Dear Obsidian, or "Yet another opinion you probably didn't need!"

[jesuswald]

This was written as an email letter to OE, before I realized they don

Edited April 9, 2012 by jesuswald

[DadeLeviathan]

I both agree and disagree. While I would love to see kickstarter or another crowdsourcing format to help bring back old-school aspects of RPGs, I also want the developers to really make the game that they want to make. That is when the greatest games are made. With almost every single game on my "Best RPGs of all time" list, you can find interview after interview where the developers are talking about how it was the game they truly wanted to make at the time.

 

Personally, I would love to see great modern RPG, on a completely original IP. Modern non-fantasy RPGs are rare to come by, good ones ever more so. Alpha Protocol tried to hit the mark, and i think it did succeed in some areas, but didn't in others. A great 2D isometric RPG in a more modern, gritty setting would be fantastic.

[jesuswald]

While I would love to see kickstarter or another crowdsourcing format to help bring back old-school aspects of RPGs, I also want the developers to really make the game that they want to make.

 

I am certain that Obsidian have their own preferences concerning game development, and I would be surprised - worried even - if they did not find a place for at least some of those in a crow-funded project. But I'm also sure that they already know those proclivities intimately enough, and do not require my bumbling intervention to identify them.

We all wait with baited breath, I'm sure, to find out what exactly those are...

 

However:

 

What I've written above is intended mainly to communicate a summary of what many online posters, numerous personal acquaintances, and I value in a role playing game, and would happily support due to the current dearth of titles which offer those qualities.

 

As for these ideas being old-school, or based on a hearkening back to 'classic' RPGs... I feel that it is too limited an interpretation. Certainly a greater number of RPGs displayed these qualities a decade or more ago, but the ideas behind them are far more general - and generally appealing.

Essentially what I'm getting at is that Obsidian has the ability to produce involving and multi-faceted narratives, plot writing with actual literary merit, characters who become more than the sum of their parts, and a world which springs into vivid existence with the help of our imaginations, rather than increased poly-count.

 

Not many studios can do that.

Even fewer publishers would be anything more than superficially interested in it.

 

Hopefully such a game might see the light of day.

Edited April 9, 2012 by jesuswald

[jesuswald]

On an unrelated topic, anyone know when/why Obsidian took away their email address?

 

I know I've emailed them in the past, years ago. Maybe that's why they took it down.