Pillars of Eternity - Widespread Success through Niche Appeal @ PCGamesN

Old C64 games that were passed around in school on floppies the first thing to do with them was to use disk doctor. This way you could go through the code and figure out enough codes to play the game.
 
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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.

You've evidently not been to the Siege of Cragholdt yet or played on The Path of the Damned difficulty. I found that area and its associated quests very nice and generally quite satisfyingly challenging.
 
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That relates to difficulty levels. Not relevant to the issue as people should be able to recognize the mandatory need to take the difficulty level notch down if they do not manage.

PoE success has more to do with it painted as a successor to BG.

A side effect of the crowdfunded scene is that it cheapens the achievements of the gaming scene of the past.
Crowdfunding supporters are so eager to force their consumption habits on others they claim crowdfunded products match the excellence of the old games the crowdfunding is supposed to revive.

PoE did not match BG. PoE did not match BG2.
 
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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.

Was it zork ?
 
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What a strange article. It apparently never occurred to the author that, instead of PoE proving that "niche" features can attract "mainstream" success, maybe the game (and others like that) signals that the established definition of "niche" is totally, ridiculously wrong.
 
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It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Excellent memories. I don't think I'll forget that phrase.
 
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Those old text adventure games were brutal. The worst part was that the lantern would go out after a certain amount of moves, ensuring that you became grue stew.
 
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Those old text adventure games were brutal.

No kidding! Anybody remembers Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game? Even the very first task was a nightmare! And it took off from there...
 
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Yes, yes, it was Zork! You're fantastic! Thanks!
O, these screenshots bring back so many good memories.

We had no idea what a grue was, but we understood: being eaten is a no-no. :)

Ah. I was going to say the original: Colossal Caverns Adventure. I used to be really big into text adventures. When I got the internet I even tracked down Scott Adams and had some correspondence with him.
 
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I really liked PoE at first blush. And then, I didn't. Combat and character systems far < D&D…in addition to the tendency for combat to devolve into a rugby scrum.

On the stroll down memory lane, you can easily relive all of your grisly Grue deaths at GOG. I played a bunch of Infocom games. Planetfall, Cutthroats, Infidel, Hitchhiker's and the murder mystery one stick out most in my mind today. Looking at that wiki, I didn't even know there was a Shogun one. Great book.

Edit: Just noticed it was you wondering about Zork, Eye. I think I remeber you saying you do your newshunting on an iPad. They have a Zork (or possibly Infocom) bundle game for iOS…more than one, I think. Last I looked some time ago, they got one of them out on Android, too, if memory serves.
 
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What a strange article. It apparently never occurred to the author that, instead of PoE proving that "niche" features can attract "mainstream" success, maybe the game (and others like that) signals that the established definition of "niche" is totally, ridiculously wrong.

Absolutely. BG2 sold a couple of million. If everyone who bought BG2 bought a sequel that's a couple of million sales. Is a couple of million 'niche'? Not yet it isn't. The 'problem' is that everyone keeps shooting for the very top, the 20 million mark. So the management psychology is that if you don't create your game by adhering to the research and surveys that tell you what a 20 million game would look like then you're off-the-ball and aiming 'niche', even though the final sales of the two products might be exactly the same.

It's the modern version of insanity where investment managers have replaced religious leaders in pre-controling everything we see and get to choose in the market place.
 
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Yes, I had the Hitchhiker's game. One of the first things you had to do was "Open your eyes"

I don't know if it was Zork, but one game for the ZX had the line "You have found Rope", which I always thought was quite an open ended exclamation with varying possibilities... :lol:
 
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I really liked PoE at first blush. And then, I didn't. Combat and character systems far < D&D…in addition to the tendency for combat to devolve into a rugby scrum.

I'm hoping they address some of the game's weaknesses (like the Stronghold) with the 2nd update. The combat part seemed fine to me.
 
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I Edit: Just noticed it was you wondering about Zork, Eye. I think I remeber you saying you do your newshunting on an iPad. They have a Zork (or possibly Infocom) bundle game for iOS…more than one, I think.
Sweet! You're very kind, Huggy Face. Thanks for mentioning this! :kiss:
You and GothicGothicness have made my day.

Earlier today I checked the App store, and searched for 'Zork' - didn't find anything.
After having read your post I looked again, this time I used 'Infocom'. Bullseye!
I downloaded the bundle immediately, didn't have anything to pay, Zork 1 is included and it's the only one that's free! =)

The app is neatly done. I've already read the 'How to use this app'.
There is a manual too, with all the commands that are possible, and hints, but they have warned that you should not rely on them too often, there are fake questions planted to confound cheaters and long answers to confuse you.

Part of the joy at the time was of course we had to do it all by ourselves, we did not even know the commands that were possible. I remember there were times we knew what to do next, but we just could not find the right command to make it happen… :) The dictionary was always kept close at hand.

Now, dear Captain, let's just hope this game is not addictive nor time consuming… News coverage might suffer. ;)
 
You've evidently not been to the Siege of Cragholdt yet or played on The Path of the Damned difficulty. I found that area and its associated quests very nice and generally quite satisfyingly challenging.

No I haven't, I stopped my second play through, so unless I get in the mood I will never get to the DLC. I think all the messing around with the game hasn't helped it and it was a good game but not one that is worth a replay.
 
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Absolutely. BG2 sold a couple of million. If everyone who bought BG2 bought a sequel that's a couple of million sales. Is a couple of million 'niche'? Not yet it isn't. The 'problem' is that everyone keeps shooting for the very top, the 20 million mark. So the management psychology is that if you don't create your game by adhering to the research and surveys that tell you what a 20 million game would look like then you're off-the-ball and aiming 'niche', even though the final sales of the two products might be exactly the same.

It's the modern version of insanity where investment managers have replaced religious leaders in pre-controling everything we see and get to choose in the market place.

So called RPGers depict themselves the market as a niche market. Hard to believe they receive a memo from investment managers.
 
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Now, dear Captain, let's just hope this game is not addictive nor time consuming… News coverage might suffer. ;)

I think I like being called dear Cpatain. Maybe I should've joined the military, but I've never done well with people barking orders at me. :p

Enjoy Zork, Eye. I'm sure you will not neglect your duties. Carry on, soldier.
 
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