Wasteland 2 Catch-All: Director's Cut!

I gave him $30 because I loved Fallout so much that it's worth it, just because. And if I happen to end up with a great game and a nice soundtrack, cool! If not, well, I already got my $30 worth 15 years ago.

Malor wrote:

well, I already got my $30 worth 15 years ago.

Has it already been 15 YEARS?

Shhhhh?$"!

interstate78 wrote:
Malor wrote:

well, I already got my $30 worth 15 years ago.

Has it already been 15 YEARS?

Shhhhh?$"!

15 years since Fallout - 24 since Wasteland!

Tanglebones wrote:
interstate78 wrote:
Malor wrote:

well, I already got my $30 worth 15 years ago.

Has it already been 15 YEARS?

Shhhhh?$"!

15 years since Fallout - 24 since Wasteland!

Well Wasteland looks and feels old, not Fallout! Not to me anyways

Fallout came out on CDs, it had 3D rendering on the box!

Wasteland was on floppies and had about 8 colors.

With the history of inExile, I'm not really afraid that Wasteland 2 will be vaporware. The major concern is that it simply may not be very good. I'll risk at least $15 all the same, maybe more, I haven't made my mind up yet.

The big thing for me is Jason Anderson, here is him in an interview talking about his history:

Jason Anderson wrote:

I got my first contract assignment working on USCF Chess and after that was offered a full time position! My first job was clean-up artist on StoneKeep, which was just about to ship. As soon as that finished up, I was sent over to Tim Cain as the second person on the GURPS project [which became Fallout].

In the beginning, I supplied Tim with art to test out with the graphics engine he was building. Even though I was only hired on as an artist, Tim ran a very open team and everyone was encouraged to contribute. I attended all of the design meetings and ultimately I designed the way the art would be implemented into the Fallout engine.

The team was small at first, so there was a lot of diverse work to be done. I created a good part of the opening movie, modeled and animated approximately half of all of the creatures, including the female humans and the mutants. I also created many of the landscape tiles and wall sets and built the interface. In the end, I helped a lot with design as well, especially in regards to the story and the quests. Fallout was a great project to be a part of.

After Fallout Tim, Leonard and I went off and formed Troika Games. Our first project, Arcanum was made with only 14 dedicated employees - so once again, everyone contributed to all portions of the game and I again did art, movies, design, dialog and this time I got to try my hand at scripting, music and sound effects as well.

Next, I worked on Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines concentrating on game design, level design and creation, sound effects, and of course interface and artwork design and implementation.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
demonbox wrote:

I've read the kickstarter and watched the video. I honestly want to understand and am willing to be convinced: Why are people backing this? Is it just because people want a sequel to the original so much? That'd be odd, since a quality game could have any number of names.

In an industry so rife with eagerly-anticipated sequels, what exactly makes it odd? Half of the threads on the first page of the Games forums are about sequels.

Maybe "odd" is the wrong word. A better word might be "disappointing."

Also, thank so many of you for providing open reasons why you are backing the game.

Disappointing? That makes less sense!

Yeah, why is it disappointing? You may not be an oldschool gamer, and you may not have interest in or patience for the older style of games, and that's fine. But disappointing seems maybe a bit strong?

We're not really backing it just because it's called Wasteland, but because it's called Wasteland and Brian Fargo is doing it, the same guy who did the original, all those years ago.

Malor wrote:

Yeah, why is it disappointing? You may not be an oldschool gamer, and you may not have interest in or patience for the older style of games, and that's fine. But disappointing seems maybe a bit strong?

We're not really backing it just because it's called Wasteland, but because it's called Wasteland and Brian Fargo is doing it, the same guy who did the original, all those years ago.

No, you misunderstand (and I’m sure I could have put it more simply, sorry). My original post included

demonbox wrote:

Is it just because people want a sequel to the original so much? That'd be odd, since a quality game could have any number of names.

To which was replied

Quintin_Stone wrote:

In an industry so rife with eagerly-anticipated sequels, what exactly makes it odd? Half of the threads on the first page of the Games forums are about sequels.

I couldn’t argue with that point, as much as I wanted to. My response of

demonbox wrote:

Maybe "odd" is the wrong word. A better word might be "disappointing."

was meant to mean that while there are a number of sequels and while there is nothing novel about sequel-love, it'd be disappointing if that was the only reason people were so enthusiastic about the game.

I then closed the post with

demonbox wrote:

Also, thank so many of you for providing open reasons why you are backing the game.

to hopefully indicate that I appreciate the reasons given, and it didn’t seem that people were backing the kickstarter just because of the IP.

In closing, I blame Quintin. Thanks for giving me a chance to elucidate my thoughts a bit more.

Also, sorry to dissect my full post. Once I began I figured I A) should make sure I attempted to clarify that I don't think people are just backing the game because of the IP B) I blame Quintin and C) make clear that while I wouldn't expect the GWJ community to hype a game like this just based on it being a beloved sequel, there is a large degree of hype around this title.

I never even played Wasteland but Fallout is possibly my favorite game of all time so throwing $15 their way was a no brainer for me.

Renji wrote:

I never even played Wasteland but Fallout is possibly my favorite game of all time so throwing $15 their way was a no brainer for me.

I can't decide which game is my favorite-- Interstate '76, Fallout or The Secret of Monkey Island. I guess I like them all equally for completely different reasons.

Needless to say, I'm a happy camper with those two recent Kickstarters from the original creators or the latter two games I just mentionned.

Interstate '76 being an Activision game and the sequel being as sh*tty as it was, I'm not getting my hopes up for a kickstarter or the series coming back anytime soon, unfortunately.

Did Brian Fargo really have anything to do with the development of Fallout? He was head of Interplay at the time, but as far as I can tell, he wasn't involved with the day to day creation of the game.

Seeing Jason Anderson on the list makes me more interested, honestly.

Edit: I see Rebel Tannhauser'd me on the name-drop. How appropriate.

there is a large degree of hype around this title.

Hmm, I'm not sure that's quite the right word. We don't actually know if the game will be any good. Fargo might have lost his chops. We all get old. I will hereby explicitly say that there's an excellent chance that you won't like this game, and that there's a lesser, but still measurable chance that *I* won't like this game.

But I loved his earlier work so much that I'm happy to chip in to just let him go do something he wants to do, instead of having to answer to a bunch of suits. Even if I get a crap game out of it, helping give him the chance to do that seems like a small thing, compared to all the fun I got out of Fallout 1 and 2.

Your decision process, especially if you're not old and grizzled like some of us, will likely differ sharply. Kickstarting this one may easily result in a game you won't play. If you don't have fond memories of Brian Fargo games, if you lack a residual sense of loyalty for him making such neat stuff all those years ago, then backing this project may be a poor use of money.

I'm not paying him for this game, I'm paying him for the OLD games. And then if I happen to get a new game I really like, hey! Gravy.

demonbox wrote:

[ My response of

demonbox wrote:

Maybe "odd" is the wrong word. A better word might be "disappointing."

was meant to mean that while there are a number of sequels and while there is nothing novel about sequel-love, it'd be disappointing if that was the only reason people were so enthusiastic about the game.

People are not enthusiastic about Prometheus just because it's another movie in Aliens universe. They're squealing because Ridley Scott is doing it.

Malor wrote:

Your decision process, especially if you're not old and grizzled like some of us, will likely differ sharply. Kickstarting this one may easily result in a game you won't play. If you don't have fond memories of Brian Fargo games, if you lack a residual sense of loyalty for him making such neat stuff all those years ago, then backing this project may be a poor use of money.

I'm actually pretty on the fence. Also, only partially grizzled at this point. Bard's Tale was a formative game for me as a child (I played this a lot as 9 year old). As well, Icewind Dale and Baulder's Gate were pretty phenomenal experiences. He certainly has pedigree. I don't know if that's going to translate into the ability to pull together and manage a team on a new project, but as noted- I see why people are going to give him a chance.

You simply cannot have better credentials than Fargo; combine that with the team he has built, and there is no reason that I can see to doubt his ability to deliver Wasteland 2, correctly and with a good amount of content given the amount raised.

Happily contributed my money because I believe strongly in this kind of work, and want to see the formative game I played way back in the 80s live on in a new form. Moreover, I want to see Brian Fargo get his groove back, and start thinking in terms of games that he wants to make rather than the news he can get producers to sign off on. This isn't a guy who has to prove himself - no matter what the suits think.

I accept all blame!

I never played Wasteland, but I get the sense that no one is making any games in that specific vein and that's what's got a lot of people excited.

A friend of mine gave me his used copy of Wasteland when I was about 9 years old to play on my Commodore. I spent an ungodly amount of time playing that game and absolutely loved it. It definitely influenced the types of games I still play. Since I never paid for that first copy of Wasteland I almost felt like it was only right that I give them money now to work on Wasteland 2 just as a kind of "thanks for the memories" offering. If Wasteland 2 turns out to be a good game then that's just a bonus for me.

interstate78 wrote:

I can't decide which game is my favorite-- Interstate '76, Fallout or The Secret of Monkey Island. I guess I like them all equally for completely different reasons.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD

(although, probably replace Fallout with Wasteland, which was much more a part of my "formative" years of computer gaming)

*heads to the bar to get some Snake Squeezins*

Ranger Rick wrote:
interstate78 wrote:

I can't decide which game is my favorite-- Interstate '76, Fallout or The Secret of Monkey Island. I guess I like them all equally for completely different reasons.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD

Sadly, I didn't play I76 when it was out, but Fallout & Monkey Island are among my favorite games of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I accept all blame!

I never played Wasteland, but I get the sense that no one is making any games in that specific vein and that's what's got a lot of people excited.

That's 100% true in my case.

Tanglebones wrote:

Sadly, I didn't play I76 when it was out, but Fallout & Monkey Island are among my favorite games of all time. OF ALL TIME.

There's something quite unique about Interstate '76 that set it apart from all other action games I've played ever since. It oozed with style, had a really awesome soundtrackm great actors that really conveyed the atmosphere of a Mad-Maxian 70's. That kind of narrative was still in its infancy in the mid 90s. The game itself was awesome too: the controls and simulation of actually being in a car is still unmatched even by modern driving simulations.

I'd say it was ahead of its time but I look at all the junk coming out today and I think it probably was the epitome of the golden era of videogames instead. The sequel is really representative of what plagues the industry today: it was dumbed down to please an even broader audience but all it did is alienate the fans and that elusive market they were shooting for didn't care for it.

I think I'll put down a lot of money on Kickstarters from now on. This whole idea of having games made for gamers rather than by filling a publisher's checklist is GOLDEN.

garion333 wrote:

In the latest update, Brian Fargo mentions a new initiative he's creating: Kick It Forward. Basically, they're gonna take 5% of their Wasteland 2 funds and put it into other Kickstarter projects. Interesting idea.

Filthy skimmer!

But in order to help facilitate the power of crowd funding I am going to suggest that all of us that do utilize this form of financing agree to kickback 5% of our profits made from such projects to other Kickstarter developers. I am not suggesting taking a backers money and moving it to another project.. I mean once a game has shipped and created profit that we funnel that back into the community of developers to fund their dreams.

They are going to redistribute 5% of their Wasteland 2 profits.

Le sigh. I don't deserve the filthy skimmer tag on that one, more like reading comprehension fail.

In the latest update, Brian Fargo mentions a new initiative he's creating: Kick It Forward. Basically, they're gonna take 5% of their Wasteland 2 fundsprofits and put it into other Kickstarter projects. Interesting idea.

It's a good thing. 5% of the profits will be a lot more money. Given the talent on the team, I'd bet on it.

That's actually a pretty good idea. God, wouldn't it be wonderful to take gaming back from the suits? No more bullsh*t DLC, where they charge you per bullet you fire, just gaming the way it used to be, before the urge to monetize breathing showed up.

I'm continuously shocked at how anyone could really complain about the state of gaming today compared to some mythical period in the past.. especially given the sheer amount of entertainment put forth in front of you in a wide variety of platforms, payment methods, budgets, etc.. (you name a category theres probably at least 4-5 good games in that category) on any given day.

It really just smells like elitism and the concept of removing those unwashed "casual" masses that have turned the industry into some mythical Call of Duty cloning DLC money grubbing industry it is.

If you work hard enough to be miserable.. you can be miserable on just about everything.

/Topic

I kicked in $30.. why not.. I just love this whole Kickstarter concept and how its empowering developers to form their own teams with people they enjoy working with to craft games that they want to create.

Wheres LB now to make me Autoduel 2 damn-it!!!

When the developers themselves are saying "We can't make the games we want to make" something is wrong. That doesn't mean other things aren't right and pointing out the good things and calling people elitist really doesn't help the conversation.

TheGameguru wrote:

I kicked in $30.. why not.. I just love this whole Kickstarter concept and how its empowering developers to form their own teams with people they enjoy working with to craft games that they want to create.

Wheres LB now to make me Autoduel 2 damn-it!!!

Yet another example of what a free internet gets us. Anyone can put forward an idea for millions of people to evaluate. Those with little to give can pool their resources and make things happen. Positives like these always come with some negatives, but it all makes the world that much more colorful.