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For additional developer statements, see Meet the Fallout 3 devs. |
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 | The following is based on developer commentary. |
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Quotes from Ricardo E. Gonzalez as part of the "Meet the Dev" conversations. Originally posted on several threads on Bethesda's Fallout 3 forum.
Transcript[]
Forums[]
What's your job at Bethesda?
I'm a programmer, specifically an Interface programmer. For those of you who enjoyed the interface in Oblivion, thanks! It's nice to be appreciated! For those who didn't ( recent polls suggest this number to be around 97% ), please note that I just got here in October, and had nothing to do with that debacle.
What prior projects have you worked on?
I attended DigiPen Institute in Redmond, WA, where I made various game-lets and other graphics projects in pursuit of my dream of being a game programmer. These talents understandably came in quite handy in my first real-world job, programming embedded software, i.e. small-footprint apps for devices like dishwashers and coffee-makers. I wrote a pretty bitchin' calibration GUI in Python for this one radio antenna, so you may already know my work and if so, I have pre-autographed 8x10 glossies that I'm more than happy to distribute for a nominal fee.
What have you drawn on for inspiration in developing Fallout 3? Books, movies, music, etc would be fine, if you don't want to name any games.
A special brand of inspiration is needed for writing post-apocalyptic interface code. Most standard references concentrate on the "look and feel" of a nuclear winter wasteland, the epic struggle of man reclaiming his now-alien environment, etc., story elements that don't really arise when writing recursive callback methods. Instead, I like to take the books from my coding library, rub them in mud, tatter some pages, and burn a few corners for good measure. I also like to make sure that my code has that gritty, hacked-together quality. Who has time for comments or proper indenting when you've spent all day finding a clean water source and staving off radiation sickness?
How is the work-environment? Is it competitive or co-op? Do the different teams talk together?
It's actually really laid-back, compared to the horror stories that are usually perpetuated about game industry conditions. The UI of any program touches a lot of systems, so I find myself talking to various devs from different teams, and everyone's quite friendly and helpful. There are several after-hours "clubs" that hang out and do stuff after work ( tabletop Thursdays for Yours Truly ). The whole feeling is that of a tightly-knit family, which makes it a lot easier when things get hairy.
What is your favorite type of game to play (RTS,FPS,RPG etc)?
I'm addicted to newness; I like trying a bit of everything since the same-old gets boring fairly quickly; the quirkier, the better. I tend to gravitate towards console RPGs ( Earthbound(!), certain Final Fantasies ), RTSs for my PC ( replaying Starcraft at the mo, Rise of Nations ), the token level 70 WoW character ( Gnome Rogue on SwC ), a dark and hidden rhythm game fetish ( Guitar Hero, Elite Beat Agents, Gitaroo Man ), and your basic weirdness ( Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colossus, Dark Cloud ). Standard disclaimer for the conservative RPGers out there: The designers here are well aware of my lame taste in games, and I'm kept far, far away from the gameplay code, so no worries. You won't see a DDR mini-game in FO3 or anything. Then again...
Considering that much of the game will probably be in a wild wasteland, do any of you spend much time hiking, camping, etc, and if so where?
Does spawn-camping count?
What's the last game you bought? Did you like it?
Cooking Mama for the DS. Er...no comment.
Other than videogames, what are your interests? (Board games, reading, music, etc)
Um...I'm not sure I understand the question. What is this "other" of which you speak?
Do you think Fallout 3 could be the pivotal game that unites old-school gamers with the younger generation of console gamers?
As much as I'd like to hook up certain people to a Clockwork Orangesque device that forced them to appreciate the awesomeness of the classics, I think the only thing it would get me is a high electricity bill. As cool as it would be, I don't think FO3 will make the population at-large appreciate the classics anymore than modern literary works drive the masses to read Shakespeare. ( "OMG hamlet rox soo much. i luv the dagger scene in act iii" "dagger scene is macbeth LOL NOOB!!1" ).
One question for the dev that I always wondered about is what are your stances on violence, mature contents in games? Do you guys have a target audience in mind?
For those ill at ease about the possible lack of mature content in FO3, the devs have a thread on the internal forums titled "Sick S%^& You'd Like To See In the Game", which contains various uncensored depraved ideas for content / gameplay / dialog, a goodly portion of which are either already implemented or in development. Yeah, I'm not too worried about FO3 being "watered down"...Razz
Building on that question, do you generally prefer minimal UI's that focus on immersion but give less info (ie fight night round 3 on the 360/ps2 which has no bars, but deforms the boxer's faces to show damage) or larger UI's that provide more information and functionality, but take up screen realestate (like the UI in a civ game)?
I'm a fan of immersive UIs, myself. UIs like the ones in Metroid Prime or Half-Life, where the HUD is part of the character's environment instead of a seperate entity, suck me further into the game world, which equals more play-time for me. FO3's UI passes my immersion test...I'll leave it at that...
Is the pipboy interface from fallout immersive in your opinion, since the pipboy is literally something you're supposed to have with you?
I'd say yes. Fallout 1's Pipboy UI is an example of a UI that's part and parcel of the game world, and so lends itself to this crazy thing we call "immersion". Diablo II would be the inverse of that. While its UI wasn't too intrusive, I can't imagine my Barbarian carrying around two huge red and blue orbs.
What was the first video game you've played? If you could, would you make a sequel for it?
Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt. I would make a sequel for it. It would be like the first, except it would have more items, a navigable over-world screen, and star in a movie with Fred Savage. I'd call it "Super Duper Mario Brothers in Happy Fun Land for Good Times and High Score".
And another one, more personal: what do you think of Russia? FO had many cold-war influences, you know
My first impression of Russia is that it's a transcontinental country extending over a vast expanse of Asia and Europe with an area of 17,075,400 km². I also feel very strongly that the mid-annual temperature is -5.5°C (22°F), with the average summer high temperature ranging between 26°C and 32°C (80 to 88°F). This, of course, is my opinion and shouldn't be taken as indicative of Bethesda's stance on Russia or its topography.
Favorite brand of instant Thai noodles?
I can neither confirm nor deny the deliciousness of Beef Flavor Maruchan Ramen at this juncture, and, as a representative of this administration, cannot and will not rule out the consumption of known unknown brands of instant noodle...I've said too much...
Who are (or were) your favorite male and female sci-fi actors?
I have an autographed picture of John de Lancie ( Q from ST:TNG ) hanging in my cube ( --JdL ), next to an autographed picture of myself ( To my biggest fan. --RG ), next to an autographed picture of Charisma VaultBoy ( Keep smilin', Kid! --VB ). As for females, that would be Kaylee ( Jewel Staite ) a là Firefly, that mechanical minx. She has yet to return my calls...
Are you guys Spaceballs fans?
I always have coffee when I watch my radar, you knows that! Everybody knows that!
What are your favorite webcomics?
Hrmm, I frequent Dinosaur Comics, Penny Arcade, PBF, CAD, Dr. McNinja, and Dark Legacy, but I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite.
Tell us about the most funniest moment in your life (wierd, i know but really revelant IMO)
I really have the quantifiably worst taste in humor, but to answer your question: Rapcat. I think I blacked out from hypoxia after seeing that rascally puppet lay his phat beats. That, and seeing Brian Regan live tops my unable-to-breathe-hilarity list.
What is the most obscure RPG you've played thus far?
I'd say Mother 1, prequel to Mother 2 aka Earthbound, which is also my answer for favorite game of All-Time and best dialog. "Ah, I see...Well, it doesn't make me happy, but I understand your point about the fate of the world being at stake." -Ness' Dad, if you refuse to agree to his suggestion to stop playing
Have any of the Devs seen Frank Horrigan's 30 ways not to screw up Fallout? Seen here, they are some fans' take on how Fallout should turn out.
I have; in no particular order, I agree with and support 20 of the reasons, and disagree with / could do without the remaining ten. Pretty good odds, eh?
Which compiler do you prefer? Why?
Mine.
C or C++?
C++
Your take on XNA?
Never used it, but I like it.
DX10 look easier? Doesn't let you at the hardware as much as you'd like?
See previous.
Mountain Dew, Pepsi, or Coke?
Coke. ( You want another... )
Code comments- Absolutely necessary, good for comic relief, or "Only the weak need comments!"?
Absolutely necessary. So naturally, I always forget to do them.
Multi-core development, next greatest thing or sure-fire way to a migrane?
It's a little long; you'll grow into it.
What are your feelings about having kids in a game?
How do I like having children in-game? With spaghetti sauce. Why, what do you do?
Yeah, that about did it, Zeleny now has a page dedicated only to him in the Meet the Dev feature
Curse you, Zeleny! First, you one-up me in hair length, then Mall of Horror, and now this?? Well, that's it! You're one-upmanship days are over! No more one-upping for you! Etc.!
Were any of you guys once modders?
That would be a no. That would give me "street cred", or even "mad propz" in some circles, and anyone that knows me knows that I've long since overdrawn my "hip" account. ( Do the kids still say that? ) I tool around with self-made UI mods for WoW and Oblivion, but nothing to write home about.
Do you think the games these days should be a bit harder, even if it would affect the sales negatively?
Personally, I prefer games that successfully combine various playthrough difficulties rather than ones that are just straight hard. One of the many reasons I really dig the Ratchet & Clank series is that it has a fairly straight-forward, button-mashing method to beat the game, and then tons of other obscure, more difficult goals that I can farm for weeks after the game's done. I think the contrast gives me a better sense of accomplishment than if the game was just obscure and difficult all the way through.
Do you guys bring cake to work on your birthday, or do the company supply one?
Ever seen OfficeSpace? Yeah, it's kinda like that.
What is required to be a decent Developer in a game like Fallout? (Or Oblivion, they are both so massive!)
Versatility. One of my main flaws in prepping for the game industry was concentrating on just graphics and physics. But, no component is an island, as they say. 2/3rds of the very specific knowledge I crammed for has since been replaced with a multitude of small, key facts about different parts of the engine and how they interact, which makes me infinitely more useful than if I threw up my hands whenever a piece of code threatened to stretch outside of my purview. Meditate on the Swiss Army Knife, grasshoppa.
In a scale of one to ten. How good will Fallout 3 be compared to previous counterparts?
( whispered asides to an off-screen marketing liason )
( monotone ) 11.
Tell us about your nicknames - how did you acquire them, what do they mean?
So-crates from the philosohper who knew what he didn't know, 200X because I fashion myself as coming from a future where robots rule the earth, each of them having eerily convienient, interconnected strength / weakness relationships.
Have you yourself ever been so crazy in love with something (game, movie, whatever) that you've followed it extensively. Have you ever been a rabid fan of something?
Yeah...restraining orders are a bitch...
How much do the various departments of the dev team know about the various aspects of the game? For example, do the art people stay completely 'updated' on the gameplay of the game, or do they work for themselves? Does everyone get to partake in playing the game (I noticed Ashley Cheng posted sometimes on his blog that he was grabbing the latest build)?
That's a definite yes. We all (meaning the programmers; I don't know about those creepy, lazy designers...) are constantly encouraged to play the hell out of the current build as if it were the final product, which I think is really effective in 1) catching non-obvious bugs, lulls in quest action / gameplay, general improvements that can be made, and 2) keeping up interest in the game.
What do you think of giving gamers choices in the way they see and interact with the game? Is it too much work to be worth the hassle?
The ideal to make the game look and play equally good from every viewpoint, but it becomes an exercise in combing cowlicks, as they say; you get one issue down, but then another pops up. I tried playng through Oblivion in third-person, only to get creamed by a bandit due to my non-l33t targeting skills. Conversely, playing WoW in first-person isn't too bad combat-wise, but I always feel boxed in; the vistas in the game demand a larger view, at least to my aestethics. Viewpoint is one of those things that affects everything ( art, gameplay, UI, etc. ) in some way, and I personally haven't found a good example of a game that's able to support multiple viewpoints without making things overly complex or overly simplified. But, I'm pretty unimaginative, so I'm open to the possibility.
You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise.It's crawling toward you.You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping.Why?
> turn tortoise over
You don't see a tortoise over.
> flip tortoise
You can't do that!
> help tortoise
Hypothetical Desert Question™ Help Files
No contents on "tortoise".
> this sucks
Well, that's not very nice!
> quit
Bye! Do you wish to save?
> NO
Have any of you played Planescape: Torment? How did you like it? What did you like best? Did you think the amount of dialog was too much/too little/just right? Do you think a game with that much dialog can have mass market appeal?
I think I short-answered this on Friday, so to extend my answer: No. Don't know. Don't know. Maybe? Possibly, but it has to be really good dialog to make more than a niche impact, that is to say, to appeal to more than one slice of the market. That being said, I think there's a certain, very populous crowd that will never care for dialog, character progression, story arcs, all that good stuff; that's just the nature of the beast. I also don't believe that said crowd is nearly as populous or influential as many people give them credit.
Ok here's one, do you enjoy tweaking stuff with computer games?
I tweak all the live-long day. That game better work and work well by itself by the time I gets home, or heads will roll! Metaphorically. Maybe...
What I'd really like to know is what the dev's favorite Fallout memory? What one thing really sticks out when they think of fallout?
I'm replaying FO1 as we speak, so I'm going to save answering FO questions until the game is once again fresh in my mind.
If you were to ever include the ability to drive a Tuna Fish, would it come with headlights?
Tuna are several species of ocean-dwelling fish in the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tunas are fast swimmers—have been clocked at 77 km/h (48 mph)—and include several species that are warm-blooded. Unlike most fish species, which have white flesh, the flesh of tuna is pink to dark red. This is because tuna muscle tissue contains greater quantities of myoglobin, an oxygen-binding molecule.
How much health will eating a grenade give you? We already know it's a sandwich.
You eat the Grenade, and are hit for 20 damage. You think perhaps it needs more salt.
Which matters more to you, a game that sells a lot and makes a lot of money or a game that's great and will be loved, maybe even worshipped by its fans?
Both? Seriously, I'm with DoctorSpooky. I wouldn't be happy if FO3 was critically acclaimed, but didn't sell ( which would make paying the rent slightly problematic ), nor would I like it if sold like hotcakes, but was soulless and not as well-received. I'm shooting for both; this is, of course, safely prefaced by the fact that I have no bearing on the design or business decisions of the game, so I can have whatever philosophies I want toward it. Go me!
Also, does any of the dev's agree with me that FO:1+2+tictacs had too little focus on soil erosion?
Far too little. Indeed, I could call this the series biggest failing. Also, not enough bloom lighting; you need plenty of that. Radiant AI? Mudcrabs? Did I miss one? Razz
How about Oblivion then? Do you feel bad about it? Or do you agree with Pete when he says Oblivion delivered what was promised and no one said "it is good but could be better"?
( sigh ) Let's start with some caveats, shall we?
1) I'm loathe to pick apart marketing sound-bites. They have as much freedom to go off-script as I do to check in buggy code. We all have our jobs in this crazy contraption of a game company, and I don't envy theirs; mine's hard enough.
2) You know I work, like, right next to these guys that made Oblivion, right? They can hear me typing right now. We literally spend 8 - 10 hours a day together, working, eating, joking, etc; we're in each other's proverbial grill. So, you can understand my reticence; if I offer criticism on someone's work and it's taken badly, it's going to get back to them and I'm going to get shanked in the company bathroom with a rusty fork. I like my kidneys, so I'm going to tread lightly here.
3) Our own hardest critics are ourselves. If X about Oblivion gets on your nerves, it really gets on ours. If you thought Y played / looked bad, we think it went horribly. Trust us; we know what went wrong and went right in Oblivion; it's in our heads and our hair and we don't have the luxury of uninstalling it from our hard drives. If we have any motivation going into FO3 ( other than making a game worthy of the originals ), it's correcting our mistakes. Not to paint the picture that we didn't like Oblivion; quite the opposite. Prevailing opinion here is that Oblivion went swimmingly and above expectations. But, that's expected; of course we're going to like our own creation. Just so long as it's clear that we don't think it was all perfect either.
Now that that's said, I'll say that I liked Oblivion. Huge, living world with an existence outside of my characters' actions, lots going on, great for guys like me who are exploration-junkies. Bad things? I won't get specific here, but questing got repetitive at times, lots of random dungeons, level scaling, dialogue / voice-acting was spotty depending on who you talked to, and some parts of the UI ( Inventory menu... ). The thing I dig about those flaws, however, is how they're the shown seams of a large game world rather than just shoddy development. That is, when you're trying to make a world with as much stuff as Cyrodil, you're bound to repeat yourself or add one too many forts or have one corny dialog line out of thousands of good ones. It's tough to rein in all that content and make it behave, but I think the game succeeded at that more than it dropped the ball. So that's my long-winded, obviously biased, personal opinion on Oblivion: lots of creamy goodness, some burnt edges, but all-in-all I'll be eating another. Man, now I'm hungry...
What do you have on your desk? Do you have any figurines or maskots? Books?
Ahh, a nice, uncontroversial question!
From left to right: Books ( The Onion's Finest News Reporting, Knuth Art of Computer Programming Vol. 4 are examples ), V-Day cards from the missus, Lego model of Slave I, Dell box, Nerf USB missile launcher, crossword puzzles book, monitor, clock / pen holder, whiteboard, autographed pictures of Q, me, and Vault Boy. Hm, pretty sparse, I guess. For wallpaper, a doctored Animal Crossing screenshot with Tom Nook saying, "Where's my money, man?! Is Tom Nook going to have to slap a b*tch?"
Do you ever get a perverse urge to drop very vague hints about upcoming games into the forum and watch the chaos ensue?
Look, I'd love to regale with cool spoilers about FO3, but I can't. I'd like to tell you that by applying a simple substitution algorithm to my responses so far, you'll obtain key info about the game, but that just wouldn't be true. You dig? Good...
Who is the one Bethesda employee that could whoop your behind in a street fight?
All of them.
Do you shudder every time someone uses the I-word?
Ichthyosaurus? Inhomogeneity? Irritable bowel syndrome? I guess that's three words...
If you were Archie, who would you bang first, Betty or Veronica?
Veronica, no question. Aside from my prediliction for the raven-haired, Betty's good-two-shoes nature would too easily turn constrictive for my tastes. Veronica's more playful and her stuck-upness is one of those traits you can shake loose, if you catch my angle.
How many people do you have working on Fallout 3, and how many in each area of development?
As a staunch solipsist, I'd have to say at least one.
What kind of education do you devs have and has it in anyway helped you as a game developer?
BS in Comp Sci from UMD, 3 semesters at DigiPen ( didn't graduate; too expensive ). A Comp Sci degree from a "standard" university is good for giving you a nice grounding in the basics, which a lot of programmers ( myself included ) neglect. My time at DigiPen was invaluable in giving me first-hand experience with the inner workings of the game industry, but, as I alluded to in an earlier response, they did tend to over-concentrate on graphics and physics and not enough on engine design and team dynamics.
What was your recent nightmare dream?
I'm at my old job. Welcome back party. Grey, square cake. It's my old desk. Oh, God... Screaming. Get me out. Get me out!
What's your favorite alcoholic drink?
Hard cider. True story: My first word was "apple juice", followed by "Mama" a few days later.
Have you ever referred to the george washington monument as "the giant schvance?"
I still prefer "The Clinton Memorial".
Favorite quotes?
"Hey, you! If you meet a beautiful, seductive woman who's looking for me, tell her 'hi.' Anyway, I don't think a woman like that would be looking for me."
"Hey, talking to people at another table in a restaurant is like...breaking into their room and checking their drawers for valuables. Yeah, other people on important adventures do such things, but you have to admit that it's bizarre!"
" 'Ness....I....feel...h..a...p..p..y...' You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas's attack! Ness takes 2980 damage!" -- Earthbound
"Tyger, Tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" --William Blake, The Tyger.
Are you guys required to come in here and post from time to time for your job, or do you just care about us fans?
I'm paid $1 for any post I whip up not containing an "E". Wait, does that count? Damn it...nope, not required. Just inspired.
I noticed that in the earlyer threads all the people that said they didn't like turnbased had jobs were that didn't matter (such as sound and art), was that intended?
You mean, was it all part of our elaborate scheme that we, as the faceless entity known as "The Man", are perpetuating? No. While I can speak for myself as being "da Man" for time to time, any dev that posts is spouting their own opinion.
Do you take a great deal of pride in working on this project? Since some of you were fans of the original series, do you take a lot of pride & care in working on something that you've enjoyed. Has a project ever become so pain-staking that you lose all desire to work on it.
YES.
What kind of music do you jam?
Top 5 most played songs straight from my iPod:
Tainted Lovers -- Gitaroo Man soundtrack
Rhymes Galore -- Busta Rhymes
Read My Mind -- The Killers
Gold Lion -- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Black Math -- The White Stripes
Where are you going to spend the apocalypse?
Probably here, in the underground Bethesda development studio. We'll survive for a while here, living off of old Saltines and particle board, until eventually our water source runs low. At which point, I'll be sent out into the wastes as the last, best hope for humanity, only to be done in by a Cave Rat due to my low Perception.
Recently, I've been wondering about the immortality of the soul. Considering that humans can't move in rational ways in dimensions higher than the 4th, and then only in a limited sense, which kind of cupcakes would I have to make in order to transubstantiate my pet rock into Jessica Alba?
Yeah, it is a somewhat depressing state of affairs. I mean, what's the point of transcending your corporeal self if you're not able to check your e-mails afterwards? Or catch the newest episode of Desperate Housewives? It's for this reason alone that so many hunker down in the collective unconsicousness as long as they do. Concerning transsubstantiation vis-a-vis pastries, I found I've had the most luck with quiches, strangely enough. Something about the combination of eggs and cream within the flaky crust lends itself to reordering matter on a molecular level. If you're stuck deciding on a flavor, Quiche Lorraine does in a pinch. Though it does tend to run if you don't keep your eye on it. Quiche, quiche, quiche, come back here!
Have you ever used a video game quote in conversation? did the other person know?
I'm a fan of "SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!" We also like to fill in awkward silences with, "I saw a mudcrab the other day..."
A lot of fans are capable of making very good artwork, music, stories, etc. Is there any possibility of Bethesda using these resources in the final product of the game, possibly the winner of some sort of contest?
Putting aside the fact that in order to make content for the game, you'd have to know info about the game ( which we can't tell you ), and that we'd have to have you sign away all sorts of IP rights and put you on payroll and whatnot ( which we can't do ), I'm pretty sure we'd run into some sort of human rights laws if we extracted your brain into a self-contained nutrient vat and plugged you into the bio-electric information grid we have going here. I mean, I signed a contract, so I didn't really have a choice, but the media would have a field day if we lobotomized yet another fan.
If there was one thing you absolutely hated about the original Fallouts, what is it and why?
Whenever I start an RPG, I always make a version of myself. Who doesn't want to live vicarously in a game world? Anywho, the very first time I played Fallout, this meant low Strength and Endurance, high Intellect, tag Science. Annnnd I died horrendously over and over at the hands of Radscorpions and got really frustrated and didn't pick up the game for a day or two. Then I sucked it up, tried again, realized that the time game abounded with non-combat alternatives, and lived happily ever after.
Mario or Luigi? Paper or plastic? Boxers or Briefs?
Is this a trick question?? Luigi, hands down!
It depends. Where is she wearing it?
D.
What give you inspiration, when you need it?
Caffeine?
You face your worst enemy in a desolate alleyway, and it seems you've got him/her cornered, finally after years of burning hatred within. Realising you have the power to decide his/her fate, you...
Tell stupid jokes until he/she dies of desperation.
Do you find that understanding how games are put together increases your enjoyment of them or makes you notice the flaws more?
It's definitely increased my appreciation, knowing the work that goes behind even a tiny thing in a game and difficulty involved in lassoing in everything into a coherent whole. Being moved by a game's story, gameplay, or ambience is one thing, but seeing all that in an exploded view in your head, contemplating how the whole work fits together in a dizzying web of relationships and interrelationships, the man-hours and everything else that went into it; it's quite another.
What is your favorite flower, flower?
Why, the crysanthanum, dollface.
What was your favourite trait in the original Fallouts? Like Bloody Mess or Gifted?
Bloody Mess is key, and I love Gifted, if only for the icon of the Vault Baby lifting a barbell. They grow up so fast!
Do you have some morning (or midday ?) ritual for when you arrive at work ? Do you spend a lot of time doing "non-productive" stuff before you actually get to the real thing or do you go straight into the mud, coding your first lines/drawing your first art/writing your first quest (you get the idea) right after you badged in ?
1) Log in; check my bug list; crack knuckles and get ready to get to work!
2) Get sidetracked and check my various e-mails, feeds, and forums.
3) Answer various e-mails and forum threads, tooling and re-tooling my answers for maximum wit. Chuckle inwardly at my own good humor and killer looks. Damn, I'm fly...
4) Google my name until lunch.
5) Lunchtime! I hope it's Cookie Day!
6) Get back to desk and open bug list again. ( sigh )
7) Attempt to move whiteboard eraser using only my thoughts.
8) Cripes, 4 PM?!
9) Open up IDE and code frantically. When in doubt, add more soil erosion.
10) Ah, quitting time! What a day! Time to drive home, relax for a hour, and get to work on my real job, levelling my WoW character.
So what is the mix of ethnicity in the Bethesda studios? Are there many programmers with Asian African etc origin? Or are you all pale?
According to my birth certificate, I'm Hispanic. I'm also fairly pale. There are also a number of devs here that aren't, hm, how to put this delicately?..."rhythmically-impaired". They're also fairly pale. We do work in a basement, after all. We speak English for the most part, except on Esperanto Tuesdays.
Anyway, in light of my rant about traffic, how much commute do you guys/gals have to do everyday for work? Do you guys/gals enjoy the traffic?
45-50 minutes. Each way. Uphill. In a teal Corolla. Whompers.
What's the oldest piece of literature you've read in full by choice (not as a course requirement)?
Don Quixote, unabriged. "Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be."
If you could be driving whatever you liked - provided that it travels on land and could be licensed for road use - what would it be? If you could be driving whatever you liked - without the above conditions - what would it be?
A Mario Kart, surrounded by red shells. 150cc; I'm not messin' around here!
I made a frontpage newspost about you at DAC for a lark, but it got removed for being racist. the [censored]es.
Thanks for the effort! If the earlier "rhythmically challenged" remark offended anyone, I sincerely apologize. Seriously, you should see me play DDR. I'm not, um...not very...oh, who I am kidding? I rock the DDR mat! Curse my metronomic soles!
To any devs that played a decent amount of fallout 2, did you ever try a character with very low intelligence, and if so did you find it as surprisingly hilarious as I?
Me like Fallout. Funny talk. Sometimes, bad men shoot. Me no like shoot! Me SMASH!!
Any devs been in hair-raising accidents? did it change your perspective on life?
I did a 180 on the freeway in a rainstorm once during an unnecessarily dangerous rocking-out session including an air-guitar solo. ( To The Hives, if you must know. ) It made me wake up, look around at my life with fresh eyes, and realize I should probably get new tires.
Also. Socrates, the classy dame, what is your denomination of Hispanic?
Hmm...well, my dad hails from Ecuador and my mother flew in from Nicaragua. I was born and raised the wonderously exotic locale of Delaware. Ah, yes, I'll never forget my childhood, climbing the giant baobab trees of the Delaware jungle; playing hoop-al-ocal with the natives as we sweltered in the tropical Delaware heat; lying on the grass at night, counting the foreign Delaware stars, smelling the peregrine Delaware spices wafting in the air, listening to the call of the elusive Delawarean red-breasted finch: "Whoop-whoop, ca-caawwwww!" Ahhh...so, yeah. That denomination.
Do you support the Socrate200X fanclub? Why or why not?
Once again, absolutely not. Seriously, I don't see what the big deal is about this guy; he seems like kind of a loser to me. Devilishly handsome, perhaps, but definitely a loser....
What is the devs' favourite fictional weapon?
The Steam-Powered Pogo-Saw. If you've ever taken someone out with a chainsaw while on a pogo-stick, you can attest to the myriad advantages of combining the two.
If you were actually one of the characters in Fallout, whats would your stats and tag skills be?
Straight from Me.GCD
Strength - 4
Perception - 5
Endurance - 5
Charisma - 6
Intelligence - 9
Agility - 8
Luck - 10
Good-Natured Gifted Tagged: Sneak, Science, Speech
Eggs with bacon or cereals? What would you condemn your worst enemy to? What sports do you play/watch?
Cereal! One of my dreams growing up was to open up a cereal bar akin to Starbucks but just for cereal, and I'd have all these crazy exotic cereals and milks and whatnot. But, dreams about breakfast food don't pay the bills, as my dad used to say, so here I am.
Seeing themselves as I saw them.
Does Starcraft count?
Do you like to code to music or are you more of a quiet coder?
Shhh!
Work around the problem or solve the problem? I.E use a workaround or find the problem and recode?
Any one you walk away from, right?
Constantly code small amounts or reel off 200 lines in the last hour?
Hmm...depends.
Visual Studio or (insert other compiler/IDE here)?
Visual Studio.
Scripting or programming?
Progamming.
Small code or fast code?
Ideally, both.
Vista, XP, Linux, Mac OS or Win 95?
Umm, Things That Go In a Computer! Things That Are Operating Systems! *ding*
Can you name the game that the phrase "War has never been so much fun" is from?
Kill all enemy...
For $100 What is the capitol of France? Is it A. Paris, B. France, C. Scotland or D. Calais?
A! Survey says...??
What kind of hours do you all work?
10 - 6
Work at home, or only in the office?
In the office ( read: underground coding lair )
Morning or night person?
Night Person
And lastly; Mudcrabs or Radscorpions?
Radscorpions!
Care to answer any questions posed in that interview; such as what constitutes good dialogue, outstanding examples of great writing in games, cinematic storytelling against "recommended reading" storytelling, or any other question there?
Since my role as forum answerer here stops short of actually being insightful, I'll punt on an in-depth answer to this and just say: Dialogue is good, good dialogue is better, branching, multi-faceted dialogue is the hotness, but everything has its place. Reading the article, I find myself siding with Mitsoda's views most of the time, but that just might be my inner Malkavian talking. ( It's always...talking...
Starcraft 2 or World of Starcraft?
My inner connoisseur says Starcraft 2, of course. But, my inner addict wants his level 70 Protross Zealot, fully equipped with twin [Psionic Blade of the Monkey]s. My life for Aiur!!
Not including Earth, what is your favorite planet, or moon?
Uranus. He don't take guff from nobody!
Who would have won if the fight between John Bender and Andrew Clark had taken place? (Breakfast Club)
Hmm...Bender put up a tough front, but I think that's all it was. I'm thinking one suplex from Andy and he would've been down for the count.
Rank your favorites, of the following old CRPG series: Ultima, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, Might & Magic, Gold & Silver Box D&D
Ultima ( Quest of the Avatar FTW )
Gold & Silver Box D&D
Wizardry
Bard's Tale ( Never played Sad )
Might & Magic ( Ditto. )
What would you like to eat before you die?
The antidote.
Devs; what was your favourite Fallout quest, and why?
I've always had a soft spot for the one in Shady Sands where you tell the guy about crop rotation, just because it was totally unexpected. I was just talking to everybody, like a good RPG player, and lo behold, 500 XP to me for being knowledgable! Finally, some recognition! FO's non-combat quests are my favs, and this was my first.
Whats your myspace address?
I'm not nearly cool enough to have one of those. All the kids seem to love them, though, what with the Facebook and that there YouTubes.
How do you think the fans on these forums will react after they see the spoiler? Do you think they'll be pleased with it and stop mocking bethseda a little?
Oh, people will never stop mocking us. That is, if our paid forum trolls are doing their job correctly. ( You know who you are. ) We have to polarize public opinion somehow!
What subjects should we discuss to have a chance of actually saying something that gets noticed and can be useful for you guys?
I enjoy threads that discuss ideas that should be in the new Fallout or, alternatively, things they liked about the older Fallouts; they're always a interesting read and give me something to think / talk about. I could do without the multitude of "FO3 needs X to be Fallout" threads; I either whole-heartedly agree or vehemently disagree with the assertion(s), which leads to the same result: 5 mins. wasted and no new knowledge to show for it.
What, in your opinion, was the worst computer or video game you've ever played? Limit this only to games that where the maker actually tried to make MONEY by selling it.
Mega Man: Battle Network for the GBA. Ugh.
In many games, it can be said about them that they "failed to live up to their potential;" in other words, they had one or more brilliant ideas for the sake of gameplay, storytelling, etc., but they were executed in a flawed matter. Of what you've played, what examples have you encountered? Mega Man: Battle Network for the GBA. Seriously, how do you mess up a Mega Man game?? Eight bosses, complementary boss weapons, Dr. Wily's eyebrows. It's not hard!
What's your favorite weapon (okay, weapons) from a computer or video game?
Metal Blade. Eight directions, no waiting.
Have you played any Mega Man games?
... ... Let's just go with "Yes."
If you said "yes" to the above, have you ever "jumped while entering a boss door?" If the answer to this is yes, you'll know what I mean.
Indeed. I also enjoy "sliding through cut-scenes" and "pause-killing with the Thunder Beam". Razz
If any of you could live in a gameplay, television, or movie universe, which one and why?
Animal Crossing. I want my life-size Master Sword statue!
"If you had a chance to drink a coffee or (insert prefferred hot drink) with anyone from present or past...who would it be?
Myself, 5 mins ago. I'd ask, "Am I everything you thought I would be, and more?" and I'd answer, "But, of course." If I was allowed to travel forward in time, I'd choose me, 5 mins from now. I'd ask, "Quickly, is there anything I should know??", and I'd answer, "Duck!!"
From TES games you've played through, what would you say were the high points and low points of each game?
If I'm not mistaken, the highest point in Oblivion is near Gnoll Mountain, the lowest point being Deepscorn Hollow, assuming you have the Vile Lair add-on.
What do you developers say about that? Would you be interested in a separate thread where you'd be able to ask all sorts of weird s... stuff... about your fans/visitors/not-yet-all-that-hot-about-bethesdians?
Most of the questions I'd like to ask the fans have already been asked via several threads on the forum, which is good for me as I'm what you would classify as lazy. Any other questions I can think of strike me as being of the fairly lame, Seventeen magazine variety. ( "If you had to go to prom with bad hair xor a bad dress, what would you, like, choose?" ) So, in short, maybe?
What are your personal ambitions when making Fallout 3? What do you hope to achieve?
Configuration: Fallout - Debug--------------------
Fallout - 0 error(s), 0 warning(s)
Done ----------------------
Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped
When is someone going to watch Brazil, by Terry Gilliam? It's the one game (er, with Them and a Boy and his Dog and a bunch of others...) the old time Fallout devs talk about when they want to show where their inspiration came from.
I sat through Time Bandits; does that count?
Have you seen any of for inspiration?
I have now!
What is it like working with so many new people around? Bethsoft has a lot of new blood now, so what's it like?
Being part of the "new blood", it's great! I get a paycheck, they get a me. It's a win-win-win situation!
Do you have any personal "Survival Stories"?
My Internet went out the other day. For 3 whole hours. Near the end, I was more animal than man.
What is the most exotic firearm that you've held/fired?
A Nintendo™ light zapper.
Devs, what was your favorite moment of any game?
I hate to keep bringing up Earthbound ( Mother 2 ), which is admittedly a very light-hearted and light-weight "RPG", in this forum of hardcore RPGers, but it is my fav, so here goes. When you're fighting the final boss, Giygas, the personification of unreasoning evil, his distorted image looms in the background, the ambient music is half-static and backwards noises, and he spouts these semi-cheerful non-sequiters as he kills you. ("Ness....I...feel....h..a..p..p..y.." "It hurts! It hurtsss...." ) Creeped the heebies out of me as a kid. Anywho, the only way to damage this guy is to use the heretofore fairly pointless Pray command, after which a small cutscene shows one of your faraway friends is suddenly struck with an urge to pray for your safety. This goes on for a few turns until after one Pray, the screen goes black and silent and a small text box says, "The prayer was swallowed up by the darkness". I didn't sleep for days.
Will the more mature karmic traits and titles from F1 and F2 remain, and/or how do you feel about their inclusion (such as Child Killer, Slaver, Kama Sutra, Gigolo, etc)?
Good!
I would like to know some of your opinions on the ideas that the fans have expressed in the forums over the last month.
Have you read any that made you burst out laughing; or made you wonder how that could be done?
Anything stab your interest (sorry, the auto censor would have stripped out the better word.)
Please, pick any that you remember, or found amusing and let us know how you feel about them.
The threads' names change and re-change, so I'll refer to them by topic. My favs are the thought-provoking threads ( ways to add non-combat alternatives, how to ( or how it's impossible to ) incorporate SPECIAL into TPP, how to still do isometric in this day / age ) and the humorous ones ( create youw own perk, The Fallout General, Socrates200X fan club *cough* shameless plug *cough* ). I could drop all the "Fallout needs / doesn't need this" and "Bethedsa will ruin this" out the airlock. Discussions, yes; opinions, whomp.
What is your favorite giant robot ?
The Iron Giant. "Su...per...man..." Stay strong...fight the tears...*sob*
What is your favorite horrible monster?
The Monster at the End of this Post.
How would you describe, using ten (most likely abstract(yes, abstract words, like xylophone(you're not allowed to include xylophone(or another similar musical instrument)))) words, the perfect gaming experience that Fallout 3 will bring?
Shadow. Lining. Surprise. Blinding. Rumbles. Recoil. Tilt. Denouement. Anticipation. Xylophone....damn it!
Did you ever eat (part of) a reptile?
If you answered yes to that, was the reptile still alive?
If you answered no to that, would you have prefered it if the reptile had been alive?
Sadly, no.
Have you tried the New Bouncy Bubble Beverage?
If yes, is it an improvement over the original? If no, why would such an exemplary citizen like you not drink the New beverage of exemplary citizens?
Sadly, yes.
I want another.
If you were a Super Hero, what would be your SuperPower?
The ability to manipulate awesomeness at the sub-atomic level.
Plasma Rifle, Minigun, Combat Shotgun, Flamethrower or Gauss Rifle?
With some duct tape and a little twine, you can turn five guns one super-gun!
Which Bethesda Softworks employee is your closest friend/ally/whipping boy?
Number #1, buddy boy.
If you could fire one BS employee, who would it be (ambiguity is OK - if it means you can keep your job) and how would you carry it out?
Ricky Gonzalez, with knuckles and balls o' brass. That mo'fo's not going down without a fight.
I want you to tell us about your satanic, pseudo illuminati initiation and goal completion rites.
When I first got hired, I got to eat my predecessor's heart to gain his knowledge. Apparently, he left his keys on his coffee table. Sucks to be him / me.
How'd you choose to kill Frank at the end of FO2?
ph4t h4x
Who was you favorite NPC combat companion in FO2?
Tie between Dogmeat and Skynet
Your most hated NPC combat companion?
Sulik.
The biggest mistake you've made in Fallout?
Not playing right now.
Your two favorite traits to take?
Gifted, Good-Natured
Before you accepted the work, do you know what type of game this will be? Or do you get the instructions later?
So, have you choice to make or not make this game or they told you: "Okay, now you working on this title no matter what are you saying or if you liking/don't liking it"?
Pretty much. They got the dough, I got the code. I *could* be working on Where's Waldo for the 360, but I lucked out.
Are you developers fans of gigantic machines (Maus comes to mind)?
Yes. ( Yes comes to mind. )
So which cookie will/did you order and what is your favorite flavor?
Two-Handed Chocolate Chip Attack!! Tastebuds are critically hit for 20 points of Flavor! It's like there's a party in your mouth, and everyone's invited!
Will you make a good game for us? Sad
For us? Nah. For you, my friend? But, of course!
Better fallout NPC, harold or his tree?
The tree. Better smell.
Devs, does any of you have a pet? And if it was a dog, would you ever call it Dogmeat?
My cat's name is 7883. YES.
What is the most embarassing story you have involving your crush.
I had this huge crush on Cyndi Cundiff my 8th grade year, so I asked her to the Spring Fling, but she turned me down, and I kinda accidentally bludgeoned her to death and made a mask out of her skin. OMG soooo embarrassing!
What did you read most when growing up?
Encyclopedia Brown, codes / cipher books, 101 Monster Jokes to Creep Out your Friends!, you know, cool stuff.
Best setting: Age of Apocalypse, or Dark Knight Returns?
Dark Knight Returns, no question.
How would you try to beat Batman?
By formulating that question, you've already lost.
What did you think of the response the latest concept art got? Also, where you surprised at how some people managed to find out this and this?
Oh and one more thing......if you are a writer, what general advice would you give to a newbie writer?
Good! I'm not, I'm afraid. I before E, except after C?
Do you still feel confident having had a couple of examples of how much analysis and scrutiny your work will be subjected to?
Slightly nervous. I can see the threads now: "#define?? Try static const variables, n00b!!1"
Music: What kind?
I got Daft Punk's Discovery for Christmas. That's it.
Which DJ`s do you like and have you listened to anyone from Europe or just US?
DJ Jazzy Jeff!
Whats the deal with airplane peanuts?
You're on the airplane, and they're giving you bags of peanuts. I mean, what's the deal? Don't get me started. Don't even get me started.
You're in a street. The sun shines overhead. You see a fastfood restaurant to the west, a pizza joint to the north and a salad bar to the south. To the east you see endless wasteland. You have five dollars. You are starving.
>pointbreak
Will this be in Fallout 3?
I don't know. We're having enough trouble trying to implement this.
We've done Colossal Cave Adventure, Spellbreaker, Dinosaur! and now the Dead Alewives' Dungeons and Dragons sketch. Yet the borders of dorkiness haven't even been reached.
I smell a wumpus!
Nny or Squee?
Shmee.
What is the most nasty food you ever eat in your life?
My self-named "Barbecue Surprise". Seriously, I made that thing and I can't tell you what was in it.
Are you in favor of Turn base or Real time?
Depends on the game. Turn-based Half-Life would make me a saaad panda.
How about you devs give us a glimpse of some pieces of the "soul" of fallout that you guys have agreed upon? Now I am not asking about what is going to be in FO3, because these ideas may or may not be in the game, and you guys are welcome to through wacky curve-ball responses.
Aw, phooey! Now I can't throw a wacky, curve-ball response, since it's already an option. Hmm, what would I get if I cast Soul Trap on Fallout? For me, I guess it would be its multi-faceted gameplay. Meaning, there are a ton of characters you can create and there is a unique game experience for each one. Fighter, lover, techie, sniper, rat-bastard: they all have their place in the game-space and are able to flourish in their own SPECIAL way, so to speak.
Pancakes or Waffles?
Waffles, the squarer, the better. I like making pixel-art with the syrup.
Meaning of Life or Life of Brian ?
I wonder where that fish did go? A fish, a fish, a fishy, ohhhhhh!
Would you rather have a leg made out of sponge or ten tiny midgets following you everywhere making annoying jokes all the time (like repeating the last sound of all your sentences, ces )
Sponge-leg. I don't need a group ( A swarm? A parliament? A murder? ) of pygmies stealing my spot as "annoying joke-maker".
Quotes[]
"As a UI coder, I live in that murky middle-ground that somehow connects the player to various parts of the engine at any given moment. Because of this need to interconnect with everything, there are a slew of special cases that muck up my otherwise perfect code. ( "Make sure Menu X does Y here. Except when the player is jumping, then do this. Or if the player is just entering a door but before Menu Z has loaded, do this, unless the door is locked, is which case...etc." ) Also, small things that most people take for granted, like the amount of pixels between letters and the natural motion of a scrollbar, take on exaggerated importance, often putting me at a disadvantage when comparing battle scars with my workmates. ("Man, I just spent a week debugging AI timing bugs." "That's nothing! I just spent 10 hours straight on button highlights!" "Oh...well...that's rough, I guess?" )"
"I'm kept far, far away from the gameplay code, so no worries"
"I personally haven't found a good example of a game that's able to support multiple viewpoints without making things overly complex or overly simplified"
"I'm replaying FO1 as we speak"
"If we have any motivation going into FO3 ( other than making a game worthy of the originals ), it's correcting our mistakes."
"My Internet went out the other day. For 3 whole hours. Near the end, I was more animal than man."
"Man, I haven't gotten this many "I love you's" since I switched from chloroform to Rohypnol..."
"Cookie Day FTW!"
"Todd's tenacious like a mudcrab"
"Fallout was as good as I remember, although I forgot how much "swish-swish-swish-swish-hit!-swish-swish" combat entailed. I need to tag Small Guns or something.."
"Most of our tough game design decisions are decided using our handy-dandy Jump to Conclusions mat."
"Speak for yourself. My character's flippin' awesome! He's all like, "Whoa!" and, "Wha-cha!", and the monsters are all, "Oh, noes!""
"The 50,000th person to say "Oblivion with guns" will receive a Collector's Edition copy of Oblivion with Guns, complete with a strategy guide and a replica of a Daedric SMG. Everyone else will receive Fallout 3."
"In order to get the true Fallout feel, we're only allowed to code using hardware we build ourselves from junkyard parts. My "debugger" is a jury-rigged soldering iron made of a rusted bicycle spoke and a Bic lighter."
"Why doesn't Bethesda crack down on the flames here, so that this forum is a more enjoyable place to discuss? pV = nRT. It's the law!"
"Last night, after surfing the web until around 3, I had my first ( and probably not my last ) dream in which reading the Fallout forums was a semi-major dream plot device. Disturbing and true!"
"I've always wanted to fall from a great height, land with a large THUD!, get up unscathed, brush myself off, say, "Some weather we're having, huh?" to any bystanders, and be on my way."
"Squeal "Tickle Monster! Gitchy-gitchy-goo!" as I proceed to give the mutie the tickling of his life. (Note: My Luck is Heroic.)"
"I hear that if you post a postive review of Oblivion on a gaming site, Marketing comes to you in your sleep. It's how they recruit new members."
"The whole "sleeping-with-one-lady-forever" bit was a tough pill to swallow. Not that they were beating down my door to begin with... Overcome? Math helped. When I work out
the probability of finding someone else with the same awesomeness quotient (AQ) and ability to put up with me, it rapidly approaches 0. Of course, I phrased it a little more romantically on V-Day, but the sentiment's the same."
"What do I think of the nuclear catapult idea? I have the same concerns most do about it being an uber-weapon, but I'm fairly sure the designers won't be decorating the wastes with nuke ammo or keeping the rad count dialed down to debug levels. I definitely want my character to turn to ash within a certain distance, and catch a baaad case of radiation poisoning at anything farther. Concerning its lack of "realism", I play the fiction card. Concerning its lack of "verisimilitude", I think it fits just fine, although that opinion comes from the personal benefit of seeing it in context as opposed to in a screenshot."
"I can't tell the number of funks I've been brought out of at the eating of a chocolate chip cookie, or the anticipation of such an event. In the interest of productivity, every office should a Cookie Day."
(Nintendo and Star Trek geek, with a habit of doing Bill-and-Ted-esque air-guitar and drum solos. Likes the works of Josh Whedon, Would like to learn to cook a good meatloaf, and have trouble with being on time, getting something right the first time and public speaking. Have a cat named #7883, or Seven for short. Getting married to his missus, Beth, August 5, 2007!!)
Desk: From left to right: Books ( The Onion's Finest News Reporting, Knuth Art of Computer Programming Vol. 4 are examples ), V-Day cards from the missus, Lego model of Slave I, Dell box, Nerf USB missile launcher, crossword puzzles book, monitor, clock / pen holder, whiteboard, autographed pictures of Q, me, and Vault Boy. Hm, pretty sparse, I guess. For wallpaper, a doctored Animal Crossing screenshot with Tom Nook saying, "Where's my money, man?! Is Tom Nook going to have to slap a b*tch?"
Socrates200X: I think you're underselling Fizzbang's terrifying raider ensemble. Key pieces not highlighted by the photos are his tetanus-inducing workman's gloves with rusty nails and screws affixed to the back and his gas mask codpiece. Trust me, if you haven't stood next to a 6'2" game designer with spiked fists and a gas mask codpiece before, you haven't been properly terrified.
(on his casting in the fictitious Bethesda: The Movie):
- When asked that question, I often tell the ladies that it's because I'm the man of their dreams, but according to said ladies, this is rarely, if ever, the case. I've also gotten Jeff Goldblum on occasion. Hopefully, people mean before he turned into The Fly.
- I'll be the disbelieving scientist-type who, upon hearing the Hero explain the Villain's big plans, whips off his glasses dramatically and says, "My God..."