It was written in 2001, before the shadow cast from BG2 wasn't quite so long as it is now.
Page 2 is particularly interesting, especially where he describes the Chapter 2 bloat as sort of unintended goof, since I thought that was the best chapter in the game haha.
Anyhow, the Bioware of today is obviously different than the Bioware of then. And Obsidian isn't exactly the same as the Black Isle of old. Despite some of the same colorful characters showing up at the top of the foodchain. Just like in the movies, where directors steal the limelight and get all the credit, I'm sure most of the real talent and grunt work was done further down the totem pole. And who knows where all those peeps ended up? But its an interesting read.
I think if the game was given to either Bioware or Obsidian by themselves, it would have felt like another iteration of the West Coast/Alberta rivalry that went down for the better part of a decade. You know with alternating sequels in various RPG franchises. Handing the baton of resurrection to the rogue studio from Ghent was probably the right call for a new lease on life. But I agree with others that the game is still missing something in the soul. I think there were so many "spiritual successors" that we kind of lost the spirit all together.
The one thing that all the various spiritual successors didn't have, which is really obvious once its pointed out, is the Forgotten Realms setting and entire back catalogue. Dragon Age and Pillars didn't have that to go off of. ToEE was a Greyhawk module. I don't even want to mention Eberron. Clearly we weren't going to get it from Everquest or Skyrim or WoW. We're not going to get it from Owlcat or Tactical Adventures. There's no substitute for the Realms, cause half the legwork has already been done, and the scaffolding for the "world building" is already in place. Larian just needs to lean into it and go for broke. I mean they got Volo on the train, now it needs to start steaming out the station. I haven't seen enough of Faerun yet in act 1, or been given many primers to understand what's been going down in the 100 years since the last game. It doesn't feel like its quite connected up with the previous entries yet. Like the various competing factions haven't really appeared yet, and the sweeping political backdrop. BG1/2 had a nice slow build, and when you finished the game you felt like you knew pretty much everything important there was to know about the Sword Coast and Amn.
I don't know, and probably won't until I see where it goes after chapter 1, but just feels like it needs more and then some hehe
