Oh boy. Here’s my theory – throughout the year there will be numerous Kickstarter projects that people become excited about, pledge money to and then look forward to. Fatigue will set in due to the number of awesome concepts being put forward by wonderful people, but it isn’t fatigue alone that will end this fascination. My belief is that one day the perfect Platonic ideal of the Kickstarter project will appear, a game desired so long and so hard by so many that all money will be absorbed by it. In an interview with Gamespy, Beamdog say that the upcoming enhanced Baldur’s Gate games may open up the possibility for their “long-term goal”. Baldur’s Gate III.

“Baldur’s Gate 3 has been our long term goal. We have a lot of things to put in place before such a project can be launched. So currently there is no such project but that’s the one we want to do. Our thoughts have been that Enhanced Edition for BG I and II just make sense before there’s any Baldur’s Gate III.” We’re totally thinking Kickstarter. It just makes so much sense and solves so many problems. I think what Brian [Fargo] is doing with Wasteland is very interesting.”

In case you haven’t been keeping up, what Brian Fargo is doing with Wasteland is raising…let me just check here…$1,402,971 with 28 days left to go. Not a bad pile of beans that. By the end, no one will even notice if he buys a couple of sports cars with the takings.

Cameron Tofer of Beamdog and Overhaul, the team working on the Enhanced Editions, also had this to say about those projects:

“I think the new RPGs are great, but I don’t think they should be a replacement for classic strategic in-depth RPGs like Baldur’s Gate. I think that’s what makes Enhanced so relevant: Baldur’s Gate hasn’t been replaced.” We’ve been adding side stories, stories to tie things together, unfinished stories. As far as new types of abilities, we have more announcements coming.”

I await the chance to replay with extras with no small degree of anticipation but as for this Baldur’s Gate III Kickstarter business? Too soon, chaps, too soon. Let’s have another six months of frenzied excitement before you actually start the thing up, so we can see what other ideas we can promise our earnings to. Or perhaps Baldur’s Gate III isn’t the uber-Kickstarter at all. Maybe that’s the new Alpha Centauri, TIE Fighter, Sims Expansion Pack or Planescape: Tormentier? Or maybe something else entirely?