PRE-LOAD is now available!

[Bli1942]

So when will this be activitated? Local time midnight or a fix global date? If last how can I hack this BS? :D

 

If you got it on Steam then the store page for the game will tell you how many days/hours to go. It says 1 day 7 hours now

Edited March 25, 2015 by Bli1942

[sparklecat]

Will the keys be released via email or will they show up somewhere in the backer portal?

 

And shouldn't the people who backed the game have gotten their keys BEFORE the random mooks who bought it on Steam recently?

 

No, because if they'd released keys to us before it was possible to redeem them on Steam, Obsidian's support email and the forums would've been flooded with people going "hey my key doesn't work on Steam help."  So we get the keys after Steam's ready for us to input them, which as a side effect means a few hours after other people have started preloading.

 

At least, that's my understanding of the situation.

[Katarack21]

That was my understanding, as well.

[Hassat Hunter]

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

[AngelonTerra]

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

 

First of all... it's extremily difficult to write this in English but I hope that people can understand it at least, sorry.

 

The greater problem here is the following:

 

Most backers of kickstarter projects aren't the casual gamers and want games like they were years before. Thats the most important thing ... we want games "not casual", for the broad mass of players. Thats why you support something because you want games made for you the way it was before a decent time. Maybe and only maybe Obsidian can attract other people to their product but they might mostly not true fans of the genre and the main reason they are buying the game is to consume some content and then jump to the next project. The main market of the whole world is already making games for casual gamers... so why should the backer want that the game should also fit the casual gamer? The backers already supported one game... if the game turns out good they will support the next game too. True fans will always support their kind of games but if you turn away from your fans you might loose them at any point.

 

And because of that every developer should first think about their own fan community and then about the others. Sure it is a good thing that casual gamer are going to spent money on this game but no company should rely on them to be honest. They are a risky factor.

 

Also I have to agree with some other people here that it's a difference between "press" and random youtubers or twitchstreamer. The official press is a real company who could get into real problems if they would mess things up. Most youtubers or twitchuser aren't behind a company and you could "try" to confront them by the law but it would be rather difficult if they would mess things up.

"Messing things up": spreading lies, breaking NDA or other agreements beteween Obsidian and them f.e. streaming content from act 2.

 

In my oppinion the best method of advertising a product is still the good old people to people ad. If I am playing a good game I will telling others about the game and they might look into it... and the best thing about this is... it's completly free... no costs at all. Doing tv spots or handing out copies of the game to several people will cost the company a decent amount of money.

 

Also I have to admit that there are backers in this forum who would be more competent doing reviews of the game then every here and then let's player out there because they know the lore and the gameplay far better. Also they could answer questions from the viewers more easily then the others. At least there have been one or two from the community who were able to do this... but it could be more especially in other languages.

 

The other topic is... should the official press get early copies of the game to test it and present it the whole world? I agree to some point. First of all it should be a special review version and the people, especially the youtubers and twitch-people shouldn't get full versions of the game because they wouldn't have the possibility to stream further than the act 1. The official press instead could get a full version for their tests... because if they would hurt that agreement Obsidian could get thousands of $ because of violation of their agreement.

 

To the question "Should backer get the version earlier then any others?" ---> yes of course... Obsidian knows their backers for years and it would be pretty easy to satisfy them by sending them their copies out early enough so that every backer is able to play the game on release date... and yes I said "on release date" as any others too. But from my point of view Obsidian messed some things up by acting to late so people with real slow internet connections won't be able to play on release date and thats pretty sad, especially for kickstarter backers.

 

Do I like day1-patches? Hell no... and I'd like to see that companies would finally make good games without them again. I wouldn't be sad if Pillars of Eternity would be delayed one month further... but I really don't like that day 1 patch ideology. At least it seems that our dvds will come with the patches (at least I hope so pretty much).

[LordCrash]

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

 

Your base assumption is imho incorrect that nowadays press is the most important marketing channel for games of that kind. I'd say for PC exclusive games of some niche appeal word of mouth from enthusiastic fans is an even more powerful marketing tool. That's why streamers on youtube get more and more important as well.

 

I don't see how giving copies to backers earlier should result in lower sales. You might elaborate on that?

 

But you just missed the point and your whole rant is useless anyway because nobody here criticizes Obsidian for giving out review copies to the press before release. We criticize them for not giving out game copies to backers at the same time.

[Aarionn]

 

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

 

Your base assumption is imho incorrect that nowadays press is the most important marketing channel for games of that kind. I'd say for PC exclusive games of some niche appeal word of mouth from enthusiastic fans is an even more powerful marketing tool. That's why streamers on youtube get more and more important as well.

 

I don't see how giving copies to backers earlier should result in lower sales. You might elaborate on that?

 

But you just missed the point and your whole rant is useless anyway because nobody here criticizes Obsidian for giving out review copies to the press before release. We criticize them for not giving out game copies to backers at the same time.

 

 

Well because game is DRM free if backers would get copies, let's say 3 days before launch, the torrent with the game would be out in less than a 10 minutes and than people would pirate it for 3 days before launch. That would hurt Obsidian sales on so many levels!

 

And furthermore, do you consider yourself that important and entitled that the company owns you something because you backed their development? Excuse me, but I think we own more to Obsidian than they to us, as there is no other studio or people who could pull something like this, and who would put everything on risk to make a game that no one seems to want (I mean publishers and nowadays gamers). I pledged $290 and I do not know anyone else in whole world who could for that money get me a game like this!

 

Be happy that we were allowed to play a part in something great and something no one believed that can happene again - to get real spiritual successor to our beloved IE games!

Edited March 25, 2015 by Aarionn

[gooler]

well you still can't play it!

 

[BigBripa]

Have to admit I'm a Lil baffled over this line of discussion.

 

Backers gave to the KS in return for (quite explicitly if I'm to be honest) an old school isometric party-based cRPG, which is exactly what Obsidian is giving them. The only specific promise about release was that it would be out March 26th and it will be. You can't move the goalposts from what was originally promised to whatever you feel like is right, for obvious reasons.

 

They didn't let you do level design so why would they give you reign over any other tasks of development? You (presumably) don't know how to design a game like this which is why so many gave money to Obsidian to do it. They're game developers and this is a stage of development, let them handle it.

 

And in response to whoever it was "only see[ing] the same names on this forum" happy with Obsidian... R u jk? Willful ignorance isn't an argument it's a lifestyle choice.

 

What a weird thing to argue so long and hard about, the game comes out tomorrow. Be happy, take deep breaths.

Edited March 25, 2015 by BigBripa

[LordCrash]

 

 

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

 

Your base assumption is imho incorrect that nowadays press is the most important marketing channel for games of that kind. I'd say for PC exclusive games of some niche appeal word of mouth from enthusiastic fans is an even more powerful marketing tool. That's why streamers on youtube get more and more important as well.

 

I don't see how giving copies to backers earlier should result in lower sales. You might elaborate on that?

 

But you just missed the point and your whole rant is useless anyway because nobody here criticizes Obsidian for giving out review copies to the press before release. We criticize them for not giving out game copies to backers at the same time.

 

 

Well because game is DRM free if backers would get copies, let's say 3 days before launch, the torrent with the game would be out in less than a 10 minutes and than people would pirate it for 3 days before launch. That would hurt Obsidian sales on so many levels!

 

And furthermore, do you consider yourself that important and entitled that the company owns you something because you backed their development? Excuse me, but I think we own more to Obsidian than they to us, as there is no other studio or people who could pull something like this, and who would put everything on risk to make a game that no one seems to want (I mean publishers and nowadays gamers). I pledged $290 and I do not know anyone else in whole world who could for that money get me a game like this!

 

Be happy that we were allowed to play a part in something great and something no one believed that can happened again - to get real spiritual successor to our beloved IE games!

 

 

I doubt the significance of the torrent argument. People who want to pirate the game will so anyway. It's not like just because a torrent isn't available two weeks before release would lead to buy the game. You could even counter the whole argument by looking at the torrent as a free demo. There are still quite a few people who pirate games to evaluate whether they want to buy the game for full price or not. So maybe it would have even fueled sales (just talking about effects here, not about torrents being right or something, ok).

 

And my argument wasn't about myself, but about the effectiveness of marketing. I think releasing the game earlier to backers would have been a win-win situation for everyone. Backers would have been happy because they feel a bit special and respected and Obsidian would have been happy because everyone in the core audience was talking about the game on social networks and game communities like Steam. Not even mentioning a whole lot of probably very positive Steam user reviews already available at launch which is the best argument for quite some people I know to actually buy a game. I say it again, word of mouth is the best marketing channel for a game like Pillars of Eternity, imho more important than traditional reviews. People nowadays - especially on PC - trust their friends and user reviews more than those of traditional media.

[Bli1942]

They should've given us our Steam keys as soon as the KS ended tbh

[Valmy]

They should've given us our Steam keys as soon as the KS ended tbh

 

[Bli1942]

Need to get preload done early, Valmy!

Edited March 25, 2015 by Bli1942

[Aarionn]

 

 

 

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

 

Your base assumption is imho incorrect that nowadays press is the most important marketing channel for games of that kind. I'd say for PC exclusive games of some niche appeal word of mouth from enthusiastic fans is an even more powerful marketing tool. That's why streamers on youtube get more and more important as well.

 

I don't see how giving copies to backers earlier should result in lower sales. You might elaborate on that?

 

But you just missed the point and your whole rant is useless anyway because nobody here criticizes Obsidian for giving out review copies to the press before release. We criticize them for not giving out game copies to backers at the same time.

 

 

Well because game is DRM free if backers would get copies, let's say 3 days before launch, the torrent with the game would be out in less than a 10 minutes and than people would pirate it for 3 days before launch. That would hurt Obsidian sales on so many levels!

 

And furthermore, do you consider yourself that important and entitled that the company owns you something because you backed their development? Excuse me, but I think we own more to Obsidian than they to us, as there is no other studio or people who could pull something like this, and who would put everything on risk to make a game that no one seems to want (I mean publishers and nowadays gamers). I pledged $290 and I do not know anyone else in whole world who could for that money get me a game like this!

 

Be happy that we were allowed to play a part in something great and something no one believed that can happened again - to get real spiritual successor to our beloved IE games!

 

 

I doubt the significance of the torrent argument. People who want to pirate the game will so anyway. It's not like just because a torrent isn't available two weeks before release would lead to buy the game. You could even counter the whole argument by looking at the torrent as a free demo. There are still quite a few people who pirate games to evaluate whether they want to buy the game for full price or not. So maybe it would have even fueled sales (just talking about effects here, not about torrents being right or something, ok).

 

And my argument wasn't about myself, but about the effectiveness of marketing. I think releasing the game earlier to backers would have been a win-win situation for everyone. Backers would have been happy because they feel a bit special and respected and Obsidian would have been happy because everyone in the core audience was talking about the game on social networks and game communities like Steam. Not even mentioning a whole lot of probably very positive Steam user reviews already available at launch which is the best argument for quite some people I know to actually buy a game. I say it again, word of mouth is the best marketing channel for a game like Pillars of Eternity, imho more important than traditional reviews. People nowadays - especially on PC - trust their friends and user reviews more than those of traditional media.

 

 

Well I cannot argue with you obviously you have your opinion and cant/don't want to accept another one.

 

IMHO one lost sale of the game because someone impatient would download torrent and than later decide for whatever reason not to buy the game is a loss.

 

As Obsidian never said that backers will get game before others, I do not see the reason discussing this topic at all...

 

And furthermore I would suggest Obsidian for the next kickstarter (I hope that they will make it whether they got enough funds or not because I like to be a part of something like it) that they separately state in CAPITAL LETTERS that:

 

"Backers will NOT get game before official release. Please do not pledge if you cannot accept this. Thank you very much."

Edited March 25, 2015 by Aarionn

[LordCrash]

 

 

 

 

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

 

Your base assumption is imho incorrect that nowadays press is the most important marketing channel for games of that kind. I'd say for PC exclusive games of some niche appeal word of mouth from enthusiastic fans is an even more powerful marketing tool. That's why streamers on youtube get more and more important as well.

 

I don't see how giving copies to backers earlier should result in lower sales. You might elaborate on that?

 

But you just missed the point and your whole rant is useless anyway because nobody here criticizes Obsidian for giving out review copies to the press before release. We criticize them for not giving out game copies to backers at the same time.

 

 

Well because game is DRM free if backers would get copies, let's say 3 days before launch, the torrent with the game would be out in less than a 10 minutes and than people would pirate it for 3 days before launch. That would hurt Obsidian sales on so many levels!

 

And furthermore, do you consider yourself that important and entitled that the company owns you something because you backed their development? Excuse me, but I think we own more to Obsidian than they to us, as there is no other studio or people who could pull something like this, and who would put everything on risk to make a game that no one seems to want (I mean publishers and nowadays gamers). I pledged $290 and I do not know anyone else in whole world who could for that money get me a game like this!

 

Be happy that we were allowed to play a part in something great and something no one believed that can happened again - to get real spiritual successor to our beloved IE games!

 

 

I doubt the significance of the torrent argument. People who want to pirate the game will so anyway. It's not like just because a torrent isn't available two weeks before release would lead to buy the game. You could even counter the whole argument by looking at the torrent as a free demo. There are still quite a few people who pirate games to evaluate whether they want to buy the game for full price or not. So maybe it would have even fueled sales (just talking about effects here, not about torrents being right or something, ok).

 

And my argument wasn't about myself, but about the effectiveness of marketing. I think releasing the game earlier to backers would have been a win-win situation for everyone. Backers would have been happy because they feel a bit special and respected and Obsidian would have been happy because everyone in the core audience was talking about the game on social networks and game communities like Steam. Not even mentioning a whole lot of probably very positive Steam user reviews already available at launch which is the best argument for quite some people I know to actually buy a game. I say it again, word of mouth is the best marketing channel for a game like Pillars of Eternity, imho more important than traditional reviews. People nowadays - especially on PC - trust their friends and user reviews more than those of traditional media.

 

 

Well I cannot argue with you obviously you have your opinion and cant/don't want to accept another one.

 

IMHO one lost sale of the game because someone impatient would download torrent and than later decide for whatever reason not to buy the game is a loss.

 

As Obsidian never said that backers will get game before others, I do not see the reason discussing this topic at all...

 

And furthermore I would suggest Obsidian for the next kickstarter (I hope that they will make it whether they got enough funds or not because I like to be a part of something like it) that they separately state in CAPITAL LETTERS that:

 

"Backers will NOT get game before official release. Please do not pledge if you cannot accept this. Thank you very much."

 

 

Apparently every fruitful discussion is indeed lost here since you don't even want to discuss anything and since you don't listen or answer to other people's arguments, you just want to accuse me (or others) of something. Goodbye.

[Rago]

Downloading the Game that i exacly waited for ! Compared to Broken Age for example Obsidian did a GREAT JOB.

 

Thank you for the Information, providet.

[Aarionn]

 

Apparently every fruitful discussion is indeed lost here since you don't even want to discuss anything and since you don't listen or answer to other people's arguments, you just want to accuse me (or others) of something. Goodbye.

 

 

 

I am not accusing you or others of anything. 

 

One thing I cannot understand is that you are propagating a "word of mouth" as the best marketing tool and at the same time you are whining here on forums that you didn't get something you were not entitled to in the first place, and by whining and criticizing the Obsidian you are for sure sending confusing/bad picture about the Obsidian as a responsible company. That is also affecting perception of the game.

[sparklecat]

LordCrash, part of the problem is that if we received the game earlier, before the day 1 patch was ready (and it inevitably ended up on torrent sites shortly thereafter), that'd be the unpatched, buggier, and less polished game out there that everyone was drawing their conclusions from - it'd potentially be less well received than the patched version, and thus could lead to lower sales.

[LordCrash]

 

 

Apparently every fruitful discussion is indeed lost here since you don't even want to discuss anything and since you don't listen or answer to other people's arguments, you just want to accuse me (or others) of something. Goodbye.

 

 

 

I am not accusing you or others of anything. 

 

One thing I cannot understand is that you are propagating a "word of mouth" as the best marketing tool and at the same time you are whining here on forums that you didn't get something you were not entitled to in the first place, and by whining and criticizing the Obsidian you are for sure sending confusing/bad picture about the Obsidian as a responsible company. That is also affecting perception of the game.

 

 

"I don't accuse you or others of anything." <-> "You are whining here on the forums."

 

You get it? Talking about TOPICS is something completely different than talking about PERSONS. There is no reason to call me a whiner. You can disagree with my points, of course, but please stick to the topic and actually refute my arguments if you think you can.

 

About the bad perception: really? Because a small number of people discuss this here on the board? I can assure you 99% of the people buying and playing this game will never see this discussion or even hear about it. But of course word of mouth can work in both ways. That's actually why I think Obsidian made a wrong decision here and that they've wasted a huge opportunity.

Edited March 25, 2015 by LordCrash

[LordCrash]

LordCrash, part of the problem is that if we received the game earlier, before the day 1 patch was ready (and it inevitably ended up on torrent sites shortly thereafter), that'd be the unpatched, buggier, and less polished game out there that everyone was drawing their conclusions from - it'd potentially be less well received than the patched version, and thus could lead to lower sales.

 

Same could be said for the review version and the version for streamers. In that case nobody should have gotten an early version indeed.

 

In the end, it's probably really a trust issue. Obsidian apparently thinks that gaming media and streamers can cope with a slightly more buggy version (but far, far from unplayable or bad) while the most loyal fans and backers are incapable of doing the same. No matter if you agree with that or not, it's not a sign that you trust your community. On the other hand, various early access titles proved that if managed and communicated well ordinary people are quite capable of making a solid assessment on a version that lacks the last 5% of polish...

Edited March 25, 2015 by LordCrash

[Kinthalis]

Ugh, so sad to see so many man-children amongst backers.

 

My only hope is that once the game releases and the frothing of the mouth subsides, that some of you will feel a bit of shame about the way you acted.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Kinthalis

[Cymelion]

 

 

 

 

Wow, this thread... many people who do not understand press, PR, capitalism, or probably a lot more.

 

Why in the WORLD would Obsidian put the backers before the press at this point. The backers wont be sales. The press will reach them.

 

Why would we, as backers, even WANT to be priviledged like that. Do we not want the game to be a success? To sell massive amounts of copies? Did we just back just to get this game knowing it's a one-shot amongs AAA-RPG's? Or did we back so more of these types of games could be made after PoE for us.

 

If the second, which includes my backing, why would we want sales to stagnate? I definitely wouldn't want that. I want as many copies sold as possible. If press before us grants that, so be it. It's a small price to pay to get more of these types of games in the future rather than people saying 'I knew nobody would want those games anymore these days - just look at the sales figure'

 

Is that a hard concept to grasp? Do you really, REALLY, want to put yourself ahead just to put the future of RPG's like this at risk? REALLY?

 

Your base assumption is imho incorrect that nowadays press is the most important marketing channel for games of that kind. I'd say for PC exclusive games of some niche appeal word of mouth from enthusiastic fans is an even more powerful marketing tool. That's why streamers on youtube get more and more important as well.

 

I don't see how giving copies to backers earlier should result in lower sales. You might elaborate on that?

 

But you just missed the point and your whole rant is useless anyway because nobody here criticizes Obsidian for giving out review copies to the press before release. We criticize them for not giving out game copies to backers at the same time.

 

 

Well because game is DRM free if backers would get copies, let's say 3 days before launch, the torrent with the game would be out in less than a 10 minutes and than people would pirate it for 3 days before launch. That would hurt Obsidian sales on so many levels!

 

And furthermore, do you consider yourself that important and entitled that the company owns you something because you backed their development? Excuse me, but I think we own more to Obsidian than they to us, as there is no other studio or people who could pull something like this, and who would put everything on risk to make a game that no one seems to want (I mean publishers and nowadays gamers). I pledged $290 and I do not know anyone else in whole world who could for that money get me a game like this!

 

Be happy that we were allowed to play a part in something great and something no one believed that can happened again - to get real spiritual successor to our beloved IE games!

 

 

I doubt the significance of the torrent argument. People who want to pirate the game will so anyway. It's not like just because a torrent isn't available two weeks before release would lead to buy the game. You could even counter the whole argument by looking at the torrent as a free demo. There are still quite a few people who pirate games to evaluate whether they want to buy the game for full price or not. So maybe it would have even fueled sales (just talking about effects here, not about torrents being right or something, ok).

 

And my argument wasn't about myself, but about the effectiveness of marketing. I think releasing the game earlier to backers would have been a win-win situation for everyone. Backers would have been happy because they feel a bit special and respected and Obsidian would have been happy because everyone in the core audience was talking about the game on social networks and game communities like Steam. Not even mentioning a whole lot of probably very positive Steam user reviews already available at launch which is the best argument for quite some people I know to actually buy a game. I say it again, word of mouth is the best marketing channel for a game like Pillars of Eternity, imho more important than traditional reviews. People nowadays - especially on PC - trust their friends and user reviews more than those of traditional media.

 

 

Well I cannot argue with you obviously you have your opinion and cant/don't want to accept another one.

 

IMHO one lost sale of the game because someone impatient would download torrent and than later decide for whatever reason not to buy the game is a loss.

 

As Obsidian never said that backers will get game before others, I do not see the reason discussing this topic at all...

 

And furthermore I would suggest Obsidian for the next kickstarter (I hope that they will make it whether they got enough funds or not because I like to be a part of something like it) that they separately state in CAPITAL LETTERS that:

 

"Backers will NOT get game before official release. Please do not pledge if you cannot accept this. Thank you very much."

 

 

No but they said in their KS they weren't going to a publisher and they broke that without any issue.

 

Again you're all making the assumption that people who are mad are somehow treating your precious Obsidian as the bad guys - they're not bad they just made a really bad decision - they've apologized to me about it so I am willing to let their future actions speak for them. But I am encouraging everyone I know to be a lot more cautious about Obsidian in the future because regardless of how the game stands on its own. It's the way backers are treated that matters in this situation - and as you say yes no one was promised early access not trying to form a class action or seek legal action against them - people like me are just disappointed.

[Cymelion]

LordCrash, part of the problem is that if we received the game earlier, before the day 1 patch was ready (and it inevitably ended up on torrent sites shortly thereafter), that'd be the unpatched, buggier, and less polished game out there that everyone was drawing their conclusions from - it'd potentially be less well received than the patched version, and thus could lead to lower sales.

 

The review copy sent to media is already on torrent sites - so that's a false statement.

[LordCrash]

Ugh, so sad to see so many man-children amongst backers.

 

My only hope is that once the game releases and the frothing of the mouth subsides, that some of you will feel a bit of shame about the way you acted.

 

Sad to see so many people amongst the backers who think they have to call others whiners, babies, man-children or whatever else. What's the point in that, hm?

 

If you have nothing of substance to contribute to the discussion why saying anything at all?

Edited March 25, 2015 by LordCrash

[Aarionn]

 

LordCrash, part of the problem is that if we received the game earlier, before the day 1 patch was ready (and it inevitably ended up on torrent sites shortly thereafter), that'd be the unpatched, buggier, and less polished game out there that everyone was drawing their conclusions from - it'd potentially be less well received than the patched version, and thus could lead to lower sales.

 

The review copy sent to media is already on torrent sites - so that's a false statement.

 

 

I think you are wrong about reviewers version on torrents, but I think it should not be discussed on forums here.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Aarionn