Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Now Live!

[Metro]

Yo dawgs, someone feed mah chickens.

 

[Brother None]

You have to admit that this a a surprisingly stupid idea to bring up after talking up the oldschool elements of the game.

It is. It was news to me too, tho he kind of mentions it in the NMA interview too. I don't think it's a horrible idea or anything, I just think it's completely unwanted and unnecessary. So, don't do it, is my take.

 

[Stabwound]

If he's really going to put it to public vote then I foresee it being shot down.

While the idea in itself doesn't have to be terrible, the fact that this little crack has appeared in what is supposed to be a throwback to classic RPGs makes it understandable that people are freaking out over it. I don't know what the online portion of Dark Souls is like, but from the parts I've heard about it, it doesn't have any place in a CRPG.

I was pretty shocked when I saw him talking about it. It sounds bizarre for a game like Wasteland, especially given his mocking of Facebook and the like.

 

[Brother None]

What's the game behind Fargo in the newest video called? The purple one.

That's Of Light and Darkness: The Prophecy. http://www.mobygames.com/game/of-light-and-darkness-the-prophecy

At least, I think.

 

[Stabwound]

Yeah, I noticed it in Matt Chat's interview which takes place in the same room, and it's definitely the game above. Never heard of it before.

 

[Atomic]

Its the beginning of the end guys. Im sure next week Fargo will proudly announce the inclusion of gay romances and/or the hiring of Gayder/Hamburger Helper.
DU should spend our 10K on hookers and booze not one dime on Wasteland 2: Facebook Edition.
Fuck this game.

 

[mindx2]

Been watching the pledge totals on the Kickstarter page and they have slowed to a crawl. I've been obsessively watching the counter for a few days and it was going along at a steady pace until that update. I even saw it drop $600 dollars when I refreshed the page. I hope Brian realizes what a huge screw-up this was!

 

[Stabwound]

I'm kind of surprised how much backlash this has had. I guess the most vocal people are those heavily invested in the project but it's funny how quickly he told people to "chill out", not more than 5 minutes after he posted the update on Kickstarter.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Just saw the pledge numbers actually drop a couple of times now.

 

[Stabwound]

It's hard to say that has anyhting to do with the current situation. I did notice the numbers drop a few times when I was furiously refreshing as it was reaching the million dollar mark.

 

[LeStryfe79]

That lackluster new video and using the word "social" in an update turned out to be a bad combination.

 

[mindx2]

Well it dropped $235 on my withdrawal to the lowest pledge tier. I won't go higher until this mess is sorted out. I did message InXile this:

Brian & InXile, I know you have updated your update but I still feel that you have taken a serious misstep with the whole "social" aspect (ala Demon Soul). If this is a feature you have been craving to implement into a game I don't think this is the one to experiment on. Your initial pitch was pure and basic old-school cRPGing (full party, strategic turn-based combat, meaningful choices/ consequences, solo/ single player game). I hope you leave the social aspect out so we can finally after many years get a real cRPG. Please don't compromise this vision. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.

And this is the response I received. I was actually pleased they responded so quickly but it could be a canned response because of so many emails similar to mine:

We understand and agree with you completely. Brian's comment about the social element seems a little crazy in the context it was presented. But in the grand scope of the entire design this is such a small element of the design it is hardly worth mentioning. On top of that we have already stated we will be using the forums to float design concepts by the community before thing get finalized. Nothing is in stone. Please keep an open mind let us present more info before you write us off as idiots. .
Also know that for almost every point we make I get one message saying if you do that feature we will hate it and one saying if you do that I will love it.
From our point of view both the lovers and the haters should reserve judgment until we present the full design. Any single element out of context is not good to debate.
Thanks for your concern and continued interest!

 

[GhostBadger]

Somewhere in Mountain View there is, I'm sure, a group of VC dicks watching this unfold. And they're LAUGHING THEIR FUCKING ASSES OFF.

"Oh, what's that? You don't like not having complete control over the developers? Aw, poor little naïve kickstarter investors. Boo hoo."

 

[Brayko]

The Brian Fargo of Interplay has resurfaced. Instead of focusing on better atmosphere, story, art, and further roleplaying elements, he's adding useless gimmicks that deter from these.

Why did Tim Cain leave again? I forget..

 

[Micmu]

Browser game detected. o_O

 

[mindx2]

Browser game detected. o_O

OH JOY! Then I'd never have to leave my facebook page (of course I'd have to actually have a facebook page to begin with)

 

[Crooked Bee]

The Facebook integration sounds stupid, but overall I don't really think it's a bad idea. When you play Dark Souls in offline mode, you get 100% of the content, so taking inspiration from that shouldn't be worrisome. I think it'd be neat to run into the remains of or marks left by other parties in-game, clues that other players left to warn (or trick) you. It could fit well if done in a non-intrusive manner, and if you can just opt out of it by not connecting to the server if you feel like it.

Fargo did introduce this whole thing a bit awkwardly, though.

 

[zeitgeist]

When you play Dark Souls in offline mode, you get 100% of the content

Depends on your definition of content. You lose ways to interact with the gameworld, ways to communicate with other players, your perception of the gameworld changes, you lose chances for cooperation between players, you lose the added challenge of player-vs-player combat...

If combat was removed in offline mode but you could still visit the entire gameworld as a sightseer, would that still be 100% of the content?

 

[Crooked Bee]

If combat was removed in offline mode but you could still visit the entire gameworld as a sightseer, would that still be 100% of the content?

C'mon, that's an unfair comparison. Combat isn't removed, only PvP is removed. Personally I never cared about PvP, and I enjoyed the heck out of Dark Souls' combat. I do agree that your perception of the gameworld changes, but again, I wouldn't consider that "enhanced" multiplayer gameworld as SP content, which is just fine in DS without being online.

Back on topic of W2, I believe enhancing the gameworld in that way could, if done right, enhance the atmosphere. But 1) it'd be hard to do it right so it doesn't detract from the atmosphere instead, probably too hard to bother, 2) it's an indie game, it doesn't have the budget of a game like Dark Souls, so I'd rather every penny they get goes towards SP, even if I like the concept Fargo seems to be taking inspiration from.

 

[Kz3r0]

So the incline already declined?
That was fast.
Until now there were two missteps, opening the forum and saying that every retard out there was now Fargo's boss.
And now the whole 'social' thingie.
If I wanted to be malicious I could say that Fargo seeing the initial success has thought of this as a way to finance the next shot at AAA+ productions than delivering the promised game.
This is the real hidden danger of this model, devs should enter in the mindset that they are paid in advance for their work, on a per project basis, if they took this as a way to bypass the publishers and finance their business all will sink worse than the Titanic.

 

[Stabwound]

You know, one cool thing this could involve is how Nethack handles it.

If you play on public servers, or use the Herse program for offline players, you can come across the corpses/ghosts of other fallen players. You can take items from their corpse and then fight their ghost; you can also scrawl messages in the floor that the player can read. Crawl also does this, but the ghosts are MUCH more deadly depending on how powerful the character was who died.

While the Nethack example usually leads to super cheese in getting the deceased's entire inventory, I suppose something like this could, in theory, be a cool addition when you consider the type of game it is. Coming across a skeleton in the desert, picked clean by vultures and thieves, maybe letting you leave a note for someone to find. Just atmospheric stuff. It's cool, especially in Nethack.

I would totally 100% be against Facebook or any other app integration, but something like the above would be something I think might be cool if done right.

I totally understand why people might be against anything online at all though.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

It slowed so considerably there is no way of it reaching 2mil now.

 

[Sitra Achara]

I think some people are overrecting to the word "social"

Cheapshot detected?

 

[Davaris]

Speaking for myself, I would find it interesting to see a game design broken down into components and have mini-KickStarters funding each component, so we can see exactly what players are willing to fork out money for.

TBH, I suspect those asking for "social aspects" are no where near the majority, when it comes to sheer amount of monies pledged. And I seriously doubt they would fund the "social aspects" themselves, considering how much they will cost to implement. Going from single player to online game, is a big jump in complexity. I have no idea how to estimate the cost, but I know it is there.

 

[PorkaMorka]

I do like the "social" aspects of roguelikes: playing the normal game online in crawl and nethack (with spectators and saved stats) and built in IRC client in TOME4.

But in a commercial game I don't trust the idea of any social aspects, I don't think Developers could resist getting Facebook involved somehow, since apparently it magically prints money.