About time..

[Junai]

"Miss classic CRPG's like Baldur's Gate,Icewind Dale, and Planscape: Torment? So do we!"

 

Well why hasn't OE delved into the projects they wanted to make before now!?

Did they need Overhaul Games to enhance all their classics to wake them up?

 

I do wanna contribute, it just irritates that a OE asks for contributions to develop games that THEY AND THEIR FANS wanna see, while at the same time spending God-knows-how-much on South Park, cancelled Alien projects and consol games.

 

J.

[Tagaziel]

You don't know much about the market or the games industry, do you?

 

I'll make this short:

 

- Obsidian always wanted to make a classic RPG.

- Obsidian does not have the funding to do this alone, so Obsidian needs a publisher.

- Publisher did not want Obsidian to do classic RPG.

- Obsidian was sad, so Obsidian made a Kickstarter to have full creative freedom with no publisher oversight, in order to deliver a classic RPG that's as deep, complex and developed as Obsidian wants.

[Pangur]

Well why hasn't OE delved into the projects they wanted to make before now!?

Did they need Overhaul Games to enhance all their classics to wake them up?

Well, there wasn't a good crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter until recently. I'm sure if people at Obsidian had a real possibility to make a game they wanted they would make it long ago. But to make a game you need, among other things, a huge amount of money which is hard to get if you don't have a publisher (and publishers don't need old-school games).

 

Edited: Oh well, Tagaziel beat me to it.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Pangur

[Junai]

Oh please...

Don't try to convince me that the entire gaming-world wants South Park and glossy consol-nonsense, so OE is forced to cater to the braindead majority which constitutes the "market". People are lining up for BG:EE. People still play BG and IWD over a decade after release. If you really want to do something, make it happen. They wanted to make money rather than follow their hearts, and now that Trent's got BG:EE going, they suddenly started to sweat and finally got moving.

[C2B]

You don't know much about the market or the games industry, do you?

 

I'll make this short:

 

- Obsidian always wanted to make a classic RPG.

- Obsidian does not have the funding to do this alone, so Obsidian needs a publisher.

- Publisher did not want Obsidian to do classic RPG.

- Obsidian was sad, so Obsidian made a Kickstarter to have full creative freedom with no publisher oversight, in order to deliver a classic RPG that's as deep, complex and developed as Obsidian wants.

 

I like the idea of Obsidian as a single entity.

[C2B]

Oh please...

Don't try to convince me that the entire gaming-world wants South Park and glossy consol-nonsense, so OE is forced to cater to the braindead majority which constitutes the "market". People are lining up for BG:EE. People still play BG and IWD over a decade after release. If you really want to do something, make it happen. They wanted to make money rather than follow their hearts, and now that Trent's got BG:EE going, they suddenly started to sweat and finally got moving.

 

What?

 

That has nothing, absolutly nothing to do with why they need money. Nothing.

 

Obsidian doesn't think that way, but PUBLISHERS still do. And they provide the money. If Obsidian would do this on their own, they would have to let even more people go. Not to mention would carry the full risk if the project ends up a failure.

 

Or do you have the magical ability to rain down money from the sky?

 

Stop trollin'

Edited September 17, 2012 by C2B

[Infinitron]

Oh please...

Don't try to convince me that the entire gaming-world wants South Park and glossy consol-nonsense, so OE is forced to cater to the braindead majority which constitutes the "market". People are lining up for BG:EE. People still play BG and IWD over a decade after release. If you really want to do something, make it happen. They wanted to make money rather than follow their hearts, and now that Trent's got BG:EE going, they suddenly started to sweat and finally got moving.

 

Please provide evidence that millions of customers are "lining up" for BG:EE.

 

Because that's the amount of people you need to sell to for publishers to be interested.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Infinitron

[Junai]

Oh please...

Don't try to convince me that the entire gaming-world wants South Park and glossy consol-nonsense, so OE is forced to cater to the braindead majority which constitutes the "market". People are lining up for BG:EE. People still play BG and IWD over a decade after release. If you really want to do something, make it happen. They wanted to make money rather than follow their hearts, and now that Trent's got BG:EE going, they suddenly started to sweat and finally got moving.

 

Please provide evidence that millions of customers are "lining up" for BG:EE.

 

Because that's the amount of people you need to sell to for publishers to be interested.

 

It's not a matter of millions - the game is being developed (or at least overhauled), and it's being released nov. 30. If they can make it happen, and they enjoy doing it, why can't Obsidian?

[Infinitron]

Oh please...

Don't try to convince me that the entire gaming-world wants South Park and glossy consol-nonsense, so OE is forced to cater to the braindead majority which constitutes the "market". People are lining up for BG:EE. People still play BG and IWD over a decade after release. If you really want to do something, make it happen. They wanted to make money rather than follow their hearts, and now that Trent's got BG:EE going, they suddenly started to sweat and finally got moving.

 

Please provide evidence that millions of customers are "lining up" for BG:EE.

 

Because that's the amount of people you need to sell to for publishers to be interested.

 

It's not a matter of millions - the game is being developed (or at least overhauled), and it's being released nov. 30. If they can make it happen, and they enjoy doing it, why can't Obsidian?

 

Do you understand there's a huge, HUGE difference in required financial resources between touching up an existing game and making an entirely new one? They can make a profit on BG:EE with a much smaller number of buying customers.

 

Also why the **** am I arguing with a troll

Edited September 17, 2012 by Infinitron

[Hoverdog]

WHAT THE ****.

 

BG:EE is nothing more than a blatant, incompetent cashgrab. It takes a perfectly usable, classic game with no need of refurbishment and ports it to iO (I could live with that, but I'm having serious doubts about how it will work on small screens) and supposedly "improves" the PC version. "Improves" as in enables higher resolutions (you could do it with a mod for several years), optimizes graphics to make up for higher res (=makes them all blurry ****), polishes the interface (which now looks like total crap), adds a few mods (hahahaohwow.jpg) and three new npcs (like BG1 didn't have a lot of them already - and there are additional mods of course). Oh, and they advertise "we could make a BG3 if the sales are good". Yeah sure you can if you **** up even basic stuff.

 

 

tl;dr: they want to make a cashgrab without doing anything by themselves.

[Monte Carlo]

Junai, srsly, you are barking up the wrong tree here. Read the interviews with Obz staff --- they've made their position perfectly clear.

[Junai]

Hoverdog, I don't care if BG:EE is a cashgrab, as long as their intention is to use the cash to create crpgs that I like (like BG3).

[Hoverdog]

My point is: how can they make BG3 if all they do is milk an existing game without doing anything on their own? It's like a former BI betatester got hold of Torment's license and said "hey, I'm gonna make torment 2, give me moneyz".

Edited September 17, 2012 by Hoverdog

[Apatia]

Doesn't Overhaul have Hasbro's and Atari's support and giving funds for BGEE? That's why BGEE is going to be released. As soon as they say that it is not worth it, you can say goodbye to your BG3.

 

Obsidian didn't get any publisher to back this project in the first place because it was seen as too risky. Only reason why Hasbro/Atari (I don't remember, which hold which licences) gave green light to BGEE is because they know they can have easy money from it.

[Tale]

It's not a matter of millions - the game is being developed (or at least overhauled), and it's being released nov. 30. If they can make it happen, and they enjoy doing it, why can't Obsidian?

1) Beamdog has their own distribution service that provides supplemental income beyond development.

2) Cleaning up the code base and adding a few new areas and characters is probably a smaller development project, thus requiring less investment, than a whole new game.

[MReed]

@Hoverdog, you do understand that several of the developers on the Overhaul Games project team were, in fact, on the developement team for BG1 / BG2, right? Not as beta testers, but as developers / writers intimently involved with the projects. These aren't random yahoos -- there is as much reason to believe that they could put together a BG3 (on a purely technical level) as there is to believe that the Obision team could put together a "Planescape 2" or "KOTR 3" assuming proper funding. There are serious political and legal issues that are (in my mind) highly likely to prevent this from occuring, but that has nothing to do with the team involved (and everything to do with the interests of WotC and whoever owns the D&D license at the moment).

 

Now, the value proposition for the Enhanced Editions is rather dubious for the existing Baldur's Gate fanbase, I agree. But:

 

1) They are hoping to establish that people other than existing fans will purchase Infinity Engine games. For those users on any platform the value is very high, as all the content is new as far as they are concerned.

2) The existing fanbase's incentive to buy is to help finance developement of BG3 -- I view it as a kickstarter where you get the goodies first instead of when the developement completes.

3) To have any chance at all of making BG3 it is necessary to convince WotC that there is a sufficently large market available to purchase a game in the BG / Infinity Engine style. The best way to establishing this is by demonstrating actual sales, and that's what they are trying to do.

[Hoverdog]

Well then, if it's true and they have such an amazingly talented team, why do their results look so bad?

• interface is uglier
  
• resolution was fixed years ago
  
• newly-scaled landscapes are uglier and blurred
  
• three new NPCs look cliche as hell (including an AWESOME! romance sounding like that retarded Merill from DA2)
  
• adding existing mods doesn't require a lot of work
  

the result? with Big Picture (I think that's how it's called) I can have much better product in terms of graphics (ported BG2 engine), gameplay (Stratagems) and further compatibility (will every mod work with EE?) without spending a single penny (I already have two copies of both BGs).

 

If they are really that good, why couldn't they upgrade character sprites, flesh out those wilderness areas - things that were, like, actually not that good in the first place?

Edited September 17, 2012 by Hoverdog

[The Sharmat]

Am I understanding this? Your position is "Since they're making this now they obviously could make this before, so I'm not donating because they didn't make it years ago."?

[Hornet85]

Hoverdog, I don't care if BG:EE is a cashgrab, as long as their intention is to use the cash to create crpgs that I like (like BG3).

 

You seem to be very confident that BG3 project won't go on Kickstarter. I wouldn't bet against it.

 

BTW, what do you suggest Obsidian do to fund PE? Waste their time polishing old games?

[Zack Fair]

Hoverdog, I don't care if BG:EE is a cashgrab, as long as their intention is to use the cash to create crpgs that I like (like BG3).

Do you really think that Trent & Co are capable to make a cRPG on the level of BG? LOOOOL They are an *** bunch of **** who are only capable to use other people's mods and sell it as BG:EE.

 

OP is a ****** (you see, I censored myself, but think of someting ugly).

End of rine.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Zack Fair

[nikolokolus]

I find it funny how dozens of developers are shuttering their doors or being gobbled up by huge entities like EA and the assumption is that these guys just have piles of cash reserves laying around in the basement to fund whatever the hell project they like.

 

The margins on these games have been pretty tight for a lot of companies for years and for every Bioware or Blizzard, there's probably a hundred that are barely keeping the lights on.

[Tagaziel]

You don't know much about the market or the games industry, do you?

 

I'll make this short:

 

- Obsidian always wanted to make a classic RPG.

- Obsidian does not have the funding to do this alone, so Obsidian needs a publisher.

- Publisher did not want Obsidian to do classic RPG.

- Obsidian was sad, so Obsidian made a Kickstarter to have full creative freedom with no publisher oversight, in order to deliver a classic RPG that's as deep, complex and developed as Obsidian wants.

 

I like the idea of Obsidian as a single entity.

 

 

 

[Tale]

Let's shy away from discussing other posters and keep to the topic presented.

[MReed]

Hoverdog, I don't care if BG:EE is a cashgrab, as long as their intention is to use the cash to create crpgs that I like (like BG3).

 

You seem to be very confident that BG3 project won't go on Kickstarter. I wouldn't bet against it.

 

BTW, what do you suggest Obsidian do to fund PE? Waste their time polishing old games?

 

I would, given that the Overhaul Games team has already stated that "There are legal problems with Kickstarter and licensed properties". No details were offered, but I suspect that the root cause is the "two masters" problem -- the kickstarter investors have a reasonable expectation that their interests will be represented in the final product, but the license holder feels that they should have final control over the content. Is it impossible to use Kickstarter for a licensed property? Obviously, no, there is at least one of these sorts, but it is pretty clear that Overhaul Games doesn't feel that this is an option for a theoritical BG3.

[Junai]

BTW, what do you suggest Obsidian do to fund PE? Waste their time polishing old games?

Are they broke? What about the earnings from all the EA Bioware hand-me down projects? It just kept them afloat?