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Well, to generate uproar about some product, there must be a demand for said product, and from what I've noticed, the current demand for Stadia is as big as demand for cold beer in Mekka during Hadjdj

You hit the nail right on the head. Below is a link to a thorough mathematical study conducted in the movie business. The bottom line is: just as William Goldman once said, no one knows anything. Success is entirely unpredictable, and box office revenues diverge over all scales. This almost certainly applies to games as well, as well as many other consumer products. A quote from the article: We conclude: (1) The studio model of risk management lacks a foundation in theory or evidence and revenue forecasts have zero precision. In other words, "Anything can happen." (2) Movies are complex products and the cascade of information among film-goers during the course of a film's run can evolve along so many paths that it is impossible to attribute the success of a movie to individual causal factors. In other words, "No one knows anything." http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.521.7885&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Behold, my God-tier GIMP skillz:

Vote here: https://thegameawards.com/nominees And here: https://www.google.com/search?q=TGA+vote

I was also attracted by the tone, and the beginning of the game was, and is, superb, although it is admittedly very dark. But I also admit that there's some evidence for the game being something of a "semi-dud", as @IndiraLightfoot said above. I was never able to get into the faction idea, I felt it was superfluous; Caed Nua was a great idea but felt half-baked in the end, because I felt there were more filler levels than proper levels; some of the stronghold stuff was very poor (especially the prison, and the attacks you could auto-resolve or manually resolve); and because I reached level cap so early, I was never able to become interested in Twin Elms -- there was nothing to gain anymore, so why bother? Also, I thought the "gods are not real" stuff that you got to at Twin Elms was articulated fairly poorly. There was some dodgy writing there, which may have had something to do with being able to choose such dialogue options that things remained quite vague -- does anyone share this experience? But, it was a good game. No question.

What drew me into PoE1 was the tone. It felt a lot more mature than most RPGish titles at that time. After understanding most of the mechanics after half a playthrough I started again and finished. After that I played a ton more because if you already understood all the poorly documented mechanics you really had to put that to use, else all the effort would have been for nothing, right? But honestly what keeps me playing PoE and Deadfire the most is this forum. Believe it or not.

Greetings employees of Halcyon, The Board is beyond pleased to share with you the The Outer Worlds has been nominated for FOUR Game Awards. This is amazing, and we are very glad to have all of you here with us to share in this momentous occasion. Nominated Categories: Best Narrative Best Performance - Ashly Burch Best RPG Game of the Year As a productive member of the Halcyon Colony, it is now your duty to head out and show your loyalty by voting for The Outer Worlds. The Video Game Awards happen on December 12th, so you will need to make sure to cast your vote before then! 🗳Vote now: http://thegameawards.com/nominees And on Google: http://goo.gle/TGAVOTE

These are so ridiculous, I love 'em.

Agreed. I played Deadfire a lot, but I put twice the hours into PoE despite Deadfire's multiclassing which would suggest that you'd have more motivation to tinker around (which I like doing). Maybe it's the (more) open world approach that does this. I don't like that too much and I think it's a totally overrated concept in CRPGs. You often feel kind of lost and I get demotivated to push forward.

You are soooo close to entering the Tower of Wisdom. You are knocking on the front door even now! All you have to do is say the password: "What cannot be trusted should not be empowered". Come on in Hurlshot.... there is beer in the fridge!

I think it's pretty hard to pinpoint why a game does badly in terms of sales, and I'm not entirely sure it's particularly helpful to speculate in it unless you're in the business of... selling games to as many people as you can. I think a large part of why games, or any other media, do good or bad sales-wise is just the way the strange winds of consumerism is blowing. It's not always possible to pinpoint. Sometimes a game is just a dud. It may be a great game, it may be a well known game but... for some reason it's just a dud. Now, my personal views on Deadfire is that it's a great game overall. However, for me it also feels like it's a game of compromise where the devs from the first game desperately tried to identify the parts of the game that were not well-received and tried to mold the second game into something that was more "appealing" and less offensive in terms of game mechanics to more people. While of course, staying true to the fans of the original. It's been done a million times before. It feels like "we should try and make this, admittedly sort of niche game, appealing to as many as we can" instead of "this is the game we're excited to make, this is the game we're going to make, screw the rest." To me it took a lot of the feedback about PoE1 and fixed it in the wrong way. Even though Deadfire is by all means more exotic and "out there" when compared to PoE1, it still feels... less inspired to me, more bland in a way, less spice to it all, more safe. And if you look at the individual bits, it should not. But it just does. Still a fantastic game for me, but not as memorable as I would've liked it. Not as memorable at all. But in terms of sales and all of that stuff, who knows? I think PoE came with the kickstarter craze, the promise of the IE games reborn, all of that stuff. There was hype about it, and I think even people who didn't play the IE games at all, or not much, got caught up in that. Hell yeah, old school is coming back in a new form, woooooo, screw the publishers! With Deadfire, I think all of that had died down a lot. And I guess the direct sequel may be a hard sell as well, I don't know. But who knows?

In Deadfire we had bare-naked Mirke. If that didn't draw enough horny players in I don't know what would have...

The quest for Felix is still botched for me when I start it.. I’m playing on normal, this is a bummer as it’s the last quest I need for the doing all companion quest achievement on Xbox. I’ve been holding out for this patch.

Started Narcos. It looks like an XCOM clone at first but has some major differences: 1) Alternate Activations: You activate a unit, the AI activates a unit. You could activate the same unit again or a different one. 2) Counteracts - Real Time Overwatch: Your troops gain counteract points for kills and/or for unused actions. If a unit has a full counteract (you get half a point for unused actions) and an opponent runs into your LoS, you can shoot them in real time by mousing the targeting reticule over them and firing. It does mean you may miss the opportunity because you weren't paying attention, but it also means that if you don't want to waste a shot or wait a bit for the enemy to move completely out of cover, you can. 3) Killshots - Real Time Crits: Crits too are done in real time. You get to shoot again, executing the opponent with a kill shot. A bit gimicky, but it works so far. 4) Rest: Everyone has a rest action, which allows them to restore 1 health. I am a bit skeptical about this; it remains to be seen if/how that slows down the missions.

i registered just to give author GREAT THANKS for that! You really helped me a lot. I`m 33 years old, last time i played Baldurs Gate when i was about 15 and getting back without this great (because so simple) guide would be so much harder. Those basics where just what i needed. Thank you one more time, cheers from Kraków.

I feel like literally a lot of the enemy assets were recycled with minor technical upgrades for Deadfire. And yes, all the PCs look much better in Deadfire - before they were all basically what happens if you crank Red Dead Redemption into potato mode. And I wouldn't spend too much debating @Archaven, it's clear that they're arguing in bad faith. As for them, jesus, just go look at some porn. How can someone be so hard up that they spend so much time analyzing whether or not a spirit known more in fantasy and mythology for dooming people with its wails is adequately sexy or not.

Or maybe just get attacked because of the blatant sexism contained therein? It's one thing to say "I find the women in this game to be more sexually-appealing/attractively-rendered than the ones in its sequel", it's another entirely to say "this female looks like/was made into a male" when she very obviously wasn't, or calling Ydwin trans based on her appearance and assuming a disconnect when her "voice actress voice is beautiful". One doesn't have to be a BLM supporter to decry obvious racism and one certainly doesn't have to be a feminist to see how utterly misogynist some of your remarks are. No, I don't. Here's a random female PC on Pillars: Here's a random female PC on Deadfire: Granted, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but I honestly don't see how the latter isn't more appealing than the former already by virtue of not looking like a low-poly potatohead straight out of the 00s. And I certainly don't see how the latter is any less distinguishably female. But, you do you. Mind that like the others I'm not entirely in disagreement that the lack of sex appeal could've factored into the franchise's declining popularity, but the assumptions you make from game to game - and ffs, the way you express them - are very far off the mark. Personally I think the lack of sexualization in the Eoran setting was already evident in the first game: contrary to how you portray her the banshee *wasn't* an attractive lady in the first game, and even normally "attractive" mythical creatures like their take on the dryads were much more monstrous, what with their skin covered in thick bark and their limbs and hair resembling roots and branches, than other settings' green-skinned naked ladies and whatnot; or the lack of a succubus variant in the setting, or fampyrs not really exploiting the "sexual predator" parallel so prevalent in vampires and so on. In this sense Deadfire is no different, and if anything I'd argue it's a step *towards* a more sexually appealing franchise, what with the models being more detailed and giving clear predominance to traditionally attractive options and so on, and what with companion romance finally being a thing as well. The whole thing for me ties back to the streaming/media issue we spoke about a while back. Much like streaming and gaming channels have become another huge part of game consumption and promotion in the present day, so has fanart and cosplay for example, and it's no secret that the characters that tend to inspire most of these (or at least the most popular and widely-consumed products within these) are either very specific "mascot"-type characters (in Pillars' case, Edér and the space pig had a bit of love in this mold, but likewise other franchises have the likes of Minsc and Boo or Vault Boy) or, indeed, attractive female characters. Even entirely secondary characters like twi'leks in Star Wars can inspire art and cosplay beyond what even the male protagonists of these series have. After all, sex sells. Though much like some of the previous points I've mentioned, much like some decisions can overly alienate the audience or be too niche or in the sake of art, some can also harm the series as an artistic product. I wouldn't want to play a Pillars game that followed a heroic monomyth that's all about beating a big bad behind an army of minions and becoming a god simply because it's what sells, because there's way more interesting things being explored in this setting and games, all in a far more interesting and involving manner. I wouldn't want Pillars to be more like The Witcher or Dragon Age: Origins any more than I'd like Joon-ho Bong to be more like Michael Bay, and in the particular mood and setting they've established with the Pillars universe it would feel plain jarring to introduce overtly sexualized characters, creature types or scenarios all of a sudden. Regardless, all of this sure as hell isn't due to some completely imagined push away from sexual appeal from the first Pillars to Deadfire the way you're assuming above.

When going to start Felix's side quest Friendship's Due it automatically fails the quest straight away for no reason.

The only sleep in ships beds is a joke. Should be able to sleep in any bed " can put things in like if its a persons bed they can kick you out". If its in a dangerous area set debuffs to warn you about intruders approaching. Fast travel should be any major spots on map not just to the ship. Having less saves is good but not only in ship or random hardly ever auto saves. If you are going to give the water food problems then give players more ways of getting drinks and food not quick eating food let us create from sources like all the water and food from all over some places not just from a machine that you have to buy water and joke food. Your companions should not die forever they are not good enough ai's they don't fight right all the time they are stupid so don't kill them if they die a lot start giving the take longer to revive and have their health back, make them slower not as good for long periods of time but stop letting them die. Sure there's more but leaving it to that for now.

I had to share this. This is probably a bug, but it was (sadly) hilarious and actually kind of realistic. Playing in Supernova, Nyoka died minutes after joining as a companion by falling off the landing pad, elevator platform, at maximum height, at Stellar Bay, as I was escorting her back to the Unreliable. I just heard a scream and crash behind me, as I walked off the platform toward the ship gangway, assuming that she was following, and she was lying at the base of the platform. I suspect she never really got onto the platform and was just kind of hanging in the air, as it was going up, and just fell as soon as it reached the top. If anyone wants to try to replicate it, she was my only companion at the time and I stood by the control box, facing the ship, on the way up and did not look back at her, then walked straight toward the ship once it reached the top. Well, she was inebriated, some caffenoid pills notwithstanding. Haha.

Hi everyone! Today during the Inside Xbox Showcase during X019 we announced our brand new game, Grounded. A passion game being worked on by a small team hear at Obsidian. The world of Grounded is a vast, beautiful, and dangerous place, especially when you have been shrunken to the size of an ant. Explore, build, and survive together in this first person, multiplayer, survival-rpg. Can you thrive alongside the hordes of giant insects, fighting to endure the hardships of the backyard? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4B5iOh1mB8 To help give you more information on Grounded, we wanted to share articles that have been written about a game from press who were able to come to the studio and see it prior to the unveiling at X0. This is a game that we're looking forward to building with your input when we come first to the Xbox Insider program and then later to Game Preview and Game Pass early next year. Now on to the articles! Destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/following-the-fantastic-outer-worlds-obsidian-s-next-game-is-grounded-572419.phtml Eurogamer https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-11-13-obsidians-first-microsoft-owned-game-is-basically-honey-i-shrunk-the-kids Game Informer https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/11/14/obsidian-announces-microscale-survival-game-grounded GamesRadar+ https://www.gamesradar.com/obsidian-grounded-new-xbox-one-exclusive-interview/ Gamespot https://www.gamespot.com/articles/obsidians-grounded-is-honey-i-shrunk-the-kids-meet/1100-6471448/ IGN https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/11/14/obsidians-grounded-preview-reveal-early-access-first-look https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/14/obsidians-grounded-first-impressions Kotaku https://kotaku.com/obsidian-s-next-game-is-a-survival-adventure-where-your-1839858401 Metro.uk https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/14/hands-xbox-one-exclusive-grounded-unveiled-outer-worlds-dev-obsidian-x019-11148003/ MMORPG https://www.mmorpg.com/interviews/grounded-an-interview-with-obsidians-senior-programmer-roby-atadero-1000014116 PC Gamer https://www.pcgamer.com/au/in-grounded-an-adorable-survival-game-from-obsidian-youre-a-shrunken-kid-in-a-giant-backyard/ https://www.pcgamer.com/how-rpg-studio-obsidian-ended-up-making-a-survival-game/ PCGamesN https://www.pcgamesn.com/grounded/x019-announced?amp Polygon https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/14/20964726/obsidian-entertainment-grounded-announcement-release-date-xbox-one-x019 RPG Site https://www.rpgsite.net/interview/9171-grounded-preview-and-interview-with-senior-programmer-roby-atadero USGamer https://www.usgamer.net/articles/grounded-preview-impressions-obsidian?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/14/20964550/obsidian-grounded-survival-game-microsoft-xbox-xo19 But that's not all! We just put up our new Grounded website. Over the next few months, make sure to check this site out for blog posts from the team and get insight into how Grounded is going to be built. Congrats to the Grounded team for their big announcement today!

Didn’t fix Felix’s quest, either. Seeing lots of comments everywhere about it not fixing the issue. I’m sure they’re aware.

Greetings employees of Halcyon, We would like to share with you the System Requirements for The Outer Worlds. System Requirements for The Outer Worlds Minimum OS: Windows 7 (SP1) 64bit CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 or AMD Phenom II X6 1100T RAM: 4GB GPU: Nvidia GTX 650 Ti or AMD HD 7850 HDD Space: 40GB Recommended OS: Windows 10 64bit CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K or Ryzen 5 1600 RAM: 8GB GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 470 HDD Space: 40GB Thank you for your patience while this was compiled, and remember, Auntie Cleo's is better than nature!

Same here. Botched quest text reads "you could not help Felix to reconcile with his friend", or somesuch. The location also never spawns (or I'm too stupid to find it, but it definitely doesn't show on the map).

Same Problem with "Friendship's Due" - Felix' quest. Get's botched on start, when I try it. Not because he's flagged as dead though, so I'm not sure it's the same bug.

Today I went to GoG and finally got around to buying FO:NV, Grim Dawn/expansions (supposedly saves port over), War for the Overlord Ultimate and anything else I could find that I potentially might care about (not a lot of them), that I originally bought on Steam. Busy downloading it all. I want to get back to where I only have a few games that need Steam, at any one time, and a tiny game list (will request many never-will-play games to be removed from Steam Library). Easy to do when you hardly buy new games anymore. But there are always those several favorites. If only FFXV and Borderlands series would come to GoG, I could get rid of Steam altogether. Yeah, not gonna happen in my lifetime.

Gathering intel for Hurlshot, so he knows if the game is worth it https://i.imgur.com/SVEcSLT.jpg[/im

Yup, Parvati quest still botched. I saved before talking to her and just put the game away until the patch arrived. Now the game is patched, I load it up, talk to her, get the quest and she mysteriously still suddenly dies in mid-conversation in ship interior. So... no change?

Hello friends, As those who were having issues have time, could you please let me know if it all seems okay now? Admin has shared all should now be well ...

Parvati's companion quest "Don't Bite the Sun" is still bugged. It says botched because Parvati died before i even finish the conversation with Parvati. I'm playing on Hard mode.

It's amazing how psilocybin mushrooms can change one's perspective...

Same for me on Xbox One, the Parvati quest is still botched. Please fix ASAP!

The Quest dont bite the sun still botched on PC. Same as before the patch i go to her talk to her quest botch. Do i really need to wait again 2 weeks im kinda over it . Im disappointed. i can sent u my save game so you could look at it to finally fix it.

Or simply may get ignored? I guess they are trying to tell you that a male succubus is called an incubus.

"Don't bite the Sun" still botched. Didn't become unbotched. Parvati is listed as killed but can still be taken with as a companion off ship. I'm on the PS4, started out on Supernova, but changed that to Hard still really early in the game before even going to Edgewater and meeting any companions. I waited patiently for two weeks for this patch where I didn't play the game. Really was enjoying it until this happened. Guess I'll have to not play it indefinitely. Thanks a lot. This glitch sucks and is breaking immersion for me. I don't want to restart the game and the uncertainty that it happens again. I would like to keep going bec. I have no desire to restart and not sure how far back to go in order for this to work. I know you guys(Obsidian developers) have a lot on your plate with the new IP and all, but it would be cool if you actually had a fix for a game you just released. So many people talking up how "bug free" this game is, when that's not at all the case. Granted it's not a game breaking bug where the game crashes constantly, but for me and, I'm sure plenty of other people, it's a major issue with an important character. Idk how everyone else feels, but this isn't fun. I enjoy playing games that work. I haven't felt so invested in a game before and so disappointed where I have reloaded save after save, tried to make it work but like clockwork the same glitch happens over and over again no matter what. Any response would be appreciated.

Can more detail be given on this? Specifically as the companion death bug can be separate from their respective quests and it was stated as "Companions dying and failing companion quests on modes other than Supernova" within the "Coming Soon" topic. For example, I did Parvati's quest with no issue, then when I finished the game, I was given a "Parvati did not survive the journey" message. Then read online about ladders killing companions (well... triggering their death flag), reloaded a save that I knew would have been before that as her companion quest was never failed, so I knew that would be a safe area to load in. Then after watching all the companions closely both in-ship and out to make sure they weren't on ladders during dialogue, was able to get to the correct end-slide. So I want to be sure that the ladder-issue is resolved as it is a pretty major one that affects more than just the quests.

Go to windows store, click the 3 dots by your account icon thingy, choose updates, check for updates, download 1.8gb outer worlds patch! this patch seems to sort the "stuck at press any key screen" issue on PC (gamepass /windows store version) ? It tries to connect to Xbox live, the press any key disappears and you're stuck at that screen listening to the music! After patch this issue, for me, is fixed! AND achievements I had unlocked but hadn't received due to bug, have now popped up! Yay!

Parvati’s quest is still glitched on my PS4 pro. Quite a bummer.

Indeed, no one can resist the allure of ice cream.

Actually... after thinking about it some more. I think it's because they didn't have any women in boob plate armour on the front. The sales probably would have shot up if they had a few barely clothed elves on the adverts and posters and what not.

I think you are on to something, though I don’t think the blame is purely on the audience not being able to accept what PoE truly is. While I love those games to death, to some degree they always rang false to me. While trying to fulfill expectations one might have from IE games I don’t think they are truly free to pursue their own goals. Brilliance of Baldur’s Gates was that the player progression and RPG systems where smartly tied to the overarching narrative: you are a son of Bhaal and death follows you. No matter if you want to be good or evil you kill a lot of stuff, fulfilling the prophecy and your role. You kill Sarevok because you are a better murderer then he. As you near to having a shot in claiming the throne, you become more powerful, killing more and more powerful stuff. While mostly a pulpy adventure, there is a subversive cleverness in the story, which simply makes it all work. All better Bioware game do this: KOTOR, Jade Empire, all manage to tie your growth with the story of the game. Obsidian also leaned into this one multiple occasions. PoE, unlike so many post-BG RPGs, doesn’t follow this arc, but still has the gameplay. We kill stuff in hundreds, grow in power and move from killing wolfs and boars to mythic creatures. Yet, little of it is acknowledged in the narrative. There is some stuff in the lore (souls growing stronger etc.) but none of it is related to the main game. I would say that character growth happens purely in game space, and isn’t really acknowledge by game’s world. I do like that mere mortal can’t challenge a God. But that expectation isn’t challenged by the game either. Expectations are there: both because of tradition and existing gameplay systems, but the game doesn’t even acknowledge such possibility. The problem isn’t that we can’t challenge Eothas, but that after 20 levels and major in-game growth, game refuses to respond to it.

So... I said in my previous posts that I'd try to expand a little more on some personal thoughts I have on the series and why Deadfire may not have been as successful. I do think that the factors to blame are most likely due to lack of awareness, poor marketing, disinterest in/ignorance of the IP and so on, but I do think these have all been touched already so I'll just set them aside for this post. For the next couple of reasons I'll add the caveat that I don't necessarily think they're the biggest or sole contributors to Deadfire's dip in sales, I'm mentioning them mostly as food for thought and so on. So, without further ado... Deadfire as a streaming experience Earlier in the thread, @ekt0 brought up the issue of influencers and streamers and their role both in spreading awareness of a game and also in acting as "tastemakers" for specific parts of the gaming community. There's no doubt that people like Joe Vargas, Yahtzee Croshaw, Jim Sterling, CohhCarnage, Forsen and many other big personalities have an influence on what their followers consume and how the consume the same - but they also have a role promoting games and do so by showcasing them as videos or live shows, and essentially showcasing their games on a pure audiovisual level instead of an interactive one. I think isometric CRPGs in the style of the IE games especially suffer in this medium: they're usually text-heavy and involve conversations seen from an overhead view that often pause all action and animation, and can even do away with voice-acting altogether; they often make of combat a relatively secondary element to the experience that can be sparse enough to not come into play for stretches of *hours* at a time, and which is often made pretty stilted as a visual experience either due to turn-based or paused mechanics; and they involve plenty of systems that are often complex and abstract enough for the uninformed viewer to not make heads or tails about. The player's experience in games like these are night and day relative to the experience of those watching, and I feel that many that take a quick look at Deadfire in any such video or stream without prior knowledge of isometric RPGs or without the right context to understand the systems may feel confused, alienated, and simply bored and disinterested. It is simply too static a game as a viewing experience, and this, in a day and age where streaming has become as big a form of game consumption and advertisement as it is today, really plays against this subgenre of games regardless of how interesting or fun they are once the viewers actually play the game themselves. Josh says this could be a result of the games being 2D or isometric, but I feel it's more the combination of elements that make the aesthetic of an isometric RPG that becomes the issue - in comparison the Supergiant games for example are far friendlier games for streaming because on a visual level at least the action is more fluid and consistent, and these rarely ever contain long stretches of dialogue, or scripted interactions composed entirely of text and static 2D images, or numerous complex sheets for characters, inventory, quests and abilities, or the likes. It's less a single component and more the addition of all these to make for a poor non-interactive audiovisual experience, regardless of how great it is an interactive one. Setting I don't have much to say on this one but I think it's a point worth making, that despite Deadfire not being a "pirate game", enough people have been left with that impression either after playing it or simply from early word of mouth, marketing and buzz. No matter how one might argue otherwise or how gross and incorrect a simplification of the setting it may be, it unfortunately hasn't prevented people from believing this and holding to this perspective. Why would a pirate setting be a problem is something of a mystery for me, as I figure there's enough pirate games out there that did well enough or seemed to be interesting enough to an audience so as to not be such a detractor, and yet I feel like I only ever see this characteristic spoken in a negative light and with plenty of frequency as well. I would posit the following two possibilities: The pirate setting is perceived to be too modern and divorced to the traditional medieval European fantasy setting that the Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights games as well as most fantasy RPGs are set in, and a game or game subgenre that is primarily banking on nostalgia depends very strongly on the familiar, which this setting was not. Pillars itself downplayed the fantasy Renaissance setting enough to have been assumed by most players to be a bleaker take on a medieval setting instead, and thus the more colourful, modern and adventurous appearance of Deadfire felt like a tonal whiplash to what came before. An interesting point about Baldur's Gate II is that it itself was meant to be a small departure from the first game's setting to a more Byzantine one instead - yet personally I can't say I noticed until someone else pointed it out to me years later. This might be my own stupidity or unawareness talking of course, but I feel Baldur's Gate II still felt like more of a traditional medieval European fantasy setting than Deadfire ever did - and likewise, it's not uncommon to find comments referring to Pillars' setting as "medieval", or even complaints about the inclusion of firearms in it as anachronistic and the likes. I can see in that sense that maybe expectations were set for a particular tone or aesthetic for the saga that Deadfire then in some way broke, and alienated a part of its audience in turn (I reiterate, however, that I would never say it's the sole or main reason for the substantial drop, just maybe a contributing factor). Story Last but not least, there's the franchise's story, or rather, the kind of story the franchise has developed over these two chapters. Many issues have been brought up about the story for both games according to different reads of the same: some felt the first game was too ambiguous, lacked any real hooks and didn't adequately portray the stakes or communicate why the player should care about their condition as a Watcher or about the whole Hollowborn crisis; meanwhile, others complained that Deadfire had a very linear and short story, that they didn't feel they had any agency in the game, that there was a strong premise but nothing was done with it, etc. I think that some of these criticisms are valid but don't really explain why the story or the franchise failed to stick with people so as to cause such a massive drop. So I got down to thinking about all of the other comparable Western RPGs out there which were frequently praised for their story, and think there's something curious about the Pillars franchise when compared to these others, in that it stands as a rather separate and unique case in that it doesn't really stick to a monomythic hero's journey or attempt to indulge the players' power fantasies quite like so many other games of this genre do. What leads me to think of this is mostly certain characteristics I've noticed about some of the most frequent complaints I've seen about Deadfire's story here and, most importantly, on Steam. While not so frequently seen here, a complaint I ran across on Steam time and time again - one which made absolutely no sense to me - was that people were actually disappointed that they couldn't ascend to godhood at the end of the game. Some also were disappointed that they couldn't fight Eothas, or really stop Eothas from doing what he was doing. Some felt they had no agency and were just witnessing a story they had no real part in. I feel like the common thread across all these complaints was that the player, or the Watcher, didn't attain the power to be able to stand up to the gods by the end of this game - a game in a genre that is ridiculously full of stories about adventurers becoming heroes, kings and even *gods* by the end of their journey, who are literally taking down other kings, other foul evils threatening the realms, or other gods and so on. The Watcher's feats, in comparison, aren't quite so clear-cut heroic, and arguably his most heroic deed - that of bringing Thaos down and learning the truth of the gods - is one that is pretty shrouded in obscurity since no one really knew who Thaos was anyways, and it's not like you managed to find a way to share the gods' secret across Eora somehow either. Despite the Watcher growing into a strong and arguably powerful figure by the end of either game, the franchise is never about the Watcher's heroic or villainous feats, the franchise isn't so much about an individual's journey so much as the cultural shift they help push along and unfold in their journey. I think this makes Pillars a fascinating story, but one which is arguably far removed from the expectations of a playerbase that are pretty decided in the kind of experience they want and the gratification they expect back from a game. I think it could be this stylistic, thematic or tonal mismatch that could have also lessened interest in the saga despite fulfilling a demand for more games of this ilk. Again, I couldn't be sure, but it feels to me that maybe the issue isn't that Pillars and Deadfire are bad games or somehow fail, but rather that they are different in enough ways to be just off of what hooks their niche or the gaming community in general. To all of this I'll make clear, I think the story, setting and aesthetic for the franchise are wonderful. This is pretty much my favorite (hopefully) ongoing saga in the medium right now. This is just me brainstorming on how the game could have failed in others' eyes, or even how a game could have been well-received or well-liked and yet failed to either garner or retain interest in the long run.

I won't play supernova as I feel it just detracts from the game. I would love to be able to select different restrictions on hard mode to tailor the game to how I want to play.

"FTL" is a funny way to spell "Cities: Skylines"

Please remove the time restriction for edits! Please extend the login time! Please reintroduce BBCode mode! Why is nothing done about it? No comment or answer either. I can't edit the char build lists anymore. Others can't edit their sticky posts with tipps & tricks. It can't be too hard to do that stuff can it? What's the point of this thread then? Ks ks ks...