Am I the only one vaguely uneasy about the reward tiers over $1,000?

[Death Machine Miyagi]

That is, the ones that offer the chance to design something and put it in the finished game. NPCs, epic level artifacts, opposing adventuring parties and what-not.

 

Simply put, someone giving a lot of money is a lousy basis on which to assume that they're a competent game designer. What if the NPC/artifact/whatever designed is...well...completely godawful and utterly inconsistent with the tone of the game? Does Obsidian apologize and politely refund the money? Do they smile and nod, take the design they were sent and massively retool it to actually fit the game? Do they just add it in, since a deal is a deal, even if the NPC in question is a ninja zombie cheerleader or something?

 

They carefully hedge these reward tiers by adding the words 'within reason', which could make all the difference in the world, but still, I'd be curious to know just how far they intend to take this 'design your own NPC/enemy adventuring party/tavern/inn/whatever' idea and to what extent intend to veto any really awful ideas, despite the money given.

[Wintersong]

Why do you suppose that Obsidian isn't going to monitor those proposals and balance/tweak them as necessary? The "within reason" is as implied "must be balanced and fit the game".

[diablo169]

I think you should have a bit more faith in Obsidian, they will do it tastefully.

[Mamoulian War]

Yeah I bet Obsidian would be able to fit even Ninja Zombie Cheerleader Pandas into the lore, without raising any questions

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I don't see a problem. What I see is Obsidian will work with those backers to make sure things balance and work within reason for the game. Also, you may have backers that will bounce ideas off the dev's and say things like, 'how about this or that?' 'will this work?'. The high tier backers may even have ideas that the dev's will like and incorporate them into the game. I really don't see the high tier backers being aggressive and saying, 'Ok, I paid $1000 and you better put this in!'

[Ieo]

I have no doubt this stuff will be vetted properly.

 

I mean, what is a backer going to do if his thing doesn't get in there exactly so? Take back his money? That isn't going to hurt Project Eternity at this point.

[Director]

It's standard fair for every game kickstarter, and obviously the Devs get final say over everything in the game.

 

Although - maybe we should scratch together $1000 for a set of boob-plate?

[Chunkyman]

There's always going to be that one guy who throws a hissy fit when Obsidian refuses to put General Scoobylasers McKetchup into the game.

Edited October 5, 2012 by Chunkyman

[Umberlin]

The 1,000+ reward tiers . . . basically imagine someone that walked up and gave you ten-thousand USD . . . then imagine you told him right after that you didn't like his style. Boy that could get awkward.

[Chippy]

I was thinking of an artifact resembling a 1:1 scale sex toy that inflates into a boob armour/pantaloon wearing decoy when it's user is near death to distract the aggressor - and if struck reveals that it's filled with a gelatinous cube that subsequently devours the enemy.

 

Problem?.

 

Only kidding. I've faith in Obsidian going down this route, I doubt they'd loose control to the fans.

[dlux]

We already had a discussion about this: http://forums.obsidi...l__ fans tiers

 

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

 

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. ^^

Edited October 5, 2012 by dlux

[Wintersong]

I really don't see the high tier backers being aggressive and saying, 'Ok, I paid $1000 and you better put this in!'

Once the date hits, Obsidian owns the money and if the pledger doesn't want to keep his end of the bargain with the "within reason".... well, not that USA is not infamous because of its lawyers and silly demands (some of which are successful) but I'd hope for Obsidian being triumphant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone demand a Bacon Armor!!!

[Cantousent]

I'm actually a bit uneasy about it, but that fear is mitigated by the fact that I don't believe the design team would allow anything toooooo crazy. If something's a little off-kilter, they can probably work in some humor around it to sort it. If it's too serious, then they can work around it. Really, the most numerous things are weapons and items. The party worries me just a tad, but the inn has the most room for mistakes and yet I think it's the easiest thing to fix.

[Gorth]

I would imagine that most (if not all) people who are willing to fork out $1000+ has an interest in a good game, not an interest in trying to sabotage it.

[Cantousent]

I agree, Gorth, but I'm just as worried by folks' good intentions half the time as I am their bad. hehe ...But I think anyone shelling out that kind of cash will probably be open to gentle prodding in terms of design.

[AlphaShard]

So long as I don't find a war hammer called MC I'm happy.

[Cantousent]

Well.... but goofy humor is also part of the glory of the old Infinity Engine games. lol

[Gorth]

Yeah. I did chuckle when I found a "Hammer of Lucerne" in one of my games (was it IWD2?).

[Death Machine Miyagi]

I would imagine that most (if not all) people who are willing to fork out $1000+ has an interest in a good game, not an interest in trying to sabotage it.

 

I have no doubt anyone adding new stuff to the game will do so with the best of intentions. But, as any number of fanfics will attest, just because you love something doesn't mean you're any good at it. I'd prefer the majority of the actually designing be left to the designers.

 

Also: there are 200 people who have devoted enough money to design an NPC. 3 people have devoted enough money to design an opposing adventuring party. 3 people have devoted enough money to design an inn. Just how many NPCs, opposing adventuring parties and inns will this game have, anyway?

[Gorth]

Lots?

 

On a serious note, I believe Obsidian is going to hand out templates and guidelines to help people at least starting down the right path. You are right though, fanfic is scary stuff. Fanfic writers may not necessarily be the ones putting up the big bucks (aren't poets and their like the ones always talking about starving artists?).

[Superdeluxe]

Not worried about this. I'm guessing they will work with the backer to make sure it fits

[Death Machine Miyagi]

Lots?

 

And joking aside, its partly the prospect of 'lots' that has me uneasy. When I was a kid, 'lots' in a game was a good thing; the more the better. Being a bit older and wiser now, I understand that any game has only a finite amount of time and resources to spend, which means 'lots' might simply translate into 'quantity and not quality.'

 

Back in the late '90s, the second Elder Scrolls game, Daggerfall, bragged about having a world map the size of England or some such. They conveniently left out that that world map was filled with cut-and-paste towns and dungeons virtually indistinguishable from each other, an endless barren land, and similarly faceless and banal NPCs. Give me a few small but beautiful maps with a comparatively small number of richly written and imagined NPCs over that any day.

 

In light of that perspective, just how many named characters with dialogue did BG or BG2 or Torment or Icewind Dale have, in the whole game? How many inns? How many rival adventuring parties? If there are going to be 3 player designed inns in the game, how many Obsidian designed inns will there be? If there are 200 player designed NPCs, what percentage will those 200 make up of the game's total cast of NPCS? Are these NPCs going to be actual characters, with dialogue, or will they just be random cannon fodder you blow away in two seconds flat?

 

I don't know the answer to these questions. I'll just say that 200 NPCs sounds like a lot to me, and 'a lot' is definitely not always good.

 

And yes, I have a bit of faith in Obsidian given their history. Which is why I'm only 'uneasy' and not 'withdrawing my pledge.' I expect they'll do the right thing, but the wording of what people are getting worries me a touch.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

 

Also: there are 200 people who have devoted enough money to design an NPC. 3 people have devoted enough money to design an opposing adventuring party. 3 people have devoted enough money to design an inn. Just how many NPCs, opposing adventuring parties and inns will this game have, anyway?

 

With the NPCs, there's only 69 people currently pledged money to design an NPC. I'd very much doubt it would get past 80.

[Osvir]

This thread made me wonder:

 

"What if an advertising company got a hold on one of these?" *shudders*

[Gorth]

Arghh... waiting for potions of Pepsi and Coca Cola and all their imagined benefits. Or what's their name, all the guano based energy drinks. Fatigue? Have a Red Taurus.