Ink Blot

This is the key. Keep in mind that the amount of people that post on a game's forums are only a fraction of the amount that actually buy and play the game. The amount of kickstarter backers are only a fraction of the people that post on the forums. We're only a 'niche' audience in the sense that people interested in this type of game aren't on the order of the COD numbers. But plenty of people will still be interested in the game when it's released. There's no way of knowing ahead of time, of course, but I'm pretty confident they'll have good sales numbers when they release this game.

Indeed. Personally, whether or not I back another Obsidian kickstarter for big dollars will depend solely on what PoE turns out to be like. If it's all that they said they would do, then they'll see (much) more of my money on another kickstarter. If not, they won't. Simple as that. I don't personally care when I get to see gameplay footage. I care about the end product.

It's definitely a simplified representation, but one I whole-heartedly agree with. I'd much rather concentrate on the story, quests, lore, and other aspects of the game than I would playing an ersatz currency exchange simulator.

Thanks so much, Brandon. I sent in a support request and got a reply that it will be in as well. Can't tell you how much I appreciate this, as I was kicking myself for possibly missing out on it.

I'll toss them a heads up. It's just a bit of text, but it's something that I feel is more than worthwhile. Another forum member stated a long while back that his brother had recently died and would have loved a game like PoE, as he loved games like this and was an avid RPG/CRPG fan. But the member in question couldn't afford to pledge enough to do this. The story touched my heart, so I offered to mention his brother's role-play name in my text block as a way to have him somewhat immortalized. I'll shoot myself in the face if I'm too late for this to get in.

No, it was just the in-game memorial I was concerned about, but I figure that should be okay. I don't think I'm that late...

Bloody hell. I forgot about it until I saw this thread. Did Obs send out a reminder about this? I didn't get one, if they did.

I don't see how the existence of technology suddenly negates the existence of magic, but it's your game. You play it the way it feels best to you. As for me, I'll take along any NPCs that have a personality that I like, although I do tend to love dwarfs in my fantasy games, so they'll have a definite edge just because they're of that race. I'll also keep an eye to party 'balance' so I can have most of the bases covered as far as skills required. But that's actually secondary until I start a play through that's all about the mechanics of the game and building the most effective party - which means it will probably end up being completely self created.

I suppose. That is, if a game HAS to have Boss fights in the first place. It doesn't though, except for maybe the obligatory Big-Bad-Guy(s) at the end. And a good RPG doesn't even need that. I'd argue that the best way do things is sorta like how BG1 handled it. It had "bosses", but only because they were the last thing you faced in any given dungeon and the plotline named them as such. But that's it. The most memorable fights (and often times the toughest) in Bg1 were the enemy party battles. I'm hoping PoE goes that route instead of how Dragon Age 1 does it.... where a boss is a BOSS, with a big cinematic introduction and a giant orange health bar to advertise the fact this this enemy is a super-special-BOSS and therefore, get ready for a specifically designed 10 minute battle of attrition. I agree with this to an almost inexpressible extent. Single bosses are generally not very enjoyable. But enemy parties are the best fights, because you have to account for four to six guys' worth of interesting and varied capabilities, as opposed to one dude's boss-only abilities. I'll +1 this as well. While sometimes boss fights can be fun and/or interesting, they're generally, as Stun puts it, battles of attrition that tend to be more tedious than fun. Now, group battles where you need to think about different spells and abilities that the enemy is going to throw at you - that can be a helluva lot of fun.

I would hope it would be removed. Why would the devs leave something in the game that they themselves feel isn't fun and not very good? Quality trumps quantity every time, IMO. I can replay a short high-quality game over and over. But a big game that's of poor quality? If I get through it once, that would be remarkable. Certainly there would be no replays.

I'm assuming you're being facetious, as I think it's pretty obvious that's not even in the same galaxy as what I meant.

He does, but I'm not sure it's something that's really all that big a deal. I'd assume that this type of thing would not happen inadvertently in-game (or at least, would be extremely rare if it did - QA should root out any common occurrences, one would hope). And as far as players going out of their way to exploit the game mechanics - does it really matter? There will always be players that do this. If the devs design the game so an exploit doesn't occur accidentally, but can pretty much only occur if the player actively seeks it out, then I see no big issue.

That would fly in the face of the specific inspiration and design goals for PoE that Obsidian themselves stated. The whole idea of the Kickstarter campaign for this game was so they could make an isometric RPG in the vein of the Infinity Engine games because publishers weren't interested in backing this sort of project.

Oooh, are we going to devolve to ad hominem attacks now? Quelle surprise!

Funny thing: I don't really notice the ragdoll physics in games that use it, and I certainly don't notice the lack thereof in games that don't. If it's there, it's fine. Doesn't make or break the game for me. But I don't see a need for ragdoll physics in a game like this.

FFS, what's the argument about? Who gives a flying fart whether BG2 or DA:O has more monster types? With regard to the actual thread title, I have to ask (again): who cares? If PoE were intended as a nod to or a spiritual successor to DA:O, then the question might have merit. But since the inspiration for PoE are the Infinity Engine games (PS:T, IWD, and BG), I think the original question is meaningless. Why all the argument and angst? Can't we all just get along...?

From what I understand after talking to various devs (not just Obs guys), a huge part of the time needed to develop a game is eaten up by the game engine itself. Since Obs has a pre-made engine, this means a far less development time required to get the game in a ready-state. Others have covered various other points re further delays, so I won't reiterate. But as far as delaying for more polish I expect, as far as polish and quality goes, the ratio of effective-return-to-man hours-invested will be rapidly approaching a suboptimal state by the end of the year.

Yeah, you're spot on, actually. And FWIW, I think we're all three pretty much on the same page.

Difference being there are no mechanisms in place in the car to prevent you from doing that. It's taken as a given when you buy the car that you'll obey the law and not use your car in ways that you shouldn't. It's not assumed that you're a raving lunatic that's going to go out and play Death Race 2000 and start driving on the sidewalk. There are no devices in the car that will shut it down permanently if you decide to drive on the sidewalk, speed up, and run people over.

Actually, no, not IMO. The EULA states your (and their) rights and obligations. It has no mechanism to actually manage them, which is the 'M' in DRM.

IMO, there's a vast difference between an EULA that states, basically, "This software is only licensed for your use. You don't own it and you're only allowed to do certain things with it" and shackling that software with useless and intrusive protection measures that do nothing (as shown time and time again by groups that take delight in cracking and pirating) but irritate and inconvenience the very people that are paying for the software. One is a set of rules that tells you how you need to behave with the purchase. The other is the heavy hand of the law/big brother constantly making you prove you're not a criminal. IMO. Don't get me wrong, I buy and play games that require Steam and Origin both. But I never pay full release day prices. The DRM severely devalues the software to me, so if they're shackled to some form of client or have limited activations, I only buy them on deep discount.

I haven't talked it over with anyone yet, but I don't think we will be putting any copy protection on the physical copies. If we do anything, it will probably be on the level of a CD key, but there is probably no reason we would even want to do that. Once we come to a final answer on that topic, I will fill you guys in. Thanks!

I think a question that's been asked and still not answered by this thread is: will the physical copies have DRM on them? (If this has been answered elsewhere, my apologies, as I've not seen it).

Old Sir Grognard of Yore, who used to have to fashion his own sword from raw ore each morning before breaking his fast.

Great thoughts from JS. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and exorcises some of my inner grognard. Michael Bay: everyone seems to like to hate on his movies, but for what they are (non-stop over-the-top action) they deliver pretty well, IMO. Just don't look for great story, dialog and acting and you're good to go. His movies aren't just good with popcorn, they are popcorn.