Dungeon Siege 3 - Interview @ Eurogamer

Eurogamer talked with the game's Lead Designer, Nathaniel Chapman about Obsidian's reputation, DS3's reception, a short comment on Obsidian's next game as well as if gamers can expect bug-free games. A snippet about this:

I've played games that are more buggy than other games but I enjoyed them a lot more. It's hard for me to say whether gamers have a right to less buggy games. Where a developer spends their time is often... It takes time to fix bugs and it also takes a certain... there are some really ambitious games that have bugs because they're ambitious, and they don't have the time [to fix them], or they spend time on making the content cooler rather than fixing the bugs.

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More information.

The whole interview is full of hilarious quotes like that. Pretty much the entire page 2 with his essay on buggy games takes the cake. Like his view on bug-fixing which is according to him "boring production stuff y'know". Um. Yes we do know, Nate. It explains a whole lot regarding the piss poor track record of your company with regard to bug-free games.
Sheesh. One thing is for sure: This interview never went by a publisher or marketing person for approval.

More unfiltered comedy gold below...

Eurogamer: Is there any aspect of the game that you'd like to have spent a little more time on, given the opportunity? Not everybody seems to be happy with the loot system...

Nathaniel Chapman: I think our loot system has a lot of strengths but one of the weaknesses is that it's not very clearly communicated what each of the stats does... I think having a more fleshed-out tutorial system for the stats and what they do and how they function would be a nice thing. Having more unique armour variants too. It's always good sequel or DLC material.

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[Note: Underlined formatting done by me.] Is this guy for real? I mean you got to appreciate the openness and honesty but whatever happened to the concept of fixing stuff via, you know, patches. Maybe even go really old school and make it a free patch. OMG! What a concept!

Eurogamer: You weren't worried about a backlash from the series' core PC fanbase?


Nathaniel Chapman: Honestly, we were less worried about that aspect of it. Actually this is one thing I would have liked to have spent more time on, and we are actually spending time on now.
[...]

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LOL. - Again: The honesty is appreciated, Nate, but has it ever occurred to you that admitting that the PC was quite literally an afterthought is not exactly going to cheer up your (or the franchise's) loyal PC fan base? You can't say that publicly. Shut up!

He didn't really have to say anything, as it's clear from playing the game.

One good thing about these developers destroying the new rpgs that strarted from PC is that you apprieciate the older installs even more. What is happening to our beloved franchise ????

" It's hard for me to say whether gamers have a right to less buggy games."

I had to read this over and over thought for sure i must have misread it, but nope.

I have never pirated a game and if I ever did this would not be the game the demo control's were horrible for the pc.

It does make me think though if I don't have a right to less buggy games maybe they don't have the right to make money on their game.

Unbelievable.

Strictly speaking, we don't have a "right" to less buggy games.

What we do have is a reasonable expectation of quality in the products we buy, and a right to refrain from buying them if our expectations are not met. We also have an right to bitch on the internet about any damn thing we want to, sensible or not, which pairs neatly with Nate's right to say any damn thing he wants to about his company's games, sensible or not -- a right which he clearly enjoys using, as this interview makes evident.

Page 2 is pretty interesting and does say a lot about Obsidian's raison d'être. I mean that "boring production stuff" is what REAL software development is all about. I don't want a pretty cake that tastes like cardboard. In fact, I'd rather have a boring-looking cake that tastes like velvet-y gold.

I understand and laud the desire to be ambitious, but not at the sake of quality. Great architects design buildings that are interesting to look at. However, those buildings are also FUNCTIONAL. Sheesh!