Game News Torment Kickstarter Update #9: Chris Avellone!

[Infinitron]

Yeah, and then luckily a MIRACLE happened. Sorry, I'm not buying it.

Don't get me wrong I'm not accusing anyone of lying or hiding information or anything. Fargo shows that he knows how to run a good campaign in order to get in as many backers and as much money as possible, and know when and what stretchgoals to add. The game would have been quickly backed anyway, so it would have made no sense to announce MCA right from the very beginning. Avellone is a good card and Fargo knew when to play him.

Anyway, I'm not accusing anyone of lying or spreading disinformation or anything. It's how business works. I think for most people it was not a question of 'if' but of 'when' would a collaboration with Avellone be announced. I doubt anyone (except fringe loonies like Roguey) is going to withdraw their pledge now that he is probably going to be on board. Most will be glad to have him join.

Again, it was more than just "not announcing him". They "announced" the LACK of him. That's not a clever tactic. It's just plain bad PR.

 

[Brother None]

Anyway, I'm not accusing anyone of lying or spreading disinformation or anything.

You seem to be saying I'm lying, since I'm flat-out saying we did not think the collaboration with MCA could happen when the Kickstarter launched. It was beginning to look more likely a week or so ago, but before that? No way.

 

[catfood]

Again, it was more than just "not announcing him". They "announced" the LACK of him. That's not a clever tactic. It's just plain bad PR.

Ah, but see now the news is all the sweeter. Yesterday there was no hope for him to join, but today they are glad to announce the big miracle.

Torment without MCA is like a thai ladyboy hooker without a dick. Sure, it's possible, but it has nowhere near the same allure.

 

[CappenVarra]

You know, if these kickstarters work out, MCA should go over to to InXile where he'll have some actual bros to keep him from straying away from the blessed light of the emperor. Obsidian had potential, but never really lived up to it; I was always fond of them, but never of their games. Disillusion is a funny word.

Also, Tim Cain really needs to lead a cRPG design one of these days, the man is wasted giving feedback to pale shadows of his glory. Tim Cain kickstarter, where art thou?

And never mind me, I'm just ranting...

 

[Stabwound]

I don't believe this was planned. MCA's involvement is going to be so small that they're basically just namedropping him for street cred; it's not like he's going to be an active member of the team. He's writing one NPC and "providing feedback" on the game. He'll probably spend more time signing backer items than working on the game itself.

 

[catfood]

Anyway, I'm not accusing anyone of lying or spreading disinformation or anything.

You seem to be saying I'm lying, since I'm flat-out saying we did not think the collaboration with MCA could happen when the Kickstarter launched. It was beginning to look more likely a week or so ago, but before that? No way.

I like to think of it as a little white lie.

Whatever, you're the PR guy. You guys need to have your little secrets.

 

[tuluse]

The game would have been quickly backed anyway

 

[catfood]

The game would have been quickly backed anyway

?

 

[Brother None]

Whatever, you're the PR guy.

Owtch. You wound me, sirrah!

 

[tuluse]

The game would have been quickly backed anyway

?

Most people thought it was extremely risky, if not outright stupid to try to sell a Torment game without Avellone beforehand. This whole rewriting history to "of course InXile will easily surpass a million dollars while following up on their last kickstarter they haven't released yet, and not involving the most important person in PS:T, duh" thing is getting on my nerves.

 

[Indranys]

Haha.
My prediction is spot on!
Thanks inXile, I'll get my prize tomorrow.

Now where's my Todd Howard stretch goal?
There's not enough i-mer-shun in this game.

 

[Diablo169]

Just as planned!

 

[serch]

MCA is certainly selling some Torment, today numbers will look pretty good. I manage to grab one of the 110 limited spots from one guy that brutally upgraded after MCA's update.

 

[Infinitron]

It's going to pass Wasteland 2 in funding by tomorrow.

 

[catfood]

The game would have been quickly backed anyway

?

Most people thought it was extremely risky, if not outright stupid to try to sell a Torment game without Avellone beforehand. This whole rewriting history to "of course InXile will easily surpass a million dollars while following up on their last kickstarter they haven't released yet, and not involving the most important person in PS:T, duh" thing is getting on my nerves.

Not only does PST have a huge cult following, but right now Fargo & Co. are viewed by some as the saviour of the RPG genre. He is popular among the oldschool fanbase. Plus, other previous RPG campaigns have finished well as long as they had a good enough pitch (*cough*notjohnromerooldschoolrpg*cough*), so there's a market out there for those. They also released a good gameplay video of Wasteland 2, because hey, you need to show that you are actually working on the games that you got funded for, and it too got positive feedback. It is to use Monte Cook's brand new RPG rule set, who also got funded on Kickstarterway over the expected amount. And Cook is a well known character in the RPG community. They also got MCA to make that Youtube video giving them his blessing. He also started the hype for Torment a couple of months before the launch. Meanwhile if I remember correctly the Wasteland 2 fund drive came pretty much out of nowhere.

So, no I don't believe for a second that this campaign would have not been successful. Kickstarter fatigue? Please.

Fargo knows when to play his cards it seems.

Oh, and don't let such trivial things get on your nerves, it's not good for your health.

 

[Gakkone]

Looks like the MCA announcement will pretty much bump them to 3 million and beyond (ok, I'm only guessing how much they have in Paypal donations). Any guesses where they'll land? They're way ahead of PE at this point so 4 million seems like a given.

 

[Jaesun]

I just want my 2D (3D rendered) Backgrounds.

 

[Diablo169]

I just want my 2D (3D rendered) Backgrounds.

That'll be the 4 million goal i'd wager

 

[4too]

Whither The Romance Of The Codex? Forewarn, Not Forlorn!

MCA will write a romanceable, smarmy …

Possible image templates already a buzz the web!

Gravitate to this solicitous nexus.

Drama, comic or tragic, the certain low hanging fruit, in three acts!

Behold in the last reel!
Potential action figure?

Collect them all!





4too

 

[Malpercio]

I literally masturbated to this news.

And i know i'm not the only one.

 

[Goral]

@catfood
@felipepepe

Even if it was a deliberate move by Brian Fargo I see nothing wrong with it. If he would announce that MCA would be on board and it would turn out he would receive such a miniscule role people would be more pissed (and surely more people would claim that it was money grab only). If he would say nothing about him there would be more people saying: "MCA" x 100 than "ZIETS" x 10 which would be annoying and which would force BF's hand and make him answer this one way or the other.

Instead he did the best thing possible: not being sure whether MCA could join them or not (or more like being 99% sure it won't happen in any way) he said no so that people wouldn't be disappointed. And in the unlikely case it would happen most people would be pleasantly surprised (or just happy but not surprised).

In other words Brian Fargo is a bro and not a money grabber.

 

[felipepepe]

As I said before, is a huge grey area, the limits of when they are "great at hearing the audience" or "milking people out" is very personal...

Besides, more than MCA's sudden summon, there is a deeper issue... this idea of piling up writers is weird IMHO, is like a book editor saying "This is the ultimate nerd book, we'll have Tolkien, Lovecraft and Asimov writting together a deep, emotionally engaiging story!" I mean, at what point this changes from stuff that can actually improve the game to pure fanservice?

We often discuss here how modern games suck at design choices, one of the reasons due massive teams where outstanding individual ideas are muted while trying to get to common ground for the group... and here we are, celebrating as Fargo keeps stuffing people into Torment... I don't like this.

 

[Jaesun]

What is wrong with them keeping adding people, when they even hired an editor specifically to manage the consistency for this project?

 

[felipepepe]

What is wrong with them keeping adding people, when they even hired an editor specifically to manage the consistency for this project?

Precisely that. I'd rather have a single writer going batshit insane than a bunch of them trying to reach consistency among them.

 

[Jaesun]

The more ideas flowing from many the better. But there are limits. I don't see that getting in the way of a great game so far (of which writing and story are its main focus).