Anyone else worried about the design reward tiers?

[shazz]

All the reward spots will most likely not be claimed but seeing as this is the limit Obsidian chose they have to consider this as a possibility.

That means 6 enemy parties, 50 items, 3 inns/taverns and 200 NPCs will be designed by contributors. In any RPG i've played this would be a huge chunk of the sum total.

I mean, I can see the want to reward high tier backers but i think most people wanted OBSIDIAN to develop this game and not random people/communities off the internet - who will mostly likely have no experience in game design and have no firm grasp of the feel and lore of the game. Maybe im overreacting and the backer input will be minimal but it would be nice to hear more about how those tiers will work.

[Zed]

Well they gotta fill those 3 inns/taverns with something, don't they.

Imagine all those "commoners" etc in BG, except now they're called "FiR3HawK3".

 

Personally I hope they put all the backer-designed crap in some corner somewhere so you can just skip it.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Zed

[Pangur]

Well, I'm quite certain that the devs will make sure that everything designed by the backers is consistent with the game world. After all, it's just a design, an idea. Implementation is still done by Obsidian.

 

I'm sure we won't see stormtroopers or aliens as NPCs.

[LordCrash]

Don't worry, all these items, npcs and other stuff are made in cooperation and guidance of Obsidian. And I don't think that these hardcore fans who pledged high amounts of money want to create something that doesn't fit in the game and into the art direction of Obsidian.

[evdk]

Well they gotta fill those 3 inns/taverns with something, don't they.

Imagine all those "commoners" etc in BG, except now they're called "FiR3HawK3".

 

Personally I hope they put all the backer-designed crap in some corner somewhere so you can just skip it.

Or put them through enough rewrites that they seamlessly integrate into the gameworld. Fir3hawK3 indeed.

Edited September 22, 2012 by evdk

[Semper]

i am more concerned about all those weird sex and romance threads all around.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Yes he's right.

[Lurky]

As a curiosity, not all the high end tiers are being filled by wealthy players.

 

I'm not sure if you know about this, but some gaming sites and forums are using ChipIn to collect enough money for the high tier rewards. The people who do this brainstorm and reach a consensus over what they want to do exactly with the NPC / weapon / tavern / whatever, and thanks to the collective pledge they're guaranteed to get it in-game (unless they ask unreasonable things). I'm not sure how they're organizing it though, or how are they going to prevent scams.

 

So hey, maybe we're going to see a Something Awful tavern or something. Could be interesting to see what a bunch of people could come up with. As long as Obsidian filters the crap...

Edited September 22, 2012 by Lurky

[sesobebo]

All the reward spots will most likely not be claimed but seeing as this is the limit Obsidian chose they have to consider this as a possibility.

That means that contributors will help with designing 6 enemy parties, 50 items, 3 inns/taverns and 200 NPCs. In any RPG i've played this would be a huge chunk of the sum total.

I mean, I can see the want to reward high tier backers but i think most people wanted OBSIDIAN to develop this game and not random people/communities off the internet - who will mostly likely have no experience in game design and have no firm grasp of the feel and lore of the game. Maybe im overreacting and the backer input will be minimal but it would be nice to hear more about how those tiers will work.

You had a typo there; fixed it for You.

[Rabain]

The tier even states "within reason" for all the content tiers. I really wouldn't be worried about this. What is the difference between Simon the drunk at the bar made up by a developer and Shazz the drunk at the bar named after Shazz the tier purchaser?

 

As for the ChipIn groups, good luck to them, the only way people are going to recognise that content is if they are told about it before playing.

 

The only way I'd see that being useful is if 6 people combine to get the 5k tier and design an enemy party based on themselves, a small bit of gaming immortality. Still a lot of money though.

[dlux]

I think the rewards are good.

All the reward spots will most likely not be claimed but seeing as this is the limit Obsidian chose they have to consider this as a possibility.

That means 6 enemy parties, 50 items, 3 inns/taverns and 200 NPCs will be designed by contributors. In any RPG i've played this would be a huge chunk of the sum total.

I mean, I can see the want to reward high tier backers but i think most people wanted OBSIDIAN to develop this game and not random people/communities off the internet - who will mostly likely have no experience in game design and have no firm grasp of the feel and lore of the game. Maybe im overreacting and the backer input will be minimal but it would be nice to hear more about how those tiers will work.

Obsidian is still desiging the game and has full control, so don't worry!

 

Anyway, a huge group of individuals can think up a great sum of very original characters - much, much more than a group of designers ever could. And don't underestimate the fans, they can have pretty wild imaginations. ^^

 

I think it is a great idea and I am certain that it will actually make a better game.

 

Well they gotta fill those 3 inns/taverns with something, don't they.

Imagine all those "commoners" etc in BG, except now they're called "FiR3HawK3".

 

Personally I hope they put all the backer-designed crap in some corner somewhere so you can just skip it.

Obsidian said the design has to be within reason, so I doubt that they would accept "FiR3HawK3" as a name for a NPC.

[Zed]

Well what I'm really worried about is that the amount of named NPCs everywhere that won't actually do anything will make the game feel superficial. BG & IWD had "Commoners", so you knew you could skip them.

[Sordel]

I've got other stuff to worry about, to be honest, but I suppose, theoretically, we could be walking into the Mountain Dew tavern if some marketing exec has any sense .... that would be a shame.

[Chaos Theory]

As someone who has (currently) pledged at the level where I can design an item, I'm looking for a significant clarification within the next week or two as to what exactly I get to do and to what extent. If there is no further information or if it ends up being a significantly 'dumbed down' contribution, I'll be reducing my Kickstarter donation signficantly. I'll support the game financially, but to support at that level, I expect something pretty special.

[eimatshya]

 

Obsidian is still designing the game and has full control, so don't worry!

 

Anyway, a huge group of individuals can think up a great sum of very original characters - much, much more than a group of designers ever could. And don't underestimate the fans, they can have pretty wild imaginations. ^^

 

I think it is a great idea and I am certain that it will actually make a better game.

 

Obsidian said the design has to be within reason, so I doubt that they would accept "FiR3HawK3" as a name for a NPC.

 

I'm sure Obsidian will make sure the backer designed content is of decent quality. The problem I have with the idea of fan designed content is that, in this case, the criteria for inclusion in the game is based on the amount of money the fans contribute, not the quality of their designs.

 

If Obsidian ran a community-wide design contest and selected the designs they liked the best, then I would be optimistic about the results (although I guess such a contest could potentially generate hurt feelings amongst those who weren't chosen). There are some really creative and talented people out there, and I'm sure that some of them could contribute something truly impressive (not me, but I've read some really great ideas on this and other forums). Of course, the backers from the high level tiers may be some of those incredibly talented individuals, but there is no way to know that until we see what they come up with.

 

I totally understand Obsidian wanting to give a really cool reward to the heavy backers, and I think this is a completely fair reward, but from a design standpoint, if you're trying to make the best game possible, I think "amount of money contributed" is a suboptimal metric to use to determine what fan content gets implemented since there is no intrinsic correlation between amount of money donated and the quality of the donor's ideas. Admittedly, the design of an inn, random npc, or rival party isn't likely to have a huge effect on the quality of the game overall, so this is really just a minor concern. In the end, despite this small concern, I do think it's wonderful that people donated so much money to the game. Hopefully the people who donated to the upper tiers will turn out to be talented individuals who will come up with something great.

[JWestfall]

I've got other stuff to worry about, to be honest, but I suppose, theoretically, we could be walking into the Mountain Dew tavern if some marketing exec has any sense .... that would be a shame.

 

That is a scary thought, but I don't really see this happening. I'm sure Obsidian wouldn't risk the fallout of doing something like this, and presumably they have the last say on any feature/item/name that gets put in the game. Same goes for any rediculous or lore-breaking suggestions from backers.

[shazz]

Naturally people who invested alot of money should get something extra for their contribution. The issue comes with investors demanding an active part in what the game will contain as a "return". Remind you of something?

[sesobebo]

Naturally people who invested alot of money should get something extra for their contribution. The issue comes with investors demanding an active part in what the game will contain as a "return". Remind you of something?

nobody demanded it. the perks are there from the first second the kickstarter launched, and were put there by obsidian.

[shazz]

Naturally people who invested alot of money should get something extra for their contribution. The issue comes with investors demanding an active part in what the game will contain as a "return". Remind you of something?

nobody demanded it. the perks are there from the first second the kickstarter launched, and were put there by obsidian.

 

There weren't any demands per se but I recall there were quite alot of requests for high reward tiers as an incentive for people do donate more.

[TCJ]

I'm sure there will be limits on what the people can do. Names (without being ridiculous), looks, personality, class, some direction on what they say or talk about (to be edited by Obsidian)... I can see that being what the person gets to design.