Was the backer beta a good idea?

[Sarex]

Ok let's get something clear straight of the bat. First, it's not us that should be grateful, it's OE. This is after all a KSed game, and it's thanks to the fans that they got to make it. Second, being open on how they are making the game is something they stated would happen in their first video on KS. Third, aside from updates which are nice we haven't seen much comments from Josh at all, now this would normally be ok IF he didn't comment so much on other forums and social media sites.

 

We don't have to be privy to the dev discussions to know if something works or not. We know what the end goal is, "a spiritual successor to the IE games" and thus we can comment on what is wrong and why it's not meeting that goal.

 

As for the degenerative gameplay, it most certainly does not deserve praise and respect. As it stand everything that was done to prevent such gameplay, has caused even more of it by being changed. Things obviously don't work and should be tweaked or changed. We would be doing a great disservice to the game, ourselves and OE if we didn't point out the bad aspects of the game.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Sarex

[Sensuki]

Nothing is stopping you from entering the discussion on other forums you know, or asking him questions on tumblr. I bought a Something Awful account to take part in the discussion there, just as I joined the RPGCodex and NeoGAF to join the discussion there.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Sensuki

[nipsen]

Ok let's get something clear straight of the bat. First, it's not us that should be grateful, it's OE. This is after all a KSed game, and it's thanks to the fans that they got to make it.

Well, I used "respect", not gratefulness, very deliberately. No matter what the circumstances - we're not the ones writing the game. Even if we thought in a way that set us up as producers for Obsidian's project (..which is absurd), we're still not writing and putting up the designs. And I think we owe Obsidian for being as open as they have been with presenting these to us.

 

..honestly, I just don't want to see some overentitled brat manage to inoculate Obsidian from having the same open approach with future games. It would be annoying if that happened.

 

I mean... look. We have chosen to help fund Obsidian's project. We haven't hired Obsidian as outside expertise to make a game we have designed. Obviously as backers we are in a position where we can pressure the developers more effectively than otherwise. They have to listen to us whether they want to or not. They can't say: "We have your money now, **** off!". And they can't say: "We're making the game, you provide the funds!". Even if that's closer to the truth here.

 

But regardless of how that dynamic works -- we're not the ones writing the designs or creating the game. We're looking at something they created and providing feedback. So for the feedback to be useful, it has to exist in that context: you provide your perspective and your observations about what you see as a player.