Today I pledged $300 to veteran game designer Brian Fargo's Kickstarter project for Wasteland 2. There's obviously a real risk that the actual game - which only exists in a few design docs at this point - happens to be less than good, but irrespective of how this particular project turns out it has now been more or less a decade since a non-indie developer published a party-based Western RPG with turn-based combat (I would count Troika Games' Temple of Elemental Evil in 2003 as more or less the last one). And I'm sick and tired of merely complaining about this sad state of affairs; I want to do something about it. There really needs to be enough room in the video game industry for what has been called "big niches" (such as, say, point-and-click adventure games or traditional RPGs) to exist alongside the artsy indie projects on the one hand and the Call of Duties and World of Warcrafts on the other. Thus, I've now clearly stated my willingness - should the Kickstarter project reach its goal of 900K, that is - to invest/spend/throw away a rather sizeable chunk of disposable income in the mere promise of a new turn-based RPG; simply because I care a lot about sophisticated interactive entertainment and am willing to put my money where my mouth is. Publishers all over the world, take note...

Do you also like classic Western roleplaying games like Wasteland, Bard's Tale and Fallout? Well, then I'd strongly recommend that you pledge/donate a few bucks or more at; http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2