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Arcanum had multiplayer? Wow, I must have totally ignored that when I played it years ago. I didn't even touch multiplayer.

Haha, you know, I've worked at Obsidian for almost three years, and I still have now idea how I could get one of those tags! Now now, I didn't say that I just said it's my favorite game soundtrack of all time. April 2014 is a long way away... Morrowind's soundtrack, in my opinion, was superior to both Oblivion's and Skyrim's. The word you used, haunting, is a great description. Soule also had a piece in KOTOR, "Dantooine" that I also thought really fit the mood well.

There's something just so haunting about the Arcanum soundtrack. And it just fit so perfectly with the Victorian-era/steampunk feel of the game.

The Viconia romance in BG2 was one of my favorites because if you chose the right options with her, you could actually change her alignment over time in the expansion. That was cool. I don't think I have seen it replicated since.

I am so glad that the Obsidian forum moderators aren't like the satanic overlords in the Bioware forums who lockdown any thread that doesn't automatically fawn over the majestic masterpieces that is Dragon Age and Mass Effect. I have to say I am pretty impressed by how quickly some of the questions I had about the game were answered. The Obsidian team seems a heck lot more responsive to feedback than Bioware. They actually listen!

They should have just announced the whole Kickstarter thing on Monday.

2. Yes, but Doublefine was also the first video game company to have that sort of success. They didn't anticipate that they were going to get 10 times the amount they asked for. I think Obsidian could have learned from Doublefine and anticipated coming up with the stretch goals ahead of time. 3. I am not necessarily complaining about issues like multilanguage and Paypal support and stretch goals as things that haven't been resolved. I am using them more as examples on why I have reservations on the level of organization. These are all issues that have arisen BEFORE in other Kickstarter Projects and it surprised me that Obsidian didn't anticipate and address them AHEAD of time. There's a general set of questions that everyone usually asks for these Kickstarter video games: multiplatform support, multiplayer support, game distribution (Ie. Steam). It's like going to an interview and not thinking about your questions and answers ahead of time.

This ain't an AAA title though, is it? Not in the overblown, over-hyped, uber-marketed CoD way I consider 'AAA.' I paid $35.00 for a game up front. I don't suddenly feel like a shareholder, just a person who put his money where his mouth is. Over-entitlement is one of the most prevalent yet pointless features of these types of forums. I'm not saying *you* are, far from it, but we're heading slowly in that direction IMO. I somewhat agree. But you are also paying for a game that you are going to be waiting 2 years or longer for. Ahead of time.

I'm curious as to why Kickstarter comments make you afraid for those things. Obsidian will choose to listen to fan feedback at their discretion, but there is about 0.1% chance that they would do things like change real time with pause, 2D Isometric, or add full voice acting, multiplayer, Bioware staff, etc. The original vision they communicated to you remains the same; give us support, and we will make something our way, in this spirit. They never promised to do a 'democratic' everyone-designs affair, which would be terrible. Anyway, we're at that kind of stage in time - give it a few days or weeks, they talk a bit more, and their idea of the game will set hold amidst all the excited talk. I agree completely. AS LONG AS IT's NOT 3 DIFFERENT COLORED ENDINGS, I am cool.

Those are really good points and I also want to thank you for starting that compilation topic for those of us who do want more information. I don't really care as much about the gameplay. I am confident that will be excellent. I am just a little alarmed about more some of the technical and logistical aspects that don't seem to have been sorted out yet.

I am sure this is going to be wildly unpopular, but I wanted to express some reservations about the Kickstarter project. I backed the project the first day that it came out. I have also played every single Black Isle, Obsidian, and Troika RPG game. So I am a huge fan, and I hope that the game that comes out is going to be amazing and legendary and everything I hoped for, and end up more like the 1992 Olympics basketball "Dream Team" and not like the Philadelphia Eagles' "Dream Team" last year. BUT, I am concerned about a few things: 1) Time to finish the project-the projected finish date for the Kickstarter project is supposed to be April 2014. Is that enough time for the team to finish the project? Obsidian has, unfortunately, a reputation for patches. I would rather have a realistic completion date up front rather than have a product that ends up being rushed out that's either buggy or missing substantial portions or a product that ends up being delayed anyway 2) I am not sure how much of the project has actually been started, again going back to the time restrictions. I backed the project without even looking at the sales pitch because of previous work done by the team. However, I have to say that I am uncomfortable without having a lot of information about the game. What Tim Schafer did with Project Doublefine was different. He was very upfront from the beginning that the project was going to be something that the backers and the development team would walk through together on. In fact, there is a documentary that is being filmed on the development process itself. I may be unfairly comparing Doublefine's project with Project Eternity, but as a backer for Doublefine as well, I got a LOT of information from Doublefine about who was going to be on the team, what the concept art is, what the engine was going to be, etc... Doublefine communicated extremely well. With Project Eternity, aside from a few concept art and a map, there's really not a lot of details on the engine. Right now, speculation is that it might be Onyx. Who's the art director for the project? Who's the composer? If Tim Cain, Chris Avellone, and Josh Sawyer are all involved in the project, what are their actual roles? But that's something we "think", not something we know. You would think if you are asking for around 1 million dollars, that there would be something more substantial. Why give an interviews to Gamebanshee with specific information about the game and then not put it on the Kickstarter page concurrently? It would only help backers learn more about the project. 3) Not having Paypal set up, originally asking $30 shipping for $5000 backers, not having more details on multilanguage support for the game. Also, the stretch goals. It looks like the game leads got together over the weekend to talk about stretch goals after the Kickstarter's initial success? Why didn't they anticipate that this project was going to funded and make those stretch goals ahead of time? We had to find out that the game was going have 3 races and 5 classes IN THE UPDATE. That information isn't even in the official Kickstarter Project announcement page. I am surprised that a lot of these details weren't taken care ahead of time. Especially the mulitlanguage support, because a lot of Europeans have played Planescape and Icewind Dale. There's probably going to be less incentive for European backers to back a project if it's not going to be in their native language. What's the point of asking for $20 and $30 international shipping when you don't have multilanguage support?? 4. Hugely paranoid on my part. But 9 job openings on the Obsidian website? Are they hiring for the project now? This all seems...very disorganized to me and goes back to the whole time issue. How much has actually been completed? Because I don't realistically see how this is going to come out by April 2014 if they don't have some of the things I mentioned lined up already. I am just worried that I am setting myself for a disappointment.

I would call it tactical because nowadays some of the RPGs have devolved into people just hacking away at monsters. There isn't any real thought being placed on weaknesses and strengths. Whereas in Baldur's Gate 2, you had a much easier time battling the undead if you had "Turn Undead" and certain spells prepared ahead of time.

Exactly, it kind of kills the immersion to the game when it's laid out so explicitly. And it ends up being annoying because you are so focused on juggling your party to make sure everyone likes you. You should be able to have the freedom to say what you want to say. I think there could be some penalty, but not to the extent where it severely limits combat abilities.

Having a toolset would be amazing. Some of the mods from NWN and Elder Scrolls are incredible.

Ben Houge from Arcanum. One of my favorite soundtracks.

Agree completely. The more spells, the better. I loved the troll battle in BG2 where you first had to knock them down/disable them and then burn them with fire and acid. That involved strategy. Please, please don't make it like Skyrim, where you can basically go through the entire game with a boring fireball spell.

The genophage debate in Mass Effect was excellent. I thought the talk you had with Mordin was fantastic writing. On the other hand of the spectrum, you had the writing in Dragon Age 2, which looked like it had been written by a college English major. Isabela's dialogue was particularly awful. Isabela was giving me her entire college thesis on postmodern feminist thought while I am running around in a medieval world fighting 10-foot tall giants with horns. Really??? The writing there actually made me enjoy the game a lot less because the companions' stories basically seemed to take precedence over your own. I felt like I was manipulated by Anders, and I didn't really have a choice in the end on what happened. The same deal with Merrill, you couldn't really alter the ending in any way and I ended up feeling like an errand girl/boy for my companions. The Dragon Age 2 companion stories, I think, got so large, that I think the main character's story got completely lost in the mix. Hawke's story ended up being completely forgettable. I think the way Baldur's Gate 2 and Arcanum approached the companion stories was the right way to go about it.