December 2, 2025
Drama, dice, and design hot takes
Fallout 2's Chris Avellone describes his game design philosophy
“Players are selfish,” says RPG legend — fans rebrand it as “respect our time”
TLDR: Chris Avellone says great games revolve around the player, calling them “selfish” to emphasize focus. Commenters mostly cheer, reframing it as “respect our time,” while flooding the thread with links to legends like Tim Cain and Sandy Petersen—proof that classic RPG wisdom still drives today’s design debates.
Chris Avellone (of Fallout 2 and the cult-classic Planescape: Torment) dropped the spicy line: “Players are selfish.” The comments instantly turned into a fan rally and link-storm. One awestruck reader admitted they only just connected that the same brain helped shape both games and said Torment still slaps today — “not just nostalgia,” they insisted. Translation: the man’s philosophy aged like fine Nuka-Cola.
Then the crowd did what game nerds do: summon the elders. Out came links to Sandy Petersen’s design tidbits on X, Tim Cain’s beloved postmortem on Fallout, and the “obligatory” plug for Cain’s near-daily YouTube channel. It felt like a retro Avengers assemble, with everyone trading war stories and wisdom.
But the hot mini-debate? That word “selfish.” One commenter flipped it to a kinder truth: players pay with money and time, so make the game about them. That framing drew nods, not pitchforks — more “customer service mood” than “devs vs. gamers.”
For newcomers: Avellone cut his teeth on Dungeons & Dragons, learned to be the game master (the person running the story), and brought that “the player is the hero” energy into his games. The thread’s vibe was clear: put the player first, respect their time, and yes — drop more links to the classics while you’re at it.
Key Points
- •Avellone emphasizes a player-centered design philosophy, captured by the idea that “players are selfish.”
- •Planescape: Torment was intentionally built to make nearly every aspect about the player’s experience.
- •Early exposure to Dungeons & Dragons at age nine taught Avellone to use rules systems as foundations for content.
- •Avellone became a game master, discovering a passion for guiding interactive storytelling with players.
- •He did not pursue programming professionally but tinkered early with fantasy text adventures, beginning on a TRS-80.