Just announced…
A worse thing could not have happened to a nicer bunch of people. Oh Paizo, was this really a bandwagon you should have jumped on? Could you not stay high on the PnP wagon?
What’s the issue? Browser games can be fun. More background needed.
This doesn’t seem like a smart move to me. I don’t even see how they have the capital to develop an MMO that has a prayer of succeeding. And even the ones with a budget don’t really go anywhere. Their best bet is to approach it like D&D Online, with it being closer to a video game implementation of a PnP RPG. It’s dead before it even starts if they go with the Everquest/WoW model.
I would have liked a really polished virtual game table thing.
/agree
it does sound like it will have sandbox elements though, so hopefully it won’t be as bad as the typical themepark mmo.
I have to agree with both sentiments. When I saw “Pathfinder Online” I was hoping for a full featured first party supported digital table. And when I read it’s actually an MMO I was worried if it could take Paizo down. Hopefully the mothership is well insulated. Wouldn’t it be a nightmare if they had to sell the game and IP off in a couple years and Hasbro/WotC bought it? /shudder
I think I’d have preferred a straight crpg, but whatever.
Yeah. This could end badly. Reading through their message boards, a new company has been founded and they have licensed the Pathfinder MMO rights to the new company. Paizo co-owner and CEO Lisa Stevens has said that Paizo itself has a very small financial stake in the company. However, Lisa is also one of the founders of the new company, and one has to wonder how much it’s failure would effect Paizo.
Also take a look at goblinworks.com(this is the new company). This thing is years away. They don’t seem to have a staff yet. They don’t have an engine. And they are still looking for investors. So it’s not even funded yet. This thing could be dead before it gets off the ground.
Also note one of the founders of the new company is Ryan Scott Dancey. He is responsible for the Open Gaming License, which is what makes it possible for Pathfinder to exist at all. It also seems that many of table top gamers hate the guy, a lot. I have no opinion of him either way, but many people do. Oh, and if you check out goblinworks.com, take a look at his bio.
Anyway, will be interesting to see what happens.
Yeah. This could end badly. Reading through their message boards, a new company has been founded and they have licensed the Pathfinder MMO rights to the new company. Paizo co-owner and CEO Lisa Stevens has said that Paizo itself has a very small financial stake in the company. However, Lisa is also one of the founders of the new company, and one has to wonder how much it’s failure would effect Paizo.
Also take a look at goblinworks.com(this is the new company). This thing is years away. They don’t seem to have a staff yet. They don’t have an engine. And they are still looking for investors. So it’s not even funded yet. This thing could be dead before it gets off the ground.
Also note one of the founders of the new company is Ryan Scott Dancey. He is responsible for the Open Gaming License, which is what makes it possible for Pathfinder to exist at all. It also seems that many of table top gamers hate the guy, a lot. I have no opinion of him either way, but many people do. Oh, and if you check out goblinworks.com, take a look at his bio.
Anyway, will be interesting to see what happens.
They are going to have to simplify a lot of the rules to attract people that aren’t familiar, or aren’t currently interested in, Pathfinder and the d20 system. It’ll probably end up like D&D Online: as close to the core rules as possible but adjusted for real-time combat, which sort of makes it a shit WoW clone.
I dunno, I don’t know why turn-based rule sets are shoehorned into a real-time setting just because some clownshoe thinks the MMO bandwagon hasn’t passed them by yet. I play Pathfinder every week and have absolutely no interest in playing a system I love in an MMO setting, waiting for the terribly designed combat system to decide whether I’ve won or not and grant me the fifteenth and final goblin ear I need to leave the L5-8 zone.
I had hoped for a virtual table top or (bestill my heart) a turn-based CRPG and share many of the worries you guys have about a straight up MMO. I just hope that exposure to Paizo proper is very limited. I’d hate to see this bring them down, if even a notch.
If they go the WoW / EQ route they’re dead. A more UO approach may work, but I’m not sure how much crafting-centric they should make it. They mentioned the River Kingdoms (not my favorite part of Galarion, by a long shot) in the press release and alluded to Kingmaker. I think that a game based on running a Pathfinder Lodge or on the kingdom rules in Kingmaker could work. Keep it broad in scope (not at the character level), keep it true to the rules, keep it non-real-time, and focus on gameplay before graphics and they may have a shot. Certainly in the F2P realm, if they choose that.
I have loved Paizo ever since my FLGS owner handed me the 50 lb Pathfinder core rulebook after I spent 15 minutes complaining about my 4e game being dull and boring. Dropping 4e and switching to a Pathfinder adventure path saved my gaming group.
That being said, this is a mistake. I cannot see how this can possibly be good.
Ok, what’s up with this guy? He seems pretty full of himself. He has a library of over 2000 books? Wow! Like, nobody has that many books! Also, he’s had an internet email address since 1988. He is really cool!
“He’s been called ‘the Steve Jobs of MMO Marketing.’” I wonder who called him that?
oh, that was me. Sorry!
Should have done a Facebook browser thing like D&D’s Heroes of Neverwinter, but unlike HoN they should have done a good job and not implemented a halfass version of the base game that they consistently shit up every time they did a patch.
I suppose it could be a browser game in the F2P model…like a Travian clone based in the River Kingdoms.
That may be better than a full-fledged MMO though, but at this point, it’s picking the prettier of 2 shits.
And Ryan Scott Dancey looks like the Guy Fieri of game development. The coolest damn nerd in the world and all that.
Yeah, I’m glad he is bringing his wealth of deep sea diving experience to the project. Over 100 logged dives!
It will probably make it. It already has $33.5k of the $50k goal with 29 days to go.
I won’t be giving. I like Pathfinder a lot, but I don’t need to see another fantasy MMO. Especially when you can’t even get $50k on your own funding to get a tech demo made.
The product is a bad idea. It doesn’t seem to capitalize on what we like about Pathfinder, while at the same time taking on experienced computer-gaming juggernauts at their own game.
The structure of the Kickstarter is ill advised too. Its another game where they are asking you for money to prove to investors that people are interested. The reward you get is not a game but a book. So they are not proving that theres demand for a game, only that there is demand for their books. Which is something they’ve already proved. Stupid.