Fallout 3 - Interview @ NextGen

Usually I leave the Fallout 3 news to Dhruin as he is far more knowledgable, but this seems pretty straightforward. Gamebanshee has posted a link to an interview at NextGen with Emil Pagliarulo. I'll give a brief excerpt about writing and story:

Bethesda put the game in the hands of the very capable Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer on Fallout 3, the brains behind The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s amazing Dark Brotherhood storyline and no. 24 on this year's Hot 100 Developers list.

Thankfully, he’s also a self-professed literature geek—good news for people who have high expectations for Fallout 3’s storyline. A general geekiness and a knack for real-world observation helps bring Pagliarulo’s stories and characters to life.

...Pagliarulo says. “You know the whole adage that ‘life is stranger than fiction.’ I think that’s very true, and if you live an interesting life and you’ve encountered interesting people all the time, the inspiration is easy. It just sort of comes to you.

“Life itself is pretty fascinating if you look at it. There’s a lot of inspiration to be drawn out there. I think that people sometimes make a mistake when they limit their inspiration. It’s easy to say, 'Oh my god, I loved Star Wars and I want to be the next George Lucas,’ and copy what George Lucas did. Why not look at George Lucas’ inspiration? Look at the things that inspired him; look at the Kurosawa films that inspired him and what inspired Kurosawa. There’s a chain there and the further back you go, generally the better the source I think.” 

 The interview also talks about the fanbase issues:

Writing for a franchise that has such an outspoken core fanbase puts writers in a precarious position: how much do you listen to that core fanbase, and how much do you ignore them?

“…That’s always the toughest question,” says Pagliarulo. “You listen to the fans and respect their ideas, but once you start designing a game that they want to make specifically, then you can get yourself into trouble...there just comes a point where you just can’t worry what the hardcore fanbase is going to scream at you about on the forums, you know? You have to make the game that you’re making and know that it’s a good one and continue with that.”