games. I think a lot of our audience is in that same category. They see what we do and appreciate it. I think there's definitely some of that going on. There's not a lot of that on the console, so it's almost like we have that novelty quality, too. We have those niches -- the giant open game niche, and also this PC game novelty niche, too.

I feel safe in saying that Bethesda captures no feelings "PC novelty" and in fact have scorned people, Fallout fans in particular, for wanting and liking such elements. I will give him that Bethesda does dominate the FPS-ARPG hybrid genre as pretty much no one else makes them.

You're working with the Brotherhood of Steel to wipe up the Enclave remnants once and for all.

I find the idea of whiping out the Enclave amusing considering Fallout 2. If the Enclave is on the east coast and the west coast, then I find it highly unlikely that it wouldn't be elsewhere.

Now, you're reacting to that feedback almost immediately. We're able to, months later, respond to that player feedback and put out DLC. For us, it's been a tremendous success. We're actually surprised that more companies don't do it, but we also know how difficult it is to do.

I, for one, am glad that more companies don't do it. Give me an expansion pack over three DLC packs any day. Still, Witcher did far more, far better for free.

Shivering Isles was a major project, and horse armor was -- well, we were one of the first people to do DLC, so it was an experiment.

No, horse armor was stolen directly from free-to-play online games which have been doing it for quite awhile. Bethesda didn't lead and charge on DLC.

We used the Knights of the Nine model of small, well-priced, additional quests with new stuff. Look at Operation: Anchorage -- four, five hours of gameplay. People criticized it.

Yes, that's because it isn't well-priced, jackass.

And thematically, The Pitt plays a lot more on the shades of gray. We explored moral ambiguity a little bit in the base game, but we were just starting to get a feel for it.

Hey, at least he admits that they are new at moral ambiguity and that they didn't have a handle on it throughout the production of Fallout 3.

I think as we wrapped up production, we thought, "We understand this now. We get it, and we want to do it." In The Pitt, it's much more, "What is good and what is evil, and which line do I walk?"

That's not moral ambiguity, moral ambiguity is the lack of any good or evil or the mix of it. The Pitt is extremely heavy handed in how it deals with moral ambiguity, making all of the characters as "evil" as possible but fighting for "good" causes. That's not morally ambiguious, that's black and white.

 

[Garsty]

Maybe they accidentally submitted the story of FO1/2 ?

 

[bhlaab]

Maybe they accidentally submitted the story of FO1/2 ?

I'm sure more half of the recognition Fallout 3 gets for its story is because of the general setting the first two set up.

I mean imagine if you've never heard of Fallout 1 and 2 before you picked up 3, the retro futurism stuff would seem incredibly unique not to mention legacy stuff like the vaults and the idea of paramilitary factions in post-apocalyptic america.

However, from our point of view it's just "Okay they did it again, except worse"
Take out all reference points and there is no such thing as "worse"

 

[Lingwei]

I, for one, am glad that more companies don't do it. Give me an expansion pack over three DLC packs any day. Still, Witcher did far more, far better for free.

The sheer business brilliance of it is amazing. For the same price instead of producing a full expansion taking over a whole year to develop they can pump out less stuff in 4 months and charge the same amount as what an expansion would cost. I bet the suits are sitting there in their ivory palaces twirling their mustaches, toasting one another and cackling over the new way they have found to line their pockets even further.

As for Fallout 3 winning 'best writing', isn't this the competition where half the entries are disqualified anyway because the credits list their writers as designers rather than writers?

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Some people have been really saying that single-player is dead.

Are you sure? I saw it yesterday and it looked in fine health to me.
Just a little miffed that its being used so badly lately.

I find the idea of whiping out the Enclave amusing considering Fallout 2. If the Enclave is on the east coast and the west coast, then I find it highly unlikely that it wouldn't be elsewhere.

No doubt about that one, I wonder how people will react when it is revealed in Fallout 4 that the Enclave once more is the primary bad guy.

Emil "Well you did eliminate them in the Capital Wasteland but they have dozens of bases all over the former United States."

Yes, that's because it isn't well-priced, jackass.

Nor was Operation: Anchorage five hours long for that matter.
Perhaps for someone who plays FPS games for the first time but most of us have played games longer.

 

[Dionysus]

The sheer business brilliance of it is amazing. For the same price instead of producing a full expansion taking over a whole year to develop they can pump out less stuff in 4 months and charge the same amount as what an expansion would cost. I bet the suits are sitting there in their ivory palaces twirling their mustaches, toasting one another and cackling over the new way they have found to line their pockets even further.

I really don't get upset about the guys that are selling it, but it bothers me that people buy it. I get especially agitated by people that complain about it, but still feel compelled to buy it.

As for Fallout 3 winning 'best writing', isn't this the competition where half the entries are disqualified anyway because the credits list their writers as designers rather than writers?

That was the WGA. This is the GDC, which is even more disturbing because it comes from those in the industry rather than the media.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

The sheer business brilliance of it is amazing. For the same price instead of producing a full expansion taking over a whole year to develop they can pump out less stuff in 4 months and charge the same amount as what an expansion would cost. I bet the suits are sitting there in their ivory palaces twirling their mustaches, toasting one another and cackling over the new way they have found to line their pockets even further.

Oh, most certainly. Still, I'm hoping that people wise up and stop buying it. DLC like the Pitt and Operation: Anchorage shouldn't cost more than $10, I'd say that $5 is most reasonable for the amount of content offered (ie equivalent to standard releases).