New Chris Avellone Siege of Dragonspear interview with Matt Chat

Xerxes1811

For those interested.

*Chris talks a little bit about some of the characters in the game* so be warned if you want to be completely in the dark. But he appears to have really liked it and gives great feedback on the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6mZsJN37xo

ojthesimpson

aweesome

ojthesimpson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCWGOsUttK8

GenderNihilismGirdle

I just want to bring this back since I just found it and love that Avellone says he's jealous of the writing, someone who worked on some of the best CRPGs of all time which are lauded for having the best writing of games of that era like Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment, who worked on both Icewind Dales, and I think it has so much more weight to watch that interview than to read the thousands of uninformed misinformation about the writing going around from people who clearly never played SoD.

Love this interview. I'm heading to bed now, but I'm checking out that podcast interview tomorrow!

Rawgrim

Matt Chat is great. Lovely youtube channel

Excalibur_2102

Yeah, Matt is a great down to earth guy... Hes just posted some thoughts on SoD yesterday. Difficult to tell his overall view on the game, but it seems he enjoyed it for the most part

Grif

Just watched the latest Matt Chat where he discusses SoD. Chris Avellone was sent a copy of the game and played through it, but it seems Matt thinks Chris had a part in the writing??? In the chat he really likes the part where the party can recruit M'Khiin and mentions how he thinks the dialogue is so well done it must have been written by Chris.

Excalibur_2102

Well he seems to think chris had an influence with that part, not necessarily written by him though

Rawgrim

I highly recommend Matt's book. Dungeons & Desktops. I think that was the title. A superb book about crpgs.

AndrewFoley

Chris' feedback was incredibly helpful (obviously), but so far as I can recall, I wrote M'Khiin's intro/recruitment stuff prior to his coming in to consult on the game. She and Glint were kind of my babies, I was pretty possessive (to put it charitably) when it came to their dialogue.

In any event, I'm glad Matt liked the scene.

GenderNihilismGirdle

@AndrewFoley If there's a possibility of M'Khiin appearing in BG2EE at some point, I would be overjoyed at the prospect. If she could be in my party from SoD straight through to the end of ToB, that would make my day. It'd make my year.

TStael

AndrewFoley said:

She and Glint were kind of my babies, I was pretty possessive (to put it charitably) when it came to their dialogue.

Well there, master Foley, with imaginary babies this is fine! When no real-life boy-or girlfriend is good enough, then kiddos must exasperate on their parents, eh. (Not serious here, of course)

A question if I may: is it correct to think that the rep-hit party gets recruiting M'Khiin was just generic goblin-antipathy, similar to the Drows' rep?

I had to conclude it, though in view of her levelheadedness it seemed quite unfair, and I was looking implicitly for that explanation during my play-through. Yuup, I did notice and think of it, and my perception of her CHAR to what must have been a blanket reaction was a conflict that I would have been interested to explore further, lore-wise.

An expansion has constraints, I understand, but would have been nice to drop a lore-book somewhere, or something. (just IMO) But in conclusion: I also liked M'Khiin.

I remember reading that Glint is romance option for male CHARs in some thread, so with my eventual David Warner inspired "commanding male" playthrough, Glint had better watch out for my charisma! :-)

TStael

NB: also saw this video earlier, and what I like about Matt is that his passion for gaming is so evident. These are "letters of appreciation" to gaming joy - not ego-fests.

Rawgrim

I chat with Matt (no pun intended), and you are completely correct. No ego stuff about him. The guy is as down to earth as you can get. And he truly cares about gaming. He is pretty damn smart too. I think he is a professor now.

AndrewFoley

TStael said:

is it correct to think that the rep-hit party gets recruiting M'Khiin was just generic goblin-antipathy, similar to the Drows' rep?

Definitely. You can't hang around with what common folk perceive as a rabid dog and not take a hit on the rep front, no matter how un-rabid dog she is in reality.

Ammar

AndrewFoley said:

TStael said:

is it correct to think that the rep-hit party gets recruiting M'Khiin was just generic goblin-antipathy, similar to the Drows' rep?

Definitely. You can't hang around with what common folk perceive as a rabid dog and not take a hit on the rep front, no matter how un-rabid dog she is in reality.

That makes it unfortunate that the rep hit has the potential to make your ranger/paladin fall.

But the BG series has always been bad about seperating reputation from good/evil.

TStael

Ammar said:

But the BG series has always been bad about seperating reputation from good/evil.

I am, on the other hand, quite delighted of what is unfortunately a potential problem for you, Ammar: I really love Edwin's arrogant, excessively self-loving character. But playing it nice, I cannot really bring him along because of the high risk of him abandoning me.

I do definitely want to bring Edwin along once also in SoD, so the rep hit is a heaven-sent in this context!

TStael

AndrewFoley said:

Definitely. You can't hang around with what common folk perceive as a rabid dog and not take a hit on the rep front, no matter how un-rabid dog she is in reality.

Well, it's just that in BG and BG2, as far as I recall, we don't get any goblins with a personality, they just come at you as a screeching horde. To me, CHARs like Drizzt and even Valen Shadowbreath of HotU become interesting because they violate the rules of their own origins.

I perso would have just enjoyed bit of additional lore to add more context, like, say, "Woe of Nashkel farmers at hands of notorious goblin-chief Ubuti'iiq and his terrorizing horde." Just a mini-mini story of a typically perceived goblin to which we could juxtapose M'Khiin, which possibly could end: "And mysteriously, a villager named Noober was spared." :-p I admit thought that I have a great personal like of in-game lore, and this might well be just a quirk.

Then again, here's hoping M'Khiin's story arch is not finished.

Fardragon

Even if you just come at it from folklore rather than D&D knowledge, it's pretty well known that goblins aren't popular. Having it spelled out would be rather patronising.

Anyway, you would have to be a pretty poor paladin already for a 2 pip reputation hit to make you fall.

TStael

Not from my perspective. In Morrowind, I shall have learned that through alchemy (not ever having played an Argonian) I can enjoy water breathing capability.

Yet "Breathing Water" is one of my best loved lore books in this game.

ShapiroKeatsDarkMage

I can tell that Avellone worked on SoD because the villain is a misguided lawful good character, something we have already seen with Trias the angel in Planescape Torment. And also considering Kreia from KOTOR 2 makes me think that Avellone has a thing for moral relativism.

Fardragon

Avellone came on board too late to have been responsible for Caelar. I think it's more accurate to say that Beamdog where influenced by his work.

GenderNihilismGirdle

Avellone doesn't have a writing credit for SoD afaik, he explains in the video that he just gave feedback, so idk where "I can tell Avellone worked on SoD" comes from, it seems off topic for a thread literally about a video where he explains that he didn't work on it.