The real benefits of Kickstarter

[slopesandsam]

Chris Avellone gave an interview shortly before the Kickstarter was kicked off in which he described his vision of a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. So when I first saw Project Eternity, I assumed that I was backing that vision, and made my pledge. When I did some further reading, it became apparent that my assumption was (at least partially) wrong. I was disappointed, but I did not regret my pledge. An isometric fantasy RPG is definitely something I can get behind.

 

But I also have the urge to jump into these forums and rattle my spear and yell, "Make it weird! Make it Planescapian! Give me deep story and strange, unique companions! Give me items like the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon!" Which is, of course, so much noise.

 

The whole Kickstarter concept presents a strange new paradigm, I imagine, for the developers. Having fans involved with the creation of a game from its inception must be as much harrowing as it is useful, if not more. In each of us there is an almost painful desire to see the game we most want to play become a reality.

 

I could go into some detail describing my dream RPG. It would borrow much from PS:T, but throw away the D&D rules. The character creation system would be much more like S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and the world would be more open. Just to scratch the surface. But, I have no doubt, that the more specific I got, the more people would disagree with my particular vision. That's a long-winded way of saying "You can't please everyone." But, more specifically, its probably also true that you can't please anyone, not fully. As someone who writes fiction every chance I get - a medium where the creator has control of everything down to the tiniest details - it's very obvious that creating a work that is 100% pleasing even to yourself is a near-impossible task.

 

So I have to wonder just how useful listening to the fans is, versus the developers following their own visions. My feeling with Kickstarter has been that it is finally a chance for developers to do what they want to do, and not necessarily to simply become beholden to their fans in place of their publishers. I gave money to Double Fine based purely on my trust in Tim Schafer's vision. He will not make my ultimate adventure game, but he will almost certainly make something that I very much want to play. Similarly, I was disappointed when I figured out that PE was not to be a PS:T-like game. But I am excited to see what the people who have made the majority of my favourite RPGs (I'm trying to think of a favourite RPG that someone on the PE team wasn't involved with, and I've had to reach all the way back to Ultima VII) come up with. And, until I can personally rustle up the $10 million I'd need to have an RPG tailored to my personal tastes, I'm content to sit back and let them do their thing.

 

I'll still hold a candle for that spiritual successor to PS:T, though.

[Makura]

Another Torment big fan here, it's true I'd have really loved to see a real sequel on its way with this kickstarter, but I'll take a good classic RPG anyway.

 

I'm afraid that Torment was really one of its kind, its universe (one of the best ever written for à P&P rpg for me) made half the fun and I'm not sure it's supported anymore, so a real Planescape game might not be possible at all. Still, one can hope for the future...

[Orchomene]

I think the main great point of the community support in Kickstarter developed games (I mean, outside of the freedom) is the possibility for the designers to have feedbacks from the fanbase on some of the ideas they have.

In a published game, it's more difficult to have such feedback since there are confidentiality constraints.

 

I sure have some tastes and expectations. But my first expectation is that Obs develops a game that I really love but never thought at the begining I would love because I did not think it was part of what I love. That's the very point of creativity.

[Aotrs Commander]

_{I still hold Torment at arguably the best RPG (though I'd qualify BG2, Dragon Age: Origins and ME 1+2+3(less those last fifteen minutes or so) as fairly close behind). I think it just hit a perfect storm of excellence, and one of things that made Torment work was the highly unusual setting. It was my first exposure to Planescape, and while I'm not really that enamoured of it - for Torment it worked perfectly. I don't think you could equal Torment in that respect with a more "traditional" RPG setting (though Jade Empire came fairly close in that regard, and part of Morrowind's charm came from it's unusual environs). To get to that level of wonder and sense of exploration, you'd have to do something truly unique again.}

 

_{(I personally still have dreams of a fantasy RPG set entirely on an alien world, populated by nonhuman races; no sci-fi elements, just fantasy as it would have been if it was no Earth-derived.)}

 

_{I'm honestly not expecting Eternity to come to Torment's ridiculously high standard - partly because that's be rather too optimistic and setting up for disappointement - and partly because with a more "traditional" setting, it's got to work that much harder to get there.}

 

_{(Both NWN2 and DA:O suffered from this - I loved both when playing them, but afterwards, they felt more... forgettable is not quite the right word, too harsh, though it's close; ME and JE, with their different settings, had a touch more traction, I think. It's a bit of a surprising thing for me to find myself saying, since I'm a die-hard Tolkien-derived sort of fellow.)}

 

_{If we something up to BG2's standard, though, I'll be more than content!}

[Leferd]

We'll see how this one goes. Perhaps down the line, they'll make that spiritual successor to Torment.