The Dark Knight of Role Playing Games

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Also known as Mister Chris Avellone, has been interviewed by the EDGE magazine about his experiences with the role-playing genre and creating computer games out of it. Fallout, of course, is mentioned, as is the end of his BIS career.<blockquote>Unfortunately, Brian Fargo (then Interplay’s CEO) left during Fallout 3’s development, and things started looking grim. “The company culture changed once Brian Fargo left,” Avellone sighs. “Whatever people could say negatively about Interplay under his guidance, he had a strong vision for where he wanted the company to go and he really put effort and playtime into Interplay’s games. The new guard displayed none of these qualities, and the company climate changed in unpleasant ways. When I resigned, they were more concerned about digging up dirt on other companies recruiting me – and bringing lawsuits against them – rather than figuring out the reasons people were leaving. When I tried to explain the issues with Baldur’s Gate 3, the HR director didn’t even seem to know what Baldur’s Gate 3 was – talk about fucked up! Baldur’s Gate 3 got cancelled because of an accounting error, and we lost the rights to the licence entirely. Having a project cancelled because the dev team is doing a shitty job is one thing, but having another department not check their math is something else.”

Most important to Avellone, though, was that Feargus Urquhart had resigned to form a new company. Once his boss and friend had abandoned ship, Avellone no longer had any desire to remain at Interplay. Obsidian Entertainment was born. </blockquote>Link: The Dark Knight Part 1.
Link: The Dark Knight Part 2.

Arigato, Daimyo-kun.
 
No problem. :)

The interview is a great read I think. (It also touches on Van Buren and interpersonal relationships in the studios where Chris has worked)
It makes me want to replay Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape, Baldur's Gate, NW 2, etc and preorder Alpha Protocol.

Most of all it warms a fuzzy RPG heart and instills dreams of working with MCA one day ...
 
Daimyo said:
The interview is a great read I think. (It also touches on Van Buren and interpersonal relationships in the studios where Chris has worked)
It makes me want to replay Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape, Baldur's Gate, NW 2, etc and preorder Alpha Protocol.

Most of all it warms a fuzzy RPG heart and instills dreams of working with MCA one day ...
Indeed, it's a good read that emits a warm feeling. He had some interesting things to say and it was nice to see a dev admit to his past mistakes and try to learn from them. I thought his comments about Interplay under Herve were quite interesting, nothing really surprising but it really does show a contrast between the Interplay of yesteryear and the Interplay of today.
 
That is a really good interview. Makes me happy to have played and enjoyed all of those games when they came out.
 
Edited in a link to the second part.

Crni Vuk said:
wait a min. SO the guy that screwed Inplay is STILL in charge over the company ?

Herve Caen, sure.

But as MCA hints at, Fargo was a pretty bad manager in certain (mostly monetary) ways before Caen ever stepped in. Interplay was already on a downward course when Herve came to finish it off.
 
Whoo! Go Obsidian. Excellent read that article - and as others have pointed out, did indeed bring warm fuzzy feelings especially glancing over Torment.

Glad to see that there's companies and people out there that still know what real RPGs are. Yes, I'm looking at you, you know who you are. :x

*Makes a note to buy stock in Obsidian*
 
Been replaying Torment with the Fixpack, Unfinished Business, and Widescreen mods. It's still as cool as it was 10 years ago.

I have Icewind Dale, but never got too far into it. I'll have to give it another shot.
 
I didn't know he felt that way about Fallout games. He must involved in NV to some extent.
 
Let's hope they could make NV into what VB would have become. What he mentioned sounded very interesting, especially the bits about re-invigorating the franchise. If the freedom Obsidian is given pays off and brings the franchise back to its roots, we might have a chance of getting Fallout back.

Either that or wait for the next Wasteland.


(Hmm, franchise rhymes with french fries...)
 
Herve Caen : The secret third member of the Chuckle Brothers

the-chuckle-brothers_001761_2_MainPicture.jpg


Hervecaen.jpg


Shortly after Interplay's financial troubles started a short bout of "From me to you" ensued, which Herve lost.

Brother None said:
Herve Caen, sure.

But as MCA hints at, Fargo was a pretty bad manager in certain (mostly monetary) ways before Caen ever stepped in. Interplay was already on a downward course when Herve came to finish it off.

Yeah, Fargo was a pretty bad with finances, but at least he cared about the staff and the games they were making, Herve was garbage with finances and he didn't give a damn about the company's product, which meant all their talent left Interplay like it was a burning building. Once that had happened Interplay had practically no chance of being salvaged, or producing a game that could potentially ease their troubles. (such as BG 3)
 
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