Wasteland Kickstarter Update #4

Lemme guess, Todd or Pete?

 

Even if Wasteland 2 gets delayed... so what? I rather have the game being released a bit later than having it unfinished in 18 months.

Nice update, was fun to read.

 

I'm sorry, I fail to see anywhere where it said it was an informal thing. I guess I'll have to bow down to your clearly superior skills in divination.

And what it has to do with Wasteland 2 is that it chews up Brians time as he is forced to set up structure, regulations and press for the initiative. Hence why in my first post I mentioned 'spreading himself too thin', if that wasn't clear enough.

 

I also think it's a great idea on Brian's end. For gamers it means only good things since:
a) They won't be paying for it.
b) They will have a chance to receive another awesome game that wouldn't be created otherwise.

That's assuming it will succeed at least to some degree. But anyway, it's generous of him to do that and only shows how excited and grateful he is about all this. In fact he's so grateful that his conscience tells him he must do something about it and thus he will give money he made thanks to money he was given (). Let's be honest, he didn't have to do it at all. This won't increase the hype and won't help Wasteland but it might help other small developers (assuming enough people will contribute).

@Zaij
I don't get what's your point. Brain Fargo is doing his job splendidly, he creates a hype and handles PR bringing new backers into all this while at the same time game is being developed. Without him this project could not succeed. Also, he won't be doing this for 18 months, it just so happens that now is a crucial time for it and someone has to do it and who better than him? Any other guy would be either incompetent or not known enough by broader public.

 

The Wasteland 2 kickstarter campaign hasn't even finished yet... They haven't seen a dime of that money, and they won't until it's over.

There is no time to chew up, because the schedule for the kickstarter doesn't end until mid-April.

 

Why is this argument even happening? People will truly bitch about anything.

Here is the extent of involvement Brian Fargo needs to have with the Kick it Forward thing:

1. Donate 5% of Wasteland 2's profits to Kickstarter projects (sometime in 2014)
2. Tell graphic designer to make a patch (30 seconds)
3. Some Blog/Magazine writers will likely ask him an additional question about Kick it Forward when interviewing him about Wasteland 2 (1 minute per interview).

That's it...

If that's spreading himself too thin, we should make sure to monitor how much coffee he's drinking, to cut down on his bathroom breaks.

 

The "kick it forward" idea doesn't really require any work on it for now, and it ensures them some more publicity as more gaming media will now be posting about it. I think he's doing a good job promoting the damn thing.

 

Does anybody know how much money the kickstarter.com site is making off of this project?

 

I'm not worried at all about B.F spreading too thin.
But the guy sure does a lot and doesn't hesitate to antcipate.
I liked better the "low profile" of Tim Shafer even if some people found he did not update much.
On the other hand he, as Ausir suggest, maybe wants more publicity with the kick it forward announcement.

 

Kickstarter takes 5%

Amazon Payments also takes an additional 3-5% , IIRC

 

lol @ the people thinking they know how Fargo should do his job. Go ahead and keep exemplifying the Armageddon soothsayer.
You're wrong? You look like an asshole. You end up being right? You're still an asshole but with no reason to brag about it.
Just let it be. A dose of cynicism or skepticism is fine, but at least give the project a chance to screw up before thinking you could find room for improvement.

 

The Kick It Forward idea is something that can do only good.

First off, who said Brian Fargo is going to be the one managing everything? Does Kickstarter have no employees whatsoever? I'm sure that they would have to be informed of this sort of thing and probably would handle its management if and when it takes off.

Even if Wasteland 2 flops, the Kick it Forward project wouldn't be tied to it exclusively. The premise of KIF is simple, elegant, and non-partisan. All he is really doing is suggesting that all devs do what Notch has been doing with his 10,000 donations to Brian and Tim's projects.

The only way KIF can do harm is if a game does amazingly well and then the company reneges on their agreement to put 5% of the games profits towards funding another companies game. OR if noone even attempts it in the first place.

 

I feel like this is a bit silly reasoning considering that you can hook a console up to a monitor just as you can hook a computer up to a TV. Consoles have usb inputs nowadays so as far as I know there is no reason why you couldn't use mouse/keyboard on them. Likewise, you can definitely hook usb controllers up to computers as well.

It's only people's habits that make these sorts of distinctions between consoles and PCs. As I see it the bigger difference is between being able to upgrade/customize hardware and being able to develop for a specific set of hardware.

 

Consoles also have pretty strict requirements that have to be met for avgame to even be allowed to be on there in the first place and MS/Sony aren't allowing games to get through that require mouse/keyboard/monitor.

 

Yup, while Fargo didn't specifically mention them, I suppose stuff like certifications, 40k$ patches and such factored into the decision.

 

Glad Fargo is doing well with this.

I'm a little "kickstartered out" right now... after spending a little over $100 on Double Fine's project and $25 on The Banner Saga I'm also taking a "Wait and See" approach. I'm thinking it would be easy to commit myself to hundreds of dollars across a variety of projects that turn out to suck (not saying Wasteland 2 will fall into this).