Game News inXile admit that Torment stretch goal content has been cut, including companions

[Lurker King]

I don't even need my $125 back.

That’s another line that have being repeated time and again. But what does it mean? It’s also associated with another line “I got 30hs of fun for 20 bucks. The game sucks past that, but I got my money’s worth”. The point is not the amount of money you spend, but the negative consequences of how you spend. If developers keep reading these lines, they will make shallow games and get away with it.

 

[Prime Junta]

The point is not the amount of money you spend, but the negative consequences of how you spend. If developers keep reading these lines, they will make shallow games and get away with it.

Exactly. That's why I'm asking it back.

If you're thinking of this in terms of messages to send, I'm 100% sure that request for a refund stings more than not getting a customer you never even heard of.

 

[Lurker King]

You know, I wanted to do the "Age of Incline GOTY" voting just because of that... has Kickstarter really spawned a golden era?

The poll closes tomorrow, but let me tell ya - it ain't impressive. Current Top 20 has only 4 crowd-funded games. Apparently the Codex had more fun with JRPG console ports than with KS games.

Four's better than zero.

Not if we spend 90% of the time talking about crowfundin games, it isn't. It shows that we are investing your money and energy on the wrong things for the wrong reasons.

 

[Roguey]

Not if we spend 90% of the time talking about crowfundin games, it isn't. It shows that we are investing your money and energy on the wrong things for the wrong reasons.

I've helped kickstart six released games (and Dead State was/is terrible, so more like five), so if four of those are in the top 20 that's pretty great.

 

[Somberlain]

"Kickstarter Renaissance" may be producing one disappointing turd at a time but Codex never fails. These inXile threads here have produced us infinitely more entertainment than the banal shit boring drivel Fraudgo and his treacherous nu male crew ever could. So, I want to salute all our Righteous Codexian Crusaders, Sensitive Snowflakes at Neofag and of course our resident White Knights for Fargo. This couldn't have happened without you

 

[Prime Junta]

But you didn’t drop PoE, Tyranny, etc. In fact, you even made reviews about it. It shows how your priorities are all messed up. You have a poor understanding of the subject. What exactly you didn’t like about AoD? The character building, the combat system, the deep reactivity or is it that the writing? I’m sure PoE is better in all these things. *sigh*

I liked P:E. A lot. It's my favourite cRPG since FO:NV in fact.

The topmost reason I couldn't get into AoD is probably that it looks like ass. That generation of 3D engine needs to die in a fire, and not everything has to look like a giant farted on it.

I also didn't find anything in the first hour of writing that was interesting or compelling enough to keep me playing. For whatever reason, I didn't relate to Theron or the characters in it; they just felt like so many taskmasters or quest dispensers. Maybe that would change later but I never got that far.

 

[Black Angel]

Speaking only for myself, I have a hard time getting into most indies for a variety of mostly non- reasons. The stuff I like tends to be expensive: rich, varied gameplay, big scope, lots of story, doesn't look like ass, that sort of thing. I think one big reason I can't into AoD is that, well, it looks like ass. The few low-budget indies I do like tend to be super-focused hipster shit (Kentucky Road Zero), hyper-autistic insanity (Dwarf Fortress), or so far in Absurdistan I can't help loving them (Barkley).

I was kind of like that, too. Hell, I was turned off by how AoD looked. But, now that I've got into it.... I just can't stop. I even burnt myself ~2-3 weeks of playing it, now I'm taking a break by playing other games, but soon I'll return to AoD. You mentioned those 5 things, with only 1 of it turning you off from AoD, I say there's still 4 reasons vs. 1 of why you should play AoD, then.

Oh, and I know you're hyped for No Truce with the Furies, and I'm following the updates/logs, too. But, having played AoD, I'm fairly confident to say, that what you're looking for in NTwtF, you would certainly find in AoD (i.e the game can still go on despite of skill checks failures in a lot of cases).

I also didn't find anything in the first hour of writing that was interesting or compelling enough to keep me playing. For whatever reason, I didn't relate to Theron or the characters in it; they just felt like so many taskmasters or quest dispensers. Maybe that would change later but I never got that far.

What class you played, and with what stats? You should refer to the Tips, Tricks, and Spoiler thread. VD's also pretty generous in helping people getting into the game, but eh..... since you didn't even bother to post in the Tips n' Tricks thread I guess it's really THAT bad for you...

 

[Infinitron]

felipepepe What are the top types of games in terms of how many people played them?

 

[Lurker King]

Also, it's debatable if the big KS projects helped or actually suppressed other games. How many people bought W2 instead of AoD and got their fill of isometric TB games? Last September saw the release of Ember, an isometric RPG, yet I didn't hear a single think about it because people were too busy with the big names. Would he fare better in 2012?

My point is, aren't the big KS names taking all the attention over the smaller indies?

Exactly. It's almost as if nothing else outside this inner circle mattered. They ensure that these games will fade into obscurity, willingly or not. Before kickstarter, the few cRPGs inspired in older games were exotic endangered species. Age of Decadence, for instance, was one of its kind. Do you remember the shitstorm on Rock Paper and Shotgun on 2007 and 2008? Do you think they would even bother to invite Vince if we have the kickstarter renascence at its peak? What it is the difference between player’s perception before the kickstarter and afterwards? I would say that before most people were talking about Grimoire, Age of Decadence, Timelapse Vertigo, a.k.a, Underrail, the past classics, cancelled releases, etc.

What is the subject of 90% of discussions now? Obsidian, Chris Avellone, Brian Fargo, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian, Pillars and more Pillars of Eternity. It doesn’t matter what game is released, or how good it is, everything is about Obsidian and Inxile. I mean EVERYTHING. Nobody has the time to play good games, but everybody is playing Tyranny because it was made by Obsidian. It’s crazy. They are not protecting anything; they are replacing it with bad practices and dumbdown design. Do you think this is about ITS? It's not. It's about our whole culture. It's geting vitiated and tapered by two or three studios.

 

[Sensuki]

People seem to only have the stomach for polished turds, actually make that - high production value turds.

 

[Lurker King]

Not one good RPG has been crowdfunded yet. Best CRPG I played lately was Witcher 3.
And I fucking hate Witcher 3.

Undertale, Serpent in the Staglands, no? And maybe Banner Saga.

Fixed.

 

[Maculo]

The interview debacle was my last straw with InXile, but I still held out hope for a quality Torment game. Now, I am not so sure about the game's quality or InXile's ability to deliver. This project just looks mismanaged, which is unfortunate, because I thought the initial concept was neat (a man using clones/hosts to escape karma/punishment). It is probably too late to get a refund, but I still will try.

Also, how does Neogaf fit into this? They are a Sony advertising board, so why are they discussing pc games? Won't that interfere with sucking off Sony and its products? Sounds like they are slacking over there. Or, do they still believe InXile can deliver a sound console port

 

[l3loodAngel]

But you didn’t drop PoE, Tyranny, etc. In fact, you even made reviews about it. It shows how your priorities are all messed up. You have a poor understanding of the subject. What exactly you didn’t like about AoD? The character building, the combat system, the deep reactivity or is it that the writing? I’m sure PoE is better in all these things. *sigh*

I liked P:E. A lot. It's my favourite cRPG since FO:NV in fact.

The topmost reason I couldn't get into AoD is probably that it looks like ass. That generation of 3D engine needs to die in a fire, and not everything has to look like a giant farted on it.

I also didn't find anything in the first hour of writing that was interesting or compelling enough to keep me playing. For whatever reason, I didn't relate to Theron or the characters in it; they just felt like so many taskmasters or quest dispensers. Maybe that would change later but I never got that far.

Well that explains a lot. Plebs with their taste and their principles...

 

[felipepepe]

felipepepe What are the top types of games in terms of how many people played them?

Well, that's the interesting part - the 5 most played games were the big Kickstarter games: PoE, W2, D:OS, S:R and Dragonfall.

PoE was the most popular by far, almost 80% of the Codex played it.

 

[Cosmo]

My point is, aren't the big KS names taking all the attention over the smaller indies?

That's a rhetorical and ultimately pointless question : first how could you even measure such a thing, and second kickstarter happened in the context of the indie boom, not the other way around.
The first thing that steals attention from indie games is indie games themselves. Of course they can't compete marketing-wise, but the most talked about kickstarters are mid-range ventures.

 

[himmy]

If they give so much importance about political agenda, why they are wasting their time with games?

That statement also applies 100% to the Codex.

Rating-bombing a game and actively trying to bankrupt a developer because they had a character you didn't feel comfortable with (because of your own latent homosexuality) is the sort of thing that is seen as a rational and desirable action around here. C'mon.

 

[Volrath]

If they give so much importance about political agenda, why they are wasting their time with games?

That statement also applies 100% to the Codex.

Rating-bombing a game and actively trying to bankrupt a developer because they had a character you didn't feel comfortable with (because of your own latent homosexuality) is the sort of thing that is seen as a rational and desirable action around here. C'mon.

Wait. It isn't?

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

Now you can get a top of the line engine (Unreal 4) for 5% of your sales

Well not exactly:
"...you'll need to track gross revenue and pay a 5% royalty on that amount after the first $3000 per game..."
source: https://www.unrealengine.com/release

I am not sure, but this could also mean that you have to pay made money that is not only from the game but from your company....I bet you checked that...

 

[Infinitron]

I think most Codexers are too insular, too lazy or simply view as try-hard that sort of chan-style reviewing bombing behavior. We're like the intellectuals who applaud and write supportive essays while the shock troops do the actual fighting

 

[Maculo]

If they give so much importance about political agenda, why they are wasting their time with games?

That statement also applies 100% to the Codex.

Rating-bombing a game and actively trying to bankrupt a developer because they had a character you didn't feel comfortable with (because of your own latent homosexuality) is the sort of thing that is seen as a rational and desirable action around here. C'mon.

Comfortable with? You mean that pathetic attempt at virtue signaling by the devs in Dragonspear? It is one thing to write a trans character, it is another to write a character solely to appear virtuous on twitter. This is a setting that already has a belt that changes the gender of its user and which was a quest point in Baldur's Gate 2. Yet, you have a dev that lazily tried to score points with a shallow character. What trans person opens up a conversation with how they are trans? Does that make any fucking sense?

I will even give a counter example. Take Pisha from Vampires: The Masquerade. If I remember correctly, she alluded to being a lesbian if you asked about her past. The dialogue did not derail into a discussion of lesbianism. In fact, her sexuality did not override the rest of the character, which devs like Bioware fail to understand. That's the difference between treating an identity as normal and not stigmatized versus blatant virtue signaling in Dragonspear.

tldr, Dragonspear deserved some shit.

 

[Lurker King]

That statement also applies 100% to the Codex.

Rating-bombing a game and actively trying to bankrupt a developer because they had a character you didn't feel comfortable with (because of your own latent homosexuality) is the sort of thing that is seen as a rational and desirable action around here. C'mon.

That’s a superficial way of seeing things. One of the reasons Dragonspear sucked was the forced agenda on the story and its characters. You are talking about one character, but the whole game feels like having a picnic with a team of feminazis. You think we give too much importance to politics when we are talking about games. That is incorrect. We talk about politics because it’s affecting our games, making them worse. We want less politics in our games, less ham-fisted agendas, not more.

 

[Ismaul]

Lurker King is right. We got played by our emotions by the Kickstarter pitches, with that whole RPG Renaissance talk, fuck publishers speeches, and a promise to return to what we loved. Fuck I was driven to study philosophy because of the impact Torment had on young me. The reaction to all that's happening is understandable in this context. We are being played again (and again), but this time the tune is much less pleasant. Bitching is to be expected. We gotta go through the steps.

Arguably this is why the Kickstarter games are the most played and talked about so much: invested emotions and hopes. Nobody has a personal stake in indie games except the creators. We have a much more skepical attitude towards them, "if it's good I'll play it", because we don't know the devs and cannot self-hype as easily. Add dreams + money to the pot, and everything becomes dramatic.


My new mantra:
Apathy is the only issue.
"Everything is shit" is the logical resulting coping mechanism.
MetalCraze/Skyway was the Wise One. (Is he still here under another nick? I haven't followed)
It's easier to laugh when you don't care.
Not even asking for a refund; I need to feel the burn.

 

[Jarpie]

Lurker King is right. We got played by our emotions by the Kickstarter pitches, with that whole RPG Renaissance talk, fuck publishers speeches, and a promise to return to what we loved. Fuck I was driven to study philosophy because of the impact Torment had on young me. The reaction to all that's happening is understandable in this context. We are being played again (and again), but this time the tune is much less pleasant. Bitching is to be expected. We gotta go through the steps.

Arguably this is why the Kickstarter games are the most played and talked about so much: invested emotions and hopes. Nobody has a personal stake in indie games except the creators. We have a much more skepical attitude towards them, "if it's good I'll play it", because we don't know the devs and cannot self-hype as easily. Add dreams + money to the pot, and everything becomes dramatic.


My new mantra:
Apathy is the only issue.
"Everything is shit" is the logical resulting coping mechanism.
MetalCraze/Skyway was the Wise One. (Is he still here under another nick? I haven't followed)
It's easier to laugh when you don't care.
Not even asking for a refund; I need to feel the burn.

Or as we say in Finland "Pessimisti ei pety" or in anglo-saxon "Pessimists doesn't get disappointed".

 

[Prime Junta]

Yeah, it takes a certain amount of courage to continue to hope. I don't blame cowards for their cowardice.

 

[duanth123]