Manart

To be fair though, Skyrim has been in a few Steam sale already, especially the Winter Madness ones. We just have to wait for the game to be out for like a year or so before we can make an accurate assessment.

If a vintage hardcore cRPG like this game sell well, then Obsidian should be able to make more of it. The company has been burned so many time by now, I wouldn't blame them for being cautious with their next game. I just hope that the people at Obsidian manage to keep up with producing quality RPG content like they have been producing for the last few years. And in today's industry, they are like the last few people of ye olde RPG days who are still working on new games (Bioware is another). You can blame publishers, other game genres or "social awareness", but at the end of the day, if a company can't make money off doing what they were doing before, then it's natural they turn elsewhere in order to keep running. It's the sad truth of business.

I'm guessing they took the option down since it's past time for pre-order/Kickstarter pledge. Maybe once they officially announce the next expansion they will add back the ability to pre-order it.

As with any discussion about "why did they not catch this in Q&A?", I think it's because the game that they worked with before launch and the game we got was massively different from one another. Even now they are still working hard on squashing new bugs that happened due to the way they reworked the game, so my mantra is: keep on playing and they'll fix it, eventually.

I think it's because you are building your Wizard as only an AOE caster that you find their spell selection lacking. Wizards also boasts the best self-buffs in the game compared to the other casters (only the Priest even comes close and you're better off just using those buffs on your tank anyway) and can stay at a consistent level of effectiveness throughout the game instead of sucking early on then becomes great once level 9 hits like the Priest or the Druid or blowing through their focus early on in the fight like the Cipher. Instead of just focusing on AOE, how about you try using a Kalanoth's Minor Blights build? Coupled with Eldritch Aim, Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and Citzal's Martial Power, my Wizard turns into an auto-attacking beast who even out-damages my Rogue during long fights (esp. the dragon fights, who has an insane amount of Deflection)

Well, maybe they can arrive sooner then you can recruit them in order to incentivize you to rush the appropriate building?

Haha. I was super excited when I discovered that as well... until it makes me very OCD in checking every single rolls that my team made and cursing every time I roll low or the enemy high ("That was a +45 defense roll! How come that stupid Shade can still hit Eder! Damn it!")