Welcome to the Nukapedia News Digest, brought to you by New Vegas, Official Candidate City for the 2284 Olympic Games. New Vegas - Where you get that Winning Feeling.
In Your digest this week
From the Administrative Enclave[]
Did someone say Bacon? Tocinoman is running for Admin. You can have your say here.
The notable loot policy has passed. Jspoel closing the vote included the following comment:
The Talk Page blanking policy is up for reconfirmation. Check that out here.
Attention Nukapedia Shoppers...[]
Bethesda are celebrating QuakeCon in style - 66% off the Ulimate/GOTY editions of NV and Fallout 3, apparently the offer also extends to the DLC. Time to complete your collection.
Developer Roundup[]
Firstly, this tweet from "Keri Honea" (@crunchychocobo) was retweeted by BGS...
This tweet from Josh Sawyer gives you an idea of what its like to play Fallout with MCA...
Speaking of which, it looks like he's been cleaning out the old RPG cupboard...Have a look at just one of the items he rediscovered...
A bit of careers' advice from Brian Fargo:
And when he's not talking about projects like Ouya bringing the "Virtual Berlin wall" that publishers have created down, he still has the odd thing to say about making wasteland
Lastly.... Chris Avellone wants to share this picutre of Wasteland 2's newest developer. Reminds me of Sasha.
Bethesda buying STALKER[]
There was a rumour flying about this week that Bethesda had bought the rights to STALKER. However with no confirmation being provided it looks like this has just fizzled as most rumours do. Personally I didn't see any reason why they would myself, it is a bit close to some other game they are well known for making.
Only FOOLs and Brahmin[]
Issue 184 of UK's GamesTM has a feature on "Fallout Online", the now seemingly dead plan by Interplay to make an online Fallout experience; If you've seen this story on other Fallout Websites, you might have seen this quote already.
- “It felt to me that they had no intention of allowing the game to go forward,” explains Anderson. “In looking over the contract between Interplay and Bethesda, it became very clear to me that Bethesda had no intention of ever allowing Interplay to actually create an MMO.”
However, unlike some others, this intrepid reporter has ponied up the cash for the full (well, E-version) magazine (special thanks to the iOS newsstand, and my work for ensuring that I have more than £2.99 in the bank), and has thus read full article - the one you can't view directly through that link. The article traces a lot of the histoy of plans to create a Fallout online game, here are some choice quotes:
- "Gamespot had run a poll asking which game the gamers would have like to have seen in an MMO, and Fallout was number one", says Brian Fargo, Interplay founder and executive producer of Fallout. "This was over 'The Sims", 'Wing Commander", et cetera. I was certainly interested in persuing the idea".
- Fargo approached Fergus Urquhart - director of the first two Fallout games at Black Isle Studios and now CEO of Obsidian Entertainment - with his idea, but Urquhart wasn't quite as enthusiastic as those Gamespot readers. "My answer was no" he tells [Gamestm] "I didn't feel that MMOs were the type of games that Black Isle made and I didn't feel that Interplay had the resources (money) to really make it right at the time. So, after I said no it was turned over to a different group and I didn't hear anything about it for years
- Having Fergus say no would hardly deter me" ads Fargo "MMOs did not cost 100 Million dollars in the late nineties, but regardless we were not in a good financial position to take advantage, so no doubt the timing was bad". Following black Isle's rejection of the idea the task of creating a Fallout MMO is believed to have fallen to Engage, an Interplay company founded in 1996 to create online games, but went nowhere as Interplay continued to experience financial difficulties.
The article goes on to recount the Interplay / Bethesda court battle. For those of you interested you can read most of the court documents here on the wiki. The Article also notes that Project V13 is still listed on Interplay's web site - The court docs make it clear Interplay can continue to make their game without any Fallout specific elements - but they don't seem to have the cash to actually do it (Both Interplay, and Masthead who were supposed to be developing the engine refused to comment for the article).
They end the article by noting that Bethesda's estimate was that 55 full time staff members would be required to make a MMO of FOOL's scope. Zenimax online has 200 staffers, and speculates that its not impossible that ZO have their own version in development. As usual, Bethesda isn't talking.
The full article is definitely worth a read - especially if the Bethesda/Interplay scuffle passed you by, and also has some real life screenshots leaked from Interplay's Fallout online, which I wont reproduce for copyright reasons.
Poll:So,_on_a_Fallout_MMO....
Mark Morgan hit by Thunderbolt[]
Mark Morgan, the Music guy for Fallout 1, 2 and Wasteland is featured by Thunderbolt Games.
- After being brought in to replace the original Fallout composer, Morgan was sent an unmarked/un-named compilation CD by Interplay along with a list of how long each piece should be and where it would fit into the game. Due to constraints, there was no time for rewrites or editing, and it is a testament to the body of work he produced that all of Morgan’s tracks were used. Morgan faced similar time constraints for Fallout 2 but yet again delivered an array of quality additions to the brilliance he’d already achieved.
- Through a vast array of instrumentation, programming and sampling, Morgan created a sonic expression of isolation, vast lifeless spaces, the indefinite and a ghostly foreboding – a mind-clouding journey through a new civilisation emerging from the brink of extinction. To present an altered state of mind was part of Morgan’s intent, as although he remained sober when creating the music, he did ‘make a somewhat conscious effort to convey an altered or psychedelic state.’
- As with many strong albums - every track on The Vault Archives works both individually and as part of the whole. Flowing into one another in a blur of enchanting sounds, each song not only captures the essence of the location it accompanies, but also tells a different aural story. There are many distinct moods and atmospheres created by the soundscapes, from the enchantment of ‘Many Contrasts’, the Old Western swaggering riffs of ‘My Chrysalis Highwayman’ to the stark, moribund desolation of ‘Desert Wind’.
- ‘City of The Dead’, the track which first blares out as you first enter The Necropolis, screams out a warning of something abhorrent. Like a panic-inducing siren, it puts the player on edge and never relents its sense of unease as you survey the ravaged city’s nerve-shredding spaces. Meanwhile, ‘Khans of the New California’ is an up-tempo piece underpinned by ritualistic voices and majestic instrumentation which expertly creates and perpetuates an atavistically tribal ambience. ‘Acolytes of The New God’ is one of the most apocalyptically haunting tracks ever committed to tape – a combination of tolling doomsday bells, disturbing hymns of a zealot choir and something, probably a tray of teeth, being shaken from side to side in an entrancing manner.
If you haven't downloaded the Vault Archives album, you should first be ashamed of yourself, and then correct the situation here. The best $0 you'll spend this week.
From the mind of Josh Sawyer[]
From Josh's formspring... This seemed popular last week with the communist discussion, so some more of the man's thoughts.
Who came up with the design for the NCR vet. ranger? The whole gas-mask-and-trenchcoat thing is a little played out, but it's the first time I've seen it applied to "the good guy". smile 1 Smile
- Wes Burt (for Massive Black) developed the design. I shared your concerns, so there were a few things I requested to keep it from turning into Jin-Roh Part 53. First, I asked that he wear jeans and boots. I also requested that he should typically have a revolver or lever-action rifle with a bandoleer for bullets. Last, I asked for his jacket to be dark brown, not completely black. I wanted to pull some of the color elements toward warmer "cowboy" tones instead of strict neutrals.
Wes is a really fantastic artist and I think he did a great job.
On the other hand the connections between Nietzsche and Ayn Rand aren't superficial. Many of Nietzsche's ideas were subpar or borderline ridiculous, which is why they were integrated by these individuals. smile
- Great. I already stated that my interest in Nietzsche has to do with his work that was foundational to Derrida and Foucault. If you want to complain about how Rand and Hitler interpreted his work, you may as well indict Kant for any/all western philosophers who used his work as a starting point (i.e. most of them). I don't care how every/any person interpreted or used his work; I care about specific portions of his work and how they relate to specific later thinkers who built on that work.
Josh has also been watching the Fencing at the Olympics...
Fencing question, why is modern fencing so heavily focused on offense? I understand its transition to sport made the priority rules necessary, but it saddens me that the original swordplay has been virtually abandoned. smile
- I don't think they are that heavily focused on offense as a whole. If you want to watch sport fencing without right-of-way, you can watch épée. Personally, I can't stand the pacing of épée. The Olympic women's individual foil semi-finals and finals today were pretty terrific and had great pacing. Sabre has always, and will continue to be, the most aggressive of the three weapons. Even removing the flèche didn't slow it down that much.
- From what I've seen of the historical fencing clubs that have been reviving "classic" 19th century fencing or earlier dueling styles (e.g. La Verdadera Destreza), the pacing really isn't dramatically different.
New Wasteland Concept Art[]
Wrap[]
(Olympic) Relic of the war that wasn't[]
We're back in Deutschland for our Olympic Relic special, specifically East Germany. For those of you playing at home, you'll remember that after World War 2 due to an impasse between western and Soviet states, Germany was effectively divided into two countries, The Eastern and communist "German Democratic Republic" (or GDR/DDR), and the "Federal Republic of Germany" in the west (or FRG/BRD). In 1989 the GDR merged into the greater FDR giving us the Germany we have today.
Although it has tried to rise above politics, the Olympics has a long history of being effected by political and diplomatic disputes. Germany was not permitted to enter the 1948 olympics in any form. The International Olympic Committe finally recognised a german olympic committee the following year - This caused problems because although the organisation was intended to arrange a unified German team, it was based in West Germany and the East German government wanted their own team - at the following Olympics the East German government refused to send any athletes in protest. Eventually cooler heads pervailed and a unified German team took part between 1956 and 1964.
The teams split for 1968 until 1992, with the olympics becoming another potential source of Propoganda between the two sides, competiton was always going to be tight. Part of this zeal lead to massive doping program (leading kids during that era would make what would now be considered politically incorrect jokes about alleged "manly features" of the East German women's swim team). Despite this, in a lot of cases the allegations of doping came to nothing - most of their successes coming down to skill and professional training conditions. In their final showing in 1988 East Germany came second on the medal table, beaten only by the Soviet union - not bad for a country of just 16 million.
After Germany's unification in 1989 East Germans have continued to punch above their weight - despite being 20% of the German population, East Germans won just under half (14 of 29) of Germany's medals in the 2006 winter Olympics.
In Recognition, please be upstanding for the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic.
Your next news Digest[]
Will either be late friday, or sometime saturday next week. Agent c (talk) 19:29, August 4, 2012 (UTC)