Tim Cain… Now at Obsidian !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Straight off his Facebook page.

I'm ecstatic :) A great studio gets even better.

Well neither Troika nor Obsidian have a good track record on bugs. They do have a good track record on kick ass games though. Hopefully an indicator he wants to do single player games again and has scratched the MMO itch and not an indicator that Obsidian is going MMO.

Feargus is slowly putting together the old Black Isle. He just needs to snatch Leonard Boyarsky away from the diabolical hands of Blizzard now ;)

Err, not to be overly skeptical or anything - but didn't an individual from the Codex once create a false Tim Cain facebook page?

If it's true, I also heartily agree that it's fantastic news for Obsidian, for fans of Troika - hell, for fans of computer role playing games full-stop!

I'm just one of many who surely would very much like to see his PnP inspired creativity injected into another single player role-playing project.

What's happening with the Carbine MMO he was working on though?

This is indeed his profile, been following it for a while. He quit Carbine Studios a little while back.

To be honest, I would much rather have Troika still in existence with a few members of Obsidian instead of the opposite ;). Troika had a vision for creativity that Obsidian just doesn't have at the same level (in my opinion). But hey, I'll take the the little victories and be glad that Obsidian just got a little better.

I'm not sure I agree. At any rate, I'm going to wait for better confirmation. The link doesn't even work for me.

Hmm I loved troika's games, but not one of them actually made it out without a glaring weakness (Vampire may be the one exception to the rule) I loved Arcanum, but man it had a weak combat system. Then you look at temple of elemental evil, great combat system, just everything else besides graphics sucked. Man, it is hard to believe they made only 3 games.

Fuck yep!, if true.

I certainly can't argue against the notion that Troika's games were flawed, but it's what they accomplished in spite of the flaws that I have always greatly admired, along with the incredibly inspired creativity that they had. A Troika game is immediately recognizable, and very few developers have imbued their games with the spirit of creativity the way that Troika did. The worst part is that their games were getting better with each release; I wonder what would have come next after Bloodlines, or what they would have one with an Arcanum 2. There will never be another Troika, but at least Tim Cain is joining another company that loves RPGs (if the report is confirmed) - his presence can only help Obsidian in the areas where they need more inspiration. Now if only Obsidian could hire better programmers to augment the creative personnel…;)

Tim was actually hired in the role of Senior Programmer.

If this is true then I may have to kiss you, Drithius!!! :P The world of the CRPG just got a little brighter.

This will be pretty good news if it's true.

What Obsidian needs right now is a really good progamming/bugsquashing team.

Well then…I guess now we'll see what happens when the bugs of Troika and Obsidian are combined into one! ;) In all seriousness though, i would have expected Obsidian to hire Cain in a creative role in order to assist in areas they needs more work on, i.e., world design, "immersion elements" as related to atmosphere and tone, how to build a consistent and unique setting, etc. Those are Troika strengths that would really benefit and add to the already solid writing of Obsidian.

Regardless of the role, I'm happy for Cain that he is working with a company that still has passion for the craft…now they just need to plan a rescue mission to save Leonard Boyarsky from the soulless corporate world of Blizzard ;)

Is Senior Programmer a demotion? Seems like he should be a director or something after so many years including being ceo of small firm? Still probably a good thing in any case.

How much of those are Boyarsky or Anderson strengths, rather than Tim? I don't think they were strengths of his "own" Troika project. I don't know the answer, by the way, just a thought.

There's also what he wanted to do and what Obsidian (assuming this is true) had in terms of open roles.

As for being a game director…well, again, there are only so many of those. As a final thought (and this is just an observation, not an assertion) Troika "mutinied" way back when…Feargus and co might have to weigh Tim's skill against a past history of differing views. Anyway, there are a lot of variables. The guy may well be most happy banging out some code.

Maybe now the other coders can focus on becoming artists, rather than doing half a job in both positions ;)

Very interesting, looking forward to hearing what kind of project he's on.

Also, I very much doubt being senior programmer prevents him from being creative. They know who they're dealing with, so he's bound to have some influence. It probably just means he wants to get a bit more hands-on in terms of development.

I've been a senior programmer myself. In all honesty it's not a very specific title, it just indicates that you do some programming and that you're experienced at it. Beyond that, it could mean anything.

Some people even consider programming to be a creative field!

I was only recently trying to find out what he's doing nowadays so as far as I'm concerned these news are well-timed as well as fascinating.
The more freedom to express (their own engine) and the more ex-BI heads Obsidian has the better.