Hey there all.
I figured I'd take a quick moment to post about this topic because as I'm browsing these forums I've seen a lot of posts asking why people don't know about this AWESOME game. First we have to address why this game is so great. Next, why people don't know about it, and followed by (which changes this post from others) what YOU can do about it (and why you should.)
First and foremost, if you went into a local game store and said the name "Sega" or "Nintendo" everyone will know who you are talking about, try saying "Larian" and unfortunately most people will have no idea who you are talking about. The main reason for that is simple, money. The previous mentioned companies have lots, and I mean lots of it. They buy the best talent money can buy, and they advertise their titles like there's no tomorrow, because they have money, but that can also be a game, or a game companies downfall.
The designers behind the game have bosses, and when literally millions, and sometimes billions of dollars are at stake those bosses tend to want to stick with what has worked for them in the past. What this leads to is not a mediocre game like you'd all probably think I'd say here, but a well planned out game that deviated very little from its initial inception. But that doesn't sound like a problem, does it? Maybe not to the general consumer, but why not ask some of the coders on that game how the game felt to them? I bet you hundreds of great, and revolutionary ideas were shot down in just one make of a game, because the guy with the idea was just a low level entry coder, or in short wasn't close to the top.
Now I'm making an assumption here in saying what I'm about to say, but I'm willing to place a lot of faith in the fact that it's correct. Let's ask some of the lower level devs on Larian's team what they think about the game they helped make. I am certain that they put every ounce of all they had into this game, and they love the final outcome. It simply shows through in every aspect of this game. Sure, the initial release had some bugs, but that goes back to the money issue and we've passed that already. This game was stellar because every last member of the team working on it put their heart and soul into it, and I promise you that if we had the chance to speak with them off-record, they'd say the same even if their job wasn't at stake. Go head over to Nintendo and ask them the same question, I bet they limited their devs quite a bit in at least the artistic department, if not everywhere.
OK, so we know why the game wasn't advertised, and we know why it was good, but what can you do about it? Word of mouth is the single greatest form of advertising, and do you know why? Because you weren't paid to say something is great. You can tell all of your friends to go out and buy this game, but there is more then that here. If you have the time in your day, head down to your local game store during off-peak hours and let the cashiers there know about this game. Simply put, they are salesman, and they sell the games they know are good. If you walk into a game store, and someone says to buy a game, and you do, and it sucks, will you listen to that person again? No, you wont. They need to know something is worth it before they sell it, and you need to tell them. Go shop around in their store and say "Hey, I just played this really compelling new RPG!" Explain to them why it was awesome, and explain what type of gamer would like it. "This game has so much exploration in it, if you're the type of gamer that 100%'ed Oblivion, you HAVE to try this out!" Now they have a target audience, and a reference as to why, in just 1-2 sentences.
Everyone on this forum knows about the game already. Go out there and post it somewhere else where they haven't heard of it. If each one of us gets one more person to play this game, we've just doubled their fan base, and next time they will have more money to spend on advertising.
