Project Eternity - Ebay Fundraiser
 

This might be stretching the definition of news but it's all in the name of a good cause. Desslock - of PC Gamer fame - is selling some classic RPGs on Ebay and putting any money raised towards Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter. Full details can be found in this post on the Qt3 forums:
More information.

Really weird to do a fundraiser like this for a project that's already been funded. Twice.

Wouldn't it be a lot nicer to give the proceeds to a charity or something, since they're highly unlikely to make any kind of difference to Obsidian?

It might help the donator to make a big shot and get himself included in some sort of way into the game.

Why the negativity? I think it's very nice of him to support the Obsidian Kickstarter with a part of his collection.

Your IP says you're from France, so you probably simply don't know how stupid your remark was.

Since the donator is already well known, he doesn't need to be made a bigshot. Desslock is one of the most known crpg reviewers ever. I believe he's just finding a way to support part of the genre he loves. Really hard to criticize the guy.

My reasons are pretty simple - while I think there's likely to be a lot of kickstartered projects that never produce anything of value, I believe Obsidian can pull it off and I really want to see them succeed because I love their games. I also think traditional RPG development, at least in North America, may depend upon finding alternative funding options — and, at the very least, having additional viable funding options helps make it possible to produce a greater variety of games, which is definitely good for gamers.

Project Eternity may already have met its initial funding goal (which was very modest, given the team's ambitions), but Obsidian will put any money it gets to good use, and the more raised, the more likely the finished product is something that has an impact and gets noticed in the gaming world.

So I thought about what I could do to help out in order to be able to donate more than I could otherwise afford. I guess I felt some responsibility to support traditional RPG gaming given how much enjoyment I've gotten out of it over the past 30 years, and having written about the genre in gaming publications for half that long.

I'm also at the point in my life where I have a lot of "collectibles" that I adore, but they're just sitting around being admired like art, and I know other collectors might appreciate them more - after all, I'm going to either hold on to them forever or get rid of them at some point, and this seemed like a good occasion to get some of these games in the hands of people who might still crave them, and raise some money for traditional RPG gaming at the same time (and clean out some living space for myself!)

I'm under no illusion that they going to raise a ton of cash - probably only the WoW CEs and one or two others will raise anything meaningful, and perhaps less than half will sell. So I've also committed to making at least a $500 donation anyway, regardless of how much this effort raises. There's also almost no chance that I'll ever try to sell any of these again, so this is the one chance people will have to nab 'em if they're interested .

Also you can't take them with you, so you may as well choose what they are used for while you can.

I didn't want to sound morbid, but that's exactly what I was thinking too.

Sorry, but that's been a lot in my thoughts lately, and was exactly what my mother did. Planning ahead is not a bad thing. :)

Nice games - I can recommend

Icewind Dale 2
Grim Fandango
Sea Dogs
Half Life-Opposing Force
Freespace 2

Yep, I'd say this is simply someone selling some old games on eBay. Not exactly for a good cause, either, as if someone wants to donate to Project Eternity, it would probably be better to donate directly instead.

this and this. my first thoughts actually. this isn't an important cause - its kind of like waiting in line to buy the latest iPhone.

these too.

either way - its good to see Desslock again. I still remember his intense coverage of the Ultima Online lawsuit, his push to get NWN to d20 instead of 3.0 (which never would have worked legally anyway), and his itemizing every single quest in Morrowind first hand.

Great idea Dess, you go boy

Man, I miss you in PC Gamer, really miss you.

I second that. The magazine is noticeably cheaper since the columns evaporated. :/

Just to let anyone know don't buy the copy of "Guild Wars" thinking you will be able to play. Since the code was used it can't be used again and you have to have a code to play the game.

I might be interested in IcewindDale 2 as I dont have a boxed copy but shipping is between 20 to 36$ to USA…Wow. Maybe that is because its coming from Canada? I have bought some games from the UK and had them be like 15$ or less shipping.

I have alot of games that I have collected and I plan to pass them along to my kid's as they get older (I have 3 boys that are too young to play them) otherwise I still play them from time to time. If I eventually get tired of them I may sell them someday.

I tried to make that clear in the individual listings that's the case with all of the MMOs, other than the WoW: Burning Crusade CE (and likely some of the UO expansions, but I tried to be clear that you shouldn't expect that) - it's just an auction for the collectors kit physical items.

Canadian shipping rates are pretty terrible, but the actual shipping costs may be lower than what's listed — since I listed in Canada, I could only list choices offered by Canada Post, and there may be cheaper rates from UPS available (if you want to estimate if there's cheaper rates, you can go to the official sites for UPS or Canada Post and put in my location (Toronto, ON, Canada) and your own to see if you can find some cheaper alternatives - I've fine with shipping it with another alternative of your choosing, provided that you're fine with the delivery times associated with those alternatives — just request an invoice if you win an auction and we can figure out what works best for you.

Also, even the shipping rates provided with the listing may be slightly lower anyway since the weights/measurements I provided were conservative, as I didn't have anything other than a "human" scale - If the actual rate is less than you paid, I'll refund the difference so that you only pay the actual costs (plus a buck for packing materials). That all said, Canadian shipping rates do suck, so make sure you are comfortable with the cost estimates on the official sites (and make sure Toronto is the shipping origin, not destination), so that there's no surprises for you.

Anyway, good luck if you bid - I'd certainly rather the game ended up in the hands of someone who would really appreciate it.

It's a great idea and I applaud the nobility of the gesture, but most self-respecting gamers would already have a good proportion of 'em. ;)