Arvan Eleron

We were indeed, Leferd...hopefully will have more news to share on this front soon! And thanks for the kind words! --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

Hi all, I know the fine folks at Obsidian monitor these forums, so I wanted to reach out here and see if there was a way I could get in contact with them--I spoke to Nathan last year at Gen Con about appearing on my Twitch channel to talk about Pathfinder Adventures (which I am incredibly excited about), following up on Josh Sawyer's and many other developers' appearances on my channel, and I thought I'd try here in addition to E-mail. Really looking forward to the game either way! Arvan Eleron http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

I'll absolutely be streaming it tonight at 8 p.m. EDT--really got a lot from Josh's answers during my interview with him last week, and very pumped up for the game. We should have a great turnout, so please stop by! --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

There is a reason - streamers generate more interest when they show "hey, here is this game and it might interest you guys!" to all of their subscribers. That's very important to reach all people who can be potentially interested and hyped for Pillars of Eternity before the release day. Darkest Dungeon did this and was a massive success. I don't see on what grounds you criticize a proven marketing strategy? One hundred percent agree with this, just speaking from personal experience: my interview with Josh from a few days ago has already gotten well over three thousand views on my YouTube channel, and another 500 plus on my Twitch channel, in addition to the 250 people we had during the interview itself. I've already had ten people directly message or tell me in chat that they're buying the game as a direct result of seeing the interview and the subsequent playthrough; there are always, of course, far more people who watch something than comment upon it, which suggests that many more people will also buy the game after seeing the stream. Now I was working with the beta backer version (which Obsidian was kind enough to send me), not the press version--but it demonstrates how important Twitch streams and YouTube videos are to overall sales, and how this kind of early exposure can really benefit the game in the short and long term. Just adding a data point, I guess. --Arv www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

I'm genuinely curious about this, though--I was actually surprised how much he emphasized community involvement, more than many of the other devs I've spoken with over the years. It seems like they pay a good deal of attention to feedback--is that not the case? *prepares to bolt if bringing this up is like leaping into the hornet's nest* --Arv http://twitch.tv/arvaneleron They take heed on community feedback, which of course don't mean that they always change things like some members of community would like and usually they don't defend their choices which frustrates some members of community, but as Josh said if it is somewhat straightforward to offer option to toggle things so that people can customize their experience as they want they usually offer such toggle in options. But often things that some community members want can't simply made as optional toggle, then they have often offer some sort compromise solution, like for example they first had only quest objective based xp system, but some community members were quite loud about how they want to get xp from combat and some other things like lock picking and disarming traps, and so they changed system so that you can now get minor xp from those tasks. But sometimes they just decide that their version is better for the game or that they don't have resources to offer implementation that community members want. It should also noted that it has been rare occurrences where community has been somewhat single minded about some specific issue and those times Obsidian has always tried to solve the issue. But usually things are so that community is quite split how they feel about issues and usually loudest voice (most post) always belongs to those who have issues with current implementation. Really good and detailed answer, Elerond--thanks. --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

I'm genuinely curious about this, though--I was actually surprised how much he emphasized community involvement, more than many of the other devs I've spoken with over the years. It seems like they pay a good deal of attention to feedback--is that not the case? *prepares to bolt if bringing this up is like leaping into the hornet's nest* --Arv http://twitch.tv/arvaneleron

Thanks for the kind words, folks...I appreciate them! As for the questions, I also tried to pass along a number of questions from chat, and a couple of those definitely had a particular slant--in those cases I have to balance not giving the interviewee a question which obviously reflects the viewer's particular opinion, on the one hand, and not giving my audience a chance to ask things about the game which matter most to them on the other. Definitely a balancing act, for sure. --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron P.S. Because I was curious, I went back and timed it, and Josh spoke about twice as much as I did--which is how it should be, since the interview should be about the guest, not the interviewer. Josh was really thoughtful and gracious with his replies, which made my job a lot easier!

Thanks, Ryu--was just coming over here to link this! :D --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

I'm in the process of uploading the interview itself to YouTube now. Until then, feel free to go here for the highlighted interview on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron/c/6358585. And thanks for all the great questions and support--we had a great turnout, and Josh was very generous. Tried to get to as many questions as I could in 90 minutes. Feel free to stop by the channel again when I start my playthrough next week! --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

It is indeed EDT--sorry about that. See you in about 90 minutes for this! --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

Some excellent questions there--I'll see if I can incorporate a couple of them. I'm pretty sure they sent me the beta backer version. --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

Awesome! Ha--I'll do what I can! --Arv http://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron

Hi all, Just wanted to announce that I'll have Josh Sawyer, Project Director for Pillars of Eternity, on my channel tomorrow night at 8 p.m. EST. I've done a number of these chats, most recently with Paul Neurath from Otherside Entertainment's Underworld Ascendant, and having played the beta version of POE I'm extremely excited for its release and to speak to Josh about it. Please stop by tomorrow night with questions and comments--looking forward to it! Arvan Eleron http://twitch.tv/arvaneleron