CanadianWolverine

I would rephrase that as not all gamers care for the same kinds of production values. I know personally, I could care less about graphics as long as I understand what is going on, sometimes I even prefer it like with pixel art or cell shaded objects that bring a style that I can go back to years later unlike if it had tried in any fashion to be "realism". I know I long for the day when Dwarf Fortress doesn't look like Matrix movie code to me and I'm not just talking about the ASCII, but its accessibility of information and what options mean. --- I think the important thing Mr. Chris A has recognized is that a player's choices in any game but especially an RPG need agency. A character sheet has no value until it can represent options for outcomes that tell the story the player wants, otherwise if an RPG only wants to tell me a story the developer insists is the only one through lack of agency, for me its little better than a movie. RPGs aren't the only genre that suffers from rail roading either. I remember reading similar views from the likes of Warren Spectre years ago and it fans the flames of hope for the possibilities. IMHO, a DM / GM / Game Developers task in an RPG is to flesh out the enviroment but its up to the players to decide which heading they will take on the compass.

Just FYI, Indie Devs have had copious ammounts of problems with Paypal - see: Minecraft, Project Zomboid, etc.

I would like to cover a few things. Kickstarter is fine but IMHO, Alpha Funding is better. Heck, if you kickstarted and then gave access to a alpha and future versions, that would be ideal really. I get something to play with, even if it is buggy and feature incomplete and I get to feel like a part of the development. $1-5-10-15-20 makes it an impulse buy because its a range of money I won't feel like I have lost anything, its hard for me to fault games in that price range. Steam probably makes hand over fist because of sales that dip into that range for me and supporting Indie Devs alphafunding projects on Desura is little different to me, I feel like a poor man who can afford to be a patron of the arts because I get to pool resources with others to let someone else have good quality of life while they entertain me. Next up, what kind of game would garner the most interest for me personally? An RPG that has point buy for the character and goal based rewards aka you let my character that may very well be silly power built or very unoptimal still complete a goal any way they want and then I get a reward that allows me to place new points. I want to know that killing or ridiculously rail roaded quests are not the only ways to improve characters. I don't want classes and I don't want D&D - this is not a slight on games where you have used those character building mechanics, I just don't want to play RPGs like that any more. From past games of yours, I think you can pull it off. Personally, I would like to see a cyberpunk setting. I would use Shadowrun as an example (others would likely disagree) but allow me to be clear, I don't really want an existing IP because I would like you to keep licensing costs to a minimum. Also another reason I don't want to see D&D used. Oh, and no sequels. Thank you for your consideration and I hope I can help the community collaborate on one of your projects in the future and that we will get to label you an Indie Dev that works and communicates candidly with us, your customers, fellow gamers.

I know I would certainly be interested in a Shadowrun game developed by Obsidian. When I made a little list recently of things that scratch my itch for a Shadowrun RPG PC game it was (the now classic) Deus Ex, Alpha Protocol, Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum, Fallout 3: New Vegas, and Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City. See how many of those are Obsidian pieces of gaming goodness? When I think about it a bit more, there are other games I would add to that list but I am sure you get the point, certain themes and game play mechanics are gaming moments I have fun playing and Obsidian is one of the chief providers of that entertainment, thank you Obsidian Entertainment. In the mean time while Smith & Tinker does nothing with that IP's potential in the realm of PC gaming, I'll just be eagerly awaiting how things turn out with games like Monaco, the next Deus Ex game, and whatever Obsidian decides to explore next.

1) Why are you here? I read an article in PC Gamer, and was really interested when I read about Strongholds and wanted to see what it was all about since I really enjoyed NeverWinter Nights and its expansions. Followed a few links, ended up here, finally decided I might as well throw in a few words edgewise as well. 2) What sort of NWN user are you? A) A player? B) A Builder? C) A developer of custom content? Definitely "A", a player. 3) Do you play online? Do you play in PWs (Persistant Worlds)? I have in the past played online, even some PWs, but because of the slow connections where I lived, downloading and playing SP modules and content is about the only thing I am able to really enjoy to its fullest. 4) Would you class yourself as a roleplayer or a powergamer? Umm, roleplayer mostly, to the point where I don't give a rat's arse about equipment or stats where it doesn't seem important to my characters small view but at times, if my character's goals are aimed towards combat, social, or prestige prowress, you could say I "powergame". 5) What is your background in RPGs? Only a few P&P games, always using other peeps stuff, but cRPGs, I like to think I've tried ALOT. MUDs, ASCII dungeons, text based adventures - y'know, stuff like Zork and what not, some of it online. Some NES (console) stuff, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy (never played a whole game) and what not. Even some Diablo quite a few years ago now and a dabble of ESIII: Morrowind and actually hacked my way all through Dungeon Seige. But I am still trying to get my hands on a hard copy of Fallout and Fallout 2 ... and I thought XCOM: UFO Defense was a blast, as well as the little bit of Star Control I've played - I geuss it all depends how loosely you use the term "RPG", since I think Halflife I got to play a role. Hehe, haven't even played Baldur's Gate though, silly me... 6) Why are you following NWN2's development, rather than Dragon Age? (unless you follow both...) Haven't really bothered with looking for info on Dragon Age, though I have heard of it, its mostly NWN2 I am throwing a post or two at. Only so much time for this stuff in real life, y'know? But I think I am following NWN2 definitely because I liked the taste of D&D from NWN and just wonder how much "wow" factor, how much sweeter it could possibly get - especially with the possibility of more character meaningful concepts from PC combat and social AI, personally tailored Stronghold's, more engaging and entertaining combat and social animations as well as more fleshed out meaningful enviroments, a more grand world design with various scales of world maps that constitute engaging ways to feel like you have freedom in the storyline and possibly hidden treasures to explore every which way ... and many other delightfully wicked ideas that float about in this forum.