Fallout 3 Forum Tidbits
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Doesn't the fact that you're making a sequel to someone else's intellectual property obligate you to maintain continuity with the design goals and principles (pen and paper RPGs) of the series you've taken upon yourselves to do.
Emil: I think we have a responsibility to make a good game, true to the source material, and I think we're doing that.
Do I feel we need to maintain continuity with the design goals and principles (pen and paper RPGs) of the series? It depends on how you define those design goals and principles. Do we feel like we have to do exactly what the creators of Fallout 1 and 2 did? Clearly not. I don't think it's at all my responsibility to make a game that was just like the previous ones. I think it's my responsibility to make the best game I can, one that's true to the Fallout universe, spirit and style of gameplay (though this last bit is the most subjective of all).
How is the pen and paper basis of Fallout manifested in the gameplay of Fallout3?
Emil: Pen and paper gameplay is all about freedom of expression and choice, the way I see it. Those values are obviously evident in Fallout and Fallout 2. So that was one of our big design goals going in. give the player choices. Give the player the freedom to go where they want, and do what they want.
But you also have to be careful, because playing a video/computer game is much different than playing a paper and pencil game. Your DM or game master is there to prevent you from (breaking) the game and ruining the experience. So that's our job as well we have to handle stuff to prevent you from completely breaking your game. Games are an imperfect technology. Something can always go wrong. So you provide the player with a lot of freedom. but within a framework. You can give the player the freedom to, say, kill someone who gave them a quest. so long as that doesn't put the player in a weird state where other quests break, etc. That's just sloppy, so we have to take the time to cover those bases. But in an open-world game, there are only so many bases you can realistically handle. So it's a judgment call.
