Would you back a Developer who does not tell you what he will create

Hello all.

I did spend some time today reading articles about Gamers not knowing what they wan´t and behaving in Games totally different then what they dream off in regards how they would think a Game should be.

Examples are asking about total Freedom - but if you give it to them they are bored. They wan´t handholding not even knowing it.
Or Gamers asking for innovation but Sales numbers show that recreating the old that worked proves to be the right way.


Also the biggest curse it seems is the fact that Kickstarters might have delivered the Option to try out new - it was praised as finally breaking free and Innovation can happen.
But fact is the system restricts the Developers into Promises and to Visions and into Rewards before knowing anything about the road ahead.
What is bad in my opinion.



So now my Questions:


1. WOULD YOU BACK A GAME DEVELOPER WITHOUT HIM TELLING WHAT HE WILL DO.
JUST BASED ON THE FACT OF WHAT HE HAS DONE ALREADY AND HIS NAME.

2. HOW MUCH WOULD YOU SPEND.

3. Would you accept not taking part of the Development at all not getting updates until the Release and get a suprise?
I mean to be honest - that is how it used to be. Back in the old days when i got a Game. I had no clue. - Maybe a descriptions on the box and a magazine told me about it.


The reason i am asking is because i am sure if for example Richard would have told me in 2013 -
I WILL MAKE A GAME - I WILL NOT TELL YOU ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT I WILL DO - TO AVOID RESTRICING MYSELF - but i ask for your support.

I know I would have provided money.
I would say up to 50 Dollars.
Would he gotten enough to start development or succeed a Kickstarter. Questionable or course.



And you?


He would have then be required to create Pledge Rewards not restricting him in his Game Creation.
That would have been the biggest challenge.


Kind regards

 

The answers will be "it depends" and go case by case. I would need more information than what is currently given.

I would have no problem #YOLO spending $10-$20 for some game made by a person who has good portfolio and do nothing until it comes out a few years later.

If the person asks for $50 or more, I would need to see some more concepts and details.

Once it gets $100+, I need to see some prototype.

$500+ is when I would only spend if I have some more access to the work progress.

Although things could be different if there are physical items or some other goodies being offered with the asking price.

 

No, but i would spend tons of money if someone finally decides to code "Neverwinter Nights 3"...

 

I was reading a lot about the game that came in 2nd in the recent "Best Crowdfunded MMO", Chronicles of Elyria. It's amazing the degree to which people fool themselves. I'm sure it happened in the earlier stages of this game, too. They have "high ideals" of what they WANT a game to be like, but if they really had it (if it was even possible), they'd ruin it.

This other game has ways to buy your way into royalty - a little like SOTA, but even moreso. It's not just buying plots of land, but actually having power within the game from the start, in the form of royalty and such. And people are going on like, "Oh well reponsibility comes with power, these royals won't get to have fun gaming like a lower level player - they have to rule their kingdoms and they won't be able to just play the game!" As in...yes these people payed hundreds/thousands of dollars for a big piece of land, big castle, and power, but don't worry, they won't be overpowered because they'll be burdened with running their kingdom! You're LUCKY to have a peon account!

Oh come off it. People are the same everywhere, and these ideas just won't work. I feel it's the same with these "immersion" types. Listen, I love immersion as much as anyone, but when people have ideas they have to recognize, what will be *fun*. If it's not fun, all the immersion and simulation in the world won't work. Developers have to walk a very thin tightrope between immersion and fun gameplay.

I also remember the hype around 'Fable'. "You can plant a seed, and as the years go by it'll grow into a tree!" Yeah sounds great. It's not feasible on any true sandbox-level. Maybe you can plant one tree, in one specific place, and it'll get bigger or something. People fool themselves about what technology can do all the time.

Ahh well, I don't even know if this was what the OP was about, but it made me think of it.

 

So you would wan´t the same but different story. Or would you expect innovation.

 

I pledged Adventurer 40$ without having a clue what I will get for it. I pledged just in the good name of Richard Garriot in good hope that I will have some good time spending in his game. It's worth it 40$ by now as I have fun in SotA.
What I really really don't get is: what inspires so many people to pledge hundreds and thousands of $ in a game that is in pre-alpha and none could ever say what will become of the vision and what will he get for that lot of money. A guildmate of mine has 2 accounts Lord Marshall and Knight Marshall which he payed for in sum 3400$. WTF ?????

 

@mercster - that is exactly what i as a OP want. - make us think and have a nice little chat about a topic.

 

Well i still like NWN1 & NWN2.

Ofc. it shouldn't be exact the same, but the Toolset and overall possibilities of NWN1&2 were just amazing.
The community made stuff was just amazing, and some Persistent Worlds were just "wow" and tons of fun!

So i hope, one day, one "smart" person in this world will start an KS or something for NWN3 (or any different name but with the same concept like NWN1&2)

 

I don't know much about it, but isnt there a "Shards Online" game that is supposed to be kinda like UO, but you can run your own servers and create your own worlds/adventures?

 

Yup

But i kinda like the D&D setting.

 

Would you back Mozart to make music?

Seems like the same game plan here.

 

That's where I'd drop out with a 'no' Even the developers I respect, with some good products and original ideas, have at varying times been involved with or responsible for some real clunkers, or game concepts I have no interest in. The combination of Richard Garriott and a fantasy theme mmo with links back to the virtues got my interest - but Lineage and Tabula Rasa, for example had his involvement but were not at all interesting to me.

 

There is some truth to running a kingdom and being busy. I have been here since release and 99% of my guild members passed me up ages ago, and I have yet to master one skill and we have guys with 50+ masteries. However I am playing a different game and I call it community building. It takes up most of my time and I am hoping to master just 1 skill for this new years.

 

I would have given his father the money to manage it. Not to Mozart himself as he was not good in management of money... or lets say very good in spending the money.

 

I hear you, but players like you are very rare. Most people will want their cake and eat it to, act ridiculous, etc.

 

If there was really no concept of the game available to me at all i would never back it. I don't really like gambling

 

Hmm... isn't that what Sword Coast Legends is supposed to be?

 

No, not even close

 

It's too bad that NWN2 was Windows only. I never even got to play it. The original NWN was one of my all time favorite games.

 

I completely agree with this. But I would ask them to make the game more like NWN1 then NWN2.

I was able to easily create amazingly diverse zones in NWN1 even though it was pretty simple. In NWN2 they went way to far in zone creation where you had to almost be a graphics designer to build them.

Te ability to create your own game in their engine was the best design ever done in a game and lead to some of the best play I have ever seen.

If people dont know NWN (aurora), it used a toolset like SOTA (Unity). You could use the toolset to create your own content just like our dev's do in SOTA. In the NWN case, it had all of the content available that they created for NWN for you to build your own modules (and people created their own huge packs of new content like 3D models to add to the game). This would be like our dev's allowing anyone to use their SOTA build of unity to create content, create their own SOTA universe game. Even in NWN, you could link people to other modules feasibly creating a endless universe using computing (servers) across the globe. That is what I call true "crowd sourced".