Chris Avellone - On Great RPGs and What the Future Holds

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Chris Avellone was interviewed by IGN and asked - what makes a great RPG?



Chris Avellone, writer of some of the best RPGs of all time (with credits on series' like Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Divinity 2 and plenty more), discusses some of his thoughts on the hallmarks of great RPGs and what the future of the genre might bring.
Thanks Couchpotato!



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I've noticed this site attracts sticklers for the correct spelling of Bladder's Gate.
 
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I, too, was a fan of Balder's Pate, the sad game about a man slowly losing his fabulous head of hair.
 
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Do you know the German game Baldrians Gatter?
 
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Regardless how anyone chooses to spell Boulder's Gate, the only thing that really matters is that it was a most worthy sequel to Boulder Dash. It had more boulders, bigger boulders, a boulder to suit everyone
 
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As many here, I also enjoyed a lot Builder's Gate, the sequel to the construction worker RPG, Builder's Wall. It inherited some of the best features from the original and it was a general step up. Pretty addicting how enemy waves got stronger every level and you really had to use all your tools to make sure that gate held long enough for the AI city defenders to take them down before they broke through.
 
@Nereida;, didn't Builder's Wall come first? I remember being stuck with a lot of wooden doors in BW but it's been so long...

(I really wish they could have finished Builder's Moat!)
 
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Welp it's official Avellone will no longer work in the games industry anymore.

One day he's the hero the next the pauper.

On a side note whats the new movement called now?
Since people made allegations against Avellone, as well as a variety of other prominent industry figures, more victims have been sharing their stories. Earlier today Twitch CEO Emmett Shear was accused of having laughed off reports of abuse by Twitch partners at a recorded meeting last year.
I can't keep up with these twitter Cancel Culture uprisings anymore.:rolleyes:
 
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I can't believe people are still falling for this crap. All three projects are now disowning him? Why? Because of… 'allegations'… and allegations that don't appear to be anything more than 'someone trying it on'. I hope he sues their chicken shit unjudicial asses for all they're worth.
 
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I can't believe people are still falling for this crap. All three projects are now disowning him? Why? Because of… 'allegations'… and allegations that don't appear to be anything more than 'someone trying it on'. I hope he sues their chicken shit unjudicial asses for all they're worth.
The allegations are pretty much nothing except a creepy set of text messages and a (married?) guy apparently interested in picking up lots of women.

Really it's just that everyone is running scared these days. The feeling is that you can't risk angering the SJW mob or you might be next - so you're better off playing along with the virtue signalling.

But it's all a tempest in a teapot and could be safely ignored if people had the sense to do so. People make the mistake of thinking the basement-dwelling mob on Twitter is real. Nobody in the real world cares. Sales of these games wouldn't be noticeably affected if they'd just done nothing.
 
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At the very least he has zero respect for women and is a creep. He has already made his apologies for behaving like that, so it is not like it didn't happen. Obviously there are people who support the fact that it is OK to behave in such a way to women. Probably see nothing wrong with it. Ignoring the impact it has on others, but who cares they are only women. Get a woman drunk and it is free game. She is dressed in a sexy way, so she is asking for it.

And sure everyone who is complaining about sexual harassment is leftist, an SJW or whatever and everybody who stands by CA must then be a redneck and rightist or a nazi. Must be easy to live in a simple world like that.
 
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… angering the SJW mob…

I've said it many times here, in other forums, in real life: the current SJW trend is not about politics, not about compassion, not about justice -- it's about being dumb in the highest order.

Avellone being a womanizer? Does this diminish our enjoyment in Baldur's Gate? In Fallout? In Wasteland?
If the answer is NO, then please, let's talk about the man's contribution to our hobby and not about his allegedly depraved private life.
 
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"At the very least a creep"
Can you clarify what the rules are with regards to someone being 'a creep'. Is it anyone who does not behave like a Nun [or other strict religious fanatic type of non-gendered language]?

"zero respect for women"
That's a very bold statement based on the testimony of three people from a person's entire life of human interaction.

"He has already made apologies"

And is that not enough? Should one have to keep apologising for something that isn't illegal? For not even breaking any rules? I apologise when I'm about to take someone's pawn in chess, doesn't mean I'm making an existential point about the nature of my humanity.

"Like it didn't happen"

What exactly has 'happened'… I'm sorry, the 'rules' keep changing too quickly to keep up… Or are you going to argue 'it's always been bad to be a 'creep'. Whatever that is in a legal sense…

"There are people who support such behaviour"
Well there's a strange use of terminology. I can't say I'm donating to charity in order to encourage specific individual's human behaviours, no. I guess I'd be tempted to support any individual who has been treated like scum for no good reason if such a thing/support group existed though. Surely anyone with a moral compass would?

"Ignoring impact on others"
Three specific people to be exact? Yes?

"who cares they're only women"
They are three human beings who are, in this case, female. I believe in other cases there have been male complainants. I guess being heterosexual makes you open to anti-women jibes whereas being anti-male is only the province of homosexuals? Sounds absurd to me, does that to you?

"Get a woman drunk"
LOL. Yeah, thy each held each other down and waterboarded alcohol into each other…

"And it's free game"
It would certainly be game, yes, but free? According to the female's own testimony even in this state Avellone left without 'sealing a win', because, apparently, the woman 'lied' to him (?) in saying she had a period. Because any other method just wouldn't work, would it… Her 'options' in this sitution were just so limited weren't they…

"She dressed in a sexy way, so asking for it"
No mention has been made of how anyone dressed. People are attracted to each other. That's life. Rejecting people is something people do about 20 times more often a day than they do accepting people, it's an everyday life skill that one learns by natural osmosis. I'm very sorry, but it's a hideous precedent to set to imply women have zero impact on any activity they themselves find themselves in, though I can assure you "what they were wearing" isn't usually an accepted reason nowadays.

Everyone complaining about sexual stuff is leftist/SJW & people not finding offence in MCA's acts are rednecks, rightists or Nazis - must be easy to live in simple world"
I'm not aware of anyone making political statements on this case, only human statements. Traditionally, Republicans attacks Democrats on their sexual 'laxity', because the Republican party likes to advertise itself to religious voters, namely the Protestant Puritans, one of the strongest voting blocks in the USA.

The irony of this movement is that it did stem from the radical feminist wing of modern politics. An issue of 'abuse of power' and 'equality of relationships in the workplace' and other such traditionally 'leftist' ideals. The irony being that it just happens to be something the right has always preached anyway, that of a minimalistic sex life. My experience has been that the people on the right are absolutely loving this trend and that people on the left are literally eating themselves over the hypocritic irony of the stance.

What would be the true 'simplistic' way to look at this kind of situation? How about just sticking to the legal precedents? No?

And finally, I apologise for splitting up your post in this manner, I know you don't like it when people do long posts splitting up your post into quotes, and I apologise for making a long post as I know you hate long posts, However, I felt it was a situation which merited it. I apologise if you are angered/offended by this.
 
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Does this diminish our enjoyment in Baldur's Gate? In Fallout? In Wasteland?
If the answer is NO, then please, let's talk about the man's contribution to our hobby and not about his allegedly depraved private life.

To be accurate, this touches both his private life and his professional life. Parts of the criticism concerns his behavior towards coworkers.

Even so, your point about enjoyment may still hold. But it's not a general rule I would follow. Ethics of companies / persons who sell something to me do matter when I decide to buy something. Sure, shoes made by ten year old children may still be great shoes. But I certainly won't buy them.

Yes, that's a completely different case, merely intended to illustrate that "you can still enjoy the product" does not work as a general rule.
 
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