Mr. GOH!

He showed me and a group of kids the entry page to playboy.com (IIRC, there were tits) and said that this would drive the future development of the internet, not chat and games like I liked back in 1993. You know what? He was correct. To my knowledge, pictures of naked tits never hurt anyone. And they were not the first pair I had ever seen.

Amalur isn't that great. But it's big and colorful and kinda-sorta RPG-ish, so why not? I just got episodes 3 and 4 of the Penny Arcade game series, and the emperor deluxe DLC-included version of endless space. I need to dedicate some time to Endless Space because I did not understand how to colonize new systems on when I just fucked around in it for half an hour.

How old are you, Ethan? I'm in my 30's and I DEFINITELY had internet and porn at 14. Fuck, my dad showed me playboy.com on Netscape 1.0 when I was 12. Told me that it would be the future of the Internet. I thought telnet chatrooms and MUDs were the future. He was right, I was wrong.

It's a series of beautifully-shot Mexican wrestling matches between giant monsters and goddamn mecha. Fun as hell. AAA B movie. And the mid-credits sequence is funny rather than a sequel setup!

I am well aware that KS is for lots of stuff. I'm talking about it when it's used by games companies to fund game development, specifically about how other campaigns did better than Broken Age. As far as Steven Dengler goes, I am certain he's not an investor, just a rich superfan. He's not making money on his donations; his matching was meant to cover failed pledges and initially did not count towards the KS campaign. But because there were so few failed pledges, his donations ended up counting towards the last stretch goal (or maybe it was the donation from Brian Fargo, I can't recall). Legally speaking, the duties owed to backers should be clear; the products as promised by the campaign to the backers should be delivered, or the backers get their money back, modified by any disclaimers or waivers or releases the backer may sign on for when they pledge. Not sure about the legal regime in the UK.

DF fucked up how they have handled Broken Age. Not irretrievably so, but they still fucked up. They communicated their decisions to backers poorly. They communicated their vision of the game poorly. They overdesigned the game for their budget. That is not an indictment of kickstarter, it's folks on both sides of the kickstarter deal learning what to do and what not to do on kickstarter video game projects. It's what happens when businesses figure out how to handle a new source of financing projects. It is not some demonstration that kickstarter video game projects are shitty, or fraudulent, or whatever. I think we already have seen reactions to DF's strategy in the inXile and Obsidian kickstarters; good descriptions of the essential gameplay, style, and features of their projects on day one. Regular, yet realistic, stretch goals to make communicate where the money over the minimum will be going. Regular updates on progress after the project has been funded. Backers are NOT investors. They are consumers. A pledge is, effectively, a preorder whose price, above a floor set by the project, the backers picks based on what s/he feels the promised product will be worth to him or her. Yes, some whales may throw in big bucks because they just like a project, but mostly it's guys like me who think a modern game in the same vein as Plansescape Torment is worth $100.

Pacific Rim. It pulls off exactly what it sets out to do, and is super fun to watch. It's the best summer blockbuster of the past decade. Edit: Yes, some of it is dumb as hell. But this is motherfucking movie about mecha fighting kaiju. If the premise itself doesn't turn you off, you should see it on the big screen.

Beat Civ V: Gods and Kings playing as Persia. Did the new culture victory. Vast improvements to late game boredom. Not much improvement to long waits between turns late game on huge maps.

Several studios has signalled that they intend to fund multiple games via kickstarter. InXile is making it a core business strategy. Obsidian may also go that route for a number of new games. These companies will build reputations as being good or bad at kickstarter. This is what I am talking about. Some developers will be repeat players in the kickstarter game and therefore their reputations at how they fulfill their promises will become important.

Apparently ZombiU was not good for Ubi and likely played into the decision to delay Rayman and make it multiplatform. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-08-does-nintendo-stand-a-chance-this-holiday via http://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-zombiu-not-profitable-no-sequel-plans-257720.phtml

I meant successes and failures in living up to their Kickstarter promises, Dean. I thought I was pretty clear about that. If developing for a publish is really different from developing for KS backers, it stands to reason that nobody really knows how well a given developer will be able to deliver on their KS promises.

Now you're just trolling, Ethan.

Dragon Age 2 was shittier at everything else, though.

Broken Age backers still get both parts, don't they? If they do not, then there's a real reason to be pissed. A Kickstarter campaign to fund game development fundamentally shifts the risk from publishers (and, to some extent, developers) to the backers. The nature of the beast is that the backers may get burned. Right now there's no real history of a given developer's successes and failures in meeting its backers demands for potential backers to scrutinize when weighing the risks of backing a game. Once that develops, folks can make better decisions about backing a particular developer's games, and that will lead to more realistic Kickstarter project promises and goals.

This has gotten some good reviews. Guess it's time to dust off the ol' Steam copy of Civ V. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sid-meiers-civilization-v-brave-new-world/critic-reviews

Killed Ponce with a barb, now it's time to descend into the depths.

ST: things go over budget because humans cannot predict the future. As far as Kickstarters go, the more a project promises, the more money it will receive, so there's incentive to overpromise. Unlike publishers, backers can't demand cuts to stay within budget (let alone the difficulties in getting all the backers to agree what needs to be cut). On the other hand, I think as companies learn how to promote and then work with Kickstarter projects, they'll get better at making sure they do not promise what they cannot deliver. I'm willing to chalk up Broken Age as a learning experience. Then again, I did not back it, so no skin off my back. I'm hopeful that the games I have backed will fare better, partially because the devs have given themselves ample time to work on the games.

I think the whole "managing production of video games is difficult point" is a good one to make, although it doesn't address the choices Double Fine has made in dealing with the problems it has encountered. I have never worked on a major project in any industry that has been on time and on budget. It's perfectly normal for complex projects to need more time and money, even if nobody really fucked anything up.

I've done that before. But I feel like the only way I can have enough HP to defeat him is if I use a lich king or queen, and they suck if you don't build them up. Bah, I guess I'd just better learn the pattern and pattern attack ol' poncey to death.

I hate Ponce de Leon so much. I'm just too depleted when I get there.

Rogue Legacy. It's pretty neat. 400 days will come next week when I'm home; I like playing the telltale Walking Dead games on the big screen.

I dislike Mattrick, sure. And I still believe this isn't enough for MS to rehabilitate itself. I believe I said this sort of move wouldn't be made for publicity purposes. There are many other reasons why Mattrick is leaving, including because he mismanaged the Xbone reveal and the DRM kerfluffle. I suspect that factions within MS/Xbox management that advocated for a more open Xbone jockeyed for his ouster once it became clear that the RM fucked MS's marketing strategy. That is different than publicly firing Mattrick as a publicity move. On the other hand, Mattrick perhaps sensed that this was a massive fuckup and sought an exit on his own. MS doesn't have a replacement for him, yet, which indicates that it may be possible that Mattrick left unilaterally.