Game News Sawyer discusses release plans for Pillars of Eternity with Eurogamer

[SuicideBunny]

I'd go to the stores every day in the week before the release in hope of somewhere magically getting the box I've hoped for so long. And then, on the way home I'd read the booklet and be even more excited. Once I got home I installed it for an hour or so, getting more and more hyped until I could finally go into the game for the very first time.

heh, i remember doing that and one day seeing that weirdass huge pink box with a skeleton and dragon on the cover that looked like it might be fun.... had to scrounge up all my saved small coins and go home a second time because the first time i was 20 pfennig short and the asshole clerk wouldn't sell it to me... walking home with that box felt really satisfying despite its girly color.

 

[Hobz]

Wouldn't they make more money by offering early access to all backers so they can price it closer to other games' ?

 

[Roguey]

Or they could do it the smart way, like Larian did.

Offering beta access as an add-on for additional cost, then offering it to everybody while also offering refunds to anyone who wants them makes them look short-sighted/stupid/wishy-washy/exploitative (assuming people who don't know or no longer care).

 

[tuluse]

They should just do the same thing InXile did and ignore the whiners.

 

[SuicideBunny]

charging 20 bucks extra for beta access already makes them look exploitative and as if they had no faith in the quality of their own game all on its own, though.

 

[Seerix]

Any sane developer should try to maximize their profits, even when they do care about their game(especially in this case, since if they want make more awesome they need more resources!). Exploiting people trough Early Access is pretty good scheme.

 

[Hormalakh]

charging 20 bucks extra for beta access already makes them look exploitative and as if they had no faith in the quality of their own game all on its own, though.

i disagree, fuck the whiners. if you want early access, you can pay whatever the dev says to. you'll get the game eventually like all the other plebs.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Any sane developer should try to maximize their profits, even when they do care about their game(especially in this case, since if they want make more awesome they need more resources!). Exploiting people trough Early Access is pretty good scheme.

sure, and milking sheep for every cent you can get is what kickstarter was made for, after all, but that does not change the fact that doing so looks frigging lame, which is only amplified by what larian did.

 

[Infinitron]

Any sane developer should try to maximize their profits, even when they do care about their game(especially in this case, since if they want make more awesome they need more resources!). Exploiting people trough Early Access is pretty good scheme.

sure, and milking sheep for every cent you can get is what kickstarter was made for, after all, but that does not change the fact that doing so looks frigging lame, which is only amplified by what larian did.

I don't think it's that lame. The idea is that the more you've invested in the game, which is a kind of collective enterprise, the more you have a right to know how your investment is shaping up.

And it's only natural for backers to want to know how their investments are shaping up, which is why they play these Early Access games. The real question is why people who aren't backers buy them on Steam.

 

[SuicideBunny]

I don't think it's that lame. The idea is that the more you've invested in the game, which is a kind of collective enterprise, the more you have a right to know how your investment is shaping up.

that's the idea for including beta access in higher tiers. i'm talking solely about charging 25 bucks, which is around full price of a good non-AAA game, merely for an early access key for something you already bought, which i think does qualify as very lame.

 

[tuluse]

sure, and milking sheep for every cent you can get is what kickstarter was made for, after all, but that does not change the fact that doing so looks frigging lame, which is only amplified by what larian did.

[roguey]
Larian just did that because they had to in order to get enough people to actually beta test their game, while InXile was sitting pretty with twice as many beta testers even while charging $50/$60 for the privilege.

D:OS - 590 peak
W2 - 1188 peak
[/roguey]

 

[Infinitron]

I don't think it's that lame. The idea is that the more you've invested in the game, which is a kind of collective enterprise, the more you have a right to know how your investment is shaping up.

that's the idea for including beta access in higher tiers. i'm talking solely about charging 25 bucks, which is around full price of a good non-AAA game, merely for an early access key for something you already bought, which i think does qualify as very lame.

Even though you still end up paying less than those higher tiers?

 

[I_am_Ian]

I'd rather not pay to beta test Piles of Eternity.

 

[Johannes]

I'd rather not beta test Arches of Eternity.

 

[Turok]

I am not going to pay any early beta access, i will wait when the games come out.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I don't get all these people wanting early access. Why spoil yourself on a buggy, feature-incomplete version of the game when you could just wait and get the finished experience when it comes out?

So you can get a feel for how much a game changes between alpha, beta, and release.

 

[Johannes]

I don't get all these people wanting early access. Why spoil yourself on a buggy, feature-incomplete version of the game when you could just wait and get the finished experience when it comes out?

So you can get a feel for how much a game changes between alpha, beta, and release.

Why would I care?

 

[IDtenT]

I don't get all these people wanting early access. Why spoil yourself on a buggy, feature-incomplete version of the game when you could just wait and get the finished experience when it comes out?

For some games it makes sense. Games that have some simulation going for it.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Any sane developer should try to maximize their profits, even when they do care about their game(especially in this case, since if they want make more awesome they need more resources!). Exploiting people trough Early Access is pretty good scheme.

Maybe exploitative but it's both them and non early access players who will benefit on more resources for the game and bug testing. Overall it makes everyone happy, besides some fools.

 

[Scruffy]

I don't get all these people wanting early access. Why spoil yourself on a buggy, feature-incomplete version of the game when you could just wait and get the finished experience when it comes out?

Here’s my personal answer/opinion:

I pledged for this game and early beta because I always loved the IE style games. They made me feel part of that “world” and I liked the art and the gameplay.

I have a feeling (and I might of course be disastrously wrong) that if Obsidian manage to make this thing work, they might have a successful IP, that will turn out to be popular, with a decent-sized group of modders and a community of people dedicated to keep this thing going.

Basically, we could get something like what NWN/NWN2 community could/should have been, but without the shitty engine. Imagine new adventures for IWD2/BG2 style games that come out (mostly for free!) every three months or so. Imagine being able to play a whole new adventure with your BG2 or IWD2 characters, in different settings and different parts of the world.

Not just mods for resolution and bugfixing, but whole new “modules” a la NWN, only without NWN’s shit engine. Modules you could actually enjoy!

I am therefore willing to work for free and even pay a fee to help debug this game, and its engine. I might not enjoy the finished product as much as I would if I only played once it came out, but I haven’t enjoyed things since 2004 anyway, so who cares.

edit
i didn't pledge for torment's early access (i don't even know if there was one) because in that case i want to enjoy the story. priorities, preferences...

 

[LeJosh]

These ea. games and their devs should just do what Vault Dweller did and release a combat/character creation demo + small start of the game.

I backed 3 projects (PoE, Torment and Div: OS) in the hope that they would get produced, they have and having ea. is just icing on the cake for me.

 

[tuluse]

PE is going to have a similar problem with modding that the original IE games had. The art is really hard to produce and modders will never be able to make it look ok.

Unless you have a tilebased system like SRR or 3D object placement system like NWN, it's just too hard to make maps.

 

[Scruffy]

PE is going to have a similar problem with modding that the original IE games had. The art is really hard to produce and modders will never be able to make it look ok.

Unless you have a tilebased system like SRR or 3D object placement system like NWN, it's just too hard to make maps.

isn't the point of using unity to have its IDE (and visual IDE i guess?) available for this kind of stuff, or did i grossly misunderstood something/thought i had read stuff that wasn't what i read?

I'm 99% sure i read that this game will support moddability, was that a dream, a hallucination? i t was something like "we love and support moddability from NWN to New Vegas, and this game will support it too"...

 

[Forest Dweller]

And it's only natural for backers to want to know how their investments are shaping up, which is why they play these Early Access games. The real question is why people who aren't backers buy them on Steam.

A chance to play early and a feeling of importance.

 

[SCO]

Mods usually don't even try to include new maps even if 'technically possible'

That is, unless some other person already did the work. And they can get away with using it without takedown notices. Which they haven't for this style even if it is unity.