I agree with almost all of this. I did love playing mario cart with friends at my house, but have never really made the transition to online multiplayer. Thus many console games hold near zero appeal. I share your love of solo gaming and the precision of mouse and keyboard, plus there is hardly anything I can't eventually play on my PC. (Quantum Dreams I'm looking at you). There are a few things I find more enjoyable with a gamepad, but then again, I can just plug one into my PC, so....
@JoInfo Its one of my favorite passtimes also, but this particular review wasn't as scathing and amusing as I had hoped. Just directly conveys Kevin's sad frustration.
@hystavito Indeed. Developers in California (the KS page says near Hollywood, I believe) would be starving on $75K per year. Six developers on that salary for even one year would be $450K, and the video says they were at it for 2 years. I can easily see them having spent a half mil failing to make a game.
Like several other people here, I'm of a mixed mind about this. I back quite a few KS projects and I understand if they go belly up I get zip. I'm not up on these Yogspeople, so I can only hope I would have been wise enough to have seen the risks of the project and not backed. But if I did, I'd take my losses. I'd be disappointed, but not looking to sue unless I really did believe that they were defrauding us.
All of that said, I also think its pretty low of them to throw the game dev under the bus that brutally. There is what they are legally obligated to do on the one hand and what good ethics says they ought to do on the other. They could at least generate real sympathy and remorse, even if they didn't cough up $500K. And giving some clear answers on where the money went and what their involvement was would go a long way to shoring up their credibility. But I suppose they don't really care about that. Sad.
I hope it doesn't serve to scare people completely away from Kickstarter though. There's a lot of great stuff going on there. I have FTL, Shadowrun Returns, Divinity: Original Sin, and Wasteland 2 all in hand now, and they are all very good. Lots of others that are still in development also are looking great. Even if a project or two that I backed ultimately failed or produced a lousy game, on balance I'd say its still a great experience.
Another great "the point". I can only imagine the amount of time it takes to shoot the footage, edit it all down, find all those clips of games and shows, old and new, and string it all together in such an entertaining and thought-provoking episode. I for one hope that this kind of _imaginative_ reporting helps keep this particular gaming site _up_. Kudos.
@at129907 I thought it was pretty good for an Irish guy. I only caught his natural accent slip out about twice. The southern accent wasn't enough to fool anyone, but definitely good enough for a laugh.
Just catching up on this one now. Don't know how I missed it. Outstanding and thought provoking as always. I found myself remembering all the times in my own life when I looked to games as a way to take my mind away from whatever real world stuff was in my face. Now I work a stressful job and have small children and I game for an hour or two 5 nights a week. Definitely a coping mechanism. When I feel like I can't make any traction in the office and I'm just on an endless treadmill at home, the ability to fire up a game and accomplish something, to accomplish ANYTHING feels great. In a world where so often the answer isn't clear, gaming offers a clear path to success. To be the hero with no caveats. Its the only way I can put my mind on a shelf and recharge.
Thanks for posting this and keep 'em coming, Danny.
Damn fine show. The combination of humor with relevant social commentary is pure gold, my man. I love the frenetic build-up of absurdity that ends in the cut and the cold, still delivery of "the point." Excellent work once again.
$500M is really pretty staggering. But I remember when they were making the movie Titanic and the press was having a field day over the ballooning costs. Nobody could believe it would ever make that money back and then of course it went on to make obscene profits well beyond that unheard-of development budget. Maybe Destiny will do the same... or you know, maybe it will be Waterworld instead.
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