[Bottomless omnipresent stash in Eternity?]

I just want a "Bag of Holding" with an aditional unlimited stash of oranges, yum

[Twin Elms Fan Art from Chris Bischoff]

When I read Chris Bischoff, I thought the name sounded South African, then I saw on his Kickstarter profile that he's from Jo'burg, Would be nice to have an local game thats fairly popular

[Torment Sequel Q&A with Brian Fargo]

*sigh*

 

I must admit that this article does not actually fill me with joy, even despite my long-standing love affair with PS:T.

 

I can't say I'm excited or even hopeful in the least. It sounds like a cash grab off the title, until I see something that proves otherwise. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be as shameful as re-opening Black Isle studious with . . . no black isle people involved. Anyways, what little is there doesn't really sound like something that I'd associate with Planescape: Torment in the least. It's not even a Planscape setting, so, really, the 'name drop' of "Torment" and comparisons, insistence that it's another 'torment' game . . . comes off as even more of a soulless cash grab.

 

 

I immediately thought of Dragon Age: Origins, which wasn't even marketed as a sequel but as a "successor," one step removed. Yet it was not the successor to Baldur's Gate by a long shot, while all the marketing, interviews, and what-have-you always mentioned the tandem relation. Thus, all I see are red flags, which increases my suspicious tremendously. You know what they say: Fool me once...

 

These are extremely loaded terms and phrases to throw around willy-nilly, and with each placement I'm more convinced it's a mere marketing ploy and not an original development of merit:

• sequel
  
• make a new Torment game
  
• Torment sequel
  
• natural fit for a Torment game
  

What's interesting is that the wording in the interview appears to conceptually split the subtitle off the original setting Planescape: Torment. Sounds like Fargo wants to stress that the whole sphere around the game should be Torment: Planescape and the game they're working on now is a natural franchise "sequel." Well, that doesn't actually do PS:T justice because of the misuse of a literary/media definition, which I find patronising.

 

se·quel [see-kwuh l]

noun

1. a literary work, movie, etc., that is complete in itself but continues the narrative of a preceding work.

 

se·quel

1: consequence, result

2a : subsequent development

b : the next installment (as of a speech or story); especially : a literary, cinematic, or televised work continuing the course of a story begun in a preceding one

 

Yet we know the setting won't be the same (that part I don't fault them), the story certainly won't be the same, none of the characters would be there. Absolutely no link besides the word Torment! Even DA:O's marketing wasn't that bad.

 

This is not a damn sequel.

 

Here's the thing, Obsidian:

 

Wording matters. What words you choose and where you place them highlights your intent (whether accurate or not) and colors all the subsequent content in the article and beyond. By throwing around the heavily loaded and completely misused terminology, that tells me you are banking so heavily on PS:T nostalgia for salability that you place more emphasis on the nomenclature than the proposed game product and are hoping for blind fans. You know what? If DA:O was marketed without mentioning BG to which it had exceptionally little in common, I wouldn't have minded; probably even enjoyed it for what it was. If all your statements surrounding this new game were strictly about "capture the feeling" and "epic narrative" and whatever, I wouldn't mind; this is why I supported Project Eternity.

 

I'm not a mindless fan-drone zealot and find the approach in this particular article to be, well.... rather offensive.

 

Uhm, you've got the wrong guys here, Obsidian is making Project Eternity, the Torment game is being pitched by Brian Fargo, he's the head of inXile, different company, Obsidian have nothing to to with this, besides the blessing from MCA