This week’s Mobcast takes the idea of a themed show from last week’s cast and continues it with the role-playing game genre.  Jason Wilson brings three industry figures to the table: Aram Jabbari, Chris Avellone, and Brenda Brathwaite.

The discussion starts with a focus on what essentially sets Western and Eastern RPGs apart.  Since Aram works at Atlus, he brings up how some aspects of communication simply can’t be conserved in the localization process of some Japanese games.

Brenda talks about the role of death in RPGs and the transition away from permanence in modern games.  She also brings up a really interesting recent trend of gamers choosing to end their games the first time they die to restore some of that consequence.

Jason gets a pretty strongly worded “I hate you” for some of his views on the favorite RPGs topic and the show wraps up with some broad discussion about game script writing and boss design.

In celebration for Tuesday’s release of Dragon Age: Origins, Jason hosts a special role-playing game edition of The Mobcast, featuring Aram Jabbari, the manager of public relations and sales at Atlus America (Persona, Demon’s Souls); Chris Avellone, cofounder and creative director of Obsidian Entertainment (Neverwinter Nights 2, Alpha Protocol); and legendary RPG designer Brenda Brathwaite.

Chris and Brenda have worked on some of the most significant Western RPGs. Chris was the lead designer for Planescape: Torment and also worked on Fallout 2 and the Icewind Dale series, among others. Brenda is one of the most respected voices in RPG design, and her credits include the landmark Wizardry series and Jagged Alliance.

Runtime – 1:13:42

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