Gamasutra Interviews Emil Pagliarulo.

And I offer my comments to some of more interesting things he said. So gather around all, uncle Richard is about to rant.

"Yeah! We did. The shock that people saw was legitimate. I'm actually really shocked at the writing award."

I think everyone is Emil. FO3 had no business winning that award, at all. However what's even more shocking is that people actually will defend the writing as good. Having played FO3 numerous times, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the writing is absolute garbage. I've already explained why the writing is total crap several times, I mean just look at skill check dialogs.

"Bethesda is to an extent proving the viability of the large-scale single-player Western RPG. It's not the most ubiquitous genre." Interviewer

No their not. I think Cimmerian Nights over at No Mutants Allowed said it best, "Yeah, if by "large-scale single-player Western RPG" you mean FPS Adventure game with RPG elements. Perhaps the most ubiquitous genre currently." Right on the money I'd say, as Bethesda's game barely can be called RPG's at all and have more in common with with first person shooters and action games honestly. The RPG elements in Bethesda games have always been rather minimal at best.

"And while we realized that people saw this game as a sequel to Fallout; they saw it just as much as a sequel to Oblivion, and Oblivion didn't end. People expected that from us."

Of course they did Emil, FO3 is nothing more then an Oblivion mod with Guns.

"Our goal, anyway, is to capture a little bit of that magic of PC games. I think a lot of our audience is in that same category. They see what we do and appreciate it. I think there's definitely some of that going on. There's not a lot of that on the console, so it's almost like we have that novelty quality, too. We have those niches -- the giant open game niche, and also this PC game novelty niche, too."

PC magic? Are you kidding me? I'd love to know where that PC magic is Emil, cause every Bethesda game since Daggerfall HAS been devoid of that. Also your target audience isn't in the same category, I mean look at the sales for FO3 as an indication. The 360 version sold the most, followed by the PS3, and the PC version dead last. FO3 appealed to the FPS audience, not the RPG one.

"Now, you're reacting to that feedback almost immediately. We're able to, months later, respond to that player feedback and put out DLC. For us, it's been a tremendous success. We're actually surprised that more companies don't do it, but we also know how difficult it is to do."

I'm glad most companies don't do this. Give me a well though out expansion pack that actually adds plenty of content, not some sorry ass 1-2 hour long shoot'em up.

"Shivering Isles was a major project, and horse armor was -- well, we were one of the first people to do DLC, so it was an experiment."

Horse armor is nothing new Emil. Several free-to-play MMO's have been doing it for a good while now. Shivering Isles is also overrated.

"We used the Knights of the Nine model of small, well-priced, additional quests with new stuff. Look at Operation: Anchorage -- four, five hours of gameplay. People criticized it."

Since when is Operation: Anchorage 4-5 hours? Most people are lucky to get an hour out of it. Well priced? Seriously Emil, lay off the drugs. Ten bucks isn't well priced for something that's an hour long tops. People criticized it because it was a rip off.

"And thematically, The Pitt plays a lot more on the shades of gray. We explored moral ambiguity a little bit in the base game, but we were just starting to get a feel for it."

Well at least Emil admits they are new to moral ambiguity and didn't have a handle on it during development.

"I think as we wrapped up production, we thought, "We understand this now. We get it, and we want to do it." In The Pitt, it's much more, "What is good and what is evil, and which line do I walk?"

Sorry Emil, that's not moral ambiguity. Moral Ambiguity is the lack of any good or evil or a mix of the two. The Pitt is heavy handed with how it deal with moral ambiguity, making all the characters as "Evil" as possible but fighting for a "good" cause. That's simple black and while paths as far as WRPG's go.

For the record, I like Emil. He's probably the most intelligent guy over at Bethsoft and no where near the ego maniac Todd Howard is or clueless as Pete Hines is.