Obsidian's Chris Avellone Talks RPG Design

The Star Online has conducted an interview with Obsidian Entertainment's Chris Avellone, quizzing the developer about his past experiences designing RPGs. A little something to get you started:
Q: When was the last time you played a game and thought (Oh, my god... why didn't I think of that?)

A: Aside from the chain weapon design in God of War (which I think was a great way to reinforce the action of the game as well as just looking cool), the next thing I can think of is Anachronox (an old Ion Storm game), the coolest part about it was that the interface was actually a character with its own personality, and it would talk to you through your journal, pop-up menus, and give you sass occasionally just so you didn't take it for granted.

Other than that, there were some moments in Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) that made me throw down my controller because we were looking for features to place in Star Wars: KOTOR II: The Sith Lords, and it seemed like all the cool things we'd hoped to do they'd already taken a first shot at in Knights I.