Game News Torment Kickstarter Update #2: Stretch Goals

[LeStryfe79]

Man, we need a new thread. Update 3 can't come soon enough. Let's go 2 mil!

 

[evdk]

Lem? Nigga, please! Reading that dross is pure mental torture. I would rather be waterboarded than subject myself to that crap.

Ah, you have no taste. Of course, that explains everything

 

[bot]

Oh, you're talking about that Yudkowsky! I haven't read his Harry Potter stuff and I don't find the concept of it that interesting. However, his AI Box experiment ( http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox ) is off-the-charts-awesome.

It sure is a cool concept for a sci-fi novel but calling it an AI experiment or even an experiment at all is quite a stretch.

Fucking Lem. Fucking Dukaj.
oh fuck you skuphundaku

My man.

Speaking of Dukaj, just had an aha moment what exactly TToN concept art reminded me of:

 

[MasPingon]

Nigga' please! Eastern Europeans cannot into writing sci-fi even if their lives depended on it... actually, if I think about it more, I've never read any good non-anglosphere sci-fi. I guess that non-anglos don't have the necessary thought patterns to write sci-fi worth a damn.

Jan Weiss's Dům o tisíci patrech says fuck you.

Fucking Lem. Fucking Dukaj.

oh fuck you skuphundaku

And Strugacki brothers, you ignorant bitch.

 

[Brother None]

Speaking of Dukaj, just had an aha moment what exactly TToN concept art reminded me of:

Baginski is pretty awesome.

So is Lem. Can't even begin to question that, so shrug!

Man, we need a new thread. Update 3 can't come soon enough. Let's go 2 mil!

We don't need a new thread. This thread just needs less skuphundaku

 

[skuphundaku]

Oh, you're talking about that Yudkowsky! I haven't read his Harry Potter stuff and I don't find the concept of it that interesting. However, his AI Box experiment ( http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox ) is off-the-charts-awesome.

It sure is a cool concept for a sci-fi novel but calling it an AI experiment or even an experiment at all is quite a stretch.

I call it an experiment because, in a manner, he actually ran the experiment 5 times already: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/AI-box_experiment

 

[skuphundaku]

We don't need a new thread. This thread just needs less skuphundaku

I recall you're a massive Lem lover. I promise I won't hold that against you.

 

[bot]

Oh, you're talking about that Yudkowsky! I haven't read his Harry Potter stuff and I don't find the concept of it that interesting. However, his AI Box experiment ( http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox ) is off-the-charts-awesome.

It sure is a cool concept for a sci-fi novel but calling it an AI experiment or even an experiment at all is quite a stretch.

I call it an experiment because, in a manner, he actually ran the experiment 5 times already: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/AI-box_experiment

Well yes, colloquially speaking, we might call it an experiment, but in no way it is scientific.

 

[skuphundaku]

Oh, you're talking about that Yudkowsky! I haven't read his Harry Potter stuff and I don't find the concept of it that interesting. However, his AI Box experiment ( http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox ) is off-the-charts-awesome.

It sure is a cool concept for a sci-fi novel but calling it an AI experiment or even an experiment at all is quite a stretch.

I call it an experiment because, in a manner, he actually ran the experiment 5 times already: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/AI-box_experiment

Well yes, colloquially speaking, we might call it an experiment, but in no way it is scientific.

It doesn't seem much worse (un-scientific) that most experiments run by, for example, psychologists, or other practitioners of various soft sciences.

 

[abnaxus]

Some of you guys have read Books of Malazan, right?
It not only has strong female protagonists but very often, in case of smaller side characters, especially those inside Bridgeburners company - many are addressed and addressing each other only with nicknames and you can read more than half a book without figuring out those were actually female characters. They serve as soldiers, walk like soldiers, talk like soldiers, throw dirty jokes like soldiers, wear functional armor and have a clear "soldiery role".

Except for the case of Masan Gilani. You can't read two pages without mention of how big her ass and tits are and how tight her leather armour is.

Yeah? i dont remember any char like that. What book was it? i missed a few but ive read the first five... i think.

I mean, anyway, there is a zillion characters in Malazan books but i was talking about a general way things go in that setting.

She killed one of the T'rolbarahl while being practically naked.

 

[bot]

Oh, you're talking about that Yudkowsky! I haven't read his Harry Potter stuff and I don't find the concept of it that interesting. However, his AI Box experiment ( http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox ) is off-the-charts-awesome.

It sure is a cool concept for a sci-fi novel but calling it an AI experiment or even an experiment at all is quite a stretch.

I call it an experiment because, in a manner, he actually ran the experiment 5 times already: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/AI-box_experiment

Well yes, colloquially speaking, we might call it an experiment, but in no way it is scientific.

It doesn't seem much worse (un-scientific) that most experiments run by, for example, psychologists, or other practitioners of various soft sciences.

I don't think psychologists try to impersonate nonexistent robot gods, or any highly dubious, purely speculatory agents for that matter, during their experiments. They also seek peer review rather than shroud their proceedings in mystery. It really ain't science, mate.

 

[tuluse]

A thumb statue made from obsidian.

This is actually an excellent idea. Would donate to a fund drive with this goal.

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Brother None]

PayPal store is live

 

[Koschey]

Fucking A!

 

[FeelTheRads]

PayPal store is live

Add a counter too.

 

[Infinitron]

Updated OP.

 

[Jaesun]

Damn that was fast on getting PayPal up.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Here are some stretch goals I like:

2.5 million: Ziets!!! Ideally as a permanent member of the inXile team.
3.0 million: Moar artists!
3.5-4 million: Get a real, established, SciFi writer, one who can actually write decent prose and is not just about ideas, to write the dialogue for one of the NPCs. I suggest Iain Banks or Neal Stephenson or Joe Haldeman. Neal Stephenson may be more likely to agree because he is already messing around with video game stuff.

I disagree that Neal Stephenson would be "more likely to agree because he is already messing around with video game stuff". I would say that that makes him less likely to get involved in another project, now that he already has his own project to work on.

I think that writers with at least some experience writing about transhumanism/posthumanism would fit the bill best. Given that Neal Stephenson is already busy doing his own thing, the rest of the Tier 1 candidates, IMHO, would be (in alphabetical order):
Alastair Reynolds
Charles Stross
Cory Doctorow
David Brin
Greg Bear
Greg Egan
Gregory Benford
Iain M. Banks
Stephen Baxter

What about Yudkowsky? He could use some dough to save us from Robo Jesus.

What about the recently discovered talent Sawielijew ?

But seriously I'd find it awesome if Iain M. Banks would write a little bit on singularities for example.

 

[Koschey]

Finally got my Cypher pledge in and can rest easy again.

 

[Sacred_Path]

POS stretch goals. Why didn't they put in, say, 10 stretch goals that they know are realistic/ appropriate for their team, engine, ruleset and vision? Most user suggestions are complete bollocks so far.

 

[Infinitron]

PayPal store is live

Add a counter too.

I think Wasteland 2's PayPal had one?

POS stretch goals. Why didn't they put in, say, 10 stretch goals that they know are realistic/ appropriate for their team, engine, ruleset and vision? Most user suggestions are complete bollocks so far.

You mean like MOAR WRITERS??

 

[Rumsfeld]

I think that writers with at least some experience writing about transhumanism/posthumanism would fit the bill best. Given that Neal Stephenson is already busy doing his own thing, the rest of the Tier 1 candidates, IMHO, would be (in alphabetical order):
Alastair Reynolds
Charles Stross
Cory Doctorow
David Brin
Greg Bear
Greg Egan
Gregory Benford
Iain M. Banks
Stephen Baxter

Peter F Hamilton's worth mentioning on transhumanism/posthumanism too.

 

[Brother None]

Not to discourage you guys too much but we coordinated and set up our possible writers to add ahead of time. Of course there's some flexibility, but the guys you'll be hearing getting announced these coming weeks are guys we have been talking with for weeks or months. It's not like we're actively on the lookout for people to add, we have a pretty long list.

 

[Jaesun]

As long as it's ZIETS and possibly MITSODA I'm happy.