<strong>[ -> N/A]</strong>
Our chum Odin over at <a href="http://www.fallout-nma.com" target="_blank">No Mutants Allowed</a> has been cruising through the <a href="http://feedback.blackisle.com/forums/" target="_blank">Black Isle forums</a> only to discover <a href="http://feedback.blackisle.com/forums/sh ... adid=46489" target="_blank">this</a> - a thread about the future of Fallout 3 - <b>J.E. Sawyer</b> (a BIS designer, for those who don't know) style. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride:<blockquote><em>Conspiracy theorists should put on their tin-foil hats now so my clever lies won't corrupt their brains. <br><br>Fallout 3 can't be rushed, and it certainly can't be made without money. Interplay has been in a lousy situation for several years. Everything that Black Isle has made since Planescape: Torment has had a development cycle of one year or less. TORN was the sole exception to this. Instead of using more resources to finish TORN, a title that was behind schedule and -- well, this is all public record, no need to re-hash it -- it was cancelled. Often, cancelling a project saves more money than actually publishing it. <br><br>Like giddy children, as each project approaches its final stages, we whisper about making Fallout 3. This giddy hopefulness has given way to sober pragmatism. We made Icewind Dale, and it helped us survive. We made Heart of Winter, and it helped us survive. We made Icewind Dale 2, and hopefully, it will allow us a margin of prosperity. We're digging our way out of a hole that's about seven years deep. <br><br>Reverse our roles. A select group of dedicated Fallout fans are given the rights to make Fallout 3 -- but there's a catch. Before they can make Fallout 3, they have to make Vault Dweller Teaches Typing, Super Kung Fu Death Master, and D&D Adventure No. 34. You can either say, "SCREW THE MAN! I'M NOT TAKING YOUR GREEDY OFFER, GREEDY MCGREEDS!" and NEVER make Fallout 3, or you could say, "Hmmm..." look around with a shifty-eyed look, and continue, "okaaaaaaaaay." <br><br>We need to stop working on Infinity Engine games, that's for sure. The IE has provided us with the basis for four in-house titles, but man -- it's 2002. I've said before that the Jefferson project is not Fallout 3. Will we start working on Fallout 3 in the next year, two years? Possibly. And if it does, there are going to be some damned passionate people working on it. We're not moving away from Fallout. We're moving away from losing our jobs. Even with project cancellations, Black Isle has continued to make money for Interplay. We talk about Fallout all the time. We write down ideas, play through scenarios, and yes, we really do read what people post on random websites. <br><br>I would ask one thing of our impatient Fallout fans. Please do not beat on us when our next title is announced and it is not Fallout 3. Please do not verbally abuse members of BIS who show up in a chatroom or on a message board to talk with you or argue with you about ideas. I have relatively thick skin, but not everyone at Black Isle does. Nobody likes to be called incompetent or incapable. Nobody likes to be thought of as uncaring or greedy. Many of the developers in Black Isle could have left six to nine months ago. In fact, many did. A lot of us received phone calls and e-mails asking us to leave. I can't speak for everyone, but I stayed because I look forward to the time WHEN Fallout 3 will be made. I may not work on it, but I want to be here to see it come together. Many of the developers in Black Isle love Fallout as much as you do. When we have enough time and money to do it right, it will be done. <br><br>I know not everyone believes this, but I do.</em></blockquote>*sniff* That's beautiful. Oh well, I for one will not be bagging the shit out of J.E.'s post - I'll just say good luck fella's, I hope you make enough dosh to pay for Fallout 3.
More discussion on the future of Fallout 3
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DarkUnderlord
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All he said actually makes sense. I have to say after all those years I didn't have any hope left. I thought they are really lazy bastards deaf to our pleas. This changes everything! Shit, I didn't buy any of their games following Fallout, maybe I should have. 
Certainly the best news in a looooooong time.
Certainly the best news in a looooooong time.
Pyro,can you read
Pyro, did you even read the post? He quite clearly said that due to IP's financial problems, they've had to get out game with very short development cycles - so unless you want Fallout 3 to be a piece of junk, they'll need longer than a year. It's poor finances that have delayed Fallout 3 - they needed to make money first before they could invest in a longer development cycle.
Grifman
Grifman
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Guest
ummm....I don't see how anything he said is so "ground breaking" or whatever. Most, if not all, had already been mentioned in the past, and is almost common knowledge.
"We're digging our way out of a hole that's about seven years deep."
I guess that's reassuring in a way. At least he's being honest.
" We're not moving away from Fallout. We're moving away from losing our jobs."
OK...so more of the same then? For some reason they believe futuristic scifi RPG's aren't going to bring in any money. Currently medieval and fantasy are the norm, but rapidly losing steam. What about Neocron, Anarchy Online, and dozens of other upcoming big budget futuristic RPG's? If Black Isle and Interplay continue thinking this way they won't survive 2003.
The rest isn't uplifting or rewarding at all. If Fallout fans really want to prove Interplay doesn't know jack shit about the industry, then move onto other futuristic post-apocalyptic games and don't bother asking for a Fallout3.
"We're digging our way out of a hole that's about seven years deep."
I guess that's reassuring in a way. At least he's being honest.
" We're not moving away from Fallout. We're moving away from losing our jobs."
OK...so more of the same then? For some reason they believe futuristic scifi RPG's aren't going to bring in any money. Currently medieval and fantasy are the norm, but rapidly losing steam. What about Neocron, Anarchy Online, and dozens of other upcoming big budget futuristic RPG's? If Black Isle and Interplay continue thinking this way they won't survive 2003.
The rest isn't uplifting or rewarding at all. If Fallout fans really want to prove Interplay doesn't know jack shit about the industry, then move onto other futuristic post-apocalyptic games and don't bother asking for a Fallout3.
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Megatron
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Re: Pyro,can you read
Grifman wrote:Pyro, did you even read the post? He quite clearly said that due to IP's financial problems, they've had to get out game with very short development cycles - so unless you want Fallout 3 to be a piece of junk, they'll need longer than a year. It's poor finances that have delayed Fallout 3 - they needed to make money first before they could invest in a longer development cycle.
Grifman
Well they could start devlopement know and chrun out the lastest game, then not bring out any games for a while. Even if they lose money they'll get it back in the long run.
It's a bit like uh....a war. Do you send over thousands of little crappy fast soldiers, who will eventually get the job done, or send over a huge slow tank that will kill whatever in one blow?
whatever
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TheReaper
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Dark Xenomorph
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Saint_Proverbius
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I can sympathise with BIS' position, and it's a rather bad one to be in, yet some major parts don't make sense at all.
True, it might take more money to see a game to publication than cancelling it. However, you just flushed an assload of development time and money down the toilet with NO return. That's a big red mark in the books, instead of a substantially smaller red mark or some black. It costs more in the long run to see a game to half-ass and culling it than finishing it and seeing some return. Not too brilliant, as the game could have been something other than IE Ad Nauseum and something in which they could have built upon later without having to worry about licensing from anyone aside from engine and other technical aspects. Price tag and contracts of (A)D&D is no longer needed, as would be the same for the IE. That move was perhaps the worst they have done in a while, even though I didn't like the premise of TORN. It was perhaps their first chance to stop sucking from someone else's tit, and just proved to be an expensive failure at weaning.
Nickel and dimeing games. This doesn't work in the industry unless with small dev houses (usually growing ones), and to be honest there's really little chance of a Fallout 3 unless someone else makes it. BIS is likely going to be taken down by Interplay's demise, as Interplay isn't going to be paying off that debt any decade soon. A quick game ("slam dunk") does very little aside from gaining progressive indifference from players, as it doesn't match up to anything other dev houses release. The lack of detail becomes evident, and not many are going to settle for the full-price fleecing of expansion pack material for long. None of these releases are of groundbreaking and large-scale note to gain them any large amount of capital, instead just putting themselves onto the industry tailgate. It's a slippery slope method of developing, one that often does hold true as the dev house sinks slowly into obscurity. Morrowind raised the bar in many areas. Would I and others pay $50 for Morrowind or $50 for IWD2, in which the original had less replay than either Diablo or Diablo 2? Sure, if I was either a D&D fanboi or had money and time to piss away. NWN might have raised the bar for some yet there's a great amount of "This took FIVE years? Where?" felt. It might be good for a while, yet I've seen a lot of V:TM apathy felt about it.
As I said before, it sucks to be where they are, and I can sympathise wth it a bit. Some things...just don't seem to make sense. It also looks like there may be an exodus of employees to BioWare and others in the future as Interplay squanders what (comparatively) little they got from the sale of Shiny. True, they got rid of that money-pit, but they are still not even beginning to surface from the deep.
True, it might take more money to see a game to publication than cancelling it. However, you just flushed an assload of development time and money down the toilet with NO return. That's a big red mark in the books, instead of a substantially smaller red mark or some black. It costs more in the long run to see a game to half-ass and culling it than finishing it and seeing some return. Not too brilliant, as the game could have been something other than IE Ad Nauseum and something in which they could have built upon later without having to worry about licensing from anyone aside from engine and other technical aspects. Price tag and contracts of (A)D&D is no longer needed, as would be the same for the IE. That move was perhaps the worst they have done in a while, even though I didn't like the premise of TORN. It was perhaps their first chance to stop sucking from someone else's tit, and just proved to be an expensive failure at weaning.
Nickel and dimeing games. This doesn't work in the industry unless with small dev houses (usually growing ones), and to be honest there's really little chance of a Fallout 3 unless someone else makes it. BIS is likely going to be taken down by Interplay's demise, as Interplay isn't going to be paying off that debt any decade soon. A quick game ("slam dunk") does very little aside from gaining progressive indifference from players, as it doesn't match up to anything other dev houses release. The lack of detail becomes evident, and not many are going to settle for the full-price fleecing of expansion pack material for long. None of these releases are of groundbreaking and large-scale note to gain them any large amount of capital, instead just putting themselves onto the industry tailgate. It's a slippery slope method of developing, one that often does hold true as the dev house sinks slowly into obscurity. Morrowind raised the bar in many areas. Would I and others pay $50 for Morrowind or $50 for IWD2, in which the original had less replay than either Diablo or Diablo 2? Sure, if I was either a D&D fanboi or had money and time to piss away. NWN might have raised the bar for some yet there's a great amount of "This took FIVE years? Where?" felt. It might be good for a while, yet I've seen a lot of V:TM apathy felt about it.
As I said before, it sucks to be where they are, and I can sympathise wth it a bit. Some things...just don't seem to make sense. It also looks like there may be an exodus of employees to BioWare and others in the future as Interplay squanders what (comparatively) little they got from the sale of Shiny. True, they got rid of that money-pit, but they are still not even beginning to surface from the deep.
Last edited by Rosh on Sat Jul 06, 2002 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Dark Xenomorph
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Slave_Master
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Eh, I don't think so, DX. BIS is pretty much Interplay anyway, I doubt that IPlay could sell it. Like Rosh said, Interplay is going to drag down BIS with it. After that, of course, the developers will probably move on to somewhere else. I can only hope that, whatever gods exist be willing, if BIS and/or people who know what they are doing (tha in itself can be debatable, judging from FO2) have a sizable budget, and all the time they need if a FO3 is made. I don't want to see one just for the sake of them making one.
I doubt it will ever be made though, anyway.
I doubt it will ever be made though, anyway.
Because the mass market only wants more and more hack and slash kill the same old fantasy dragon crap. >sigh< I would love to see that too though. Ah well, one can only dream.Saint_Proverbius wrote:Is Super Kung Fu Death Master an RPG? If so, I'd buy it! Why the hell has no one ever used Chinese mythos as a basis for an RPG? Why?!
fuck
At this point I don't care one way or the other if FO3 ever gets made. It's been too long waiting for it, so I'm moving on with my so-called-life. If FO3 ever does get made, I'll buy it, sure; but i'm not holding my breath. It's not like there's a derth of CRPG's out there, and then there's always Shadowrun (a PnP rpg that I play) to fall back on.
Curiously, I can see similarities here between the Shadowrun world and the Fallout world. When FASA (the original publisher for Shadowrun products) went under, they sold off their properties to various companies. AT that point I thought "Oh, NO! That's it for Shadowrun, no more new titles!" but I was wrong. WizKids LLC picked up the rights to write and publish new Shadowrun titles, and now a whole new "cycle" of Shadowrun titles is coming/has come down the pipeline. In a strange way, FASA going the way of the dodo was the best thing that ever happened to Shadowrun. In much the same way, Vivendi's recent cash crisis may be the best thing that ever happens to the Fallout franchise. The powers-that-be may decide that they need the cash "NOW DAMMIT!" and so sell of a bunch of titles to rival companies in an effort to keep their creditors off their backs. If we get lucky, this may mean that Fallout 3 ends up being made after all, but not by IP/BIS.
ps. in case your wondering, Microsoft picked up the video game rights to Shadowrun when they picked up the video game rights to Mechwarrior and Crimson Skies. They (reportedly) have no plans to develop a Shadowrun game.
For more on Shadowrun see http://www.shadowrunrpg.com/
Curiously, I can see similarities here between the Shadowrun world and the Fallout world. When FASA (the original publisher for Shadowrun products) went under, they sold off their properties to various companies. AT that point I thought "Oh, NO! That's it for Shadowrun, no more new titles!" but I was wrong. WizKids LLC picked up the rights to write and publish new Shadowrun titles, and now a whole new "cycle" of Shadowrun titles is coming/has come down the pipeline. In a strange way, FASA going the way of the dodo was the best thing that ever happened to Shadowrun. In much the same way, Vivendi's recent cash crisis may be the best thing that ever happens to the Fallout franchise. The powers-that-be may decide that they need the cash "NOW DAMMIT!" and so sell of a bunch of titles to rival companies in an effort to keep their creditors off their backs. If we get lucky, this may mean that Fallout 3 ends up being made after all, but not by IP/BIS.
ps. in case your wondering, Microsoft picked up the video game rights to Shadowrun when they picked up the video game rights to Mechwarrior and Crimson Skies. They (reportedly) have no plans to develop a Shadowrun game.
For more on Shadowrun see http://www.shadowrunrpg.com/
I like infinity engines games!! I drool on myself constantly!!
While it is rather sad to see another dev house go down or start to go down, it does unfortunately happen. With the chimps at Interplay furiously masturbating into the typewriter, the fall of Interplay and associated divisions is going to be heralded by the largest sucking sounds in the gaming industry[1].Slave_Master wrote:Eh, I don't think so, DX. BIS is pretty much Interplay anyway, I doubt that IPlay could sell it. Like Rosh said, Interplay is going to drag down BIS with it. After that, of course, the developers will probably move on to somewhere else.
You really have the power struggle from Titus to thank for Interplay's position where it is, as without their putzing around Interplay might not be in the position it is. Knowing Fargo through a mutual friend (she worked with him a loong time ago), it was a seriously fucked up thing for the Titus/Interplay Borg to send lawyers after the man who made the company in the first place. I think it was made clear that if they did that, it would have shown exactly what kind of leeches they were and attacking someone who was respected in such a manner would have nearly ostracised Titus/Interplay from many other companies who have old-timers in them. Even Origin has had a decent amount of respect for Interplay in the past, considering Chuckles had his company's games published by Interplay. Gah, I miss the old days when there was less company dicking and more game development.
Must...resist...using Photoshop...to paste the cock from Goatse.cx over Herve's nose... No, wait. The sphincter would be more apropos. Or both.
[1] - Aside from Daikatana and underneath Herve Caen's desk. Wait, perhaps it might be a bad time to admit we've bugged his office. Wait...d'oh! Damnit!
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TheReaper
Easy enough for those of you who live in America or Canada. It's a bit harder to manage that in England, especially in a cash-flow crisis like mine. I don't think I can even get together £10 let alone the amount needed for $100Dark Xenomorph wrote:No, even better idea, lets create the Fallout 3 development charity and we all dontate at least 100 dollars ( USD or candian i dont care. )
