Gnostic

I'm confused. Why would you spend money to purchase games made by a specific company if you've never played the other games made by that company? You literally have no way of knowing if you enjoy them. For all you know, you could have just bought a bunch of games you hate and wasted all your money. Well I play Baldur gate 2 before. And it look like a lot of people like their games. And I like voting with my wallet for companies with pro customers practices.

So what? I backed the first Pillars and never play it and I already backed Pillars 2. That said I already bought Neverwinter Night 2 Series, Star Wars KOTOR, Fallout New Vagas, Dungeon Siege 3 and never play them. I am really poor in free time......

Is that position of the Paradox studio, because they can't handle developing for Steam and non Steam at the same time, or it's position of Paradox as a publisher because they don't see a point of releasing outside of Steam? Or it's really one and the same? It's the position of both Paradox (publisher) and Paradox Development Studio. They are the same thing, PDS is not an independent entity. While their blog post is 2&1/2 years old (and based near entirely on Steam's 'how to sell your move to steam exclusive' PR crib sheet as well) there's no evidence at all that anything substantive has changed from that time, as such their reasons and whether they differ from those stated don't really matter. So far Paradox's entire relationship with GOG is based on PoE, which they inherited, and releasing old already drm free games there which takes no additional effort. It'd be different if they'd released previous steam exclusives/ drmed titles there as Nordic or Deep Silver have done, but they haven't. It's a bit more complicated than that* but that is their current policy. *Bottom line is Paradox needs steam, steam doesn't need Paradox. It's funny reading Johan defending steam vehemently when I know perfectly well he said that the drm/ steam versions were the same, and his hating on steam over the Divine Wind, dlc, patching etc debacles they had with them. But end of the day they just had to suck it up anyway because the relationship is just so slanted. Paradox have released some of their previous titles on GOG. It is not PoE only relationship anymore. Well, it seems all of them are games they had stop updating or developed DLC for. So I guess maybe 10 years later when Tyranny fit in this category they may release it on GoG. Oh well, it is not like there are no other great games to play other then Tyranny.

I think, for my kickstarter, I'm going to make the spiritual successor to Mario. Too late https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playtonic/yooka-laylee-a-3d-platformer-rare-vival

I don't remember there being any single player RPGs in the 1980s (unless you include Fighting Fantasy gamebooks). I remember I cannot 1 hit kill anyone, be invincible, have infinate money unless I cheat. So there is a little balance. Just not so prominent until PvP multi player is introduced.

I don't think a lot of people realize... RPG mechanics are a spider web and that making a change anywhere on that web causes all of the other parts of the web to change position slightly. Changing a class's armor value can cause healers to become OP, or UP. Change a group buff and suddenly and entire class of monsters are too weak to be considered threatening. I'm not a game dev, but I suspect creating balance is one of the hardest parts of your job and involves lots of spreadsheets. That's why it's a good idea to use an existing ruleset, rather than try to create one from scratch. But the thing about "balance" is it a much more recent concept than the RPG. It didn't really become a big deal until the 90s. RPGs had got along perfectly well without it for 20 years. Balance has been there from beginning of RPGs. People just don't understand what it actually means. As someone who has been playing RPGs since 1979, I can tell you that simply isn't true. This is what I played: AD&D 1st edition: no class balance, no attempt at class balance. Traveller: RNG character generation could give you a 22 year old Scout with Pilot-1, or a 48 year olds space marine with Plasma Weapons-5, Demolitions-3, Leadership-3 and Vac Suit-1. FASA Star Trek: Similar to Traveller, RNG character generation took you through your previous career, giving you a character ranging from super-spock to redshirt. Golden Heroes: RNG character generation could give you Superman or Hawkeye. Balance WASN'T EVEN MENTIONED in the 80s. It started to be discussed in the 90s, but it didn't become an all powerful god until MMOs became popular. I have played RPGs from beginning (EDIT: Or at least near beginning) and I know for certain that balance has been part of them from beginning, it is just that people don't know what it actually means, which seems to be the case with you. The margin for error in balancing Single Player is very high as opposed to multiplayer. Rather than balance, it is more like different style of playing. Why would I care the mage have a instant kill spell if I am not competing against anyone? Why should I care the paladin invincible skill last too long if no one use him but me? In the name of FUN I can throw balance into the wind and make my OP as overpower as possible. The only balance will be to balance the characters and enemies so the player will not be bored with push over battles.

I get it is bad of Obsidian to deliver the physical goods 2 months late, but don't you get everything you paid for? Why a half empty box is worth complaining about? Any physical goods promised missing? Would you be happier if Obsidian delivers a smaller box so it will be full?

But there is not a single thing you can do in physical proximity that you can't do online, except for sex. Everything else rests on organization, are you saying that bothering with organization is not worth the big costs of having to maintain a physical building, not to mention travel and everything else? Well do the cost saving offset the effectiveness and time when you have a team at a physical location?

After how EA messes with Sim City, sooner or later this is going to happen. And PoE has the potential to take advantage of the Dragon Age mess up. Paradox should offer their heaartfelt thanks to EA

I don't want steam growing too big and get ugly like microsoft. It has ugly customer support now, and are hard in refunding the second game onwards. More competition is good for the customers.

I look at me reflection and don't think I have a monkey face. But I think my ancestor most likely elvoled from monkeys or apes and as his / her decendent I developed the ability to type Sorry for putting it in the wrong forum.

Well just put 1 dollor in so you can get the news, and you would have the chance to upgrade when your gamming budget increase

After reports on Origin getting hack about a year ago And reports regarding Origin vulnerabilities to hacking You would think EA would become more careful, but no, last month there are reports of unauthorized purchased on Origin and EA denined their security breach. Given security breach of the user own fault unlikely to happen to a huge number of user in a short time, it is likely EA is lying out of their teeth again So whoever jump aboard the Dragon Age hype train, please reconsider as this Origin exclusive game. There are more games out there than we can play in out entire lives, no need to get this one game and risk your security.

No, physical rewards do not count for so much because according to Jordan K. Weisman himself http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/197132/QA_Learning_from_Shadowrun_Returns_Kickstarter_success.php 35% of their funds is inclusive of kickstarter & amazon fees & microsoft royalty. Kickstarter & Amazon fees should take 10% so that 25% left. I donno what microsoft royalty cost, but a stab in the dark for 5% so maybe 20% left? Well maybe the real premium of physical cost comes from the time taken out of developing games to prepare all the physical rewards and shipment? Then customer service for missing / damaged goods, negotiate with factories, sourcing for cheap alternatives

I wouldn't. The whole idea of backing the project is to get the game made - a game we want to play. The goodies are nice extras, yes (and don't get me wrong, I want them as well), but if you're pledging just for the goodies and/or to get them cheaper than someone who decides to buy the game when it's ready, then IMO you're missing the forest for the trees. Yes there is no problem for me too. And I would add, I don't want Game Changing kickstarter exclusive that are inaccessable to normal customers too. I had pledge around $200 in PoE and are entitled to any exclusive ingame items, but I don't want it to be a trend. I don't want some day I am happily playing an awesome game, then my happiness dimished once I found out I will miss out the full experiance of the game because I missed the kickstarter that time. I don't want to crack my head hacking the game for the kickstarter content anymore. Sell that as a director cut edition if you need to, or bundle with your next expension.