Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Obsidian Entertainment hates you

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Caydr
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Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Caydr »

Obsidian, spoken of as a monolithic incompetent morass, or when spoken of as the collective will of each and every employee, hates you personally. And me, and every other gamer.

KOTOR 2, a buggy hellmess with no ending, which they blamed on Lucasarts. It's Lucasarts' fault that they couldn't finish a project in the time they said they could, not Obsidian's fault for failing to do what they said they would.

Neverwinter Nights 2, a buggy hellmess which was all but unplayable at launch. I guess they must've needed more time for testing or something. Or maybe they're just shitty incompetents that couldn't develop a working game to save their lives.

Alpha Protocol, an ambitious RPG with incredible potential, in fact it could have easily spawned a franchise. The gaming world was abuzz with lots of coverage every time an Obsidian employee so much as coughed as AP's release drew near. Upon release, found to be a buggy hellmess, although presumably it both (a) is playable and (b) has an ending of some kind (since I haven't read otherwise), so to be fair the dev team is showing signs of improvement. Oh, and according to Obsidian, the reason it was such a catastrophe, once again, was that the publisher forced them to release it too soon. In this case, the publisher was Sega, so great things were not to be expected anyway when you get right down to it.

The above? It's proof that Obsidian Entertainment should be bankrupt or at the very least never allowed to work on another potential AAA title again. (Incidentally, that new Fallout? Yeah...) But it's not proof that Obsidian actually hates you and me, certainly not proof that they hold us in contempt and hate our guts. It just means they're a team of gross incompetents that even I in my position would decline to work for. When Roger Ebert says games can't be art, I believe he must have based this on experience with Obsidian employees.

But anyway, none of this means they hate you. No, but you know what does? In a recent interview, one of their head honchos was asked what game they'd like to tackle next. That is, after Fallout 4: This Fallout Will Be Retconned Out Of Existence At The Next Opportunity.

His very serious reply was... "Chrono Trigger".

And that is the most awe-inspiring example of contempt I think the gaming world will ever know. I would tip my hat in appreciation for the epic troll, but he is honestly 100% serious about this. But it gets worse, are you ready? They're already working for Square Enix on Dungeon Siege 3, so it's most likely not just a wild, spur-of-the-moment thought he had. Shall I continue? Things he notably appreciated about Chrono Trigger were the linearity and westernization.

I shit you not.
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Peet
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Peet »

Caydr wrote:KOTOR 2, a buggy hellmess with no ending
did you even play this
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Gota
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Gota »

Dont know about Obsedian but at AscaronEntertainment they truly do hate their players.
Sacred 2-do not get this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
It had a huge potential;massive open world,tons of character customization great gfx,funny dialogue and sense of humor.
What they eventually accomplished is a game so buggy you cant even update it without blowing a fuse.
It is one of the most buggy games i have ever tried playing and even patching it is a nightmare which,by the way I was not able to wake up form.
I erased the game after playing it in its release form being unable to properly patch it even with several attempts and reinstalls.
Do not get this DRM ridden bugfest.
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Licho
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Licho »

Gota, don't judge games from pirated versions please.

Normal players can play online using their servers and it works perfectly fine.

And regarding developer studios vs publishers - i think its safe to believe Obsidian really did all it could but publisher rushing to release caused incomplete product to be released. It happens all the time.

Publisher is mainly interested in profits, it creates nothing. Game studio has game designers and developers who passionately like games and care about it and players.
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Gota
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Gota »

No licho,I tried reading forums for advice and people who bought it had the same issues.
Crazy bugs when thye got it,very hard to patch.
I'd think twice trying anything else they make.
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk ... 49640.html
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Neddie
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Neddie »

I didn't really enjoy Sacred 2, but I was playing it on the 360.

I knew of a few people at Obsidian who were, shall we say, let go during Fallout development. I don't really fault the employees, though they may well be infected by the industry-wide mistaken belief that an hour a week before launch is more valuable than an hour a week after title announcement. Development industry wide seems to be classically and unsurprisingly (Nothing is less motivating than a corporate environment, most employees grow up in this culture of affluence, advancing technology makes coders/modelers/texturers/scripters/testers lazy) sluggish and haphazard. However, I am under the impression that the Obsidian management either doesn't know how much time their employees need to roll out and test a title, or that they don't have the confidence to tell their publishers.

However, I think this might be the last chance for Obsidian to produce a blockbuster independently. Zenimax owns both Bethesda and id - following the release of Doom 4 and Rage I'm expecting an adaptation of the id Tech 5 engine to use in RPGs. Given one or two hits in the upcoming handful of AAA titles, Zenimax should be in a position to sew up possibly Obsidian and Interplay (Assuming the Fallout MMO, a 75 million dollar endeavour from a company which makes ~5 million a year, fails), which would give them the remnants of Black Isle. That should give them the FPS and RPG platforms to push on EA while Take Two continues to contest sandbox action and sports. Failing that, Take Two might move in and rebrand Obsidian as another 2K or Rockstar. Rockstar Bogota is opening in 2011, and they still have a dedicated Q&A studio.
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KaiserJ
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by KaiserJ »

from what ive seen, rage is gonna be pretty awesome
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Caydr
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Caydr »

Peet wrote:
Caydr wrote:KOTOR 2, a buggy hellmess with no ending
did you even play this
Not only played it, but bought it at release day because I liked KOTOR so much.

Maybe you're not aware, there's an entire story arc that was cut out but left in the game data files. Unfinished maps, planned dialogue, etc. They didn't finish these in time. There was an ACTUAL satisfying ending. They didn't finish it in time. Instead we got a series of disjointed cutscenes that don't make sense since half the relevant dialogue and gameplay got cut and... roll credits.

Yes, what IS there and DOES work is quite good, just like NWN2 and (from the sound of things) Alpha Protocol. Unfortunately there's a bucket of incompetence piss thrown over all that delicious gameplay pizza and it ruins the whole effort.
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FLOZi
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by FLOZi »

Image
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Neddie
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Neddie »

Notably, key players behind Planescape: Torment and Fallout 1/2 are supposedly driving Fallout: New Vegas, so we might be hopeful.
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AF
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by AF »

Perhaps the optolithic data rod forgery was not a complete success?
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Quanto042
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Quanto042 »

Oh god, what the fuck am I reading?!
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Licho
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Licho »

1) you can never predict how long will development take (correctly).

2) publisher will always press you to finish earlier (sign contract for shortest possible time), because he often pays developer for milestones/time.


This is a recipe for incomplete products to be released. I know it from my own experience.
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Caydr
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Caydr »

It's easy to say for sure exactly how long a game's development will take. Don't question me, I'm an authority on the subject.
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Gota
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Gota »

Why not pay developers smaller salaries but give them a bigger % of the final sails?
Though i think that it probably pays better to release a game as quickly as possible even if it is unfinished.Market it well and the gamers will gobble it up even if it is buggy and you also dont lose as much if the project goes under.
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Licho
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Licho »

Publisher does not pay individual developers but developer studio -> independent company. If that company is short on cash, they might pick deal with more money up front. Development of games takes several years and you need to secure lots of funding just to keep employees in.
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Gota
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Gota »

So how do you explain blizzard or other developers that manage to make excellent games that feel very polished?
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Licho
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by Licho »

They have lots of money from previous projects/lots of credit and can secure funding even if game is delayed. (And almost all Blizzard games were delayed a lot).
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PicassoCT
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by PicassoCT »

Also every blizzard game has a early stage feature freeze, they dont poolish for months, they poolish for years.
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CarRepairer
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Re: Obsidian Entertainment hates you

Post by CarRepairer »

PicassoCT wrote:Also every blizzard game has a early stage feature freeze, they dont poolish for months, they poolish for years.
lol poolish. Picasso you have stumped me. I can't tell if it's misspelling or purposeful play on words. It can be both ways with you.
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