Monte Carlo

This is a little bit like book publishing, which is currently trying to manage the digital Tsunami that hit music almost ten years ago. As technology develops I think there will be a middle tier of gaming, kind of 'Indie Plus' studios that manage to consistently produce smaller but profitable titles direct to the customer without the publisher. However... in writing, a really ,really good Amazon / digital sales rating will likely get you snapped up by a publisher. For a writer that is still a big draw for the obvious reasons: marketing and distribution. Physical sales are still very important in books as they are in games. This will change, as it has in music. It will be interesting to see how the publishers play it, if they have any sense they will create proper, more autonomous sub-divisions and try to hoover up the Indie Plus guys (this happens in book publishing).

I'm new to Kick Starter but am becoming very interested in it as I'm a bit of a gambling man. Check this out: http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity#chart-exp-projection Does anybody more mathematically / business-minded than me care to comment on the 5.4 - 10.3 MILLION DOLLAR PROJECTION for this project?

Put it on a difficulty slider, like almost everything else. Wandering Monsters on Rest? Low probability / Medium probability / High probability Or tie it to easy / medium / hardcore settings. Seriously, you can't please everybody, especially folks who can write 5000 words on the subject! But you can please most people.

Obsidian have made it clear that extra game length is contingent on funding and stretch goals. As I am confident that the Kick Starter will yield at least 3 million dollars (added to the games they are referencing) I would hope for an Icewind Dale length game.

This will be achieved by noon GMT I suspect. $2 million dollars+ by the weekend. Edit: The day of the DRM / GOG stretch goal announcement resulted in a spike of just under $20,000.

May I direct y'all to RuneQuest, my favourite PnP system. There you had 'Battle Magic' and 'Rune Magic.' Battle magic was lower-level buffs: healing, weapon buffs, enemy screw-ups (*fumble* was a favourite, it made your enemy clumsy). Rune Magic was for higher level priests or 'sorcerers' (it was tied to the religious system in the game, long story). Both were fuelled by a prime statistic (called POWER) which dropped as you used magic, a la a mana system.... but characters could boost / store Power in different items like ammo. An iteration of this would work well in what Obz are proposing: soul magic versus 'X' 'Y' or 'Z' magic perhaps?

As long as I can wantonly suck souls from my victims, a la MotB, and give myself sick new powaz, i'll be happy.

I'm also upping my prediction --- I think this project can make just shy of $4 million.

For me it's not just a DRM issue but a convenience one. I'm pretty old-fashioned, I like the fact that GOG just lets me download and install. I also like their vibe as a company. I also use Steam, I buy games on it and stuff so I'm not being doctrinaire, but I like the freedom of GOG.

Looking at the stats, I'm fairly sure this news has created a proper income spike. Edit: I've looked at it again, it's more of a levelling off where today is as good as yesterday (time zones permitting), which is still good. Will have another look (GMT) tomorrow.

Indeed, I loved them and even now I can remember it in my head as I write. But it was the music, too, that pulled it together. How often do you get a medium more appealing, and evocative but cheaper than the current industry standard? It's almost a no-brainer.

I'm Monte Carlo, and I support this message.

* A hopelessly drunk wizard with a terminal illness * A deserter from a defeated army with a penchant for looting and narcotics * A female priest searching for the illegitimate daughter taken from her by the church * A master-thief / forger / safe-breaker, a gentleman of breeding and manners, obsessed with gadgets and explosives * A tribal kid kidnapped by gangsters and trained from birth to be a deadly marksman / assassin and master of firearms * An unrepentant war criminal, a powerful swordsman, looking for a new cause to rally around and a new master to serve

Maybe publishers will wake up to the whole DRM thing.

I think I'm seeing a micro-spike of about $10,000. Would be interesting to see where and when that came from. Maybe Europe.

If the critical path is predicated on the survival of one key NPC then the game wasn't designed right in the first place. I want to be able to kill them, send them off running naked into a pack of monsters (qv Jaheira) or do anything else and not break the critical path. If I choose to run out of NPCs or lose them through bad play then tough on me.

I should have put a smiley in. My trollish blood runs deep and I am profoundly sorry.

It's less than a ten dollars a month.

No, I think the cheapskates should be properly jealous of those of us who are considerably wealthier. Just sayin'

GOG all the way for this callsign.

Hmmm I must continue my analysis of Kickstarter spikes as this excellent news percolates through the gamersphere.

Also $140.00 CE gets you beta access. Evil Obz have just got me there, and am upping my pledge accordingly.

...or Steam you choose. The publisher-free revolution continues, comrades!!! Thanks Obz.

Check out this bored Hungarian dude firing a Wheellock Musket. http://youtu.be/qgPV7iXqtWQ This brings to mind a number of issues... which are tactically interesting. 1. Even if we increase the ROF to make the weapon not completely useless (we do it in RPGs for crossbows all the time, so there is ample precedent) it is still going to be slow. 2. So do you: (a) Fire it, dump it and draw your melee weapon (cool, it's like a spell really in some respects) or (b) Have one guy who is the gunner in your party, uner-maxed out at muskets and always stays at the back, protected by the rest of the party so he can interdict enemy casters etc All I'm saying is that muskets don't mean the sky just fell in. They are entirely consistent with a faux-medieval setting (in r/w Aztecs were still running around in the stone age whilst the Spanish had firearms). Just think of one as a very long, slow-firing wand of magic missiles useable by fighters...

Am expecting modest, but not insignificant, spike as Mac-using Moonies end their Prayers and get their wallets out.