Obsidian Entertainment - MCA ready to play Arcanum

It's a curious thing that Chris Avellone has never played Arcanum - but he's getting ready. If you're interested in following his adventures, you can vote on the format on the Obsidian forums:

Chris Avellone is playing Arcanum to raise funds for the $4.0 million dollar stretch goal you helped us reach for Project Eternity. It's installed and he’s ready to start playing – we here at Obsidian wanted to know how you’d like it played!

• Let's Play Document/Blog
• 10 minute Let's Play Youtube video bites
• Streamed on Twitch
• Format doesn’t matter to me, just enjoy it.

The poll will close on Wednesday (1/23/13) at 6:00PM Pacific Time. Thanks for you feedback!

More information.

I hope he installed the community patch and changed the default combat settings to turned based. Otherwise this might be unintentionally funny.

Installed it 2 days ago, the ultima edition that is.
What a great game!

After fallout2 this is for me the best game ever made.

anyways i hope for the Let's Play Document/Blog style.

Simply have to see it whatever format it'll be recorded in.

i have this huge hunch that I'll hate chris after seeing it, and learn exactly what his limitations as a designer are.

Haters gonna hate…

Originally Posted by ikbenrichard
Installed it 2 days ago, the ultima edition that is.
What a great game!

After fallout2 this is for me the best game ever made.

anyways i hope for the Let's Play Document/Blog style.

I love Arcanum, so with you on that, bought it from GOG last sale, might be time to fire it up again and mod the heck out of it.

Why do I care if a developer plays a game or not? Seriously don't see the benefit in watching someone else play something, seems like a waste of time.

Can someone explain why this is something people would care about?

For you? Sure, I'll oblige….

Firstly, it's simply the novelty entertainment factor of having such a well known figure in the industry playing a game which arguably one might have thought he'd have already played before back in the day. A celebrity Let's Play concept, if you will. Some people actually like reading about other people's gaming experiences.

Secondly, Chris Avellone is a very well known and respected industry veteran with a noteworthy resume as I'm sure you're well aware of, within our little genre.
Thus, to his fans especially, reading about his reactions, responses and role-playing choices in such a game as Arcanum may actually provide interesting reading (as he's a writer after all) and give that little window of insight into how a developer plays a game.

Thirdly, it's a mechanism within Project Eternity's support base.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
For you? Sure, I'll oblige….

Firstly, it's simply the novelty entertainment factor of having such a well known figure in the industry playing a game which arguably one might have thought he'd have already played before back in the day. A celebrity Let's Play concept, if you will. Some people actually like reading about other people's gaming experiences.

Secondly, Chris Avellone is a very well known and respected industry veteran with a noteworthy resume as I'm sure you're well aware of, within our little genre.
Thus, to his fans especially, reading about his reactions, responses and role-playing choices in such a game as Arcanum may actually provide interesting reading (as he's a writer after all) and give that little window of insight into how a developer plays a game.

Thirdly, it's a mechanism within Project Eternity's support base.

Ah, I see.

Well, I was honestly curious about what people see in this kind of thing. I know he's a respected guy - but I fail to correlate that with him playing a game in public being particularly interesting.

I mean, his feedback could be of potential interest - but watching him play the game sounds awfully dull to me, except as a mild novelty for a few minutes.

Typically, when consuming something like a game - your initial and immediate reactions are rarely wholesome or trustworthy in terms of your overall opinion. It takes time to adjust and "get" the whole picture.

So, if he's the average human being I suspect him to be (not derogatory - we're all averaging out) - he'll be caught by early comments that he'll feel the need to defend or support later on - with him being a "gaming guru", and few people can separate their ego from such a thing. That means you won't be getting a genuine response to the game as if he played it in a normal way. I'd expect the whole thing to be tainted.

Then again, I concede that if it was a developer I considered particularly noteworthy - I probably would be more interested. I doubt I'd watch a complete playthrough - but I'd probably be curious as to how he/she would respond while actually playing.

So, thanks for taking the time to answer

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Typically, when consuming something like a game - your initial and immediate reactions are rarely wholesome or trustworthy in terms of your overall opinion. It takes time to adjust and "get" the whole picture.

I agree to some extent that your first reactions can change as you progress through a game, but I'm doubtful that Chris will be attempting to achieve this "whole picture" that you mention or necessarily feel the need to respond in any way that appears objective. After all, this is simply a let's play document of his adventures, the style and format of which I'm sure he'll decide on his own basis.
In short, it's a fun little exercise which will provide entertainment to the fans.

Another point I failed to mention is the notion of creating "closer" ties to your fanbase; of which I think this is a unique example of.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'd expect the whole thing to be tainted.

Well, let's just say I don't quite share this kind of negative bias. I'm sure MCA will enjoy himself playing Arcanum just fine and respond as only he can. Take from it what you will as a free agent observer.

As you say though, it'll be interesting to see if the experience somehow informs his Project Eternity considerations from a developer viewpoint.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
So, thanks for taking the time to answer

A pleasure, sir.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
I agree to some extent that your first reactions can change as you progress through a game, but I'm doubtful that Chris will be attempting to achieve this "whole picture" that you mention or necessarily feel the need to respond in any way that appears objective. After all, this is simply a let's play document of his adventures, the style and format of which I'm sure he'll decide on his own basis.
In short, it's a fun little exercise which will provide entertainment to the fans.

Another point I failed to mention is the notion of creating "closer" ties to your fanbase; of which I think this is a unique example of.

I guess we'll have to see what happens

As for creating ties to your fanbase - it's part of the whole industry circus that I can't identify with. But if that's your thing - that's your thing.

Well, let's just say I don't quite share this kind of negative bias. I'm sure MCA will enjoy himself playing Arcanum just fine and respond as only he can. Take from it what you will as a free agent observer.

Well, you can call it negative bias and I can call your obvious optimism positive bias.

But that's kinda useless.

I'm just responding based on my experience with human beings and how these media event thingies are rarely truly useful - and as such, I tend to miss the point.

That's just my position - and I don't consider it negative as much as utilitarian

As you say though, it'll be interesting to see if the experience somehow informs his Project Eternity considerations from a developer viewpoint.

Sure, I'm getting kinda curious about it myself. So - I suppose there's something here I missed the first time around.

The valid question is - he use unofficial patches like Drog one?

Well, for me 10 minutes for one part Let's Play video (especialy cRPG) is not enough.

Ultima edition of Arcanum? Never heard about it.

Originally Posted by MotherMachinae
The valid question is - he use unofficial patches like Drog one?

Well, for me 10 minutes for one part Let's Play video (especialy cRPG) is not enough.

Ultima edition of Arcanum? Never heard about it.

I hope he uses all of Drog's fixes as it really improves the game and unlocks a ton of content in the game itself + all the other graphic and sound mods that really help bring the game up to more modern standards.

Ultima Edition of Arcanum I believe was a pirated version of the Disk based game with the no CD patch and a bunch of extras like maps and portraits and a raised max level and a few other things all set up for you already.

Kind of like a illegitimate Arcanum version of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edtion

Originally Posted by Warmark

Ultima Edition of Arcanum I believe was a pirated version of the Disk based game with the no CD patch and a bunch of extras like maps and portraits and a raised max level and a few other things all set up for you already.

Kind of like a illegitimate Arcanum version of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edtion

Correct.
It includes the following:

*Offical Trokia Modules
*Max level 126
*Map
*HQ Music intergrated
*Character Editor
*Custom DVD Cover Image
*Manual to Game
*Manual to World Editor
*Patched with Drogs current release 081229
*High Res Town Pack
*The Lost Module now included with install
*The offical OST
*New Portraits

The increased level cap sounds horribly unbalanced.

Originally Posted by Maylander
The increased level cap sounds horribly unbalanced.

I was just thinking the same thing. I'm not sure how anyone could think it's a good idea to jack it up that high.

I know the vanilla level cap of 50 was a common complaint about Arcanum, but increasing it by over 150% seems a bit ridiculous to me.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I was just thinking the same thing. I'm not sure how anyone could think it's a good idea to jack it up that high.

I know the vanilla level cap of 50 was a common complaint about Arcanum, but increasing it by over 150% seems a bit ridiculous to me.

True, thats why i dont use my points anymore beyond lvl 60.

I plan on giving this a try if I ever get around to playing Arcanum again. It increases the XP requirements to level up once you exceed level 50, and it allows you to set the max level to whatever you deem appropriate.