I'm a bit of an Obsidian fanboy, so I prefer to believe they were rushed by the publishers for their buggiest releases (KotOR II, NWN2: were FO:NV and Alpha Protocol really that buggy?) I also think some of their games aren't any worse than many other devs' games as far as bugginess, but they don't get cut any slack from many people that remember KotOR II and NWN2.

Anyway, I'm putting my confidence in them and will leave it up to them to either reinforce my fanboyishness or finally prove to me that no they're not capable of releasing games that aren't bug-infested. Because really, with this game being a kickstarter project, they have no excuse not to release a polished gem.

Thanks for pointing that out, but as you said yourself it only says it won't necessarily be Steam exclusive. For me to back this, and I would love to, I need something more concrete.

As far as I know, NV was QA'd by Bethesda, so it's definitely on the publisher in that case (and I think publisher QAing is a pretty common practice). And as we all know, Bethesda's QA department basically consists of a monkey, a 12-year-old child, and half a bowl of pudding (incidentally, their QA work doubletime as their writers as well).

They can't announce a GOG release without contract negotiations, obviously, but without a publisher, why couldn't they announce a DRM-free release immediately?

Well, I'm not them, but I'd make a guess that it's because they'd have to decide on what method they feel comfortable using, if any at all. They're obviously comfortable with Steam, but other distribution methods might require more thought/research/input.

Hm, I don't seem to have the hang of the quote/reply system here yet. heh. Trying this again:

Oh, I totally understand that. :) I was just trying to say that if one is interested in the game, don't give up on it completely when there's nothing written in stone yet.

Mini-update, basically saying that they're discussing stretch goals and there will be another update today. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/308631?ref=email&show_token=dba2d57c69fd5bdc

Of course I haven't given up yet! I'm waiting eagerly instead :)
But until I see some kind of announcement, I will be an innocent bystander.

The good news is that there are several posts ( and [url=http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/59936-drm-free/][2] after a quick glance) mentioning GOG as an alternative dd.
I don't know if the suggestion has merit (some already mentioned price points obstacle), but it goes to show that the interest for DRM-free option is there.

Price points aren't an obstacle anymore. GOG now sells newer games at higher price points than the classic $5.99 and $9.99 tiers.

Also, with a large chunk of the cost of making the game looking to be provided by the Kickstarter project, with a higher profit to Obsidian due to the lack of a publisher, etc, I have hope that Obsidian won't be asking for the usual $40-60 new release price when the game is released.

And even if they do ask a hefty price: GOG sold TW2, and they could sell this game (or any new game) using whatever price point Obsidian wants. (Likely less popular if more expensive, of course, but they could sell it for whatever they want on GOG most likely.)

Right, that's why people are asking. If they were obviously just going Steam-exclusive I wouldn't be spending any thought on this at all. But so far Steam is the only platform actually listed, so it's important to ask and let them know that DRM-free is an important factor.

"translation"

OMG they threw $1million at us in day one! Even Dr. Evil wasn't prepared for that!

Or basically it sounds like they've got to totally restructure how they are planning to roll out their stretch goals. Many of them might already have been part of the $1mill start up costs.

I just hope that they can restructure, but not get too big headed about the amount. Their name has allowed them to blast to a very high starting point; but that is off the back of a good number of years of marketing to get a fanbase that big. Could they make it to $30Million? Eh its possible after this first day; but honestly I'd be amazed - I'd strongly expect them to have a reverse KS effect in that their latter days might actually slow down as opposed to speeding up (as opposed to many KS events which tend to operate the other way around).

Btw, you guys may want to check out the Project Eternity forums. J.E. Sawyer's been fairly active. He hasn't dropped any real clues, but he's given a few hints about the directions they're taking. For example, this implies that they're going to give melee fighters more options than in BG, where they basically auto-attacked all day and all night (positioning and equipment choice aside).

Second update posted: Also has stretch goals.

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I daresay that a player house or camp should be standard in a modern RPG rather than a stretch goal, but whatever: A DRM-free copy is my primary concern.

It's nice to see Mac/Linux in the stretch goals, I know a lot of people were posting about those. And whee, a player house. Heh.

Hm, three races? I wonder if that'll be Human, Elf, Dwarf. Anyway, I'm one of those people who think the more customization the better, so I hope we reach all the extra race/class stretches. Also, if you weren't paying attention during the video, there are apparently guns, which is cool. The armor reminds me of Fire Emblem.

EDIT: Also, 5 (and even 7 if both stretch goals are reached) companions seems like a really tiny amount. Assuming a six person party, that means you'll have no choice in dudes during your playthrough. Even if they decrease it to 4, that still doesn't leave many options. That being said, having a small amount of companions is also good because it means a lot more can go into making them deeper (and we are talking Chris Avellone here, so I'm sure the companions will suitably awesomely written). It goes both ways. :)