General:Jason Barnes' Posts

Jason Barnes' Posts
Medium/Format	Online Forum
Interviewee(s)	Jason Barnes
Hosted By	Reddit Twitter

These are a few notable comments from Jason Barnes on The Elder Scrolls setting. Barnes is known as @Viewtifuljay83 on twitter and u/ZOS_Jason Barnes on reddit.

2016

Did Eveli in the Orsinium expansion have a different name at launch? (2016-11-17)

She was always Eveli. It's a name we thought fit her character well :). Her last name might have changed though...

2017

Top 5 Games of the Year (2017-12-31)

Since everyone else is doing it, my Top 5 Games of the Year! My backlog is pretty large and old, so I'm working through it :P

1. Persona 5
2. Zelda: Breath of the Wild
3. Oxenfree
4. Persona 3 Portable (I never played the PSP version!)
5. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

I've excluded Morrowind due to having a certain connection to it and felt it'd be unfair to include it in a list like this! :P

2018

Did you make Darien (2018-06-08)

Yup yup! Darien's one of my kiddos as I call them, that's brought to life with the help of my writing co-worker, Bill (who has been helping me with him since the base game).

Aww, thank you very much :) Darien has a special place in my heart, so I'm glad you enjoyed his character as much as you did!

My D&D character every game: "I attempt to seduce the monster" (2018-07-24)

Also if anyone ever needed to know the inspiration behind Darien Gautier. This pic sums it up nicely.

Celebrate #NationalBoyfriendDay by sharing your #ESO crush with us and telling us why it's Darien Gautier (2018-10-03)

With all the love Darien's getting, now's a good time to give a shout out to his voice actor @JonBrentCurry who did a phenomenal job with his character and embraced everything Darien embodies. I couldn't imagine Darien with a different voice.

2019

Celebrating 10 years at ZeniMax (2019-01-11)

10 years ago today, I drove 82 miles (one way) to my first day at work as a QA Lead at a company known as Zenimax Online Studios. I loved the project so much, I spent 4+ hours a day in traffic. After a year, I was given an opportunity to pursue my dream job - game design.

The next 9 years flew by as I tackled new challenges and skill sets. I had the opportunity to tell stories, dream up characters, and create experiences for players to immerse themselves in. It wasn't always smooth sailing, but I was always proud of the end result.

From writing the very first design of Rivenspire (oh man that was so long ago and changed so much), to helping create characters like Darien Gautier and Naryu Virian, and more recently helping with the Summerset Main Quest, I've gotten to share in something very special.

This wouldn't of been possible without my wonderful colleagues. The writers who help shape our stories. The artists who build such beautiful worlds to play in, and programmers, audio, QA etc. etc. All amazing and hard working people equally responsible for the game we have today.

And to the players who continue to play our game and immerse themselves in the stories we tell, thank you all. Without you these 10 years wouldn't have been possible.

Now onto 10 more! Oh but first, tune in on Tuesday to see what we have in store for the coming year ... ;)

Of course a picture of shirtless Darien Gautier eating a loaf of bread is going to end up being my most liked post ever on Twitter. (2018-10-19)

That's one of the first handful of scenes I ever did with Darien, heh.

And yes, I know exactly what he's referring to. (2019-01-13)

2020

#ESO Random Fact of the Day

Sai (2020-01-25)

Did you know that if you sacrificed Sai in the base game, there's a special conversation in a certain dream state in Dragonhold that hints as to why he is back?

Naryu (2020-01-26)

In one of the original pitches of Deshaan, Naryu's mother was Magistrix Vox and her brother was the one sacrificed by Almalexia, thus her hatred for the Tribunal played a large role. This pitch didn't make it very far :)

Darien (2020-02-01)

Did you know Darien's shopping list hidden away in the saved version of Camlorn prophesied the rest of the events you encounter with him? (Up to the base game main story that is)

It's hidden somewhere in the rubble of the recovered city :)

ESO Forum Best Zone Competition Monofinals (2020-02-06)

I love votes like this. I'm honored Summerset won too! That was the last big piece of content I got to work on as an actual designer with the team, so I'm glad the stories of Leythen, Darien, Raz, and Valsirenn stuck with so many folks.

2021

Response to ESO twitter thinking about Darien (2021-01-11)

Darien Gautier concept art

Fine fine. I'll leak my concept art for Darien for last year's Smolder Scrolls. But only because you all asked for it. #ESO

Darien fanart for his birthday (2021-04-22)

Thank you so much, it's beautiful! I love it! This means a ton, seriously. I never thought, 10 years ago, that I'd have the opportunity to work on characters like Darien with my partner in crime Bill Slavicsek, and it's still surreal.

Thank you again, so very, very, much!

2022

Who wrote this Darien line?! (2022-07-12)

Ah, Camlorn. Darien's first ever appearance when we designed him!

I was so young and innocent back than :D

Prologue Quest (2022-07-12)

I'm really excited for you all to meet a new character we're introducing in the Prologue Quest on PTS that's live now! The team put in a lot of effort into them in all aspects #ESO #ESOFam

(No it's not Darien related, sorry :P)

When writing for a new quest/zone, how does the team decide between creating a completely new character vs bringing back a previously used NPC? (2022-07-12)

Honestly, it depends on the story and the area. We always like to have some old faces show up, but we want to make sure they fit into the narrative, otherwise in most cases new characters make more sense.

Is Stefan a Darien replacement? (2022-06-17)

No one will ever be a Darien replacement. 🥖

2023

Crudely Drawn Map (2023-04-27)

The map

Work chat just reminded me of that even though I'm the world's shittiest artist, I somehow still managed to get a piece of my art into a AAA video game.

My greatest moment.

Explaining The Elder Scrolls to my 80-year-old father in a Denny's (2023-05-11)

"So imagine if you were eating that Grand Slam, but all the meat was raw, right? That's kind of like the Daedric Prince Namira."

There's a khajiit in Hew's Bane named Split-Nose. There's no background here on his story, but there clearly is one. It haunts me. Can anyone explain him? (2023-05-24)

Haha, I have no idea actually. One of those "Elder Scrolls Mysteries!" But yeah, I imagine someone had something in mind when they wrote it :D

Leythen's an amazing character, of course, but he's also a petulant, self-absorbed, massively hypocritical dick, and not in a "what a little rascal" kind of way (2023-05-30)

This is why Leythen was so fun to help create. There's so many different views/takes on his character!

The only thing that can't be argued is the guy loved his kid. Everything else - have at it!

Did you help create Arox? (2023-05-30)

Arox is great! I can't take any credit for him though 😂 That goes to the lead, Tom Murphy, the designers and the writers for that lil guy.