Fulfilment site?

[jethro]

 

But even with that, consider that the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter ended in April 2012 with over 60k backers, and they got their fulfillment website up in July 2012. That's still a minus on Obsidian's part.

 

 

A minus only if you count a fullfillment site as some goal that is in any way essential, a guaranteed feature like a stretch goal. But a fullfillment site is nothing but a makeshift tool around a limitation of kickstarter.com. If they found out that that one email allowed through kickstarter were enough to ask all the questions, they could scrap the site without anyone noticing any difference. 

If Obsidian did fail and could produce only one thing out of the repertoire of things they promised (addons like stickers, cloth map, short stories, a forum...) any of these things has a value in itself, even the forum. The fullfillment site, nope, none at all, it is just a means to end. And it signifies nothing.

 

Likewise the time between kickstarter end and start of a fullfillment site is as good a quality measure as the text length of kickstarter updates. It even makes a lot of bussiness sense to open the site as late as possible.

Edited September 14, 2013 by jethro

[SqueakyCat]

I would just appreciate the courtesy of an acknowledgement of my not so paltry pledge. 

 

I received an acknowledgement from inXile (Torment) within a couple of months.  They don't have a backer/fulfillment site up yet either, but they did at least acknowledge they received my pledge.  All I have is a notification from Amazon regarding PE, and it's been one full year on the 15th.

 

I'm sure they'll get to it eventually, but, personally, I find it disappointing.  I don't feel I'm being impatient -- a full year to acknowledge someone's pledge is a bit much in my opinion.

[Lephys]

I'm sure they'll get to it eventually, but, personally, I find it disappointing.  I don't feel I'm being impatient -- a full year to acknowledge someone's pledge is a bit much in my opinion.

Not at all. There's a difference between simply expecting communication and info (as to whatever's going on at the moment), and expecting a whole pledge-management site to be complete by now. The completion of the site by this point in time is not owed. That's the only thing I think is such an unnecessary and unfounded sentiment in this thread. Not the "You know, we really haven't heard much on this in a while, and we probably should have heard something by now."

 

Imagine it like a parcel you're waiting on: If it's been 5 days, and you haven't received ityet, and no one says anything to you, and another 5 days pass, still nothing... Say the truck got hit by a tornado, and your package was damaged, and they're contacting the shipper to get you a new one shipped out. Well, the problem isn't that the package should have arrived already. It shouldn't. A package on a truck that's stricken by a tornado shouldn't in any way magically arrive anyway. But, someone should've informed you as to the reason why it didn't arrive, and/or that it will be late, etc. Or, if it hasn't left the warehouse yet, they should inform you of that.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Lephys

[Messier-31]

Imagine it like a parcel you're waiting on: If it's been 5 days, and you haven't received ityet, and no one says anything to you, and another 5 days pass, still nothing... Say the truck got hit by a tornado, and your package was damaged, and they're contacting the shipper to get you a new one shipped out. Well, the problem isn't that the package should have arrived already. It shouldn't. A package on a truck that's stricken by a tornado shouldn't in any way magically arrive anyway. But, someone should've informed you as to the reason why it didn't arrive, and/or that it will be late, etc. Or, if it hasn't left the warehouse yet, they should inform you of that.

 

Damn straight. Now that I'm thinking more about it, here is a quote from a larger e-mail I got from Obsidian a year ago after asking some questions:

 

November 1st 2012   06:24 PM

(...)

"Yes! How this will work is via a fulfillment website. In the next month or so, we’ll be launching this site, and you’ll be able to keep us up to date with your e-mail address, and also reconfirm the tier choice you wanted (as well as to upgrade or add on anything you might have wanted to do but didn’t have time to do during the Kickstarter.) On the site you’ll be able to choose a Steam or GOG key, and when the game is launched, you can revisit the site and get your key."

(...)

Thanks!

Darren

 

So, here we are in the middle of September 2013. Gee-wizz, time flies, huh?

[jethro]

I would just appreciate the courtesy of an acknowledgement of my not so paltry pledge. 

 

An acknowledgemnt is something you want if you don't trust the other party to honor an obligation or debt. If you go into kickstarter, you can see your pledge. It is still there. And together with emails and bank statement you have conclusive proof of the obligation to you. So your worries can't be legal, right?

 

Then all you want is some soul massage, you want Obsidian to bow before you and thank you again for the money. You want a personal notice, a relationship with them, you are their benefactor and they should show that to you. Understandable, for most of us it was a lot of money we gave. But so did ~70k others and whatever grand gesture they try to make will still have to be siphoned to a sea of supporters. They can't shake the hands of everyone.

 

But a fullfillment site is nothing of that. It is a place where you klick on a few buttons, klick "Send" and that's it. Maybe embellished with a "thank you" in big red letters. Big deal. Do you really need that? Should they really squander money or time for that instead of putting it into the game (I already gave some reasons why an early f. site could cost more money)? For me a game where they did everything possible to make it excellent is the best way they can thank me.

Edited September 14, 2013 by jethro

[Sacred_Path]

An acknowledgemnt is something you want if you don't trust the other party to honor an obligation or debt.

Or if you simply want to know that your order has been received and registered. As has been said already, there are also us PayPal backers.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Sacred_Path

[Lythe Vodaine]

I like the way CIG solved this issue on their website for Star Citizen: Once logged in, you have a complete overview over how much you pledged (section "Billing & Subscriptions") and what you'll get for it (section "My Hangar") once the game (or parts of it) goes live. The sad truth is that I would be inclined to back Project Eternity with even more money than I already did (i backed once and donated some more, or was it Twice?), if there was a better way to keep track of my donations than filing through Paypal logs...

 

Cheers, Lythe

Edited September 14, 2013 by Lythe Vodaine

[Lephys]

Or if you simply want to know that your order has been received and registered. As has been said already, there are also us PayPal backers.

Fair enough, but, unless Kickstarter shuts down and wipes all its servers and backups, Paypal does the same, and team Obsidian flees the country, never to be heard from again, I suspect everyone's orders are stored and accounted for SOMEwhere, currently. I don't think it takes a user-friendly backer portal/manager site to generate the capacity to retain the integrity of payment/order information.

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't want confirmation. Just trying to assuage the worry, is all, until they actually update people with confirmations and such.

[SqueakyCat]

Then all you want is some soul massage, you want Obsidian to bow before you and thank you again for the money. You want a personal notice, a relationship with them, you are their benefactor and they should show that to you. Understandable, for most of us it was a lot of money we gave. But so did ~70k others and whatever grand gesture they try to make will still have to be siphoned to a sea of supporters. They can't shake the hands of everyone.

 

All I can say is "wow".  You read waaayy too much into my post and presumed a great deal.

 

I don't need a thank you or anyone to bow at my feet.  An acknowledgement that they received the funds is more than sufficient.  InXile did so months ago for the same "sea of supporters"  with Torment.  They didn't send an e-mail gushing "thank you, thank you, thank you".  You simple log into their website where you post about the game, and you can see your donation.  They have no backer site up yet either.  They are also a smaller developer.

 

As far as Kickstarter goes, I closed my account months ago, so, no, I cannot see any information there. 

 

I mean, wow .... can you be any more snide? 

 

Now I remember why I stopped reading much on this forum -- the quality of posts has deteriorated.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Well, for some reason you have a lot of people jumping to the defence of Obsidian for the lateness of the fulfilment site. It must be some awesome super duper site they have in store for us. Otherwise, if it's anything like inXile and Torment, then I'd have to ask why it's taken a year to do.

[Sensuki]

They're not just doing a standalone fulfillment website like inXile/Larian they're doing a Project Eternity website as well. AFAIK they have one guy (Darren Monahan) working on the website and it's not his only job at the company. That's not an excuse as to why it's taken so long but those are the facts. They have job postings on their website for dedicated web developers but those positions AFAIK have not been filled (which is odd?).

[jethro]

All I can say is "wow".  You read waaayy too much into my post and presumed a great deal.

Yes, sorry. I did paint in broad strokes. But that is because I don't get it what importance some of you put into this site. To me it looks as if Apple or Samsung offered a phenomenal new smart phone but produced too few of some silly paper stickers for marketing purposes. Now everyone is talking about them and demanding to get one too.

 

I don't need a thank you or anyone to bow at my feet.  An acknowledgement that they received the funds is more than sufficient.  InXile did so months ago for the same "sea of supporters"  with Torment.  They didn't send an e-mail gushing "thank you, thank you, thank you".  You simple log into their website where you post about the game, and you can see your donation.  They have no backer site up yet either.  They are also a smaller developer.

Why should Obsidian create a fullfillment site? Because inXile did it. That is not a reason, that is a sense of entitlement because someone else did it. If a few projects would send their supporters a rose would you expect all the others to follow?

 

As far as Kickstarter goes, I closed my account months ago, so, no, I cannot see any information there.

Ok, at least that is a valid reason, a legal reason not in the (IMHO silly) soul massage category. But if YOU delete any record of your involvement in the kickstarter, it isn't Obsidians fault and you can't expect them to jump through inconvenient hoops to accomadate you. You could petition or ask them for the site because of your situation, but "just appreciate the courtesy of an acknowledgement of my not so paltry pledge" sounds more like you are entitled to a site and expect them to honour the debt courtesy demands of them.

 

I mean, wow .... can you be any more snide?

I offer my apollogies for ruling out legal reasons so summarily. You really had one. I still fault you for your approach

 

I also apoligize for entering rant mode, but without that nobody seemed to want to talk or think about their own motivation but simply put forward a reason of 'because others do it'.

 

(PS: My motivation for opposing that reason is that I don't want kickstarter funding to devolve into a ritual where secondary goals or gestures supplant the real project goals. Wouldn't it be bad if every project had to provide specific addons or features, specific websites, gestures, expenses just to follow what is expected of them even if it doesn't make sense and just squanders the money given to them?)

Edited September 15, 2013 by jethro

[adarmus]

Jethro, you would have to be in the Guinees World Records for greatest douchebag on the internet, and as we all know there is a lot of competition for that title. Backers have a legitimate question about the fulfulment site and you could not have gone on a more ridiculous, offensive and uncalled for rant if you had come down of your high horse and climbed the golden steps to your ivory tower. You my fellow PE member are the reason I avoid these forums, sadly missing out on a large part of what this crowd funding experience could have been.

[Sensuki]

It is also possible that the release of the website is being delayed to coincide with their gameplay demonstration video.

[SqueakyCat]

.........

 

I am going to put this as politely as I am able at this point, but GTFO, please -- and take your pompous attitude with you.

 

Your analogy with the phones is utter nonsense.  As to why Obsidian should create a fulfillment site?   Ahh, let me see - oh, yeah, because they said they were, and because they must have a way to organize everyone's pledges.   Many people, myself included, bought multiple tiers and extras.  All Obsidian has are dollar amounts with no idea of what those amounts represent.  Yet, miraculously all you see is entitlement.  Freaking unbelievable.

 

As far as Kickstarter goes, I do not feel compelled to maintain an account with a corporation whose business practices I find dubious (at best) simply because another organization has failed to do what they said they were in a timely manner.  My issue with Obsidian isn't so much that they haven't been able to organize a website and acknowledge receipt of everyone's pledges in a year's time, but that they have failed to update the backers.  Communication is everything in the business world, and while they have been very diligent in updating general information on the project, this is the one area where there has not been any communication in months as far as I'm aware.

 

Perhaps you just need to distance yourself from the project as your responses have been way over-the-top and inappropriate.  So, Jethro, why don't you gather up Elly May, Jed, Granny, Duke and Mr. Drysdale and chill-out at the cement pond for awhile.  Just take a break if you're becoming too emotionally involved in the project.

[jethro]

 

.........

 

I am going to put this as politely as I am able at this point, but GTFO, please -- and take your pompous attitude with you.

 

Your analogy with the phones is utter nonsense.  As to why Obsidian should create a fulfillment site?   Ahh, let me see - oh, yeah, because they said they were, and because they must have a way to organize everyone's pledges.   Many people, myself included, bought multiple tiers and extras.  All Obsidian has are dollar amounts with no idea of what those amounts represent.  Yet, miraculously all you see is entitlement.  Freaking unbelievable.

 

One last comment and I GTFO. I don't dispute that a fullfillment site is necessary for such a project. It is necessary about 2 months before the game comes out (Expection: if a lot of backers have influence on in-game stuff like names or items, then appropriatly earlier)

Edited September 15, 2013 by jethro

[Gorth]

Ok guys, I think that is about enough of that... or I'll have to find the proverbial straight-jackets. I'm not going to close the thread, because the original question about availability is a valid one, but I do ask that people put a lid on the insults. Preferably voluntarily.

[Juneau]

I am curious as to whether or not this is far off also?

 

TBH I would have expected this would of been done quite some time ago.

[Tamerlane]

We all still have no idea, unfortunately. I'd love to have the site up - or to have some mention of the site in the updates - but honestly, the fact that we have neither of those things barely merits a complaint from me. It's something that would be super cool to have right now, but until we actually need it, its absence registers somewhere between "my butter is too hard to spread on my toast" and "I have the 'Mulatto Butts' song from Archer stuck in my head" on my list of annoyances.

Edited September 16, 2013 by Tamerlane

[kgambit]

My only interest in the fulfillment site is to upgrade my late back pledge to go from digital to boxed copy which a very nice lady at Obsidian has assured me will be possible.  So yeah, I just want to throw  some more money at the project. 

Edited September 16, 2013 by kgambit

[Dangermouth]

Profiled/followed whatever. Just so I can come back in 6 months' time when something has happened and not spend a lot of time on here wasting life away to no end.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

 

Thank you for your accuracy, though some time later I posted something more in that matter. Didn't read it, did you? When my question has been answered, I had more intel about the subject - thus me complaining about fullfilment site.

 

Yes I did read your second comment when I posted in this thread. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64139-fulfilment-site/?p=1370711 However, your second comment doesn't seem to negate what you said about wasting time and resources on a "fool-feel-ment sight". Do you now want time and resources spent on a "fool-feel-ment sight"?

 

Having read the Kickstarter update 45 from March, it's probably going to be a huge overhaul of the site. Torment does the job for now but is quite basic. Obsidian seems to be redesigning the wheel and it will become an evolving backer site with new information added. Part wiki (information and artwork), part backer site, exclusive forums for high tier backers, private online submission for higher tiers that can be continually updated to a certain point, and other features like RSS feeds.

 

Realising this, I've now come to the conclusion it's a lot of work. I'm now hoping the site will be up in the next few months, hopefully before Christmas which is only 3 months away.

[C2B]

 

Thank you for your accuracy, though some time later I posted something more in that matter. Didn't read it, did you? When my question has been answered, I had more intel about the subject - thus me complaining about fullfilment site.

 

 

Yes I did read your second comment when I posted in this thread. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64139-fulfilment-site/?p=1370711 However, your second comment doesn't seem to negate what you said about wasting time and resources on a "fool-feel-ment sight". Do you now want time and resources spent on a "fool-feel-ment sight"?

 

Having read the Kickstarter update 45 from March, it's probably going to be a huge overhaul of the site. Torment does the job for now but is quite basic. Obsidian seems to be redesigning the wheel and it will become an evolving backer site with new information added. Part wiki (information and artwork), part backer site, exclusive forums for high tier backers, private online submission for higher tiers that can be continually updated to a certain point, and other features like RSS feeds.

 

Realising this, I've now come to the conclusion it's a lot of work. I'm now hoping the site will be up in the next few months, hopefully before Christmas which is only 3 months away.

Brendan Adler said over in the update thread that its soon but not entirly put together and will come with a big update attached. It's on the first page of comments.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

 

Brendan Adler said over in the update thread that its soon but not entirly put together and will come with a big update attached. It's on the first page of comments.

 

 

Yes I know. I did read Brendan's comment which really doesn't tell us anything. Soon^TM was said last year and earlier this year.

[Edrahil]

My only interest in the fulfillment site is to upgrade my late back pledge to go from digital to boxed copy which a very nice lady at Obsidian has assured me will be possible.  So yeah, I just want to throw  some more money at the project. 

Exactly the same reason brought me here, I´d love to see it soon. Ideally before Christmas, would be a nice gift for myself