"Players are selfish": Fallout 2's Chris Avellone describes his game design philosophy

"Players are selfish," Avellone said, reflecting on his time designing the seminal computer roleplaying game Planescape: Torment. "The more you can make the experience all about them, the better. So Torment became that. Almost every single thing in the game is about you, the player." The true mark of a successful game is when players really enjoy themselves, and serving that essential egotism is one of the fundamental laws of game design."

"'Getting exposed to the idea of Dungeons and Dragons early was a wake-up call,' he told me. '"Oh wow, it's like make believe with rules!"-like putting challenges on your imagination where not everything was guaranteed to succeed, and that made it more fun. However, what I noticed is that I wasn't usually altering the systems drastically, it was more using them as a foundation for the content.'"

A game designer began learning on a TRS-80 and transitioned from tabletop roleplaying into professional computer RPG development, including work on Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment. Early exposure to Dungeons & Dragons at age nine taught structured imagination and the appeal of rules that create uncertainty and challenge. Tabletop play served as a content foundation rather than as impetus to radically change systems. The design philosophy emphasizes player-centered experiences, making game events and narratives revolve around player choices and identity to prioritize fun and personal engagement.

Read at Ars Technica