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Why purchase the BG: EE over the GOG version?

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  • veevitoveevito Member Posts: 35
    Kraed, I don't think it is out of line to say that $10 is not alot of money for a game. Simply because this is a place where, presumably, we are gamers talking to each other about a hobby we enjoy. A hobby where the average cost per game is $60 these days.

    Therefore, in this arena, it's a legitimate thing to say that $10-20 is cheap as heck. That would apply to any forum where the participants are discussing their hobby. To say that $10 is not alot of money doesn't mean you are insensitive or whatever you may be implying. It simply means it's being discussed in context here. And in context, $10-20 is cheap as heck.

    Am I not allowed to say that $5 or $3 is cheap for a gog game as well because $5 is alot of money to someone?

    But, as to your main point, yeah you could debate if it's worth it. I think it is. Even if you consider it a donation for what the goals here are. A donation where you get something.

    I also don't think you can say that what beamdog is doing is already available from gog for less. That's dishonest really. The differences are there and you can debate the value, but don't be dishonest about it. IMO, what has been laid out here by beamdog is worth it. Your mileage may vary.
    Space_hamstermch202
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    kraed said:


    Fair point regarding the inherent value of content. You're right it is wrong to judge content based on other content, but this wasn't my intention. It's more to do with the fact that this new content is fan content, just like all the other fan content. Whilst there are some of the original devs the simple fact is that this is a different company working on this game by contract, 14 years later. It isn't the main developers. This is for all intents and purposes a fan project that is asking us to pay for their fan content, content which is almost completely isolated from the main game due to their contract.

    Again, I think this is a very poor argument against the new content. Spiderman hasn't been written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for what? 50 years now? Does that mean that all the subsequent Spiderman works are nothing than fan content? The people working over at Overhaul aren't just fans, they're professionals.
    kraed said:


    Also re the bugfixes: the difference here is that Overhaul are charging us more than the competition for bug fixes that, for the most part, were already fixed by other people. I'd point to The Witcher series as a good way of doing an 'Enhanced Edition' including bug fixes, without making the game feel like a cash grab. Yes they completely use the enhancements as a selling point, but they are also offered to the original purchasers for free. GOG offers a relatively similar deal (bug fixing/updating old games) but they also charge significantly less than this.

    GOG only offers a relatively similar deal if you ignore the new content that Overhaul offers and the various additional bug fixes and engine improvements. If you don't agree that the additional stuff offered in BGEE is worth the extra 10 bucks, that's really up to you, but don't act like Overhaul isn't effectively offering more than the GOG version of the game.
  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    @Tanthalas

    Actually if you refer back to the OP the whole point was exactly whether or not that extra content was worth the $10 extra or not, rather than EE being the same as the GOG version but more expensive. I'm not saying they aren't offering more, I'm saying what it is about this content that is making it worth the extra money?

    The spiderman comment doesn't exactly catch onto what the core problem I have with the new content here is. It's not just that the devs are a new team, but also their contract. Yeah Spiderman isn't Stan Lee anymore, but the people writing Spiderman now are still allowed to actually write Spiderman. These guys are not in that situation. They are trying to enhance the experience whilst being held under a contract that tells them they are not allowed to change the cast or characters. The Spiderman comment would be a fair comparison if all the newer works in Spiderman followed Spiderman's buddy Jack, whom you have never heard of before as he goes on an adventure effectively without Spiderman and with none of the previous characters acknowledging that Jack exists.

    So it's a combination of it all really. It's about a new team adding a small helping of new content that is completely isolated from the rest of the game and the characters... so what is it adding to the game? From what I can tell the new characters will not interact with the old, and they are all of conflicting alignments. This means you are going to really struggle to keep them all in the same party unless you cheese it up with helm of opposite alignment or something, which massively limits their potential as characters. If you're taking the single character and they dont react to anyone else (or have one way interactions) then you effectively doing little more than importing some custom characters into the game, which you could do anyway by starting the game in multiplayer. I know these new characters come with their own quest chains but if they don't have any affect on the game world at all I don't know why they are there to begin with.

    I use a repeated comparison about fan mods not necessarily due to them being better quality than the stuff being offered in the EE, but simply because they were actually allowed to do something to begin with. And again this is a release a massive 14 years after the game came out, it isn't something that came out shortly after. If Bioware decided to release brand new DLC for Mass Effect 1 today that updated the game to play like ME3 and added a new planet and character people would be screaming about how bad a cash grab it is, and ME1 is much younger. What exactly makes this stand out that justifies the asking price?

    @Klonoa

    Couldn't agree more about Dragon Age. Not a bad game at all, not by any means, but not even remotely like Baldur's Gate. That was definitely a case of the hype/marketing train suckering people in with false hopes to establish the IP, rather than a honest claim. Maybe it started out as a spiritual successor but there's very little in common beside some people that worked on it and "it's a fantasy RPG".

    It's nice that this is a project of passion, not money, but at the same time unforeseen factors have changed pretty much everything about that. Contractually this is now entirely about the money, even if the devs don't want it to be (thanks Bioware!). Without the creative freedom to actually improve upon the game lore, as well as the mechanics, this will never feel like it has the passion in it that it wants to have. As such I have to reason that if Bioware want to make it all about the money then fine, let them. But they need to prove to use that this is worth our money. I am completely behind the idea of the BG project but we are customers, not investors. It's not up to use to give a company money and hope they do something right with it, it's up to the company to do something right and then show us that they are selling something to us that is good value.
  • CorvinoCorvino Member Posts: 2,269
    @kraed I don't think it's entirely as you make it out to be with regard to existing NPCs. The way I've read the official announcements is that they're not allowed to add NPC dialogue to existing content, but can add appropriate new dialogue when dealing with new characters or new areas. So Minsc could chat with Neera or Rasaad or comment on a new area but couldn't say anything new to Sarevok in the final battle.

    While I am eternally grateful to the BG mod community that has given us Tutu, BGT, the BG1NPC project etc etc a professionally reworked game is going to provide value worth paying for. I've always had issues with multiplayer in Tutu/BGT installs. There are hacky workarounds but it doesn't just work when you press the button. That's what the project represents to me - a professional update that covers all the angles, ongoing support & bugfixing and a smattering of new content from a team who love the game.
    kraedmch202
  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    Is that the case? If so I wonder why it has taken halfway down the second page for someone to bring it up. On most of the places I have been reading people have talked about how the old cast are completely unchanged with nothing new to say. Perhaps this is something the developers need to pay more attention to talking about then. One of the big draws of the game is how the characters interact with each other and their surroundings, and is very much going to be a selling point if it is so.
  • CommunardCommunard Member Posts: 556
    kraed said:

    Is that the case? If so I wonder why it has taken halfway down the second page for someone to bring it up. On most of the places I have been reading people have talked about how the old cast are completely unchanged with nothing new to say. Perhaps this is something the developers need to pay more attention to talking about then. One of the big draws of the game is how the characters interact with each other and their surroundings, and is very much going to be a selling point if it is so.

    Trent has tweeted several times on the lines of "Added new dialogue lines for Minsc", so I think it is a pretty solid fact that the old NPCs will have new stuff, just presumably in new areas or talking to new characters.
    kraed
  • Jean_LucJean_Luc Member Posts: 228
    Yeah, I'm pretty (though not completely) sure that all the new lines for old characters are related to the new NPCs and the banter in-betweext those.
  • MississippiGhostMississippiGhost Member Posts: 20
    edited July 2012
    The content limitations imposed by either BioWare or Wizards of the Coast are very unfortunate indeed and an unnecessary roadblock for the developers. Personally I had wished for D&D 3rd edition rules like Icewind Dale 2, while I am less concerned about story or lore additions.

    The real achievements here are the technical ones though. The GoG version is a decade old Windows executable, only modified to work on newer versions of Windows operating systems. BG:EE is multi-platform by nature and supports modern OS, video and audio frameworks as well as networking.

    This may be less exciting for Windows users, true, in that case I hope iOS, OS X, Android (and mayhaps Linux if the gods allow it) sales will make up for it.

    Concerning mods, there are only so many fixes you can do without having access to the source code, which the BG:EE team has. The game will still be mod-able, so ideally we will get the best of both worlds, a modern and polished base engine, supported by further mods that add content or fixes.

    Nathanmch202
  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    edited July 2012
    Okay that's definitely a plus for this then. I can't stand twitter so I don't see any of the stuff people are tweeting. If the new characters interact with the old and the older characters interact with the new environments there's definitely a hell of a lot more value in this new content, though it still remains to be seen what the other bits of additional content in the game are (beyond the arena which is standalone so w/e).

    I said in the OP that I am not trying to argue against the game or convince other people not to buy it, but rather see what this is adding that makes it worth buying. I'm still not hugely convinced that adding the extra dialogue will swing me over the fence and lay down some cash for this at a $20 tag though. I like the idea that the old and the new can interact, but really I was hoping to see the old cast also interacting in much more meaningful ways with the old environments. A lot of the cast of BG1 doesn't actually have anything they really want to achieve in the game, so once you find them that's it for their story.

    I think my biggest worry about this all is that since Beamdog is doing BG1 now.. that's really it for BG1. They probably can't get a new contract and redo the EE, or have another company do it. With the contract as it is right now all the old content is completely frozen and will not be improved ever again, but one of the biggest problems with the original BG1 was how lifeless a lot of the towns felt. Beregost for one is a pretty boring area that wouldn't make much difference to the game if it wasn't there to begin with. Improving these sort of areas is really what I would hope for with the price tag as it is, but at the moment all the positive comments make this still feel little more than expensive DLC rather than a genuine improvement to the original game.

  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2012
    kraed said:


    I agree with the second half of that but the first part is.. just not going to happen. It's nice to dream but don't be under any illusions that a technical upgrade to a 12 year old PC game is going to renew interest in D&D.. or RPGs in general. BG isn't an obscure franchise; the majority of people that wanted to play BG already have done and there are options available now to play on modern PCs for less. This EE will certainly get sales to established fans, but it's very unlikely to entice new people to the franchise.

    I disagree. There's an entire new generation of gamers who at best might have heard of Baldur's Gate. BGEE will put the game at the front of every game review site, it will make BG available on entire new markets, very important ones at that (iOS, Android), it'll provide a polished experience out of the box, and it'll definitely entice plenty of new people to try something different from current-gen Bioware RPGs. Granted, it won't be the huge crowds Bioware/EA can gather, but it'll be significant. BGEE will get good reviews and sell for cheap.
    I said that in my opinion GOG is offering virtually the same deal for better, and that's all.
    So you're saying the improvements in BGEE amount to virtually nothing. That's just not the case. BGEE is vastly improved compared to the BG1:ToTSC version on GoG (I won't repeat how), and there will more content to come after release, most of which will be free.
    ShapiroKeatsDarkMageRenshtalis
  • LediathLediath Member Posts: 125
    I just have to say I'm impressed by the detail of almost every post on these forums. There is very little trolling, and a lot of meaningful and constructive discussion.

    That being said, I agree that iOS and Android are really great, however it would've been nice for the dev team to provide some incentive to purchasing multiple copies for example: If I pick up the PC copy and buy the iPad copy, all the extra content on the iPad copy is already unlocked w/o in app purchases.
    kraedLekian
  • MReedMReed Member Posts: 25
    I agree that the "traditional RPG market" (that BG1 / BG2 is part of) is too small to support the $50 million budgets associated with today's triple AAA titles, but...

    I feel (hope, more realistically) that enough of today's gamers would purchase a new "traditional RPG" that was developed within the limitations of a $500k - $1M budget to support at least one, and maybe two, developers. However, those budget figures are simply too high for indies, in my opinion. Yes, Kickstarter makes a big difference, but raising $500k via Kickstarter is pretty rare.

    What Overhaul games is doing with the BG1:EE is testing this market for themselves and everyone else. The established fan base for BG ensures positive word of mouth advertising and should guarantee positive buzz on the gaming / review sites, and the game is representative of the kind of game that could be developed for the mid-range budget described above.

    If BG1:EE is highly successful in attracting new customer's (as I hope) then Overhaul Games will have established a brand new market and they will do well (but will probably need a new name... :)).

    If, on the other hand, the only sales are to nostalgia freaks (e.g. the posters on this board), then Overhaul Games will hopefully breakeven, and it will be established that the traditional wisdom is correct -- there is no mid-range market for western style RPGs.
  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    @Zeckul

    That feels like you skipped over things I said to cherry pick easy comments to argue against. I said that because this is twice the price as the GOG version all the additional work they have done has to be weighed up against for the extra $10. If we say the first $10 brings this to the same level as the GOG version, which is reasonable enough, then the argument is "Does the rest of the content justify the additional $10 price?" This can be equally emphasised by the iPad version being $9.99 for the base game with the additional new content costing that again. Actually it's pretty obvious you cherry picked quotes and didn't read most of the thread because you use "it sells cheap" as an argument when this entire thread is about the extra pricing over the competition.

    You have a predisposition that the extra content is already great, but you haven't even played it yet, let alone even seen it in action in a video or review. This viewpoint, whilst your opinion that you are entitled to and not wrong per se (it may very well turn out to be utterly brilliant), is about as useful as someone saying "I hate this game I won't buy it and neither should you". You've already decided the game is great and you're here to merely state it's great, but you don't give a single reason as to why it's great and don't seem to care enough to read the actual arguments people are offering that disagree with you. This thread is about convincing people that the game is (or isn't) worth the extra price, not to blanket dismiss other people's opinions because you disagree. If the game is so great and equally good value for money say WHY.

    -BGEE will get good reviews and feature on the front of every game review site

    How do you know this? You can't see into the future and haven't played any of the content for yourself. BG: EE isn't a new game and it isn't available on consoles. Most of the major review sites tend to not cover DLC or remakes - especially on PC - even of much more well known and well selling franchises, why would this be any different? I'm sure there will be some places that review the game, like Rock Paper Shotgun, but ultimately this is a more polished version of a 14 year old game with some new content. You don't see a new review everytime the old Final Fantasy games come out on new hardware, for example, and they are effectively offering the same deal here (mechanical refinements, new content and classes etc). The game may be new to iPad but the large gaming sites rarely ever cover iPad stuff unless it's incredibly popular or something radically new that's gonna change the industry.

    I didn't really want to get into a debate on this thread over whether or not the iPad version will sell well so I'll keep the handheld points brief.

    -It'll definitely entice plenty of new people to try non current gen-bioware rpgs

    Why? As is obvious by now GOG is offering the game already for less, and advertises a lot more than Beamdog. Why would people that didn't care about the game when it was on GOG now care about the game when it is solely available from Beamdog, a company that I'd argue is far less known than GOG? Few people are gonna care about mechanical refinements when they didn't experience the problems to begin with. Bullet points like "400+ bug fixes" make the game seem like a buggy mess to a new player, not a refined experience.

    Pricing on the handheld formats is not competitive. $9.99 doesn't seem like much, but you're talking about a market where most things cost $1-2, or less. Usually free. The handheld market does brilliantly because of the cheap nature, where you can really just buy games on a whim and if they suck you just buy a new one. When your game is significantly more expensive you need to do something more than that, and if they know enough about BG to know why it's a good purchase they probably aren't new players.

    -There's an entire new generation of gamers who at best might have heard of Baldur's Gate

    So you're speaking for hundreds of thousands of gamers and saying none of them have played Baldur's Gate just because they are younger than you? BG is not an obscure franchise in PC RPGs. As someone pointed out before, Dragon Age was heavily advertised as a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. These players you think that will be interested in the game and like modern Bioware games, but have never played Baldur's Gate before and never been interested until now are probably the minority, not an entire generation. When an entire generation of gamers doesn't play a certain genre of games it is usually for a much better reason than "They haven't heard of them".
  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    edited July 2012
    MReed said:

    If, on the other hand, the only sales are to nostalgia freaks (e.g. the posters on this board), then Overhaul Games will hopefully breakeven, and it will be established that the traditional wisdom is correct -- there is no mid-range market for western style RPGs.

    I don't think this is an entirely accurate thing to deduce. Keep in mind that BG: EE is a rerelease of a 14 year old game, not a new game, and it has been on sale for years at budget pricing. If sales are poor for this game it's equally possible that sales are poor because most of the people that want the game already have the game. There's another thread somewhere talking about this specifically, i.e: are nostalgic games less fun to replay. Overhaul might do an utterly amazing job on this, make the engine perfect, make brand new content that is everything the fans possibly want.. and still not break even because most of the fans didn't want to buy the game for the 17th time. The real deciding factor will be if BG3 is greenlit and released - and plays similar to the original 2 games.

    Personally I am hoping that the devs don't just break even, but smash all forecast targets so that Bioware or whoever doesn't offer them another horrible contract for the future titles. However I don't think BG1: EE is going to be the game to do it. I'm reasonably confident they can break even at the very least though.

    But with this said.. I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether or not I'll buy it. There's equally compelling reasons for buying it as to just waiting 2 years before getting it cheaper.

  • lordkimlordkim Member Posts: 1,063
    kraed said:

    Okay that's definitely a plus for this then. I can't stand twitter so I don't see any of the stuff people are tweeting.

    Got a thread here so you dont have to go on twitter :O)
    http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/151/decoding-twitters/p1

    kraed
  • ShapiroKeatsDarkMageShapiroKeatsDarkMage Member Posts: 2,428
    Zeckul said:

    kraed said:


    I agree with the second half of that but the first part is.. just not going to happen. It's nice to dream but don't be under any illusions that a technical upgrade to a 12 year old PC game is going to renew interest in D&D.. or RPGs in general. BG isn't an obscure franchise; the majority of people that wanted to play BG already have done and there are options available now to play on modern PCs for less. This EE will certainly get sales to established fans, but it's very unlikely to entice new people to the franchise.

    I disagree. There's an entire new generation of gamers who at best might have heard of Baldur's Gate. BGEE will put the game at the front of every game review site, it will make BG available on entire new markets, very important ones at that (iOS, Android), it'll provide a polished experience out of the box, and it'll definitely entice plenty of new people to try something different from current-gen Bioware RPGs. Granted, it won't be the huge crowds Bioware/EA can gather, but it'll be significant. BGEE will get good reviews and sell for cheap.

    I agree.

  • gesellegeselle Member Posts: 325
    Yeah to buy or not to buy. On the one hand I'm not convinced by the content presented by the overhault, even though the new characters seem quite cool. On the other hand I want to support Beamdog, since it's not their fault classic content hasn't been updated.
    kraed
  • RaggieRaggie Member Posts: 23
    I see your POV, OP. In some way, I agree with you. They aren't offering much that you can't get for free with fan mods.

    Personally, I'm waiting for the iPad version. I'm also interested in a "modded" version of the game that doesn't have the headaches of modding. When I modded my BG2, I read the FAQs and still managed to mangle my game.

    Another thing I'm waiting for is how BG is introduced to new gamers. I know they could buy the version on GOG, but lots of them won't. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say she doesn't want to buy it because she's bad experiences with getting old games working on her computer. Every time I start to rant about how great the game is and how people should try it, I always add that they should mod the game because it's just so much better, and they get disinterested as soon as I start explaining the procedure. It's just too much effort for most people. I guess I should just tell them to go ahead and play the unmodded game, but I wouldn't want to do it myself either.

    Lots of people also play games on an iPad, but will not play games on a PC. No, I don't understand it either. as for the price, yes it is steep for a Pad game, but there will be sales.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is that this version might be worth it to a lot of people, but not necessarily to all.
    kraedmch202
  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    @geselle

    I completely agree. I really like everything the new team stands for and wants to achieve, but at the same time this current offering doesn't seem to reflect that, whether this is by intention or contractual restrictions.

    So far really the strongest argument for this seems to be "buy the game if you like BG and want to support the devs, otherwise wait a while until it drops in price". So far this is the view I really feel suits the vast majority of people. Personally I don't think it's right to invest in someone over intention rather than action, but many people will argue you can't act upon your intentions without proving the support is there.

    @Raggie

    I think it's a given that if you want this game on iPad it's a good thing. I'm definitely arguing from the view of the PC version versus other PC versions. If someone doesn't buy from GOG because they don't like compat issues I'm not sure how someone else rereleasing the game will change that viewpoint though.



    Also the point seems to be slipping a little ocassionaly so I want to reiterate: This thread is NOT to say whether or not the content offered is GOOD/BAD but if it is VALUE FOR MONEY on PC compared to the competition.

    ...Yes emphasising in caps makes me look like a little kid but I can't find italics on this forum. :(

  • IkonNavrosIkonNavros Member Posts: 227
    hehe.. just think that way, don't buy one bottle of expensive wine or some big sized box of beer for once and you have the money for the enhanced Edition.

    Compared to other Games $20 is not the world, spending that money does not harm you in any way and you support perhaps some nice things upcoming :)

    if it would have costed $40 - ok, that would be a no-go. But $20.. Seriously.... i have heared way worse things.
    lordkim
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2012
    You have a predisposition that the extra content is already great, but you haven't even played it yet, let alone even seen it in action in a video or review. This viewpoint, whilst your opinion that you are entitled to and not wrong per se (it may very well turn out to be utterly brilliant), is about as useful as someone saying "I hate this game I won't buy it and neither should you".
    It's about as useful as saying that BGEE will be virtually the same game as BG1:ToTSC, i.e. that the improvements are nothing significant; however it is a much more realistic prediction. Neither of us has seen the actual product, but there is good reason to think the extra content will be on par with the level of quality of the original game, if not better: the team being largely original BG1 developers, the new talent is great, etc. You seem to have a predisposition to think the added content will be worthless, which I find surprising and far-fetched.
    This thread is about convincing people that the game is (or isn't) worth the extra price, not to blanket dismiss other people's opinions because you disagree. If the game is so great and equally good value for money say WHY.
    We won't know if the game so great and so good value until it comes out, as you've said yourself. Therefore if the point of the discussion is to acquire certainty as to BGEE's real value, then the thread is pointless until the game is released. Until it is released, though, it seems to me like there is better reason for thinking the content will be plentiful, high quality and enjoyable than the contrary, based on what we've seen and what we know of the dev team. Plenty of high quality content that extends the best RPG I've ever played (in addition to all the technical fixes) is worth 10$ to me.
    So you're speaking for hundreds of thousands of gamers and saying none of them have played Baldur's Gate just because they are younger than you?
    Basically, yes, people especially younger gamers tend to play what is new and popular. I learned about BG in 2000 because it was played and talked about by my peers at high school. They weren't talking about Ultima. Today's generation is talking about Skyrim and ME3, not BG1. For an old game, BG1 is well-known, but a new release will (and does!) generate a lot of attention - which GoG doesn't.
    mch202
  • AndrewRogueAndrewRogue Member Posts: 72
    [quote]There's plenty of mods that include new quests, new characters, new classes and new dungeons, and since these mods aren't under frankly rubbish contracts they actually let you interact with and/or modify the main character and original supporting cast. Since we know The Black Pits is just cookie-cutter arena content, it's not as if this is anything hugely special that only an experienced development team could create. If this was coming out around the same time as Baldur's Gate I could understand it (and fully justify all of it), but it's not. It's 14 years later. I'm sure this project is being developed with the best of intentions - if not the best of contracts - but in its current state all of the extra content doesn't feel any different to readily available mods made 10 years ago by equally passionate fans for free.[/quote]

    Specifically wanted to address this, since this argument is all kinds of faulty. This is the sort of logic that lets me go "Why ever buy any game? There are plenty of free ones out there!" The fact is, belittle it as you may like, but professional resources can make a HUGE difference. I've used a number of mods (and had them destroy the game). I've seen a number of mods that ranged from mediocre to outright terrible.

    Honestly, I haven't really seen many "professional" level mods that were anything but bugfixes.
    mch202Communard
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    kraed said:


    You have a predisposition that the extra content is already great, but you haven't even played it yet, let alone even seen it in action in a video or review.

    At the risk of being accused of cherry picking, you also have a predisposition that the extra content is basically amateurish when you keep saying that it doesn't ammount to anything more than fan content.

    Going back to your Jack example, Overhaul is still allowed to do stuff with CHARNAME, after all, CHARNAME will be interacting with the new NPCs/Quests, they just have the same restrictions as the Spiderman authors where there is stuff that they can't change. And this happens in plenty of other media as well.
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    Lastly, just for some more cherrypicking:
    kraed said:


    I know these new characters come with their own quest chains but if they don't have any affect on the game world at all I don't know why they are there to begin with.

    You can basically say the same about all the BG1 NPCs. They're all restricted to their own little world inside BG1, but you demand that the new NPCs do what the original ones never did, and then use this reasoning to qualify the new content as fanfiction.
    Medillenmch202
  • LinkamusLinkamus Member Posts: 221
    Here's a reason to support BG:EE - BG3
  • RaggieRaggie Member Posts: 23
    kraed said:


    If someone doesn't buy from GOG because they don't like compat issues I'm not sure how someone else rereleasing the game will change that viewpoint though.

    I don't see why not. I think people will view this as a new release, not an old game. It's more about the perception of things than the actual reality.
  • Space_hamsterSpace_hamster Member Posts: 950
    The BG series has sold over 5 million copies in its entire existence on the PC. If they manage to sell just a fraction, say 1 million units on all the new platforms, I'm sure it will be a success. But, it's not like we ave access to their marketing plan. Suffice to say, the endevour would not have happened without a relative assurance of success.
  • RaggieRaggie Member Posts: 23



    Specifically wanted to address this, since this argument is all kinds of faulty. This is the sort of logic that lets me go "Why ever buy any game? There are plenty of free ones out there!" The fact is, belittle it as you may like, but professional resources can make a HUGE difference. I've used a number of mods (and had them destroy the game). I've seen a number of mods that ranged from mediocre to outright terrible.

    Honestly, I haven't really seen many "professional" level mods that were anything but bugfixes.

    I agree about mods possibly ruining your game, but I disagree about the quality. There's trash out there to be sure, but if you haven't seen mods that aren't better than mediocre it's because you haven't tried the right ones! I can think of several NPC mods that are, IMO, professional quality. Gavin, Kivan and Angelo to name a few are in fact written as well as official Bioware characters --dare I say they are even better in places? I'm honestly surprised they didn't include them in this release.
    kraed
  • CheOffshoreCheOffshore Member Posts: 27
    edited July 2012
    Each new character claims to add 4 hours of new gameplay... the pit adds another 6 and I assume one or two other mini quests will be added... $10 for 18 - 20 hours of new Baldur's Gate sounds fine value for money to me :)

    I see it as an expansion pack, with the original game thrown in for free
  • MedillenMedillen Member Posts: 632
    It is also a matter of trust.

    Do you really thing BeamDog spend several month doing as little as possible for BGEE ? Or, can you at least acknowledge the fact that they ARE motivated. Motivation is a good fuel. They proved it on this forum, on twitters and in interviews. Those professionals have been working for some times now. They are also, for most cases, BG veterans. They know how it works from within. They have access to the inner code, something modders never had.

    If you really thing that what they did, as a team of 10-18 professionals, in 6-8 months is not worth the extra 8$ then don't buy it. You are free to choose, and as you say, for some it is no little coins. But it's a shame I think. Plus, they have some additional features planned after selling the game. As for now, there is no promise made about that, but one. They will make the experience of playing BGEE more pleasurable and/or easier modding.
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