Jump to content

How'd you come across Spiderweb?


Vexivero

Recommended Posts

I'm just curious as to how everyone else came across this company. Last night I was thinking back since I couldn't sleep. Probably 15 years ago when I was about 8 my dad used to download game demos for me to play from various websites. One of them was Exile: Escape From The Pit. Unlike other games, I kept going back to it and couldn't get enough of it. Nowadays, I don't play games as much as I used to (gaming used to be my entire life), but I still come back every now and then and get my fix.

 

—Vexivero, who wishes he had more posts to edit. Oh well, life is harsh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somehow I came across a Geneforge review by Four Fat Chicks, probably on tap-repeatedly.com. Their review of Geneforge still shows up on google but the page itself seems to be gone. Whatever it was, it was a good review, because it convinced me that I would really like that game, and I did. It must have been one of those extremely convincing reviews that first convinces you that the reviewer is a really smart person, because I don't think I've ever otherwise even thought about buying a game just from one online review.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back around 1998-99, I had a friend who had the Exile games and was active in BoE. He introduced me SW. I was a kid and couldn't afford the actual games, but I played all the demos (E1, E2, E3, some of the BoE demo, and all the following demos). Years later, after finishing my B.A., I came back, was won over by the N:R demo, and made my first SW purchase.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I first heard of Exile, not Spiderweb, from an acquaintance. I actually knew to ask Dexter about "tools" in E1 before I even knew what E1 was about. Coincidentally, a short time later I got a CD of "1000 Games" and Exile was one of them. I played it. I loved it.

 

—Alorael, who then was unable to register it because of some kind of problem with mail. Yes, it was registration by mail back then. He gave up and forgot about the whole thing until he first got internet access at home. One of the first things he did was look for games online. The first one he downloaded was Angband, which he still plays to this day (high elf ranger on 4950', wish him luck!), and the second was Exile II, which actually contained usable registration information. The internet has been good to him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found Nethergate on an old shareware CD in 2000/2001.I played it a lot. I liked it a lot more. Then, I found Exile 3 on the same CD, and played that a lot too.

 

Two years later, in 2003, I was still playing these two games. I googled 'Spiderweb' and then I registered as a user of these forums. And here I am today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Downloaded the demo of Exile back in '98 (I think off HappyPuppy, or maybe Cnet), when I was 12. Enjoyed it, eventually convinced my parents to let me purchase the series, got very into Blades, wrote and published a couple scenarios that are probably best forgotten. Played the Avernum games as they came out, and was moderately active on the forums in the early aughts, but got busy with college around the time BoA debuted (in fairness, it sounds like I didn't miss much). Did a lot less gaming, and mostly forgot about Spiderweb until I picked up Avernum 5 in summer 2008 to help me unwind after a rather brutal semester. Been playing SW games pretty consistently since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which time?

Around 1997 I received a copy of one of the Exile games on a free CD or through AOL (fantastic 56 Kbps internet connection). Played the demo a bit, but I do not think that I bought the game. I was newly married at the time.

In 2004 I stumbled across a review for BoA. I had enjoyed the 1980s CRPGs so I bought a copy and played through the included scenarios. I got onto one of the websites that existed at the time and downloaded and played at least one more scenario created by Mike Slack that was based on Wizardry 1. I never was on whatever forums existed at the time

In late 2012 I came across my old BoA disk and hint book and typed the URL into my browser. I bought A:EftP and in early 2013 Avadon I. I lurked around the forums for a while before joining six weeks ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm... back at 2010 when me and my sister got our first netbooks. I was 12 that time btw.

-----

Well so, I soooo noob in using computers and the only thing that interests me were games (besides, what can a 12 year old do with Phyton?). She got an HP netbook and I got an LG netbook. Sometimes, Wildtangent preinstalls their program on computers, and my sister had that.

 

I didn't even know that I could download the same program, so I paid her something that costed about a dollar just to play games on her netbook.

 

As I browsed the games from the app, I saw Spiderweb Software's Geneforge 1. The thumbnail was a Shaper with a hood. I loved characters with hoods, because they were mysteriously awesome, in some way.

 

I was expecting some type of Assassin's Creed environment. I played the game and was both disappointed and surprised at the same time. I was disappointed because it wasn't an AC game. And surprised because it felt like, I've played this game before, but actually I haven't (the one I played before was Shadowflare), thanks to my false memories I found Spiderweb.

.

.

.

.

.

.

But it took me two dayumned years to come across the Spiderweb community.

-----

-Nightwatcher

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a gaming app that I used to play on when I was in primary school, and it was called Real Arcade. It featured demos of various games, including Geneforge and Geneforge 2. I played these and fell in love, and then finally noticed the website on the title screen. I followed the link and fell into the rabbit hole, and I have yet to emerge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found Blades of Exile (I think!) on a shareware CD rom when I was about 8 or 9 maybe. I liked the idea of the adventuring and fighting monsters, but my parents have never been gaming people and I didn't really know what I was doing. I guess it must have stuck with me though because years later I looked it back up and I've been playing Spiderweb Games for a few years on and off now. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Must have been '02 or '03. My dad picked up a CD called "Ten for X Games" that had a bunch of games for the latest and greatest Mac OS. Geneforge 1 was on it. I fell in love. Based on my join date, I finally got around to going to Spiderweb's website a few years later. Found Geneforge 2 and maybe 3 at the time. Found the forums. Haven't left since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pretty sure I told the story in a topic about three years ago, but all well.

 

 

Once apun a time, my computer broke down. And my neighbor, who was moving, gave us her computer. It didn't have internet access, but it had this game place full of

games. Exile II's Demo was on there, and I thought the image and description was interesting. I clicked it, played it, and immediately fell in love with it. When I tried to find it on my fixed computer a few weeks later, I looked for a few hours, and eventually remembered the word exile. Apon seaching this, I ran into Spiderweb Software and downloaded the demo again. After I beat the demo, I went for exile three to see if it was just as good, and the Spiderweb Software world had me hooked.

 

And that's how equestria was made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a Power Mac (it was so awesome it could play those fancy games that needed 4 MB of RAM, like Nanosaur!) and my dad frequently brought home freebies from being subscribed to and showing up to a lot of Mac events. One of these things we got was something along the lines of "Mac CD Warehouse". If I recall correctly, it had many, many game demos on it. All of the stuff I loved growing up.

 

Power Pete, Realmz, Exile 1+2, Odyssey (Legend of Nemesis), Darkwood 1+2, Wolfenstein, some shooters, Marathon 1+2+Infinity.

 

Good times.

 

I probably also have most of these confused with games that were on Mario's Game Gallery. Like Alone in the Dark. I found out they're still making those and they never got any better. ~_~

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My family and I used to go to a small town in Illinois every year for the fourth of July before everyone there died of old age. One such person was a retired manufacturer for Caterpillar who required a nebulizer to breathe. He was also, incidentally, huge on computer games and one of his major hubs for such games was Real Arcade, a Steam-like program that we, as a civilized society have now collectively determined is horrible.

 

On one particular trip, we brought along a psychopathic [woman] because she was a friend of a family. Anyway, we were renovating the guy’s house because he needed a new drop-ceiling put in and we had time to do it before we left. At one point that last night, he was explaining to me how Real Arcade worked and the like. Just about thirty seconds into the conversation, psychopathic [woman] storms in from out of nowhere and demands that I cease my conversation at that moment and go to bed (I was a deal younger back then). So, indeed, since she was so psychopathic I went to bed so I wouldn’t be shanked in my sleep. They finished up the renovations that night. All I had time for the next morning was to knock over the man’s drink before we left back for our all-day journey home.

 

But I remembered the thirty seconds, got Real Arcade when I got back, and that’s how I discovered Geneforge 1. And then Geneforge 2 came out the next year or whatever it was and I decided to use this fancy website called Google to look up the name of the company whose name kept flashing before the splash screen whenever I played the game. After Geneforge 3 came out I registered an account here and became an irritating little [psychopath] before I left for CR and found my sanity.

 

Anyway, kind of a slim-chance story. Especially since the people I met here largely determined whether or not I made it through high school, that I found the courage to move 1500 miles away, and heck now I’m even dating/living with one of them. So how about that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh man, not sure if my brain can go that far back at this point...but I do remember making a search on a web engine long ago searching for an old school rpg to play and had come across Exile 3. This was the newest Spiderweb game at the time, so you you can imagine how long ago that was. I got a copy of it and fell in love with it. It was hard at first, but once I was able to start killin stuff, I was addicted, and to this day have never looked back. Since then have owned/played every SW game made and have loved them all. Was estatic to see Avadon 2 released today and I'm lovin it too. There is just something about SW games that no one else has. All the things I love about these games are consistent in every new game released and I can't get enough. I know it sounds cheesy, but I'm a fan for life and as long as they keep making games, I'll keep buying them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I browsed the games from the app, I saw Spiderweb Software's Geneforge 1. The thumbnail was a Shaper with a hood. I loved characters with hoods, because they were mysteriously awesome, in some way.

Geneforge was the first I'd installed from a shareware collection. The screenshot of the loading pic did the trick, I think; the hood and cloak did make the Shaper look mysterious in a 'fantasy' sort of way.

Wat.

-----

-Nightwatcher

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a hardcore fan of GOG.com, and I constantly go there looking for classic RPGs. At one point they had a sale on "indies" and I found a listing for something called Geneforge. I never played the demos, but I decided just to go ahead and take the plunge. I have been playing CRPGs since the 1980s, so I remember Ultima, The Magic Candle, Temple of Apshai, Zork, and so many other early adventures. Geneforge looked like a cross between these early RPGs and, to go even further back, tabletop role playing games.

It is that, but it is also much more. I'm glad I found Spiderweb, I have purchased the Geneforge and Avernum series, as well as Avadon 1 at this point. (I know myself too well, so I really am waiting to finish Avadon 1 before I buy Avadon 2, and I'm afraid if I buy it now I will spoil the story.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I first played Avernum 3 when I was a kid in year 3 or 4 something like in 2000 in "games and applications" mac CDrom. Then I played A2 and then A1. then we bought A3, A2, geneforge1, 2 and three and then we bought Nethergate resurrection. But we played the demos of the other games though. I loved every moment of it.

 

Loved spiderweb games ever since that day I played Avernum 1.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have to admit that Avadon was my first Spiderweb game. Also bought Avernum and Geneforge after that.But I have to admit that only Geneforge 5 starts to get bearable for me from these older games.

Avernum Escape from the Pit was one of the best CRPG experiences I had yet.

Mine too. I prefer its more linear style of playing to A:EftP, myself, but to each his/her own. I also have demos for several of the Geneforge and Avernum games, but the older graphics make them a bit tough for me to play just because they're not as visually engaging.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was never really a fan of WRPGs, only played JRPGs for a long time. One day a friend suggested me Avernum (I listed some features I'd like to see in games, but I don't remember which ones exactly anymore). I checked it and the graphics didn't really appeal to me at all and $20 for an indie game seemed way overpriced for me (I was used to them not costing more than $5), so I didn't buy it.

 

When the Spiderweb Humble Bundle came, I thought hard about it. The too expensive reason was no longer there so it's just the question if a WRPG is something for me and if I could get used to the graphics. It was pretty much a last minute decision, I paid a bit above average and got the bundle. Then I played Avernum EftP. It took me a bit to get used to it (I almost wanted to quit already), but once I got this amazing sense of immersion and freedom, I really started to get addicted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm severely uncool. I didn't know what Spiderweb was until they released Avadon 1 on steam back in 2011. I made up for lost time after that, though, as during the past two years I've beaten Avadon 1 and 2, Avernum 4-6, Escape From the Pit, and Geneforge 1-5 all on torment. There's just something about these games that's like crack to me. Even the one's I didn't particularly like (Avernum 4 and 5, mostly), kind of sucked me in via the OCD, insect-like, need to gather more loot and level up just one more time.

 

That said. I am a bit Spiderwebbed out for the moment. Once I finally get around to beating Nethergate which is the last unfinished SW game in my steam catalog, playing at a rate of 1 new game per year will be a welcome change of pace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's just something about these games that's like crack to me. Even the one's I didn't particularly like (Avernum 4 and 5, mostly), kind of sucked me in via the OCD, insect-like, need to gather more loot and level up just one more time.

Jeff will be excited. It worked. He mentioned it in his blog, that game designers want to make you keep coming back to the game to get just one more level, and then another.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff will be excited. It worked. He mentioned it in his blog, that game designers want to make you keep coming back to the game to get just one more level, and then another.

 

Well, the virtue of Spiderweb games is that they end. Part of the reason I've deliberately avoided playing MMO's all these years is that I see them as being potentially life destroying time sucks as the grind is never ending. I don't mind being taken in by psychological manipulation provided that said manipulation has an end point (and RPGs, with their leveling up and rewards that keep you playing are very much a form of psychological manipulation, or, in the least, digital skinner boxes). At one of my former jobs there was a group of WOW fanatics who did nothing but talk about WOW at work and play WOW in their free time. Hanging out with them was almost like hanging out with a cult. It was kind of creepy and made them really tedious to be around by, enough so that it kind of put me off MMO's forever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too stay away from MMOs as I already spend too much time on the computer with games that end. I also stay away from games where you have to buy additional content/power-ups, etc. I am not completely consistent in that I do buy scenarios and map expansions, but I look at them as options, and something that I can enjoy the game without. It seems from the comments that it is unlikely that Jeff will do a new Blades game. I wonder if having a business model of a set price for the game and basic scenario and then selling additional scenarios for $2-4 each (half going to SW and half to the scenario developer) would make Blades viable?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too stay away from MMOs as I already spend too much time on the computer with games that end. I also stay away from games where you have to buy additional content/power-ups, etc. I am not completely consistent in that I do buy scenarios and map expansions, but I look at them as options, and something that I can enjoy the game without. It seems from the comments that it is unlikely that Jeff will do a new Blades game. I wonder if having a business model of a set price for the game and basic scenario and then selling additional scenarios for $2-4 each (half going to SW and half to the scenario developer) would make Blades viable?

 

I seriously doubt Jeff wants to deal with the possible financial and legal headaches that running a service like that would bring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...