What KICKSTARTER(S) are you BACKING and WHY?

Fuuuuuuuuck Dark Tower.

It looked cool, although I thought the app was a cop-out. Part of the appeal of the original was the lo-fi tech and awesome lights and sounds. It was also really dopey, silly, and FUN.

But it looks like they’ve tried to make a Real Serious Gamer’s Game out of it. Zero interest in that. After the disaster that was Fireball Island, I think there are going to be a LOT of disappointed folks in 2022 or whenever it ships. It costs like twice as much as a second copy of the original does.

I also immediately pulled back when I saw the tire salesman marketing...you better buy these never before seen add-ons and expansions (including a bunch of god damned miniatures) now because we don’t know if they’ll even make it to retail, and if they do they’ll be expensive. Don’t fucking insult my intelligence when you are hustling me to put up money for your successful publishing business to manufacture a game. It’s like $250-$300 to buy it all! FUCKING DARK TOWER?!?!?!

Jesus effin’ what are they going to do with Omega Virus? Is that going to be a $500 all-in?

I find it really funny that just a couple of years ago there was all this wailing and gnashing of teeth about X-COM being app driven for any number of reasons...and here we are, $2 million later.

The Oath campaign is totally fine. This is what we have, this is the cost, there are a couple of very optional extras if you like. And I’m pretty sure Oath will be played long after the Dark Tower app is no longer supported LOL.

I have backed and unbacked OATH twice now and I have decided to bite the bullet. It's guaranteed to be an interesting game even if it doesn't work for me, and I don't want to spend 2021 hunting for copies at retail which will be as elusive as ROOT if not Pax Pamir (2e). So much wasted hand wringing when I could just be playing this game.

Michael Barnes wrote: It costs like twice as much as a second copy of the original does.

I agree with everything you said about the new Dark Tower except this; second-hand copies of the original go for a ton of money.

I knew they were going to screw it up after I saw what they were doing with Fireball Island. They don't seem to understand fun, let alone nostalgic fun.

Once I saw that dark tower was an app game I was out. Totally missed the point. I'm not against app games per se, but if the whole gimmick of your game is a big silly electronic tower lean into it instead of obsoleting it.

I'm not a deep believer in nostalgia to begin with. I played the original Dark Tower as a kid (think I was 11 or 12 at the time) and really enjoyed it. But, even then, you could figure out the patterns of the responses from the tower, since it could only be so complex, given chip design at the time. So, it was cool for the first few games, but then it began to lose its shine. I can't really fathom how exciting it would be now if they were just going to replicate it. Maybe it'd be more fun if you had kids who would appreciate it more? But, then... would they? They can find far more interesting and involving games on the nearest PS4 or their own phone, if they have one.

Games like Dark Tower and Fireball Island are interesting at first glance because of the (usually fuzzy) memories of the time and the weird plastic and technology of the era that produced them. Dumping money into a project like this means that it's either going to be upgraded to meet a modern audience's perception of tech (i.e. the app that people are complaining about) or it's going to be the same thing as it was from the early 80s, which will be interesting for about two hours before becoming a $150 paperweight. Most people won't mistake games like Dark Tower for games like Dune or CE, which has lasted through the decades because of solid design, not gimmicks. Those who do are likely to be very disappointed.

Fireball Island went from hot to toad in a single play with the monthly hipster board game group. All the extra crap added to the game made for a long and fiddly setup, and people kept accidentally knocking stuff over while moving their playing pieces.

Plenty of people out there looking to buy a box with "Dark Tower" written on it because they haven't been able to for a couple of decades. Some don't know anything about the original.

"Some of the people all of the time" crowd.

My kids love Fireball Island (old and new)...and I mean they love it. I don’t think these things are failures if you remember they were games made for kids...so they will probably still be good WITH kids.

I imagine Dark Tower will be the same...but it’s doubtful I will spend $225 on a kids game

Michael Barnes wrote: Fuuuuuuuuck Dark Tower.

It looked cool, although I thought the app was a cop-out. Part of the appeal of the original was the lo-fi tech and awesome lights and sounds. It was also really dopey, silly, and FUN.

But it looks like they’ve tried to make a Real Serious Gamer’s Game out of it. Zero interest in that. After the disaster that was Fireball Island, I think there are going to be a LOT of disappointed folks in 2022 or whenever it ships. It costs like twice as much as a second copy of the original does.

I also immediately pulled back when I saw the tire salesman marketing...you better buy these never before seen add-ons and expansions (including a bunch of god damned miniatures) now because we don’t know if they’ll even make it to retail, and if they do they’ll be expensive. Don’t fucking insult my intelligence when you are hustling me to put up money for your successful publishing business to manufacture a game. It’s like $250-$300 to buy it all! FUCKING DARK TOWER?!?!?!

Jesus effin’ what are they going to do with Omega Virus? Is that going to be a $500 all-in?

I find it really funny that just a couple of years ago there was all this wailing and gnashing of teeth about X-COM being app driven for any number of reasons...and here we are, $2 million later.

The Oath campaign is totally fine. This is what we have, this is the cost, there are a couple of very optional extras if you like. And I’m pretty sure Oath will be played long after the Dark Tower app is no longer supported LOL.

So, first of all, far be it from me to wave my finger at anyone who can extract any joy from this dismal world, so my comments aren't trying to make you feel bad for liking something.

Usually, Barnes' hyperbolic statements about games just sort of wash over me and leave me with the interesting ideas, since I know it's sort of his steeze. I tend to almost always feel more moderate in my reactions even when I agree with him---about eurogames, about kickstarter, about minis games, then about ameritrash games, etc. But I must admit that with the retro-nostalgia stuff like dark tower or fireball island I do have a similar, visceral and hyberbolic disgust towards them when I hear about it. I cannot get over the cynicism of drudging up old games that were really little more than the emotion attached to them and heading to kickstarter for money. "REMEMBER THIS?"

Which is all sort of weird because my understanding is that Restoration Games isn't a super cynical, doesn't give a shit producer of old games. I just can't help it.

I second the sentiment that the app is the deal breaker here. If your electronic tower isn't sufficient to run the adventure you are trying to run, then the premise has gone wrong.

I always assumed it would be app based where a phone slid in the front of the tower. Just figured that's what would happen

I've backed Oath as I love emergent narrative in games and have faith the company and designer will deliver. Dark tower is s lot of money for nostalgia. I really think they might run into production problems with the tower and what are they going to do about the ones that break, because a small percentage will break due to manufacturing errors.

I really like the oath model as well. Just the game with some extras for helping us make it a reality, but the same game will be available at retail.

I backed THE DARK TOWER at the "copy of the game" level. Not sure what the extra $100 would get me? More dudes? for $100? Uh. Better put another fucking Tower on the Tower for $100.

I have kids and kids love this shit. I would rather they use my phone for this than watch YouTube, so power to 'em.

Not backing OATH. I haven't played ROOT and don't have the Wehrle boner that everyone else here has. If its good, it will get to me some day.

Got my D-Day Dice KS that I almost forgot I backed. Damn is a lot of stuff! I'm planning to play solo but I like that it's a cooperative where all players are the Allies working together.

If there's one thing I've learned from this hobby its this best piece of advice I can give; Don't open the expansions on anything until you use them. You can sell them as New if you get sick of the base game. Yes even the cool ones you really want to gawk at.

I did jump in for Arena: The Contest. I have read the rule book and it seems like a really fun game. There is a metric ton of content, which is both a plus and a minus, but this looks promising.