DAC Exclusive: ROSHHHHHH

[POOPERSCOOPER]

<strong>[ Person -> Interview ]</strong> - News related to <a href="http://www.duckandcover.cx/archives.php ... ry=41">Top Story: Baby Got Back</a>

<p>Here is an interview with the legendary Roshambo of the Fallout community;</p><p><span class="postbody">1. How did you get started in the fallout community?

I originally was in contact with Tim Cain and a couple of other
Interplay employees in regards to the Bard's Tale Construction Set. I
received a couple of e-mails about Fallout, started following it,
posted a little on the forums (more on the sequel's forums) and later
went towards the fansites to help out a bit with my knowledge. First I
was an admin at DAC when it was at Iplaygames.com and at the
Fallout2.net domain, shortly after Jay (Paul Gallo) moved it from
Turngray. I knew WebBBS and could punt off a few of the problematic
users, but my first duty there was to transcribe many of the voice
clips he hosted on the site. Shortly after that, Miroslav was having a
similar problem and brought in myself, Xotor, and Kharn to work as
forum admins and tech help. I've long missed Xotor. I was already
helping Miroslav with further writing several of the PERL scripts on
his site, fleshing out a bit of content as well, that it wasn't much of
a hassle to cover those forums as well. After a while, I also was an
admin at V13.net to help out. So yes, at one time or another I was an
admin/author for almost every major Fallout fan site.

I'm glad to see that DAC has expanded into the site it is today,
while at the same time congratulating NMA for restoring some of the
material on the site from when Marv (their mildly retarded host/tech
guy) kept breaking almost everything about the site after Miroslav left
and continued to further change things on a regular basis that kept
interfering with my own restoration efforts.

Well, and dealing with clannie shit on a daily basis was getting in way of my work.


2. What games have you been playing or looking forward to?

Ah, let's see.

Currently playing: Avernum series, Master of Magic, Battlefield:
HEROES, Ass Effect, The Ur-Quan Masters, Sins of a Solar Empire. I have
never played just CRPGs, though they are one of my favorite genres.

Looking forward to: Almost anything by Spiderweb Software and Telltale games, Age of Decadence.


3. What do you think of the RPGcodex and NMA compared to DAC?

RPGCodex has unfortunately lost a lot of its signal:noise ratio.
Too many SomethingAwful and 4chan kiddies wasting bandwidth with few
truly intelligent conversations remaining. You also have to consider
the newer TES fanboys who don't like the truth, no matter how much it
makes Todd Howard into a liar and an idiot, also contribute a fair
share. After all, RPGCodex trashed the most overhyped Oblivion mod out
there, Fallout 3. You can't so easily spoil the Bethesduh kiddies' long
running hand fantasy of guns in Oblivion.

NMA is good at posting whatever news they can find, and that's
about it. Too much concern over site-to-site drama than doing much else
but reposting news (unless they have since grown up), though as of late
it's good to see them rebuild what Marv broke, so it isn't merely a
news/download cache. They might have changed since I left, but it was
far too late by then to really matter.

DAC's always had a colorful history, and usually isn't afraid of
doing irritating things to get developers to open up. Yes, Fallout
Fantasy was a rumor, but it was also a working name. The fiasco around
that led to some problems, but overall the move from LameSpy was a good
thing, as well as forced the developers to clarify the rumors/name.


4. You say that Fallout fans are "spineless bitches" but with the lead
up to FO3 the fallout fans have been branded as some of the most angry
and hostile communities. In your eyes, what things should have the
Fallout fans done to resist Bethesda's FO3?

Well, what do you call someone, anyone, who lies down as if dead to
get fucked? That's what the majority of the Fallout community really
did, and they were far more dead before Fallout 3's release than F:POS
or Fallout Tactics. They reposted whatever little ambiguous horseshit
lie Todd/Pete came up with and the continued "Bethesda hasn't told us
anything" line, kissed a bunch of developer ass, but really didn't get
anywhere except for a messy jizz splat on their faces and not even a
thank you.

I'd also say that rep was mainly because of me, as I was the vocal
one at NMA, which got most of the bad rep. It would typically be some
eternally optimistic idiot who posted that Fallout 3 would be amazing
because Oblivion is "the greatest game ever!", who then usually got the
basic facts pointed out to them that even Oblivion wasn't the game it
was hyped to be, with the Radiant AI to be one of the biggest examples
in the industry of AI and other game functions being axed down in favor
of eye candy and the X-Box. Therefore the game's hype, design, and
integrity were compromised in favor of shiny (and it didn't even do
that well if you consider the chronic overuse of Bloom by Bethedsa).
NMA became bad guys for shitting on someone's rose-tinted view of the
game industry, and all I have to say is "Well, looks like it turned out
EXACTLY as I said. I'm right...AGAIN!" How many times do I have to be
right in order for folks to unplug their heads from their asses?

Plus there was the information that I found out myself about the game.

I was also one of the few people who actively dug around at
Bethesda, much like how folks used to poke around at Interplay, for any
information that could be garnered. I'm still not going to reveal who
the people were at Bethesda, because they still work there, but they
certainly had the intelligence and the integrity to put together that
what their seniors were saying and what was being made were two
completely different animals.

Kudos, you brave, honest people. A pity it didn't help the game
much other than what you could use of the advice I gave you. I think
that little bit helped out some, and so our efforts weren't a total
waste.

As to what the Fallout community should have done, that's simple.
Bethesda's PR and other folks kept playing around on various forums,
acting like little dancing monkeys. As any IT professional knows,
people can't resist playing with little dancing monkeys and so
click-VIRUS!

Bethesda should have been told to either guts up, or stop dancing.
I must note that forum descriptions like "Since Bethesda decided to
make Fallout 3, I figured we might as well have a forum about it." gave
me a bit of a chuckle as a thinly-veiled barb. Perhaps with more voices
than my own and a few others (a few from DAC, many from RPGCodex, while
the rest of NMA was still waiting for Bethesda to slop yoghurt on their
faces), more Bethesda employees would have contacted us independently
instead of hiding behind the PR. They might have even confronted Todd
and Pete about how what they were working on wasn't quite matching the
ambiguity Pete was spewing out his ass, and the public already knew it.

It is quite clear Bethesda never had any intentions of being honest
about their work, didn't even care to make it on the same level as
Fallout in design principles (well-written speech with speech history,
barter, character design, the shades of gray ambiguity as presented in
Fallout's wasteland, and one of the more notable features, the Talking
Heads). Fallout 3 was mostly the same binary decisions shit found in
Fable, KoTOR, and just about every other game designed primarily for
the X-Box primates. They turned it into "what they do best", and an
overhyped Oblivion mod is apparently what they can do best. FOUR YEARS
for a goddamn Oblivion mod when a supposed AAA development house could
write an engine and develop a game in about that time?
Believe it.

By staying ambiguous, Bethesda simply used the Fallout fan sites as
an extension of their own PR department. I particularly don't care to
be used like that, and neither should anyone else - unless they LOVE
being an unpaid corporate toadie.


5. You said you once killed a man, is that true?

Shit happens in armed conflicts, part of military service for some
people. True, every soldier is a husband/wife, brother/sister,
daughter/son, father/mother. They have their own ambitions, hopes,
dreams. They have a family, and you're going to take away from that
family by that person never returning home, which just makes the family
sad and angry.

They are also armed and quite likely looking to kill you before you kill them.

In regards to folks threatening me, which I believe is how this
topic came about (and hasn't been laid to rest, haha, sorry for the
pun), I stated that I have absolutely no problem with killing anyone
who threatens my life, as I've had absolutely no problems with it in
the past.

In a case of me vs. them as the one going home in a box, I'm going to see it be them.
Even if it's over a kilometer away.

But lately in these kinds of situations and the couple of death
threats I've been e-mailed while I worked at NMA, I've been far more
content with letting the FBI or other appropriate national agency
handle it.


6. Do you still have contacts with the old Fallout developers?

A few, but not many anymore. Some seem to be as disenfranchised with the mainstream industry as I am.


7. What do you think of Megatron from DAC and his legendary status?

Who? Just kidding. <img border="0" src="http://www.duckandcover.cx../../forums/ ... rhappy.gif" alt="icon_mrhappy" />


8. What released games have you helped develop?

A couple of Ultima titles as testing (stay away from the PonyCanyon
shite, I'm embarrassed to have had anything to do with those), Ultima
Online, The Fourth Coming (trust me, it could have sucked MORE), and a
couple of others I can't recall at the moment. Mostly as of recent,
aside from my own projects I've been involved with communities and
back-seat development (a bit of advice here and there, nothing too
special) with a few friends in other development houses to the point
that several of my characters have cameos in a few games. Eliezer
Havelock shall return.


9. What are your thoughts on the situation at DAC a few years ago when
Kreegle decided to give the keys of DAC to Odin?

I wasn't really in favor of it, and not discussing with the other
authors of that content what their thoughts on the situation was a bit
of an error in my eyes. But I could understand Kreegle's reasoning that
if DAC was going to close shop, the content should be preserved in some
form. Other than that, I really don't have much of an opinion about it.


10. Why did you prefer to post at NMA than DAC for so many years?

Ah, truth be told, it was because DAC had a good staff for quite
some time though it later had its rocky moments. NMA and those hosted
at NMA needed a bit of protection from those Miroslav kicked out years
before and Odin invited back in because it would "add to page views".

DAC also had folks working on the content (and added a fuckton),
while I had a bit of an emotional investment with trying to maintain
the site I helped build through content.

I also didn't want to ruin a lot of the fun that was DAC. It was
always a different style and community than others. While rowdy and
with some of the folks purposefully acting out, my moderation/posting
style wouldn't have allowed much of the fun read that goes on at DAC,
even if some of it is bitching about me. It gives a "Rosh isn't
here..." feeling, which I thought was a good thing for some folks,
because they fit in more at DAC than at NMA. Yourself included. <img border="0" src="http://www.duckandcover.cx../../forums/ ... rhappy.gif" alt="icon_mrhappy" />


11. You were supposedly once a part of Fan Made Fallout , what do you
think of it's official closure after so many years?

A bit, as an adviser. I was really busy at that time, mainly
sending various groups at NMA to their corners because they couldn't
play nice with each other. I gave them the option of playing nice with
each other or play with me, which didn't go over so well with some of
the kids. I can't believe I had second thoughts about nuking The Order
(again) from NMA after Miroslav did it without hesitation years ago.

That, and other things I was working on at the time (as I warned I
was quite busy), took too much time away to adequately help out.


12. What are your thoughts on Darkunderlord who controls RPGcodex and
used to control DAC also?

I think he tends to bite off more than he can chew, but I think
that mainly comes from where he's one of the few regular, ambitious
folks willing to stick with something and thus gets a lot dropped into
his lap to keep maintaining.


13. Have you played any of the DLC for FO3 and if you have what do you
think of them?

This would infer that I like to have my wallet repeatedly raped for crappy Oblivion mods.
Fallout 3 was enough, thank you. At least the DLC doesn't include
"Dogmeat Armor", so Bethesda learned that much. No matter how small,
it's a start.


14. What do you think about Obsidian working on Fallout: Vegas? Do you
think Bethesda had any other goals for allowing Obsidian to work on a
Fallout title rather than freeing up the workload at Bethesda? Bethesda
has been notorious for controlling the Fallout license and not taking
advice from the community, don't you find them out sourcing to some
older Fallout developers as a somewhat reversal on that position?

Not at all. When, not if,
Obsidian releases a half-finished title like the rest of their work,
Bethesda and their fanboys can simply point at Obsidian's Feargus-style
"SLAM DUNK!" and go "Hah, see? Our game was better! I guess some of the
fans were wrong in wanting them to make a Fallout game! LOLZ."


15. What do you see for the future of Fallout fans or good RPGs in general?

Good RPGs are going to be around as long as folks want them and
developers are willing to make them. It will take another publisher
like Interplay in the mid-90s to consider bucking the trend to offer
something worthwhile and imaginative in the AAA market to stand out
from the rest of the FPS action clones, or it might come from a JRPG
developer, as Japan and other parts of the world don't seem to believe
the publisher hype that certain design concepts are outdated. Other
than that, look towards the indie developers, like Age of Decadence.

As for where Fallout stands? Get used to Bethesda continuing to
rape it with shitty dialog, stoned Talking Heads, a crappy barter
system far inferior to the original, and anything else they care to ham
in for puerile appeal. Also count on Obsidian releasing a half-finished
game, and the title being name-dropped constantly in the gaming media
without anyone really knowing the true impacts the originals had upon
the industry or other developers. That is where Fallout stands, as an
Oblivion mod, with almost no other defining characteristics brought to
the recent title.

My best advice to Fallout fans: Find another game. This isn't Fallout anymore.</span>
</p>

[Cthulhugoat]

Badass!

[Wolfman Walt]

A. I miss Rosh. I can honestly say Rosh and SaintProvie were two of the main reasons I started going to DaC regularly.
B. You missed the most important question: "How many moves ahead do you think, typically?"

[MR Snake]

Um, who cares about Rosh? He takes it deeper than anyone last I heard.

Here is a question, how many can you fit up there at once? Is this the reason why you are so ban happy? Because you cannot get nr 8 up there?

[Nicolai]

Solid interview, but it's too bad you didn't go for the chess question.

Better do Spazmo next

[VasikkA]

Good shit.

[Briosafreak]

Goody, now we need Spazmo

[Lunchmeat]

Best community circle jerk ever. Keep it up pooper.

[SenisterDenister]

Its a shame I wasn't here when he was around.

[jetbaby]

Great story, 4/5 stars. Next up Brios and Miroslav.

[Ausir]

Also, Pooper, your formatting skills suck.

[Stainless]

Also, Pooper, your formatting skills suck.

^

Nice interview though.

[Mr Carrot]

No mention of vault 13? Shame.

[Rosh]

No mention of vault 13? Shame.

Oh, yes, there's a mention in there. Though compared to my time elsewhere, it was a bit short.

MR Snake, I used to tire of saying this to you and others, but go back to your corner.

[S4ur0n27]

That's fucking long to read

[Ausir]

Didn't know you were ever part of DAC staff, Rosh. Gotta update the DAC history at the Vault:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Duck_and_Cover

[Rosh]

Didn't know you were ever part of DAC staff, Rosh. Gotta update the DAC history at the Vault:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Duck_and_Cover

Yup, from 1998 until the move to GameSpy.

About 2/3 of the way down you can see me in my awesome admin colors. I returned for a bit after the move off of GameSpy and was a moderator for a while.

I miss OSRP. One of the few that were as knowledgeable and unafraid of thumping stupidity like I did. Heh, NMA would likely have accused him of being me as well, like the 2-3 other people they've accused in the last two years.

[Ausir]

By the way, Jay actually added some of the early history of DAC to The Vault himself some time ago. Was a real blast from the past.

[Rosh]

Cool, as VERY few people left around today remember the site when it was at Turngray, which is where the Unwashed Village first had a forum after starting up on the Interplay Fallout 1 forum - I'd post an archive.org link but the squatters currently on the Turngray domain have a robots.txt blocking it. I remember Shadowman as a moderator during that time as well, who later helped at NMA. I don't recall if he followed DAC to GameSpy, though. I remember him hating that media whore about as much as I do.

[Stainless]

I don't recall if he followed DAC to GameSpy, though.

Don't think he did, or if he did, he didn't stay for very long.