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Joyfully began the new Obsidian Community Blog feature ... 20 years people! https://forums.obsidian.net/profile/666-gorth/

Thanks, Pidesco! Happy reading, my friend

Just fixed them - good now, @Pidesco?

@Gorth has provided the first Obsidian Community Blog! He not only gets a shiny new badge, but we get to learn from a long-time member what life as a gamer can look like ...

Our first OBS Community Blog by @Gorth is now live: June and July are also written. Please DM if you have a musing in mind ...

Since this is a "history" post, I'll start with the oldest stuff first and work my way towards the current time, here and now on the Obsidian boards I often deny having owned a gaming console and that is technically correct. But... long unrelated story, I grew up with relatives who were "junkies" (heroin addicts) and they would often rob stores and homes for things to sell for mere pittances at times to finance their addiction. One day, the oldest showed up at my parents place (my mother, for reasons, had become their legal guardian) with a Pong gaming console they had stolen somewhere and no fence would take it off their hands. The original Pong console was among my first video gaming experience in the mid 70's. It was my parents though, not mine. (I would have loved to put an image of the console here, but I honestly do not remember what it looked like 50 years ago) Other sources of video gaming at the time was the arcade machines a various convenience stores and grill bars. Some were electronic, some were part mechanical, part electronic. I particularly remember a "Duck Hunt" game, where several layers of glass were used to create the sense of depth and a single glass plate was used to reflect a flying duck from a TV screen hidden out of sight. The shotgun was mounted to a stick that was effectively a big joystick. No fancy electronics at all. Other places had more modern games like Galaxy Invaders... I spent a fortune in coins on those machines. Jump forwards almost a decade, 1983 I was convinced I was going to end up studying biology after high school... until my dad came home with three page advertising pamphlet for the Commodore 64. It was so colourful and impressive looking. It used an elephant to symbolize the humongous memory it had (even though only 38k turned out to be available to the user in the end). I managed to raise the money for my machine of dreams as well as the associated tape recorder and two games. A game on tape called "Beach Head" and a cartridge called "International Soccer". First two games I ever bought with my own money. Never mind that programming the C64 got me hooked on software development and an impromptu career change, the games changed my life too, spending much of my free time playing games on the old "Bread Box" (Danish nick name for the C64). US Gold was a major publisher int he 80's and the football game? It took almost 10 years before a better game of its kind came out. Another decade later I raised the money for a Commodore Amiga 4000 and a hard drive. Gaming now became almost an art form. Bear in mind, in the early 90's, the Amiga completely outperformed contemporary desktop PC's, with the latters CGA graphics and built in tweeter for sound. Never mind the operating system, where MS only caught up with Windows 8 or thereabouts. But the games... sooo many, soo good. On the C64, I developed a love for strategy games and role playing games. SSI gold games, the Ultimas etc. were not just nostalgia, they were state of the art as each individual title came out. So many strategy games too, it was like paradise for a gamer like me. The Amiga added better graphics and real music to many titles. And they just kept coming for the next decade. This is where I almost get to the point... (skipping a list featuring literally a decade and hundreds of Amiga games here) Some of the newer PC games in the late 1990’s looked interesting and I could run them on a PC Emulator. One title in particular stunned with its atmosphere (because I'm a child of the Cold War and the end of the worlds was always present), the demo for a game called "Fallout" had me completely hooked. I bought the full game and... it didn't want to run on my PC emulator (even though the official demo did). Life as a PC gamer Building myself a PC, my first gaming experiences on it was Interplay’s Fallout. More games followed and Fallout together with the first Tomb Raider were my standout memories from the late 90's. Then I ran into a game from the now established Black Isle Studio called Baldurs Gate 2 (yes, I missed the first one) and I spent the next 12 months, day and night playing the heck out of that game, to the detriment of the rest of my life pretty much. Fallout 2 happened, I ended up buying Baldurs Gate 1 too, completing it a few times, nothing like the time I invested in BG2 though. Still, I took note of the name Bioware as well as Black Isle. That thing called Obsidian I was active on the internet too at the time, but I had little interest in this thing called "Forums" (some newfangled sofware that was probably going to die out in a year or two, so why bother?). Usenet was where things happened and many discussion groups (especially the alt groups like alt.games.interplay) were completely unmoderated. Calling it the wild west is being nice to it. Usenet died the slow death of entropy and forums stayed. By the time I had convinced myself to join the Interplay forums, Interplay de facto folded. At least, it ceased to exist as the Interplay I knew. That's when I heard about this "successor company" called Obsidian Entertainment which had plans for opening up a forum. Still not the fastest tool in the shed, it took me a fortnight to sign up. Despite being somewhat of a troll at times and getting into fistfights at times, I ended up as a moderator. Much to my own surprise honestly. I suppose the thinking at the time was something along the lines of using a troll to catch a troll. The discussion subject at the time was "Project Delaware", resulting on all sorts of crazy speculations and wishful thinking (and doom saying). Knights of the Old Republic 2 arrived and... good game with awful ending is the best way I can summarize it. An understatement of course, as the ending was completely missing for various reason... Neverwinter Nights 2 followed and was slightly less buggy the Kotor2 had been, but not flawless. The DLC's however... Mask of the Betrayer in particular brings back fond memories of a game I might not otherwise remember. The Sequel Maker Obsidian was developing a reputation of making buggy sequels to Bioware games that were all 132% perfect... at least if you were to believe the most critical voices. Of course, there is a lot more to how such thing happen, but gamers are a weird bunch, often prone to tunnel vision and confirmation bias, congregating towards echo chambers. Especially when it comes to likes and dislikes of games. Fallout New Vegas managed the impossible, convince a lot of people that Obsidian could actually make great games, that weren't necessarily direct sequels to existing games. It is probably also the only Obsidian game I feel like coming back to again and again, despite it's age. I know Outer Worlds offers a lot corporate humour and a feeling of living in dystopia, but something about the post nuclear setting just strikes a nerve because of my age (growing up during the cold war, expecting the end of the world every day). Playing through scenarios where humanity survives said war feels good I suppose? Still here Obsidian is no longer known in the business as the "buggy sequel" maker, but as a world builder, story creator and the maker of interesting characters. Like Obsidian, I’m still here. Still enjoying video games 40+ years later, still having a preference for crpg's and turn based strategy games. There are many more Obsidian games I could mention (take a look at the forum!) and would have loved to spend time on, but those are the ones that stuck out for me... -Gorth

Teaser: First Community blog goes live tomorrow Life as a Gamer ...

Only until they are published

Hello trolls, friends, and denizens! I am fairly excited to share that our first three community blogs are in process and the first will be pushed on May 7th, and then the others will be published of each following month. I look forward to sharing such wisdom and insight that is courageously offered by our community members. If you have a musing you are considering, please PM me, as it is great to have a queue of posts lined up!

Admin has been working in the inner machination of the machine, so hopefully this is some of what you have noted @LadyCrimson

Thanks, LadyCrimson. I will pass this on @The Guildmaster via @SChin

Yes - that was indeed noted. Over 500+ new members to the community last week!

That would be more than fine! It is always great if it is connected with OBS but the reality is as OBS work broadens it will attract different experiences, so happy to find that balance. DM if you want to explore further

Hey y'all, Things should be back to normal: please let us know if you notice any sprats causing issues!

Hello everyone - there were some issues on the backend that may have affected the theme. I have let Admin know and will follow-up as soon as I hear back details.

Hello friends, I just want to clarify that this invitation is directed to you as members of the community. This is (y)our chance to share (y)our unique gaming experiences. We’re eagerly looking for contributors to pitch their ideas and, once approved, to craft an article that reflects your passion for gaming. Don’t worry about the editing (if that is a concern); send your draft my way, and I’ll take care of polishing it for you. As well, the blog might be a vlog, maybe even a brief podcast as outlined in the announcement. We’re excited to feature a new blog post on the 7th of each month, starting with our inaugural post on May 7th. Your feedback and discussions have been incredibly valuable, and I look forward to highlighting the community's first submission. Please do reach out as you consider this invitation here or through PM

Hello friends, In case you have not seen the new feature for the community, it's below. I hope this thread will be used to discuss community member's blogs and explore ideas for the new adventure for our community!

Hi dnmr2k24, Welcome to the community! Once you have five approved posts, your account will become a Member and more options are possible then. I look forward to your contributions to OBS sandbox

Heya Bonnell, Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately OBS no longer accepts game submission ideas. As an independent developer, Obsidian was often contracted by publishers with an idea for a game and make it through them. Now that we're part of the Microsoft family, it's a bit different. That said, you can reach out to developers with your idea and see if they're interested. They would be the ones who in turn approach publishers like us to make the game. The developers we've worked with in the past are: - Disney (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II) - http://help.disney.com - Wizards of the Coast (Neverwinter Nights 2) - https://company.wizards.com/contact-us - SEGA (Alpha Protocol) - https://support.sega.co.uk/hc/en-us/requests/new - Bethesda (Fallout: New Vegas) - http://support.bethsoft.com/form.php?l=en - SQUARE ENIX (Dungeon Siege III) - http://support.na.square-enix.com/contacttop.php?id=1373&la=1 - Ubisoft (South Park: The Stick of Truth) - https://support.ubi.com/en-US - Paradox (Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny) - https://www.paradoxplaza.com/support - My.com (Armored Warfare) - https://support.my.com/games/kb/AW - Versus Evil (Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire) - http://versusevil.com/contact/ - Private Division (The Outer Worlds) - https://www.privatedivision.com/contact/

Working on something fun for the 20th Anni for the community with the Squad - excited for the reveal

Cool! Thanks, Boeror

Sorry - to clarify you are logged in or you have to keep logging in?

Helpful - thanks, Boeroer! Echoes some of my issues, yesterday. Are you still experiencing this?

I had a doctor who ordered EVERY test imaginable for my annual visits. I suspect it was billing related, but was always interesting to see the results

Thanks, @SChin! We will not let the @The Guildmaster know that the ramparts were breached by gremlins in the machine