Obsidian Entertainment - Josh Sawyer Interview @ GameStar.ru

J.E. Sawyer joins GameStar.ru for an interview primarily about RPG development. From memory, the questions are the same as given to Chris Avellone recently from the same site:

What in your opinion are the key moments in RPG genre that defined the direction all the games made after?

 Without a doubt, the existence of tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons defined the paradigm for what RPGs were in the early days.  For me, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, and Ultima were the "big ones" that shaped my experiences.  The "Gold Box" games (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, et al.) were the next wave.  In the years that followed, the new real-time games like Darklands, Eye of the Beholder, Ultima Underworld, and TES: Arena really expanded what RPGs could be.

After that, I think Fallout and Baldur's Gate marked the renaissance of RPGs in the late 90s.  I feel that Fallout and Planescape: Torment established a great standard for player reactivity. That's the environment I came into when I started at Black Isle.