Pillars of Eternity - Widespread Success through Niche Appeal @ PCGamesN
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zahratustra
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Unless you are 22 and think that computer gaming is only young man's game...
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Or don't know anything else beside Action-RPGs.
Yea, some people think skyrim and F3 are proper RPGs.
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WHAT?! Very difficult? That does it, I'm going to play Candy Crush. I can't handle these decisions.
*PS. Who in their right minds thinks that PoE was difficult when 100's of steam reviews claim the complete opposite.
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Morbus
Colonel RPG
Some people think Skyrim and F3 are RPGs at all.
I jest, I jest.
Or do it?
:evilsmile:
That one is easy: those who think the FACT that hardcore RPGs can be successful is newsworthy...
cutterjohn
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this reminded me that i checked out steam store reviews of aod on or a day after release.
there was one negative review because: it was old school, 'hard', had to save often, not casual, and didn't handhold. sound like the perfect game to me!
i bought long ago before it made it's way to steam, before the ks craze and some other non-casual catering crpgs came out or started development.
meh f3 is still enough to marginally qualify as an rpg, more so than oblivious imnho. otoh skyrim is a mere action adventure.
there was one negative review because: it was old school, 'hard', had to save often, not casual, and didn't handhold. sound like the perfect game to me!
i bought long ago before it made it's way to steam, before the ks craze and some other non-casual catering crpgs came out or started development.
meh f3 is still enough to marginally qualify as an rpg, more so than oblivious imnho. otoh skyrim is a mere action adventure.
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CelticFrost
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It is so easy now after all the patching and rebalancing on hard it is easier than on normal my first play through. 1/3 of the way through a replay I put it down. I don't think I will ever see the expansion.
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Thinking back to the 80s and even the early 90s, I can remember most of my favorite RPGs infuriating me. I wasn't infuriated because of the terrible graphics, the next to no story, lack of c & c, the UI, or the controls - all of which are today's most common cRPG gaming gripes.
I was mad because I was stuck. I was stuck because I didn't know where to go. Or I couldn't solve a puzzle. Or I couldn't beat a nasty group of Balrons on the 5th level of some dungeon (I'm looking at you Ultima IV and V). Back then, there was no internet and official hints were hard to come by (or too expensive for me to buy). I remember being so maniacally pissed when a gaming magazine finally published a gamer's letter asking a question about an RPG I was playing and the person asked a really lame question that nobody needed help with but that gamer.
And then there were the mapping issues with games like Wizardry and Bard's Tale that many times were an absolute nightmare with the spinning and the teleportations. And speaking of Wizardry… I must have spent the first 10 or 15 hours of Wizardry 1 just trying to make a party that wouldn't get wiped out in the first encounter of the first dungeon. Add to that all the slowness of slow computers and floppy disk drives.
But I have to admit, looking back now (admittedly through the lenses of some nostalgia), those games made me think hard because I really wanted to finish all the cRPGs I could afford to buy - most of which I enjoyed immensely. I'd talk about them with my friends at school. I'd ponder difficult encounters in my head at recess and come up with the perfect plan I'd have to wait another 5 hours before I could try. I'd dig through the meaty game manuals of those days looking for insights and subtle clues. I'd thumb through the gaming magazines at the local liquor store since I couldn't afford to buy them.
I still love modern games. And to be honest, I don't have the time anymore to invest in gaming that I had when I was 10. I love a good UI. I love in-game maps. I get a certain comfort knowing that most of the time, no matter how stupidly I create a character, the game probably won't let me know 20 hours in that I will hit a wall. And if I ever get stuck, I always know I can come here and ask a question and get an answer in a few minutes.
But still, I had a blast being stuck. I didn't know it at the time, but even when I was stuck I was experiencing something fun and something I'd remember 37 years later…
Carnifex
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The internet has totally ruined some aspects of gaming, that is for sure. I remember being behind people in computer stores and watching them buy some cheat guide for the game that they were currently purchasing AT THE SAME TIME! That is something I never have understood, lol.
Even now when I recommend older games to people, half of them tell me they watch some one else play it first. I just don't get it, does no one actually enjoy exploring and learning for themselves these days? Actually I do know people that seem to, but they definitely seem to be in the minority, that or perhaps we're just not as vocal.
As for Pillars, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully they'll be putting out more quality products in the future for all of us to play again.
Even now when I recommend older games to people, half of them tell me they watch some one else play it first. I just don't get it, does no one actually enjoy exploring and learning for themselves these days? Actually I do know people that seem to, but they definitely seem to be in the minority, that or perhaps we're just not as vocal.
As for Pillars, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully they'll be putting out more quality products in the future for all of us to play again.
Lots of people, even on Steam. The official forum had a bunch of "it's too hard" complains at release (like this one) and some still pop-up once in a while. Most "gaming journalist" reviews I've seen also said that the game was hard.
There is a great divide over the difficulty perception of the game.
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D
DArtagnan
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Skyrim and FO3 RPGs? Maybe not - but they're certainly a lot better than the fanservice borefest known as Pillars of Eternity 
E
Eye
Guest
I remember a game a friend of mine copied on my HD, Microsoft DOS days. Me and another friend did not know anything about the game: there was just this black screen (or was it green? - I can't remember) and a white command prompt.
As a joke we typed 'hi' or 'who are you', something like that, and laughed when we suddenly got an answer, one that made sense.
We soon learned that by typing the right commands you'd move through a sort of dark corridor, an underground network. In this maze there were several puzzles you had to solve if you wanted to move forward.
We had no help-function, we had to think of the right way, the right questions and the right actions ourselves. We got stuck several times, days, weeks, would pass before finding the solution.
I had the entire maze drawn out on a piece of paper; without it we were lost: you had to move forward and back quite often.
We never made it to the end, we simply never found the right solution to a road block.
But my, we had such a great time! And the only thing needed: your own imagination and a white blinking prompt…
No idea what the name of that game was.
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If you're coming into it fresh, say from a FPS gaming background, it might not be as clear how to build a party and integrate their skills and spells as it is to us old grognards.
Ovenall
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I remember ordering hint books through the mail (snail mail!), which had solutions that you needed to reveal with a "magic" marker that was included in the booklet. These were text Infocom games, not RPGs, but still. Had to give my mom money and have her write a check!
I bought the Spellbreaker clue book from Infocom. That game was hard. I remember when Sierra On-Line had a hint call-in phone number. Never used it but that's how things rolled back before the internet, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.