Wasteland 2 Interview

The editors over at GameZone are next in line to chat with inXile's Brian Fargo about his Wasteland 2 Kickstarter project, which I'll also note is quickly approaching $1.1 million in pledges from RPG-hungry (or -starved?) fans. Here's a bit to get you started:
GZ: Wasteland 2 is a direct sequel to Wasteland. Will fans that aren't familiar with the first one be able to jump right into it?

Brian Fargo: If you've never played the first Wasteland, it's OK, you'll jump right in. If you have played the first game however, there will just be some familiarity and nostalgia that makes it more interesting. We got some great characters from Wasteland that fans might remember, so when they make their appearance in Wasteland 2, the old community will love it, and the new community won't need to know they appeared in the previous game.

GZ: How would you pitch Wasteland 2 to players that never heard of Wasteland, what can they expect, and why should everyone play this?

Brian Fargo: If you go back to Wizardry, Bard's Tale days and other classic role playing games, you control a party of characters. The part of the fun is the mix right? If it was a medieval setting, it was the Thief, the Warrior, a Spellcaster and you find your right combination, mixing and matching combinations, that's a lot of fun, and there is a lot of tactics you can do with that, and bringing that kind of game, is fun. On top of that, some of the role playing games today have become fairly pretentious, and ours is not, ours is 'you play it the way you want' and so we don't set any kind of morality on anything you do and there is no clear cut way to handle things. And often when you try to do things right, you end up getting yourself in a situation going from bad to worse, and we just put you in these uncomfortable situations where you just couldn't help it. NPC's that join your group have a mind of their own, so you have some control over them, but if they want to steal from you, or empty a clip, or maybe they have a vendetta against bikers and open fire when you didn't want them to, then you have to deal with the consequences. All these kinds of dynamics are interesting, and what made Wasteland fun was the system, making the story and experience work, but it's what happens within the rules that makes it interesting. If NPC's go through all the clips which are really hard to find, you find yourself screaming at them, and you can't get that kind of emotional reaction from the writing, you get it from the system.