The game is a largely turn-based computer role playing game, set in the post-nuclear war and largely destroyed American Southwest. You are the leader of a small squad of a group known as the Desert Rangers, desparately trying to restore some semblance of order in a world gone mad, where the very air and water can kill you.
Years later, the guys who worked on Wasteland were working for a new company and got the green light on a sequel. Unfortunately, EA wouldn't give up its rights, so the guys at Black Isle Studio created a new game, though one still set in a post-nuclear future. The result was Fallout, one of the most famous games of all time.
Over the years we have seen Fallout 2, Fallout 3 and now Fallout: New Vegas keep the tradition alive, a franchise dating all the way back to the Reagan Administration.
Then...someone got a very interesting idea.
"Hmmm..with this Kickstarter thing, why don't we ask the guys who worked on Wasteland to do a sequel and the fans will fully fund it so it doesn't involve EA or any of those corporate weenies?"
On Feb. 17, InXile Entertainment's Brian Fargo, who directed both Wasteland and the original Fallout, annouced he would do a sequel if the fans could come up with $1,000,000 on Kickstarter. Fargo also said he would kick in $100,000 of his own if the effort came in between $900,000 and a million.
In less than 24 hours, InXile had raised $600,000 for the sequel from fans.
In 48 hours, the full million had been raised.
In March, InXile announced that if the effort raised $2,100,000, he had reached agreement to bring in respected RPG house Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas) and its co-owner, legendary computer game designer Chris Avellone (Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Knights of the Old Republic II, Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas) to work on Wasteland 2.
On April 16, the fund raising effort ended with a full $3,000,000, all from FANS who have now financed themselves a quality sequel, free from the constraints of EA, the "market" and today's console game sensibilities. It's as if fans of really good old movies worked around today's studios and the pathetic trash Hollywood releases and financed a sequel themselves. A real movie! With real dialog! That doesn't HAVE to pander to today's morons!
And we got some concept art. The Desert Rangers ride again!
What we have here is a complete generational disconnect!
ReplyDeleteMe, I have never played a computer game. Have never been in the least bit interested in doing so, and the liklihood of ever doing so, in the future, is so way past remote it doesn't even know what a radar is.
But G-d love Jourdan and the rest of the "gamers" you get manufactured (sometimes brilliantly) stuff as your cultural icons and references.
Me, I got real people with real lives,people who lived through rationing and bomb shelters.
Music that included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Instead of CGI the movies I saw relied on characters and writing (good and bad) such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
But we can't choose when we were born. I was taught an appreciation of what came before and we shared that with each other. I doubt that was the case much beyond my generation.
I think what I find most objectionable about computer games, and twitter et al is the isolation between users. Connection is anonymous. This scares me because people don't ever learn how to interact with real people.
First, Fay, let me say that I know you shared my sense of getting a midnight reprieve from the governor last night as the Canucks managed to win a game.
ReplyDeleteI share your concern about isolation and an over-focus on electronic entertainment. These types of games, which are generally referred to as "computer games" as opposed to "video" or "console" games, are a bit different from that. They don't have anything to do with the Internet or other players; they involve merely a single player, with the game acting as a kind of artificial game master, presenting an environment, challenges, combat situations, etc.
My point in posting it, aside from being very happy at the news, was to note that my old, well-beloved punk inclination to ignore the mass-market and do-it-yourself when it comes to art and entertainment is now finding a new vehicle via fan financing.
Take those movies you list. I think we can agree that what is coming out today is pure crap as compared to those. It's no different with computer games. As the horrific console games have made billions (and I do mean horrific....a friend of my son brought one over to my house the other day and I had him turn it off after eight minutes, it was so disgusting in its pointless and over-the-top violence; he actually expressed relief that some adult had finally objected....) the ability of quality game makers to make games that involve CRAZY things like story, dialog and, gawd forbid, difficulty, has been reduced to near nil.
This development allows real computer gamers to thumb their noses at the game publishing cartels and the console crowd and fund real artists with proven track records.
That's what excites me. Well, that and the chance to take on rad-scorpions with a meticulously reconstructed bolt action rifle.
Jourdan, that was the best game the Canucks have played for a long time. I hope they keep playing like that and I hope they keep Schneider in goal. Buh Bye Luongo.
DeleteThanks for explaining the difference between computer games and video/console games (I had no clue, as you probably determined!) And good for you telling your son's friend to switch off the video game.
Keep clear of the rad-scorpions :)
Games aren't my thing - but Jourdan's correct in pointing out that Kickstarter is _huge_ when it comes to fan supported media of all kinds.
DeleteIt's really a "back to the future" phenomenon - in the old days, artists didn't have agents or studios or unions or the NEA. They had patrons.
What Kickstarter enables is mass patronage, which is completely awesome.