challenge by keeping the discussion high-level, and being sparing about specifics that way they're always being truthful, but offering a vocal and conflicted userbase fewer bones to pick.It's all about fully leveraging the opportunity to make the precise Runeacape game that the team wants to make, and being willing to be okay with the fact that it might not be for everyone. That's one of the major opportunities for studios with Obsidian's pedigree in the crowdfunding age.RS 07 Gold "I'm not as hostile toward big studio development as some people are," says Sawyer. "It doesn't threaten me at all... however, I'm really glad if we can fragment, and make extremely niche Runeacape games, or sort of niche Runeacape games, or mainstream Runeacape games, it's all great."And while Obsidian may now reject the unified trend toward mainstreaming niche genres, Sawyer believes ultimately it was good for his colleagues and peers. "Especially in the RPG genre, we were so focused on the hardcore, and on ingrained tradition," he says. "We had insular, specific ways of doing things that had been done that way for so long. Once you said to developers, 'hey, how about you sell this Runeacape game to someone who hasn't played D D... it was a big wake-up call'.""It made us do things we would not have normally been comfortable doing," he says of his experience learning to focus on a wider audience. "And now there can be RPGs with a lower barrier to entry, that are more for people who just want to go to a cool fantasy, or post-apocalyptic or sci-fi world and do things where the systems are forgiving.""But it's nice that we can now say, okay, knowing all the stuff we know about mechanics that are really, on a fundamental level, shitty for everyone,www.rssong.com and the only