Obsidian Entertainment - Project: North Carolina - back on the menu

well if a publisher liked it, its probably some moba or f2p bullshit :lol:
 
well if a publisher liked it, its probably some moba or f2p bullshit :lol:
Does not have to be. Obsidian has shown with Pillars of Eternity they can make a good AA game and with FNV they can make a good AAA game
 
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Does not have to be. Obsidian has shown with Pillars of Eternity they can make a good AA game and with FNV they can make a good AAA game

Obviously it's a matter of opinion whether or not any game is "good", but most publishers are not really interested in making good games... They're interested in making profitable games. It could likely be an open world action RPG as The Witcher 3 and FO4 have proven that sells well.. But if it is funded by a publisher there's a very good likelihood that the game will suffer the same problem that a lot of Obsidian's past publisher funded stuff had; buggy, unpolished, and with a good deal of cut content because of publisher imposed deadlines. Well, if it's something that isn't fixed with an official patch, there's always hope for mods, I guess.
 
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Obviously it's a matter of opinion whether or not any game is "good", but most publishers are not really interested in making good games… They're interested in making profitable games. It could likely be an open world action RPG as The Witcher 3 and FO4 have proven that sells well.. But if it is funded by a publisher there's a very good likelihood that the game will suffer the same problem that a lot of Obsidian's past publisher funded stuff had; buggy, unpolished, and with a good deal of cut content because of publisher imposed deadlines. Well, if it's something that isn't fixed with an official patch, there's always hope for mods, I guess.
Both those games were profitable. PoE earned a lot of money for Obsidian and will continue to do so for years (the game was made for 4.5 mil $ + what they spent during the delay). FNV sold more than F3 so it was also profitable.

And under good, I meant they were well received by both press and players.
 
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Obviously it's a matter of opinion whether or not any game is "good", but most publishers are not really interested in making good games… They're interested in making profitable games.

Also true of movies, music recordings, cars, PCs, televisions, books, clothing manufacturers, sports teams, packaged foods, &c. &c. What you're complaining about is capitalism. But companies that purposefully create bad products don't last very long. Their products just need to be "good enough" to satisfy most consumers and make them open their wallets.
 
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This will probably mean a delay for Obsidian's next kickstarter. Now they are working on their tank game, on the Pathfinder Card Game, on the Winter March 2, and on this game, they probably have everyone busy for the near future.
 
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Also true of movies, music recordings, cars, PCs, televisions, books, clothing manufacturers, sports teams, packaged foods, &c. &c. What you're complaining about is capitalism. But companies that purposefully create bad products don't last very long. Their products just need to be "good enough" to satisfy most consumers and make them open their wallets.

But isn't capitalism supposed to encourage innovation and improvement because of competition over the consumer's limited spending money? Instead we have companies churning out the same mediocre games over and over again with perhaps slight graphical improvements or longer gameplay hours... It's easy for the publishers, it's low risk and it maximizes their profits but instead of innovating they all just copy each other.

Whether something is "good enough" depends on one's frame of reference. If all someone plays is the mediocre mainstream RPGs, then those will be "good enough" for them.. They may think a game is great because it has nice graphics or just because of it's sheer size / scope. They'll buy overpriced DLC for content that should've been included with the base game because OMG I can play it for ten thousand hours!!!!

But for anyone who has played and enjoyed the very good (but generally less well known and mostly indie / crowdfunded) CRPGs that have been released over the past couple of years, I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that most AAA "RPGs" have not been "good enough" to buy. Without games like Age of Decadence I'd probably be playing FO4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition because "beggars can't be choosers". Now I have no desire to play them ever.

Of course, companies who make AAA RPGs won't care that a relatively small number of "hardcore" CRPG-loving nerds don't buy their games, because we aren't their core audience; they'll make plenty of money from the people who buy the same flashy drek over and over again.

And that's the problem... There isn't any motivation to improve quality at all... Only bigger and more. Quantity over quality. Sure they'll always get a lot of positive reviews, but that doesn't mean they're "good".

Pillars of Eternity was one of the more successful and well received Kickstarted games, but IMO it's been one of the most disappointing. Still, I'd rather see Obsidian make another Kickstarter RPG then something a publisher thinks is the most marketable.
 
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While Pillars has not been as good as many expected it still has been better than all the AAA drek that came out in last 10 years. And while all the berks are going to keep drinking the AAA koolaid I will be enjoying myself with some good games tnx to KS.
 
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Pillars of Eternity was one of the more successful and well received Kickstarted games, but IMO it's been one of the most disappointing. Still, I'd rather see Obsidian make another Kickstarter RPG then something a publisher thinks is the most marketable.

I'd tend to agree.

I can't say it was that disappointing, because I didn't expect that much from it.

I had a strange experience with it, though.

Before I started playing, I didn't expect to enjoy it that much. I thought I'd have a bit of fun with it, but then I'd tire of it and stop playing.

However, for the first 10 hours or so, I absolutely loved it - adored it, even. I was so excited because it seemed to have all the RPG features that I like - and the world/story was great too. Almost as if I had forgotten just how much I enjoy the old-school RPG style of gaming.

Then, at some point, I just stopped enjoying it - from one minute to the next.

I've spent quite a while since then trying to figure out why that is - and I originally thought it was due to subpar mechanics and the typical Obsidian way of over-writing stuff.

But, suddenly it hit me, it's because gaming - FOR ME - has moved beyond that formula. I realised that most of my warmth and enjoyment came from a profound feeling of "the good old days" - and I was taken back to a time when I had an altogether different disposition.

These days, I need more than archaic formulas - and I crave evolution. PoE is a fine game in most ways - but time has passed it by.

That's for me, though, and I fully understand that a lot of people just can't get enough of that ancient formula. I wish I could enjoy it like I did back in the day where I loved the hell out of Baldur's Gate. I just can't do that anymore.

I had the very same experience with Wasteland 2. I start out loving the hell out of the mechanics and the old-school stuff - but once I get past that, I'm finding that I really don't enjoy all the busy work of opening countless containers using a fiddly interface - and I don't enjoy having to travel back and forth both on local and world maps.

I find that I really do enjoy the "modern" trappings of convenience like fast travelling and easy ways to do trivial things.

My exploration OCD eventually wears me out - because I don't want to miss out on anything, but when the game doesn't really give me much and forces me to go through a grind to "clear" the maps, I just lose my enthusiam.

I guess you might say I've become extremely complacent and greedy as a gamer. I don't feel like working for things unless I also feel like I'm being rewarded in the form of great new things to discover - or an evolution of gameplay - with stuff I haven't already seen a dozen times before.
 
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