This is silly

[JayCFraser]

I felt compelled to join the forum after reading the stretch goal of housing - and here seems to be the place to voice that concern.

 

Houses:

 

The implication of housing as a stretch goal is not a good one - the idea that it would be the result of a $200,000 jump in budget seems to me to have unwanted implications. The main issue with it is not that it is inherently a bad idea, but more that I have yet to see it done well. Games which have it as a feature done poorly that spring to mind are Fable and Dragon Age (if you allow the camp to function as 'housing' - it does at least seem to serve the fundamental role). The problem with housing in Fable (as with basically everything in Fable) is that the desire for there to be significant flexibility actually ends out resulting in a pretty meaningless choice on behalf of the player - the large number of houses end out making all the houses bland and uninteresting. In Dragon Age the problem with the 'house' was that it served the purpose of being a hub for changing around your party (this actually ties into the romances, too - even just knowing that it was possible to have an orgy (made possible by everyone being in the camp) in Dragon Age ruined a hell of a lot of the feel of the game - it gives the player the knowledge the characters have not been written with consistent motivations). The hub also is irritating in removing the party characters' realism and personalities - they just sit there doing nothing whilst waiting for you...

 

However, in Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights II the strongholds the player could acquire were fine within the story and relatively seamless (Baldur's Gate II provided a much better implementation, imho). The thing that strikes me about this - and perhaps I'm being naive here - is that these were made comfortably within the capabilities of the engines in question and would by no means justify such a huge leap in budget - they wouldn't justify it in either the sense of adding enough value to the came to be worth paying for it -as well- as not being worth it in the sense they should not have required that amount of money to implement. Which leads to the reason the housing stretch goal looks suspicious. Essentially, it is a question of faith in the game makers.

 

Anyway, it's certainly a very early stage to voice any concerns and an overly picky rant I'm sure.

[LadyCrimson]

I support voice overs if it's in same level what it was in baldur's gates and PS: torment.

 

An example from character which I liked most in BG1. (Video includes all his voice over lines from the game)

Oh, thank you for that vid link! I loved (and was amused by) Xan and I've hunted for all his spoken lines gathered up like that before. Could have made by own but never got around to it (lazy...) and hadn't looked in a while. Awesome.

[dlux]

Reading some of the suggestions is almost like most Obsidian fans are between 10-15...

 

Full voice-acting? This is not 20mln budget game. Think. Avoid the full VO and focus on writing like you did in PS:T.

Romances. Yeah, that figures. Get a life. (or make it as subtle as humanly possible [PS:T])

Bioware cooperation. Are you an idiot or what?

Housing. Probably the most important part of the genre. Not.

Seeing that you resort to insulting people that have different opinions - instead of actually expressing your preferences, like the rest of us do - I would have to say that you are probably the little immature 12 year old. On a temper tantrum.

Edited September 17, 2012 by dlux

[HansKrSG]

Posting in a troll thread.

 

I am sad that with every critical post made, someone has to name the critic a troll. A critical opinion does not neccesarliy mean trolling, and the OP raises valid concerns. Now posting in a thread just to accuse someone of trolling, could very well be seen as trolling.

 

On to the topic.

 

I agree that full VO is a waste of money, time, space and my personal imagination. The way it was done in the old IE games give enough, my brain makes the rest of the voices.

I am also wary of romances in games, since they so often are so badly made, but I am hoping any romance option will be well written by the masters of the art.

Including any company, especially an EA company, in the production will take a lot of power out of Obsidians hands, and I would see it as a breach of contract for everyone that has helped fund this. Bioware is a big no, and thankfully, most people seem to understand why.

Housing might be fun, but is largely unneccesary. I think there was almost too much focus on it in NWN2, how it was made in BG2 worked a lot better.

[licketysplit]

I don't expect VO's, cut scenes or bells and whistles. But a stronghold would be pretty cool.

[evdk]

Posting in a troll thread.

 

I am sad that with every critical post made, someone has to name the critic a troll. A critical opinion does not neccesarliy mean trolling, and the OP raises valid concerns. Now posting in a thread just to accuse someone of trolling, could very well be seen as trolling.

 

On to the topic.

 

I agree that full VO is a waste of money, time, space and my personal imagination. The way it was done in the old IE games give enough, my brain makes the rest of the voices.

I am also wary of romances in games, since they so often are so badly made, but I am hoping any romance option will be well written by the masters of the art.

Including any company, especially an EA company, in the production will take a lot of power out of Obsidians hands, and I would see it as a breach of contract for everyone that has helped fund this. Bioware is a big no, and thankfully, most people seem to understand why.

Housing might be fun, but is largely unneccesary. I think there was almost too much focus on it in NWN2, how it was made in BG2 worked a lot better.

Forget it man, it's Chinatown Volly.

 

 

Seeing that you resort to insulting people that have different opinions - instead of actually expressing your preferences, like the rest of us do - I would have to say that you are probably the little immature 12 year old. On a temper tantrum.

C'mon, the OP was only slightly belligerent, nothing to write home about. The message was sound and should be treated as such. Although admittedly I might have different standards for forum behaviour.

[SqueakyCat]

I don't expect VO's, cut scenes or bells and whistles. But a stronghold would be pretty cool.

 

Agree completely. I thought the stronghold(s) quests in BG2 were well done and wouldn't mind at all for something along those lines.

[Jiraboas]

Reading some of the suggestions is almost like most Obsidian fans are between 10-15...

 

Full voice-acting? This is not 20mln budget game. Think. Avoid the full VO and focus on writing like you did in PS:T.

Romances. Yeah, that figures. (or make it as subtle as humanly possible [PS:T])

Bioware cooperation. What?

Housing. Probably the most important part of the genre. Not.

 

 

You are right, "this is silly".

 

Its silly to think your opinion is the only one on earth

 

 

kind regards,

 

Jira

[Virgil]

Reading some of the suggestions is almost like most Obsidian fans are between 10-15...

 

Full voice-acting? This is not 20mln budget game. Think. Avoid the full VO and focus on writing like you did in PS:T.

Romances. Yeah, that figures. (or make it as subtle as humanly possible [PS:T])

Bioware cooperation. What?

Housing. Probably the most important part of the genre. Not.

 

I agree, I think some persons want to much, suggestions are nice , but some ideas are so out of the line. Just leave it to Obsidian they know what they're doing. And topics about how someone is disappointed because of number of races, classes, companions without knowing a thing about game is beyond pathetic. For me it may be be one race, one class, no companions as long as story is awesome, world is rich and it's truly amazing experience. Millions races, classes, places don't make a good game - focus, story and idea do.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Virgil

[FreezingShock]

While I have definitely seen some silly suggestions in the Kickstarter comments, I don't see much of a point to making a thread about it. Yes, asking for a full voice over is silly. But Obsidian has been in this business for years and is lead by some clever people. Surely they too are aware of such things.

 

An example from character which I liked most in BG1. (Video includes all his voice over lines from the game)

 

Forgot how awesome Xan was.

[Sordel]

I don't think that there are any problems with people asking for thhings such as complete VO, just as long as they don't start saying 'I funded your Kickstarter so do as I say'. It's only going to be helpful to the devs to hear what matters to people, but I hope people here are sensible enough to realise that bloated feature sets are what make a great many big-budget games turn out so badly. I can't see Obsidian just ticking a load of boxes when their principal business will be delivering the game they were already planning.