http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=48111

Oh yeah.

Bethesda?

Hire this guy.

kthxbye.

That was an interesting interview. Thanks for linking it!

That was a good read. Thanks.

I'd say his philosphy is diametrically opposed to that of Bethesda's.

FTA:

How does the fan base hinder/help the projects that you've worked on?


Man, that's a loaded question for me. Mage: The Ascension was a project where the fan base pretty much ruined my enthusiasm for the property. The prior developer had made several major story elements that came to a head right before I took over, and then the management at White Wolf wanted some new directions established. I also took a look at the property and thought about stuff that seemed inconsistent to me and how I wanted to fix it. When the revised edition of the game came out, though, it caused such a furor from a small but vocal element of the 'net that I actually got death threats and I even had someone posting crap on my webspace about what a horrible person I am as recently as just a few months ago, all with regards to M:tA. In a sense, fan expectations can be the worst killer for a property. The fans get this notion of the "perfect vision" of what the property should be like or about, and they have this idealized notion, and the reality can never compare to it. They get themselves in love with something that is not the "real" property but just their imaginary wishes, and they of course are angry when they are inevitably let down because reality can never match some nebulous imaginary concept. Plus, of course, one man's hash is another man's trash, so even if you please one person you piss off another.
On the flip side, some fans are really enthusiastic, and they just like to take the stuff that you give them and run with it and have a good time and thank you for that. People who make community stuff are the best - folks who love the material so much that they want to spread the love, so they make mods, or stories, or wikis, or any sort of content. It's really heartening when people build communities so that they can enrich this material that they all enjoy.

Considering where this article is hosted, the irony here is delicious like a dandy boy apple.

I don't get it. Are you saying Bethesda likes to make big, pretty, wide open worlds with weak story and dialogue that doesn't really grip the player and challenge him or her to make a difference in that world?

I giggled.


Also, this paragraph...:

"I've played Fallout 3 and I enjoy it quite a bit. I think that Bethesda made a great game and they did an excellent job of paying homage to the Fallout continuity while bringing some fresh, new ideas to the table. I think that what I would like to see in a future Fallout is the same as addressing my only real issue with the game: All of the old familiar elements of the Fallout world migrated to the east coast, so we have the Enclave, the super mutants, the Brotherhood of Steel; I'd like to see more new groups, more power factions and societies that have sprung up in a big way. I get the feeling from Fo3 that there's a sort of "power vacuum" in the east and that these groups moved out there to fill that hole, but this is probably not the way things are going everywhere. I bet there are other big groups out and about making their mark on the wastelands, some of whom may have crossed swords with the existing power blocs, others who have never heard of 'em. (See Caesar's Legions in the design docs for Van Buren - a large, organized power group that runs the show in a particular area of territory.) I'm glad to see the BoS and the super mutants and the centaurs and whatnot, but I don't have to see all of the old groups to know that it's Fallout. I guess we don't have Followers of the Apocalypse in Fo3, though. Most of the new power groups in Fo3 are relatively local in the game, such as Rivet City (which is a thriving metropolis, but it does not try to project its power across the Capital Wasteland) or the Temple of the Union (which is an awesome idea but I get the sense that they're very "new" and not super influential). Anyway, for future Fallout games, I hope that Bethesda (and Interplay, on V13 - assuming it is in fact Fallout Online, 'cause I'm not in a position to confirm anything) continues to look at the franchise with a critical eye and say "How can we tell interesting stories in the same vein established previously for Fallout?" I'm really looking forward to the downloadable content. I really want to see the Pitt.
I'm sure that Bethesda has a ton of really talented and experienced people on their Fo design team already, but if they offered me a shot at working on Fallout again, I probably wouldn't say no!"

...made me sad because while I do in fact agree with most of what he's saying it's almost like he's only conceding that "Bethesda got it pretty good, not as good as we did obviously, but pretty good. Please hire me so I can help bring this game closer to how we, it's creators, helped make it."

Or am I projecting? :rolleyes: Either way, that's how I feel. Beth did good but not quite good enough to be on the top shelf along with the originals.

Hello!

Amusingly, Ausir found me because I was commenting on some Fallout stuff over in the Lore boards here, and prodded me via PM.

I will now shoot myself in the foot, and then put my foot in my mouth, by saying something highly controversial.

There cannot be a definitive Fallout if nobody can agree on what it is. By which I mean, since so many people are so passionate about the game, there exist many people who have individual visions of what Fallout should be. No matter what you stick a Fallout label on, someone out there won't like it, or will disagree with its interpretation of lore. Even Tim Cain and Chris Taylor couldn't agree on how ghouls came about.

Disliking a particular installment of the Fallout franchise is a perfectly valid opinion. "De gustibus non est disputandum," after all.

The lesson for devs of Fallout material here is - be as true as you can be, but strive always to make a great game. If you are 100% Fallout lore accurate and you make a crap game, then congratulations, you have just made a crappy installment of Fallout. If you make an awesome game and call it Fallout and are totally inconsistent with the lore of the franchise, then you're just askin' for people to make comparisons and to dislike the game based on what it isn't rather than what it is. If you make a crap game that is lore inconsistent, then you've probably made a Fallout console shooter for the PS2 . . .

Back in some interview, Rick Berman supposedly said "Continuity just gets in the way of telling good stories." (He was talking, so the anecdote goes, about why Star Trek drifted away from internal consistency over the years.) I think that this attitude is sad, because continuity creates versimilitude. People intuitively reject things that are not internally consistent. When you have established something as being part of a story, you need to stick to your guns, because if you suddenly change direction without explanation, people who know the "truth" will start to lose their involvement in the story. Breaks in continuity create hurdles to suspension of disbelief for a participant. (Of course, sometimes you have to break with continuity, because the continuity is bad . . . and sometimes you want to change it because you have a new explanation that lets you take the story in a new direction, in the way that Roger Zelazny did in many of his novels.)

Taking Fallout 3 for what it is, my only hope is to have a great time playing the game. And I do! I've already sunk time into it. It is not Fallout 1 because nothing can be Fallout 1; the moment you make a new location, or a new character, or a new description, you have made something that didn't exist before, and congrats, it's not Fallout 1. I enjoyed working on Fallout 1 and I like playing it, so I am just glad to have those happy memories, and now I will enjoy Fallout 3 as well.

It seems that some people assume that my comment about modding is taken to mean that you shouldn't criticize unless you also do mod-building. Really, what I mean is supposed to be more constructive than that. For everyone who dislikes some iteration of Fallout or has a bone to pick with some piece of lore or some part of the franchise, now's your chance to show everyone else what you think Fallout should be. The editor gives you a shot at putting your own vision out there. You can really tell people "I didn't like such-and-such in one of the Fallout games, here is how I would do it!" and show them. I think that's wicked cool - instead of just talking about how you think something was svcky or you would have done it differently, you actually can do it differently. This is not to say that peoples' complaints and criticisms are invalid. It simply means that now everyone in the Fallout fan base has an opportunity to share their vision in a way that is hands-on and direct. Convert people by showing them the awesomeness of your vision!

Anyway, I'm off to brew up some tea and wait for the flames to come in.

Pretty much. With the exception of Boromir and Jauffre I didn't really "connect" with anyone in Oblivion and in Fallout suffers a similar problem, outside of the main characters family (Dad and the rest of Vault 101) the other characters simply aren't as engaging as they could be. Better dialogue may have helped this, or maybe just better interaction in general, I don't know. The story, though a little short and cheesy followed the post apocalyptic theme quite well and was exactly what I expected from the title, a little weak in places in but the sidelines more than cover that up giving the player the incentive to explore. Overall it's still the game of the year, 2008 hasn't exactly been a great year for deep games, some great action games but not a lot that impressed me in terms of storyline and engagement, I for one am glad that Fallout 3 was there at the end to pick up the average.

Hi and well said! And I don't think there will be many flames coming your way - seeing as you're part of the god-head that created Fallout 1. :foodndrink:
I agree that the GECK will allow people to share their ideas of Fallout, and I'm interested in creating some campaigns that also have a bit of that Wasteland feel.

Thanks for the interview, man I wish Jesse Heinig was brougth up for another fallout, also Cain and Taylor.

My understanding is that Chris Taylor is working on V13 at Interplay down in Irvine, and Tim Cain is working on some other "unspecified MMO" according to an interview I recall reading a few months back. I don't really have much contact with the rest of the old team these days - last time I ran into one of them was Scotty Everts at Strategicon earlier this year in L.A., and of course I saw Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson when I went down to visit them at Troika in order to help with a Vampire demo. (Jason's now back at Interplay on V13 as well, apparently, so it's like they're getting the band back together or something.)

Just like the Blues Brothers!

Thanks for the information here's a picture of the good old days. Makes me a little sentimental.
http://www.nma-fallout.com/fallout1/official_site/team.shtml I am just going to say this, in our eyes you guys are like gods to us. Thank you for fallout. For Mutants by Mutants.

I'm the guy near the middle throwin' up the hand jive. To the right of me in the picture is Jesse Reynolds. Sitting on the floor with legs outstretched is Robert Hertenstein. On the floor left side, legs crossed and smilin', that's Chris Taylor. Behind me, standing up in the blue T-shirt, Leonard Boyarsky.

. . . uh, I guess you can figure that all out from the later pics of the subgroups, though.

I can only imagine what went on during those meetings. And I've always wandered who was the biggest Mad Max fan of the whole bunch...he he

Thank you for this post and more importantly thank you for Fallout. A pleasure to post in the same thread as a man who helped create the only game I would ever possibly worship as a deity.

Seriously now, I was perhaps the smallest contributor to Fallout. I came in partway through the project, as they were ramping up numbers, and Cain, Boyarsky, and Taylor all had much, much more input than I did. I'm not a god, just a scripter/designer.

Heh. Yes, I know the Cain, Anderson, Boyarsky, Taylor contingency very well...whatever the case, you are a part of what has consumed my life for ages now (I'm not much of a "gamer" as I am an obsessive Fallout fanatic).

Let me congratulate you Mr.Heining on your work on Junktown it is my favorite place in Fallout.
Mr.Heining are you aware of the indie project called Shelter? What is your opinion if you do?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssbty-EWrGY&feature=channel_page

I loled, at 5:40, and woke up the rest of the house. Thank you

A team is only as strong as it's weakest links. You don't give yourself sufficient credit, not suggesting you're a god, just that you're good. I realize you're just trying to convey to the other posters that you're just another guy, but don't downplay yourself either. You were part of one of gaming history's best teams. As I said, only as strong as the weakest link, everyone from the guys in QA right up to the top did a great job, which resulted in a product that is already remembered as one of video gaming's finest and influential. In fact, if you were the guy who came up with the way to create companions in Fallout, then you're indirectly responsible for Dogmeat, who is the most famous Video Game Dog.

Out of curosity, what other projects did you work on at IPLY? Following Fallout, to IWD 2, there were a series of strong products with some pretty impressive tricks to pull off things not done before at that time, and not easily done given engine limitations. What's your take on the status of the industry, from an insider's point of view, and do you think digital distribution will change the status?

Congrats on graduation btw.

(Caution to other posters: It is important to remember that the Jesse is just another person, regardless of what he's done. Imagine how uncomfortable you would feel if people started Deifiying you. Just chat with him, just like you do with Beth's devs. Offer him a cookie(When Doc isn't looking), offer him a fishy stick(As I'm told is popular here), the worship thing is sure to make anyone uncomfortable.)

Edit: Who is directly responsible for Dogmeat btw?

"So you'd fire the rocket launcher, a midget would leap out and run really fast to the target and then explode."

I WANT ONE! lol.

Yes.. I know.. its... just wrong.

I know for a fact that I'm not in the same league as Tim Cain. He practically had his Ph.D. So, I'm just trying to tell it like it is. I know there's some novelty to having a dev posting about ye olde Fallout here, but seriously, other people should get a lot of credit - they're just not posters on this forum.

For that matter, the Bethesda guys should get credit where it's due, too. This forum is theirs, after all.

I only worked on Fallout at IPLY. After IPLY I went to White Wolf, where I worked on tabletop RPGs.

I think that digital distribution has a long way to go to get market penetration. It's kind of like DVD-ROMs for games. I remember talking about DVD-ROM releases for games back in the '90s and being told "Maybe on the next game . . . not enough people have the players yet." Now we finally have stuff regularly released on DVD-ROMs - probably because consoles adopted the format - and it took years for them to achieve the market penetration necessary to make it cost effective to press and sell games on DVD. By the same token, there are release hurdles in digital distro, such as the fact that you don't generally have your own copy to reinstall later, or that you need good bandwidth to download stuff in a timely fashion for modern games, but it's coming. I mean, if Blizzard is doing it for WOW, then it's gotta be at least somewhat viable.

Dogmeat: Chris Taylor, if memory serves me correctly.

You know, if you wanna give some old timers some thanks, you can always saunter over to the Obsidian website and post a note there. Scotty Everts, Jesse Reynolds, Feargus Urquhart, and Chris Avellone all work there, and they are all deserving Fallout vets from the original duo. (Uh, did I just break a rule about forum cross-posting?) In the meantime, be sure to give a shout-out to the Bethesda devs too, for doing their part to keep the dream alive (even if you personally don't always agree with all of their choices).

Some how, I think they learned about the critter check on the old Missile Launcher from the FO1 days and turned it into the Miss Launcher in FO3. Same hilarous concept!

I just have one question to ask. Do you think the first in-game rendering of the T-51b does it justice from the pre-rendered box art of yore?