Pathfinder Online Announced

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Goblinworks announces they have acquired a license to develop an MMOG based on Pathfinder, and RPG intellectual property owned by Paizo Publishing. Here's a bit on the pedigree of the new developer: "Founded by Paizo co-owner Lisa Stevens (Pathfinder RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade, Magic: The Gathering), game industry veteran Ryan S. Dancey (Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, EVE Online), and experienced MMO developer Mark Kalmes (Microsoft, Cryptic Studios, CCP), Goblinworks is an independent company that will work with Paizo Publishing to bring the award-winning world and adventures of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game to the online gaming market." And here's a bit on their game plans:

Ripped from Blue's News.
Hmmm that does sound interesting.

Sounds a lot like Ultima Online.

Sounds awesome. Wake me up in 4 years, and only if it won't end up as a browser or Facebook game. If it does, just pull the plug.

Sounds nice.

Sounds intriguing. Oh if you are really sure this one will be a smash hit make sure to invest: https://goblinworks.com/investors/

Whenever i read player built settlements, kingdoms, fortifications, player dominated economy it means vaporware or a poorly executed game like shadowbane, or darkfall or mortal online, all of them miserably failed or were not even released , some were even scams.Dont fall for it kids, trust me.Just reading sandbox is enough , theres only eve online succeeding except UO, and its frankly not satisfying to me anymore.
A new team on such an ambitious project, no way, it will end up a wow theme park clone or never be released.

I really hate to agree, but I'd be fooling myself if I didn't. Nearly every new IP I see reporting such claims end up, as Mortmal stated, vaporware or stripped of all previously stated goodies (See Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Heroes of Telara/Rift, Dark & Light).

Although, I suppose wishful thinking can't do any substantial harm

Kickstarter for Techdemo.

This was a very well done Kickstarter for what is just the techdemo. I'm excited.

A kickstarter for a tech demo? What? Reward is watching a video of the demo, not playing it?

WoTC must be pretty pissed about that OGL thing.

Yeah. While the game they've got planned sounds interesting, I feel absolutely incentive to pay for a Tech Demo. At 50000$ they should have enough money to pay for it out of their own pockets.

But it was funded within a day anyway... Hell, they even say that they don't want too much money. I'm interested how this will turn out.

50K is no chump change, Shannow. Kickstarter with such small amount is a good move. It also estimate public demand for such thing.

Uhm, sorry, for me 50K is about 6 times the money I've ever had at a single time (but it looks like this will change in the near future *g*). For you it's also a lot of money. But for several industry veterans with strong connections to Paizo, publisher of the most successful current PnP RPG, it's peanuts. Fargo was willing to pump 100K of his own money into W2. But Paizo/Goblinworks all together are unwilling to invest even 50k?
Simply looking at the success of Pathfinder, Shadowrun Returns, the anticipation of GW2 and the "failure" of the recent WoW clones is a far more convincing argument towards the demand for a Pathfunder MMO with an actually dynamic player driven world than one to three thousand backers of a Tech Demo...

The whole concept of "give me money so publishers see that there are people willing to give money so publishers give me more money" is plain retarded.

Pretty much... Well it's not exactly retarded, but I feel it's an unworthy use of Kickstarter, especially if it leads others to do the same. Kickstarter should not prove to outside investors or publishers anything; Kickstarter should be crowdfunding projects by individuals and no more. Hell, if they were simply making a tech demo for a subsequent Kickstarter, I might even be okay with it.

Course the fault is also on the backers for even supporting this. And paying money to WATCH a tech demo. Ugh, fanboys.

I'm pretty sure it's more a "raise the awareness" and gauge interest thing then anything else. It's a good way to show investors that there is indeed a demand for a non theme park mmo. So it's a lot of free publicity and the hardcore paizo/pathfinder crowd can get their name in the game credits for only 5$. It's a smart move imo.

Paying for a techdemo? No, never! Sounds like milking the masses only EA could come up with.
But after a second look the reward tiers equalize it to some degree. Practically you get a 64 pages sourcebook for 15$ or the printversion for 50$. That's still way too much. I got the 4th edition Shadowrun rules as a ebook for 15$ (something around 380 pages).

Pathfinder is superior to D&D in every way but this is something I can't approve.


Btw. is that true?:

It would deserve it but is there some evidence?

linky link

MMO... why? Why not something like NWN? WHY?

because MMOs sell buckets

They don't. WoW sells buckets. Guild Wars sells buckets. Making Pathfinder MMO is a retarded idea. Why not make a spiritual succesor to NWN? NWN2 had bugs up the ass and a shitty toolset. Why not make a better one and even add those settlement/kingdom stuff? Shit. Who the fuck thought of this? I want to strangle him.

Yes, I know that was sarcasm.

And to make matters worse for PF, it's in the fantasy MMO market, which is immensily oversaturated and where you *will* end up being sodomized by WoW eventually due to said oversaturation. If you enter the MMO market, you need to have a niche market you can utilize, because the main market is WoW/GW duo's bitch. Hell, I'd kill just for a NWN2 override that added Pathfinder mechanical updates like new attack bonus progression, class HD, class abilities and racial traits.


PS: NWN2's toolset wasn't technically shitty, it could do more than its predecessor. It was simply overtly complicated and lacked positive streamlining.

I even made a topic in the Paizo forums: http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5pxx?Why-a-MMO I'm that angry about this stupid idea.

WHY?!

If you read the bottom of their kickstarter it shows that they are looking for investors to finance the very start of their venture. They either don't have the money or don't want to spend the money (aka. spend other people's money to get rich, jew gonna jew). Online games and MMOs are popular and they're looking to string along a few naive investors looking for the next Zynga. I'd say this is a longshot and will take years.