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Game News Hey Roguey, Swen Vincke says he didn't run out of money for Divinity: Original Sin

DarkUnderlord

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Tags: Divinity: Original Sin; Larian Studios; RPG Codex; Swen Vincke

For those who don't know, Swen Vincke is the founder of Larian Studios, developers of the Divinity RPG series. They've been doing the rounds lately talking about their newest game in the series, Divinity: Original Sin - and their plans to "partially" fund the game through KickStarter.

That of course is code for:

Roguey: Wow Larian ran out of money who could have possibly seen this co- Oh, look it was me!

Swen has replied to those rumours about lack of money on his blog:

[...] the thing that really made my weekend was getting the message that we were voted runner up for most anticipated RPG of 2013 at RPGWatch, receiving 22% of the votes. Major whistling because this is a site I visit daily to keep up to date on the antics of our fellow RPG developers. Being in their lists makes me feel pretty good, and tbh, even a bit smug because I had been dealing with quite some naysayers in the past about this game.

But because I learnt the hard way that “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” I figured over the weekend that it was important to find a counterbalance and therefore decided to visit another site this morning... (insert doomy music)

THE RPGCODEX !!!

Specifically, the RpgCodex forums, your daily antidote to thinking you’re getting anywhere in the world of CRPGs, unless your name happens to be Chris Avellone.

And lo and behold, they didn’t disappoint
9571.gif


For those not familiar with the RPGCodex, it’s where you go if you’re looking for a hefty dose of RPG critical analysis wrapped in imaginative language (often involving gastrointestinal issues). Now despite the occasionally interesting wording and tendency to rant about what makes a true RPG, I think that more than often the posters there represent the unvented opinion of a lot of players, and if you’re into making RPG’s, you can learn a lot by reading between the lines. In the same breath I have to add that you’ll also need a very thick hide, preferably made of dinosaur scales, especially if you already dared release a RPG that they played. But together with the RPGWatch forums, you can get a lot of “market research” done by just spending some time there.​

MarketResearchCodex: We should charge for that. Anyway, he continues because "the original quote in the article is actually not telling the entire story either, and it could do with a bit of nuance, so here goes":

Obviously somebody jumped on the Kickstarter part, and suddenly it started popping up on forums everywhere, including the RPGCodex where the phrase “partially funded through Kickstarter” was quickly translated into “Larian ran out of money”
9571.gif
The thread is here btw.
[...]
Basically, Divinity: Original Sin is already funded. Larian, together with two minority investors, one for each game (Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Dragon Commander), put sufficient amounts of cash in both games to guarantee that they get done. We’re even reasonably assured that the games won’t be a financial disaster because we managed to get sufficient guarantees from our retail distributors to earn back large parts of our money and, we only need to sell a fraction of our previous sales to be in the black.​

Obviously LIES and MISTRUTHS created to DECEIVE us from understanding their real financial position. It also raises the question: Why are they doing a KickStarter if they don't need any money? Swen explains this away with "it’ll allow us to put more things in", "prevent us from having to take shortcuts" and "allow us to put more stuff in the editor". IE: Feature bloat. Swen even goes on to explain how FULL OF AWESOME Larian's AWESOME game is:

The reason we received these guarantees is that the concepts are solid, our previous games sold well enough and to talk about Divinity: Original Sin specifically, if you see Divinity: Original Sin in action and love RPGs, any doubts you may have will disappear on the spot. This game is just cool.​

Where have we heard that before? :balance: :hearnoevil:

Swen continues:

Because words are but words...​

Indeed.

... and some posters on the Codex are rightfully wary of any rhetoric,​

Yes, rightfully wary.

I’ll happily extend an invitation to one of them to come to our offices so we can show the game. I’m serious btw guys, but you’ll have to agree on who you send as an emissary, the emissary obviously being the person who knows a real CRPG from a a mutated adventure (evil grin
9571.gif
)​

We're taking you up on your offer, Mr Vincke. A highly qualified Codexian Approved, Real RPG Investigator™ is being contacted as we speak. We're even trying to source a native Belgonium speaker so as there's no "google translation issues". You need to be aware however, that this highly trained individual will be immune to the mind-numbing effect of Dorito's and Mountain Dew and will not be swayed by arguments of "this is just alpha" and "that will work better in the final version".

You have been warned.
 

Metro

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Sven makes a blog post. People commence fapping!
 

Roguey

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:lol: Thanks for the namedrop.

To the Codex--You're welcome. Once again my manic flailing has given you attention.
 
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I think the fapping is more about DarkUnderlord dispatching grotsnik on a quest to investigate some mysterious happenings at Larian Studios. The local kobolds developers have begun to seem more organized of late, hinting at a sinister intelligence manipulating events in the service of a larger plan...
 

Grotesque

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Divinity: Original Sin Divinity: Original Sin 2
more like "I have to add that you’ll also need a very thick hide, preferably made of dinosaur dragon scales"
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
DU is linking Grotsnik's article when talking about the emissary, so...

He linked that because of the article's content, not because of its writer.

Nothing has been decided yet.
 

Baron

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I don't think the use of Kickstarter says anything at all about one's financial situation. Given that it generates thousands of dollars worth of additional marketing exposure AND delivers pre-sales before you've typed a line of code... you'd have to be barking insane not to make use of it.

No offence, Vault Dweller.
 
Repressed Homosexual
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Do the Larian people speak French or Flemish in their office? Flemish I presume?

I wonder why people don't like Sven, he is a really nice guy who puts his earth on the sleeve.
 

Roguey

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I don't think the use of Kickstarter says anything at all about one's financial situation. Given that it generates thousands of dollars worth of additional marketing exposure AND delivers pre-sales before you've typed a line of code... you'd have to be barking insane not to make use of it.
Well I was also basing it on things Vincke actually said about how they were a year late on both games and running tight on cash. Even in this article he says "it’s true that we’re walking a tight line and that we’re burning a lot to ensure that what we release as good as we can get it" though he goes on to say they've been in this situation all the time (which is true). Sometimes luck runs out though.
 
Repressed Homosexual
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:lol: Thanks for the namedrop.

To the Codex--You're welcome. Once again my manic flailing has given you attention.

Why do you spend so much time deconstructing RPGs and developers if you like games even less than Skyway? You even said you hated the genre in another thread, and your list of worst RPGs ever played comprised basically every high rated CD-ROM era RPG ever.
 

Metro

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Excidium Oh, btw, this is what I meant in that other thread about how Larian fuels themselves off of the 'ain't dey kewl d00ds' vibe.
 

Roguey

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Why do you spend so much time deconstructing RPGs and developers if you like games even less than Skyway?
Because it's fun. I also like games, I just happen to be really critical about them because my standards are pretty low. If not for my heavy, harsh analysis I'd be just another mole-popping casual and I can't have that.
You even said you hated the genre in another thread, and your list of worst RPGs ever played comprised basically every high rated CD-ROM era RPG ever.
I also mildly-to-moderately enjoyed almost everything I listed with a few notable exceptions.
 

Black

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:lol: Thanks for the namedrop.

To the Codex--You're welcome. Once again my manic flailing has given you attention.
Thanks for reminding the people of RPGs that shit shithole still exists :honoursword:
 

RK47

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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
:lol: Thanks for the namedrop.

To the Codex--You're welcome. Once again my manic flailing has given you attention.
:love:
 

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