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Originally Posted by blueskirt
Anyone else is wondering if the crazy fragmentation of Sierra communities compared to LucasArts communities could be a problem to the success of Sierra related Kickstarters?
The mood and humor between LucasArts adventure games are so similar, if you like one game, you have good chances of liking them all. There's also Mixnmojo and LucasForums which act like a hub for all things LucasArts and ex-LucasArts employees related things and cultivate a sense of unity among LucasArts fans.
By contrast, Sierra games and series are vastly different in mood, tones and kind of humor, Leisure Suit Larry is simply not the same as King's Quest or Gabriel Knight, and these differences subsist even when you delve deeper in a subgenre, fans of King's Quest are not automatically fans of Quest For Glory or Conquests.
And as a result, we don't have a Sierra equivalent of Mixnmojo and LucasForums, although we haven't been lacking new material to cover in the last couple of years, with various releases and announcements of fangames and remakes, to fan made Let's Play, retrospective and interviews with Sierra designers, to Telltale's King's Quest revival and veterans getting out of retirement. Instead all the information is spread across many websites and forums, each dedicated to a specific series, fan project or aspect of Sierra.
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There are a number of explanations one can identify as to why DFA attracted so much money, but I'm not sure Mixnmojo is one of them. I don't really know, though -- I've heard of the site, used it for reference a few times over the years, but never as a source of news or interaction. Double Fine had its own fanbase and network that, I would have to guess, was more important than any "LucasArts community" was to the success of DFA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueskirt
And now we have this situation where any LucasArts related Kickstarter will interest all LucasArts fans, but Sierra Kickstarters will interest only a specific subset of fans among all Sierra fans. And if the future of Sierra depends on crowd funding, we might face a problem one day. I have no doubt Al and Jane will meet their goal, but I don't expect the same kind of overfunding we've witnessed with Double Fine Adventure, Wasteland 2 or Shadowrun Returns. And Kickstarters for lesser known series and designers will have a much harder time meeting their goals.
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I'm not sure I can think about all this in terms of "the future of Sierra". Is that really the thing to be desired here? If the success of these projects depends on crowdfunding, then ultimately they'll have to sink or swim on their own merits. I don't see how I have a stake in the idea of Sierra as a unified whole, absent the coming forward of someone with the necessary resources and talent to make that a realistic option. And it seems kind of late for that now there are three sets of former Sierra designers working independently and the KQ license is already held by Telltale.
At the same time, I would find it convenient if there was a website feed aggregating news -- major news only -- about all the projects involving former Sierra designers and properties (even including fangames). I subscribe to Telltale's blog and signed up for all the media from Andromeda, but I just don't have time to wade through every little post from the other two commercial projects, in which I have only marginal interest; I'd still like to keep loose tabs on them, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lambonius
And suddenly, Telltale making a King's Quest game is about the least exciting news around.  |
Yeah, TTG has sat on KQ for 14 months now -- if it hasn't already lost its novelty, it certainly has now.