Obsidian Entertainment - Interview with Feargus Urquhart at the Codex

Corwin

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One of our regular forum posters Role Player has scored an interview with Obsidian head honcho Feargus Urquhart which has been posted over at the Codex. Here's a snip:
4) The Sith Lords had a considerable amount of cut content, which caused much discussion in the community and the creation of fan projects with the intent of restoring the game. While the publisher had its share of blame, do you feel part of the issue may have been a lack of management focus?

I'm pretty good and taking the responsibility for things that happen on our games and I could, of course, say that there were things that we could have done to get more content in the game. But, that's always the case. Every game I have ever made has had content cut during its production. This happens for a ton of reasons. Often it is because we just planned for too much up front, which is partly what happened with KotOR2 and we had to ship before we were able to really polish the end of the game. I am still very proud of what we did with KotOR2 and I feel the excitement over the end of the game being "castrated", as I've heard people say, is a little harsh and melodramatic. Particularly when that is followed with comments about the second and third time that person played through the game. Having said that, I'm not excusing anything or sweeping anything under the rug. I want more for every game we make, and I feel we can always do better job at it.
You can read the entire interview here .
More information.
 
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Feargus, the newborn diplomat. :)
So, there are still some old timers holding the fort and living inside codex eh?
 
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Very interesting interview, I am looking forward to Obsidians future projects. An "Alien RPG" by anyone other than Obsidian would most likely end up as a shooter with stats, but if Feargus says it's going to be a proper RPG, then that's what it's going to be. It might actually turn out very well, but I'll keep my expections low untill we know more.
 
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If I would say that I have an idol, or a person that I look up to and strive to be like, it's Feargus Urquhart.

13) When looking at the current crop of games in the market, is there any game that catches your attention? Do you look at any recent release, CRPG or otherwise, and feel that Obsidian should try doing something like it?
I'm really looking forward to playing STALKER – I should just fire up that Direct2Drive download. I've also really enjoyed Gothic 3 and Oblivion lately. So, I think if there is a type of game that I'd like to look at doing, it would be something similar to those games.


If I was a woman, that man could have my children.
 
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I hope that one of those anannounced mystery projects is a PC project! There are lots of rumors about a NWN2 expansion pack soon.
 
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So how'd the codex manage to slam dunk an interview with Uncle Feargie? After all the flack he's taken from them, I'm surprised he'd offer them any free rides.
 
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Many of the Codexers, especially the ancestral founding fathers, can be quite rational when people take them seriously. I've learned a huge amount of game lore lurking there.

Besides, if he didn't do the interview, they'd just make one up. ;)
 
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I'm surprised the Codex didn't rip into Feargus for liking Oblivion, hehe.
 
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So how'd the codex manage to slam dunk an interview with Uncle Feargie? After all the flack he's taken from them, I'm surprised he'd offer them any free rides.

We're vocal about a lot of things but Feargus has always been a cool guy who's willing to chat and give his side of the story. I suspect we've given him less flak during the Codex's entire existence than the one he has gotten post-The Sith Lords.

I'm surprised the Codex didn't rip into Feargus for liking Oblivion, hehe.

There's always the chance someone will try to rip him a new one as people did when he said he enjoyed Diablo, but I'm not sure such criticism would be valid since his enjoyment of Oblivion isn't particularly relevant to his work. It's what he likes, not what he develops.
 
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Hey, I liked Oblivion until it got boring and then I stopped playing it. Mind you, it needed several mods to make it playable, but let's not be too picky!! :)
 
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The key to an interesting interview is good questions - especially with so many generic ones out there. I like that this asks solid questions without sounding pandering or eviscerating.
 
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I'm glad you enjoyed it. I did what I thought was best but there are still some quirks. Some people pointed out that it somewhat neglects the target audience - they don't seem to enjoy the style of the interview since it's not standard Codex fare (read: it hasn't got some "teeth" on it).

I also misinterpreted a couple of statements Feargus made some time ago which led me to believe Obsidian had the Icewind Dale license when in fact, they have stuff like art assets and similar things.

Hopefully I'll learn the lesson well.
 
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Even if Osidian doesn't hold the IWD license, it sounded like there was some interest there on Mr. Urquhart's part at least, which is promising. ( I was going to use initials instead of the more formal Mr. but didn't seem advisable--bet he caught hell in high school)

Also liked what he had to say about the Aliens game. At first it sounded like a cheesy concept, but the more I hear about it, the more I think it could be a pretty creepy and cool rpg.

Interesting interview. Thanks, Role-player.
 
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I, for one, really like the interview with Feargus :)

I thought the questions were spot on as well as refreshringly free from any - shall we say - grumpyness over --- anything --- and ---- something. I thought Feargus'
answers to the questions were refreshingly open and candid as well. It was also nice to hear about Feargus' thoughts about which games he likes to play as well as what games he likes to develop :) .

I thought it was very sad :( when during the interview it sort of shined (or shone?) trough that Feargus was sad :( about not having the Fallout 3 license. (I am too --- since i believe that Obsidian can develop a far better Fallout game than Bethsoft ever can, but that's just me...).

Maybe someday Obsdian will develop another Icewind Dale game, or another game like Icewind Dale. And by that I mean that the game doesn't necessarily need to be set in the Dale area in the Forgotten Realms; it could be set in various other places in the Forgotten Realms like the desert or some minor known location. But I guess, this is really up to Atari that owns (or has) the license from Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast.
 
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Although I do not often agree with comments at Codex and the tone it is written, I have to admit that their interviews are often quite good. I like this one too, because it's not always the same PR talking. Feargus seems to be very honest and it's quite interesting how Feargus explains their actions and decisions.

I would also like to see Obsidian work on a 3rd Icewind Dale, since Sawyer is also working for them and his suggestions for a new ID he made in the interview on Gamebanshee seem very promising.
 
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Well Sawyer cut his teeth on IWD, so I'm sure he'd enjoy returning to the setting. I remember reading all his updates back then when he was also the webmaster for Black Isle!!
 
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