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So some Obsidian-related news fresh from GDC just broke:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ArmoredWarfare&src=hash
http://aw.my.com/

Looks like a World of Tanks clone.

PoE will probably turn out good, but overall the studio seems to be going in a bad direction with this F2P stuff.
Post edited March 20, 2014 by Crosmando
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Crosmando: So some Obsidian-related news fresh from GDC just broke:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ArmoredWarfare&src=hash
http://aw.my.com/

Looks like a World of Tanks clone.

PoE will probably turn out good, but overall the studio seems to be going in a bad direction with this F2P stuff.
Is F2P going to die in the *** anytime soon?.getting tired of it...
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Crosmando: So some Obsidian-related news fresh from GDC just broke:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ArmoredWarfare&src=hash
http://aw.my.com/

Looks like a World of Tanks clone.
From http://games.my.com/ :
Take command of your own Private Military Corporation. Plan the development of your base. Collect, upgrade, and drive powerful modern military vehicles. Compete in competitive PVP battles or team up with friends to take on challenging missions.
Sounds like there might be a bit more to it than World of Tanks.
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Crosmando: PoE will probably turn out good, but overall the studio seems to be going in a bad direction with this F2P stuff.
Eh, I hope they're doing this "for the moneyz!!!" to have enough cash for more substantial projects.

Weren't they involved in some Russian MMO-project, as well?
Yes, Skyforge, it's the same Russian company publishing this one too.

I think InXile basically have it right, once it became obvious through the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter campaign (and later Torment) that they could fund themselves indefinitely via fans directly, Brian Fargo basically ruled out ever working for publishers ever again, everything they do would now be something they pitch to their fans for funding.

I have to say I'd much rather Obsidian just do that rather than turn into some F2P factory slave for a Russian publisher.
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Crosmando: Yes, Skyforge, it's the same Russian company publishing this one too.

I think InXile basically have it right, once it became obvious through the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter campaign (and later Torment) that they could fund themselves indefinitely via fans directly, Brian Fargo basically ruled out ever working for publishers ever again, everything they do would now be something they pitch to their fans for funding.

I have to say I'd much rather Obsidian just do that rather than turn into some F2P factory slave for a Russian publisher.
I think Obsidian is much larger than InXile and has more employees. Thus they need to be working on more games in the same time in order to have enough cashflow.
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Crosmando: Yes, Skyforge, it's the same Russian company publishing this one too.

I think InXile basically have it right, once it became obvious through the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter campaign (and later Torment) that they could fund themselves indefinitely via fans directly, Brian Fargo basically ruled out ever working for publishers ever again, everything they do would now be something they pitch to their fans for funding.

I have to say I'd much rather Obsidian just do that rather than turn into some F2P factory slave for a Russian publisher.
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blotunga: I think Obsidian is much larger than InXile and has more employees. Thus they need to be working on more games in the same time in order to have enough cashflow.
Which reminds me... have they announced any details about their proposed 2nd KS mentioned weeks ago?
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blotunga: I think Obsidian is much larger than InXile and has more employees. Thus they need to be working on more games in the same time in order to have enough cashflow.
They're about the same size as Double Fine or slightly smaller if I were to make a guess. But F2P just sounds stupid. They should have just come out with another new IP like Alpha Protocol was and still make money.
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cw8: They're about the same size as Double Fine or slightly smaller if I were to make a guess. But F2P just sounds stupid. They should have just come out with another new IP like Alpha Protocol was and still make money.
Obsidian are about 150 employees I believe, InXile I'm not sure but I assume about 50 or more, I believe there's over 40 devs working on Wasteland 2, plus others on Torment pre-production.

That said, DoubleFine haven't worked with a publisher for quite a while afaik, so it's definitely do-able. Obsidian would just need to have more than 1 Kickstarter project on the go at once.
From http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=58248 (October 2012):

[Marceror] Given the huge success of the Project Eternity Kickstarter campaign, do you even see yourselves going with the traditional publisher model again from this point onwards? If so, why?

[Adam] Oh yeah. We’re going to continue to use that model. For one, we’re a pretty large company. We need those large projects. It’s something – we’re built to do those large projects. [Project Eternity] is something that we all wanted to do. We’re probably not going to get another chance to do something like this. The stars aligned. Josh and I weren’t working on another project, and we started talking about what we wanted to do. We had been talking about [doing a game like Project Eternity] for a while, but the opening was never there. But we had the time back in July and August [2012], and we said, let’s just do this.

[Marceror] I expect that if this IP is as popular as it looks like it’s going to be, you’ll want to keep it going, and develop additional games in this universe.

[Adam] Yes, definitely.

[Marceror] Will those games likely use the Kickstarter model for funding?

[Adam] It really depends on how popular the product ends up being. We really want this game to be a big success. If it’s popular enough we won’t need to use Kickstarter to fund the sequels.

[Marceror] Might you try to go back to the traditional publisher funding model, if you can prove that this game style has the profit potential to lure a big publisher into supporting it?

[Adam] More likely we’ll try to self-publish it, using the profits that we make from selling Project Eternity. If it’s that successful we can make enough money to fund the next title. That’s kind of what we’re planning on doing for the expansion. We’d prefer to self-fund rather than go through the Kickstarter. I think fans enjoy doing it, but it’s a risk to them since they don’t know if the game is going to get made or not. It’s also a lot of work on our end to manage a Kickstarter campaign. So we’d rather be able to self-fund our projects.
Post edited March 20, 2014 by VanishedOne
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cw8: I've purchased all their games, including South Park which ran flawlessly for me. Abeit short for an RPG but enjoyable nonetheless. :D
Not interested in South Park (never saw the show because by the looks isn't my type of humor) then I will not buy the RPG too


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Niggles: Is F2P going to die in the *** anytime soon?.getting tired of it...
F2P and MMO too
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cw8: I've purchased all their games, including South Park which ran flawlessly for me. Abeit short for an RPG but enjoyable nonetheless. :D
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gandalf.nho: Not interested in South Park (never saw the show because by the looks isn't my type of humor) then I will not buy the RPG too

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Niggles: Is F2P going to die in the *** anytime soon?.getting tired of it...
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gandalf.nho: F2P and MMO too
Well I would hope that Losing MMOs would somehow convince people to make traditional single-player offline RPGs out of Big MMORPGs right now like WOW and Everquest and even SWTOR.

Why waste these worlds.
I don't see anything wrong with them teaming up with Paradox, since they retained full control.

That said I don't see why they needed a publisher for a PC exclusive. Their reasons of marketing and QA ring a little hollow to me because they could have simply hired a marketing firm and a couple more internal QA people for less budget-share. Still, I am absolutely POSITIVE they know the situation better than me, and better than any of us, so second-guessing doesn't really do anyone any favors.

I just can't wait for the game to come out. I'm waiting on finished versions to play, so the only Kickstarter RPG I've played so far is Shadowrun. Lots of goodies coming my way.
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Elmofongo: Well I would hope that Losing MMOs would somehow convince people to make traditional single-player offline RPGs out of Big MMORPGs right now like WOW and Everquest and even SWTOR.

Why waste these worlds.
Ironically both WOW and SWTOR worlds don't started as MMOs, but because of them we don't have anymore games with SP content in these settings...

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StingingVelvet: That said I don't see why they needed a publisher for a PC exclusive. Their reasons of marketing and QA ring a little hollow to me because they could have simply hired a marketing firm and a couple more internal QA people for less budget-share. Still, I am absolutely POSITIVE they know the situation better than me, and better than any of us, so second-guessing doesn't really do anyone any favors.
Is because of the retail market and fullfilment of physical rewards for backers, is cheaper for Obsidian contracting a already estabilished company than doing that service themselves. inXile is doing the same for Wasteland 2 (with Deep Silver), same with Larian and CD Projekt RED, all have a publisher contract for the retail copies
Post edited March 20, 2014 by gandalf.nho
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Crosmando: After reading the full update, the spell list is quite disappointing, mostly due to all spells being combat spells. The update even makes clear that spells are invented in the libraries and studies of Wizards, and more spells are invented every year, yet apparently every spell they invent is for the purpose of killing and maiming people. Not that I don't think magic if it was real would be used for war quite a bit, but it's such a boot to the face of verisimilitude when EVERY spell is made for combat. Apparently no one in the PoE world ever thought to invent a magic spell which could improve society or help people. D&D for example always had utility skills which could be used in non-combat scenarios, from the simple ones like making a light to see in a pitch black dark dungeon. Even something like a "Nature's Growth" spell which makes seeds and plants grow in an area would be good for a Druid, for example your party finds a farm where the recent crops have failed and the local people are starving, you can use that spell to make the crops grow so they don't all die.

Then again, same goes for pretty much everything about this project, there's a psychic class in this game called a Cypher, but ALL the spells are combat spells, I thought that the class would be perfect for a "Mind Reading" spell, whereby you can use it say once a day, you use it in dialogue and it gives you a hint (or more) depending on how talented you are, of what the NPC is thinking, so you could tell if they're lying for example.

Other stuff like: Your party is in a dungeon and comes to a gigantic chasm where a bridge has been broken, you can either take the long way round through a particularly dangerous part of the dungeon, or you can use Levitate to take your party from one side to the other.

It's disappointing, because I thought this game might take more creative influence from tabletop RPGs. I wouldn't be surprised if the game ends up even more combat-centric than Icewind Dale.
From the update: "There are many more wizard and druid spells where these came from. They all add up to give both classes a wide variety of abilities to play with." Maybe there are non-combat spells? I fundamentally agree with you, but we gotta consider this is pretty much an Inifinity Engine tribute game, and those were very, very combat-oriented, so I guess it's reasonable to expect most people want a dungeon-crawler where combat is everything. For those other scenarios you describe, it would seem that the new Torment would be a better fit.