Terram

I think you might be wrong in that - Tim Schafer wanted to make a point and click adventure game for 400 grand. In the grand scheme of things, not a ton of money... and to be sure, Obsidian is in a better state than Doublefine, especially after New Vegas outsold Fallout 3 (I believe?). It's very possible that they're getting stonewalled by publishers who look at the genre and think to themselves "nobody's made a game like that for over a decade, there must be a reason for that, let's stick with the game with explosions. People still like explosions right?" I think character-driven (as in, beyond "if you say nice things to them throughout the game you might get to see a bra"), story-heavy (as in, "there might be thirty minutes to a few hours without an explosion or a bunch of dead bodies"... I really liked the Citadel section in Mass Effect 1, for the record), thoughtful (as in, beyond "red dialogue makes people mad at me, but I look really cool, while blue dialogue has less people die") RPGs really are at a premium. I don't even have to make a case in point, because other than The Witcher, I can't really name anything in recent memory that Obsidian hasn't made. Speaking of The Witcher, by the way, something I've always found fascinating in games is when you're personally discriminated against. It's one thing to say "oh yes, elves are heavily distrusted and treated poorly in urban centers", but it's another thing to have an elf player walk into a town square and have a bunch of shops close up, and maybe somebody tries to shank you on the way to the can in the local bar. Another game I think emphasized this really well was the original Deus Ex (Human Revolution did this too, come to think of it). Near the middle of the game, when Icarus was screwing with your circuits and talking about how he could make your heart explode in a few hours if you didn't stop him, and he was completely serious, it had a profound effect on me (and I'd think other people). It was a weakness that was uniquely yours, and your enemies were actively exploiting it. It's a nice change of pace to be the giant enemy crab, I guess.

I think this topic should be less focused on "what license do you want Obsidian to blow the hundred thousand dollars or whatever the Kickstarter raises" and more on "what genre would you, hypothetically, support". Because as much as I would love to see Sigil again, I know that it's never going to happen. And that's fine. I have the happy (and unhappy) memories associated with it, and that's all I need from it. Doublefine's Kickstarter really only said one thing - it said "hey, do you want Tim Schafer and his crew to make a point and click adventure game?" And a lot of people said "aw hell yeah I'll drop 15 on that, take me down that lane again crazy man". If Obsidian makes a Kickstarter that says "hey, want to go down memory lane and have Obsidian's badass writing crew craft a new isometric designed-for-PC RPG?" I would totally drop 15 to help make it a reality. I don't need a known property. I don't need amazing graphics. I don't need you to waste half the budget hiring Liam Neeson to voice your dad for 30 minutes. I just want a game that can't be sold to a publisher these days - a well-crafted RPG that didn't spend 95% of its resources on combat mechanics. Those aren't your strong point anyways, we all know that, I'm cool with it. I want skill checks, and dialogue, and memorable party members that stick in your mind for decades to come. I want, after all this is said and done, for this to be a game for people 10 years from now to hold up and say "man, remember when Obsidian totally toppled Planescape from its golden throne? Why don't they make those any more?" But all that nomenclanture about not telling you what to do aside, I really must stress the "PC first" part of this. Been burned FAR too many times on console ports... consoles can have it later, to be sure, I'm not greedy. But considering that I am, hypothetically, one of the ones paying for this... I think a little time in the sun is appropriate, don't you?