Chris Avellone, the legendary RPG designer behind Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, and Fallout: New Vegas, told Ars Technica in a December 2025 interview that his entire game design philosophy stems from one provocative realization: players are inherently selfish, and that’s not a bad thing. According to Avellone, the secret to creating unforgettable RPG experiences is embracing player selfishness by building worlds where nearly every aspect revolves around the player’s choices, motivations, and power fantasies. This player-first approach shaped Planescape: Torment’s revolutionary design where death wasn’t a fail state but another narrative branch, ensured Fallout: New Vegas gave every character build shine moments to feel heroic, and continues guiding Avellone’s work on Republic Games’ upcoming dystopian fantasy RPG. The philosophy emphasizes that designers shouldn’t impose their vision on players – instead, games should align in-game objectives with players’ internal motivations, respect different playstyles from min-maxers to heavy role-players, and create shared experiences where every choice matters rather than railroading players through the designer’s predetermined story.
The Core Philosophy – Players Are Selfish
When Avellone says “players are selfish,” he’s not criticizing – he’s recognizing fundamental human psychology. Players engage with games to fulfill their own desires, explore their own curiosities, and experience their own power fantasies. They don’t play RPGs to passively watch the designer’s story unfold. They play to be the protagonist of their own narrative. According to Avellone’s Ars Technica interview, this realization became the foundation for how he approaches every design decision.
“The more you can tailor the experience to the player, the better,” Avellone explained. “Torment was crafted with that in mind. Nearly every aspect of the game revolves around you, the player. A true hallmark of a successful game is when players genuinely have fun, and catering to that inherent sense of self-importance is a core principle of game design.”
This isn’t about pandering or making games easy. It’s about respecting that when someone sits down to play an RPG, they’re investing their time and attention with the expectation that their choices will matter, their character will be central to the story, and their playstyle will be accommodated rather than punished. Games that fight against player selfishness – that force players into predetermined roles, punish creative problem-solving, or make choices meaningless – fundamentally misunderstand why people play RPGs.
Origins in Dungeons and Dragons
Avellone’s philosophy didn’t emerge from computer game design – it came from running Dungeons and Dragons campaigns starting at age 9. “It was like make-believe with rules,” he recalls. “A way to challenge your imagination without guaranteeing success.” But what stuck with him wasn’t the rules themselves – it was how those rules became foundations for collaborative storytelling.
Initially preferring to be a player, Avellone eventually became a game master out of necessity – “Nobody else wanted to do it,” he laughs. “It was a lot of work, but I discovered I loved crafting interactive stories with others.” This experience taught him the fundamental lesson that would define his career: as a game master, your job isn’t to tell your story. It’s to facilitate the players’ stories. If you railroad them into predetermined outcomes or punish creative solutions that don’t match your expectations, you’re failing as a GM.
Translating this tabletop philosophy to computer RPGs meant designing systems flexible enough to accommodate different playstyles while maintaining narrative coherence. The challenge was making games feel personalized and reactive when every player would experience the same underlying code. Avellone’s solution: build so much reactivity into dialogue, quest outcomes, and world states that different players would have genuinely distinct experiences based on their choices and character builds.
Planescape Torment – Death as Narrative
Avellone’s breakthrough application of player-first design came with Planescape: Torment, where he implemented one of RPG gaming’s most revolutionary ideas: death shouldn’t be a fail state. In most games, dying means reloading a save and trying again – a frustrating interruption that pulls you out of the narrative. Avellone hated this. “Players were used to save scumming,” he notes. “I was fighting against ingrained habits, but I believed in keeping the experience seamless.”
In Torment, the protagonist is immortal. When you die, you wake up in the Mortuary and the story continues. Death becomes another branching narrative path with its own consequences and revelations rather than a punishment requiring a reload. This design respects player selfishness in a profound way – it acknowledges that players want to keep progressing, keep experiencing story, and not waste time redoing content they’ve already cleared. By making death part of the narrative, Avellone turned potential frustration into compelling storytelling.
This philosophy extended to every aspect of Torment’s design. Nearly every quest, character interaction, and mechanical system was built to revolve around the player character. The game constantly asked: what is the player’s motivation here? What power fantasy are they fulfilling? How can we make this interaction meaningful to their character’s story? The result was an RPG that felt uniquely personal despite being experienced by hundreds of thousands of players.
Shine Moments – Letting Every Build Be Heroic
One of Avellone’s key concepts is “shine moments” – situations where specific character builds or playstyles get to be the hero. “Every player deserves their moment to be a hero,” Avellone emphasizes. “Whether they are min-maxers or role-players, their choices should matter.” This means designing encounters, dialogue checks, and quest solutions that accommodate different approaches rather than privileging one “correct” way to play.
In Fallout: New Vegas, Avellone and the Obsidian team ensured that intelligence builds, charisma builds, stealth builds, and combat builds all had opportunities to shine. A high-intelligence character might hack terminals or identify scientific solutions unavailable to other characters. A charisma character could talk their way through conflicts. A stealth character could bypass entire encounters. A combat specialist could solve problems through overwhelming firepower. None of these approaches were treated as “wrong” – they were all valid expressions of player selfishness.
This design philosophy stands in stark contrast to games that funnel all players through identical content regardless of build. If you create a diplomat character but the game keeps forcing you into combat encounters, that’s the designer imposing their vision over player agency. If you build a sneaky thief but the game constantly puts you in brightly-lit arenas with no cover, that’s punishing player choice. Avellone argues these design failures stem from not respecting player selfishness – not understanding that players built those characters because they wanted specific experiences, and denying them those experiences is fundamentally disrespecting their time and agency.
The Power Fantasy Question
Avellone emphasizes designers must “grasp who your players are and what motivates them to engage. What is their power fantasy?” This question should guide every design decision. If your player wants to be a silver-tongued con artist, give them dialogue options and quest solutions that let them manipulate NPCs. If they want to be a morally gray assassin, let them take contracts and eliminate targets without judgment. If they want to be a heroic paladin, give them opportunities for selfless acts that change the world.
The key is not dictating what players should want – it’s accommodating what they do want. Avellone learned this lesson the hard way: “One of my biggest mistakes – taking away hard-earned rewards at the start of a new adventure. Players felt betrayed even though they’d get the items back. Lesson learned: Don’t give, then take away.” That design misstep violated the player-first philosophy by imposing narrative convenience (resetting player power for a new chapter) over player satisfaction (keeping rewards they earned).
Respecting Different Playstyles
A crucial element of Avellone’s philosophy is accommodating radically different playstyles without judgment. “Not every player approaches the game as you do,” he explains. “As a game master, your role isn’t to dictate their style or confine them to a specific mode of play. If a player prefers to optimize their character without much interest in the narrative, that should be acceptable. Conversely, if another player enjoys deep role-playing, they should have rich opportunities for interaction.”
This means min-maxers who treat RPGs as optimization puzzles deserve equal consideration to players who write elaborate backstories and role-play every dialogue choice. Neither approach is “correct” – they’re just different expressions of player selfishness. A min-maxer’s power fantasy involves discovering overpowered builds and exploiting game systems. A role-player’s power fantasy involves inhabiting a character and making choices consistent with their personality. Both are valid, and good design accommodates both.
This philosophy extends to players who skip dialogue, rush through content, or play in ways the designer didn’t anticipate. Avellone argues: “If players want to skip dialogue or play their way, don’t penalize them. Their selfishness is your opportunity to create something truly special.” Punishing players for not engaging with content the “right” way is imposing designer ego over player agency. Let them play selfishly, and focus on making the parts they do engage with as satisfying as possible.
The Controversy – Designer Vision vs Player Freedom
Avellone’s philosophy raises a contentious question: should designers prioritize player freedom over their own vision? His answer is an unequivocal yes. “It’s not your story,” he warns fellow designers. “It’s a shared experience.” This stands in stark contrast to auteur-driven game design where the designer’s creative vision takes priority over player agency.
Critics of Avellone’s approach argue that accommodating every player whim risks creating unfocused experiences that lack artistic coherence. If you try to let players do everything, you might end up with games that don’t excel at anything. Games like Dark Souls deliberately constrain player options to create specific experiences, and those constraints are part of what makes them great. Shouldn’t designers have the courage to say “no, you can’t do that” when player desires conflict with their creative vision?
Reddit discussions about Avellone’s philosophy show this divide. One commenter noted: “Also, I think games are designed with selfishness in mind, giving the player little reason or desire to be unselfish. There’s no connection to other people or consequences that matter.” This suggests that player selfishness might be partly a product of game design rather than inherent psychology – if games built stronger community bonds and meaningful consequences for selfish choices, players might act differently.
Another commenter referenced a related concept: “Gabe articulated this concept more effectively through the term ‘narcissistic injury,’ which he linked to the themes in Half-Life and the nature of interactivity.” The idea that games inherently cater to narcissistic tendencies by putting players at the center of everything is a darker interpretation of Avellone’s philosophy – one that questions whether “embracing selfishness” is philosophically sound even if it’s effective design.
Current Projects – Republic Games
Avellone now applies his player-centric philosophy at Republic Games, founded by Adam Williams (ex-Quantic Dream), where he’s working on a dystopian fantasy about rebels toppling tyranny. “We’ve drawn inspiration from old RPG designs,” he teases, “but you’ll have to wait for the full story.” The project aims to sync in-game goals with player internal motivations rather than imposing external objectives, continuing Avellone’s lifelong focus on respecting player agency.
Whether this new project will capture the magic of Planescape: Torment or Fallout: New Vegas remains to be seen. But knowing Avellone’s design philosophy provides insight into what Republic Games is likely building – an RPG where player choices genuinely matter, different character builds get shine moments, and the world revolves around your character rather than forcing you to be a passive observer in someone else’s story.
FAQs
What does Chris Avellone mean by players are selfish?
He means players engage with games to fulfill their own desires, power fantasies, and curiosities. They want to be the protagonist of their own story, not passive observers. Good design embraces this rather than fighting it.
What is a shine moment?
A situation where specific character builds or playstyles get to be the hero. Every player deserves moments where their choices and build make a crucial difference, whether they’re min-maxers, role-players, or anything else.
What games did Chris Avellone design?
Major credits include Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II, Prey (2017), and contributions to numerous other RPGs over a 30+ year career.
How did Dungeons and Dragons influence Avellone?
Running D&D campaigns taught him that as a game master, your job is facilitating players’ stories, not imposing your own. This player-first philosophy translated directly to computer RPG design.
Why did Planescape Torment make death part of the story?
Avellone hated save scumming and wanted a seamless experience. Making the protagonist immortal meant death became another narrative branch rather than a fail state requiring reloads.
Should designers prioritize player freedom over their vision?
Avellone says yes – it’s a shared experience, not just your story. But critics argue this risks creating unfocused games without artistic coherence. The debate continues.
What is Avellone working on now?
A dystopian fantasy RPG at Republic Games about rebels fighting tyranny, inspired by classic RPG design but applying modern lessons about player agency and motivation.
Did Avellone make design mistakes?
Yes. He admits taking away hard-earned rewards at the start of new adventures made players feel betrayed. Lesson learned: don’t give then take away, even if items come back later.
What’s the controversy around this philosophy?
Some argue catering to player selfishness creates narcissistic experiences and that designer vision should sometimes override player desires. Others question if games create selfishness rather than just reflecting it.
Conclusion
Chris Avellone’s declaration that players are selfish cuts to the heart of what makes role-playing games compelling – the opportunity to be the protagonist of your own story rather than a passive observer in someone else’s. His career-spanning philosophy of embracing player selfishness through shine moments, respecting diverse playstyles, and building worlds that revolve around player choices produced some of gaming’s most beloved RPGs including Planescape: Torment and Fallout: New Vegas. Whether this approach represents the future of game design or risks sacrificing artistic vision for player appeasement remains contentious. Critics argue that great art sometimes requires constraining audience agency rather than accommodating every whim. But Avellone’s track record suggests that when executed masterfully, player-first design doesn’t dilute creative vision – it amplifies it by creating shared experiences where players feel genuine ownership over outcomes. As he continues applying these principles at Republic Games, the gaming industry watches to see if the designer who revolutionized RPG storytelling in the late 1990s can do it again nearly 30 years later by doubling down on the same provocative philosophy: players are selfish, and that’s exactly how games should be designed.