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Post by Knightfall on Apr 24, 2012 0:10:31 GMT 1
Ken Levine, Chris Avellone and David Gaider did a panel at PAX East about writing for video games, narrative design, and the importance of narrative in video games. It's pretty dang fascinating but really long.
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Post by Clint Johnston on Apr 24, 2012 3:33:40 GMT 1
My attention span has trouble with 20 minute TV shows that I find fascinating....
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Post by Cali on Apr 24, 2012 4:09:15 GMT 1
Nope. Not watching.
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Post by Knightfall on Apr 24, 2012 4:23:02 GMT 1
He actually adds quite a bit to the discussion, but you can kinda see the elephant in the room as they're talking about some of the major violations that some game writers make. Avellone makes it a point to say, "When we were making Fallout: New Vegas, we wanted to make sure that we had enough dialogue options that weren't just limited to a few different tones. We wanted to make sure we always had neutral responses for players who just wanted to move the conversation along, that was really important to us."
Not verbatim, but there ya go. Gaider immediately went on to defend voiced protagonists afterward.
There was also another bit where Gaider talked about how much he loved Planescape and how players could project a personality onto the Nameless One, even though he was a fixed character visually, but Avellone quickly jumped up and said, "Resource limitations!" and completely shot him down.
I still poke fun at Gaider, but the three of them had a great conversation going, and they seemed to have great respect for each other.
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Post by Mister Buch on Apr 24, 2012 14:13:10 GMT 1
As someone who fairly enjoyed Dragon Age 2 and did not enjoy New Vegas, I'm afraid to watch this.
But I am fascinated. Good find, Knight.
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Post by Knightfall on Apr 25, 2012 21:19:42 GMT 1
They also talk about Knights of the Old Republic in there. Chris Avellone goes out of his way to talk about his love for the game and to complement Gaider for his writing for HK-47. Blew my mind, though. I thought Gaider mostly wrote Carth, but it turns out he wrote Carth, HK, AND Jolee Bindo.
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Post by Mister Buch on Apr 25, 2012 22:22:34 GMT 1
Holy Jesus!
So essentially he wrote the good bits. Karpyshyn still wrote the Revan thing, I guess, but.... aside from that, every highlight was Gator's work??
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Post by Knightfall on Apr 25, 2012 22:31:24 GMT 1
Holy Jesus! So essentially he wrote the good bits. Karpyshyn still wrote the Revan thing, I guess, but.... aside from that, every highlight was Gator's work??
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Post by Mr. Glow on Apr 25, 2012 23:09:52 GMT 1
"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
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Post by Tillian Panthesis on Apr 26, 2012 3:47:38 GMT 1
I've told Buch many times that Gaider used to write HK's character at the time, but he wouldn't listen.
What glow sums up. I guess what factors to Gaider's creative degration is time and fame. Not everyone will still be having their creative energy up to peak as they grow older sadly. Oscar Wilde is one of the prime examples of losing his creative energy at the later part of his life (Although, his prison sentence took a major drain in his health and creative spark, to be fair.). And I guess fame for Gaider and few artist that I known before. Some artists go over their heads with the fame, forgeting their creative senses and judgement. Unfortunately, David Gaider was that victim of hubris.
Sad, but it's the ugly truth for many artists and creative thinkers.
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Post by Mister Buch on Apr 26, 2012 12:01:59 GMT 1
I've told Buch many times that Gaider used to write HK's character at the time, but he wouldn't listen. I genuinely had forgotten that. ;D But what really shocked me was the Jolee thing.
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Post by jklinders on Apr 26, 2012 12:52:43 GMT 1
Makes sense though. Jolee, and HK really brought a lot of snark into the game. To me, the primary redeeming feature of DA 2 was it's never ending parade of snark.
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