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Metric Feet's avatar

“It doesn't feel honest to me anymore… That is why my brain, at this point, is not able to make all-new games that will be satisfying and successful to my audience.”

For all the hardcore realism you’ve always exuded, all the focus on the game’s industry as an industry, this as a job first and foremost… even the Grumpy Uncle of Game Development can’t escape the doldrums of disillusionment poisoning one’s art. Because yes, it IS still a job, yes it is still a matter of markets and product and income and hard questions of capital reality, but… it’s still, STILL an artform, still a creative endeavor, and still vulnerable to all the “flighty” problems that the business mind can’t address or solve.

There’s no logical argument to “solve” or “cure” this – you’ve all the logic and reality you need already if that could be done. But it can’t. And how logical is it to try and “logic” yourself into good vibes and happy endings? …

But I think it’s because you’ve taken to tackling issues that aren’t really meant for nice, “and everyone lived happily ever after.” Exile/Avernum was, in terms of the “issues” a fairly straightforward good vs. evil affair – triumph is simple, doable, obtainable. Slay the dragon, beat the bad guys, avenge the wronged, free the prisoners, and everyone good is there after happy.

But none of your other series have done that.

Geneforge – what is the relationship between creation and creator, and when power is dangerous, where does the line between safety and oppression get drawn? Avadon – how does one balance power and safety and the greater good of all? In the fog of politics and the threat of war, where does one divide authority from tyranny? Queen’s Wish – Nationalism, family, colonialism, culture and conscience get all get drunk at the Independence Day party in your soul – who do you arm with sparklers?

Aside from Avernum, the body of your creative work isn’t conducive to sparkly, happy “simple” endings. You’ve always worked from bigger, thinkier, more complex angles. I can’t fathom anyone playing a Spiderweb Software title expecting a Doom 2016 type experience. From the perspective of perfect narrative resolution “power fantasy” has never been what you do. Even in the original Geneforge, most of the factions were going to get screwed, however you felt about them.

All that said… could Queen’s Wish stand to lighten up? … yeah. Too much focus went into the unyielding, resolution-less misery of the world. There wasn’t just too much you couldn’t fix, and there wasn’t enough positivity to make you want to fix what you could. Fewer unsolveable problems, more enticing factors about the world and its people – perfection isn’t reasonable, but a little less Martin and a little more Tolkien would have made for a more palatable setting. There are problems and imperfections and drama, but there’s gotta be something there worth fighting for. As long as the player has something to love, they'll be motivated, even if it means they need to bulldoze everything else to preserve, protect, or enthrone that thing.

But… if you can’t bring yourself to do that anymore, then you simply can’t. Period. And no amount of random internet discourse is going to change that.

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Karl A's avatar

I actually really liked Queen's Wish 2 despite the added realism because if you struggled hard and were exceptionally careful, you could still make things -better- in some way you cared about.

You couldn't make anything roses and sunshine, but if you picked your battles and were very diplomatic, you could at least win whatever you felt most strongly about.

It's something I feel is lacking in a lot of modern games, there's the rawr evil person path and the yay good person path, but it's a rare game that makes you struggle to effect positive change in a system while still dangling the potential in front of you. I really enjoyed trying to drag my fantasy family to being slightly better people while still fighting for my fantasy family and its empire instead of against them. It was really interesting to play a literal role and try to do it well rather than just impose my entire will upon the world.

I don't think I can disagree with you about this being less popular and selling less, but I thought I'd at least thank you for making Queen's Wish more complicated and honest without just making it 'everything is awful always'.

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