On friday February 8 (2013), Ragnar Tornquist and friends brought online their kickstarter for their new game Dreamfall: Chapters. To everyone's great content, 4 days later the project was 2/3th funded.

I can't tell enough how fulfilled and emotionally redeemed I feel that I could pledge a cignificant amount of money into this. I'd gladly promote this game but I'm a mere foot soldier on the internet and I'm even feeling a small amount of jealousy and alot of awe at those who could pledge $10.000 and reach a million followers on twitter by constantly spamming about it. That must feel so good to weave yourself into a cause that has the goal to carry on a deep and rich storyline that has captured so many players with such a huge amount of money.

Around the internet I hear stories of how TLJ became an integral part of their lives, how it carries an emotional way of viewing the world, and I can only approve and agree of this. As I said in another article that I wrote to celebrate the first details of this new game that were emerging back in november of 2012, I can't say more than "anticipation for this game runs rampant in my soul".

God The Balance knows that lots of vocal people out there wouldn't even want to pay that much for a game that IS out and complain about this. Why would one invest $500 or more for a game that isn't even out ? Why would you pledge so much money for a project that has just reached the prototype stage ? How silly can you be ? You got too much money to waste perhaps ?

Well, if a hypothetical person would ask such questions I could only talk about myself and say. Investing in starter packs for a beta like Firefall or investing in a crowd funded startup cause to finish a game is as much a monetary as an emotional investment. I feel that if I pledge into this cause, I involve myself into this project and I feel I contribute to make both myself and the producers of the game feel  a sense of acqnowledgement because I become part of the reason that this story will be able to go on and almost feel at least partially responsible for it as well. It's not that I feel like being a shareholder. But the many KS reward tiers, the frequent polls and content stuff that's being exchanged between RTG and this community sure makes it feel like we are just that (and I don't mean that in a bad way).

If you just see the enormous involvement they allow us to experience during this KS campaign, it's overwhelming. The community decided which TLJ themed T shirts would be printed, the community decided on propper naming of the highest priced collectors editions of the game. And the community could also vote for some kickstarter stretch goals.

I feel emotionally bound to this perticular story more than to any other story of any other adventure game that I played. Sure, half life, dead space, another world, zelda (link to the past), final fantasy 7, Grim Fandango and Syberia are all super stories and in a varied genre of games: but The Longest Journey has been "my secret religion" for 13 years now, as I told in the previous blog about this game.

On the Pledge side: It's easier to explain to people why you would invest in what is considered by the mainstream as "art" because everyone understands it keeps it's value. With the exeption of some elite who do it just for shows and to make money: Art is actually NOT always bought to actually bet on an increased value in time, but to have an emotional window nearby, an emotional window on the world seen trough someone eyes with a feeling or notion that feels akin to your own, but different. If that's something that worth spending milions of dollars on, hell if someone wants to spend $100.000+ for a car because they feel enchanted by it's appearence then why can't a die hard gamer like me spend money on a kickstarter project for a future game which story has already succeeded to capture and inspire me by it's previous episodes ? And 17.000+ backers seem to think the same!

There's this expression "put your money where your mouth is". Well for TLJ, I could say that I've put my money where my heart is. So if you're like me and you desperately want the huge cliffhangers from Dreamfall come to a conclusion, and if you want to roam around in a version of Marcuria not divided by loading screens, and see an older but more cute version of Zoë, meet up with Crow again, then back this kickstarter. Also if you - like me - thought that Ragnar Tornquist had a "portal 2" way of saving April, and you want to see what REALLY happened, then please back this project and we can be playing this game in 2015. Yes I'm trying to calc in a little delay here. I too hope that he game will be released in november 2014 as mentioned on the kickstarter page. At least some kickstarter guys will be able to play it 48 hours earlier than the rest! Now go help The Balance to provide!