FallenAngelEyes

Hi Alex, I'm a big fan of the work Harmonix has done throughout the years. I discovered Amplitude in the electronics section of the retail store I worked at back when it released and would sometimes spend my entire lunch break playing! I immediately supported Guitar Hero because of the experience I had playing Frequency and Amplitude and I've supported Rock Band throughout the years as well (the number of plastic instruments in my apartment is uh, quite large for its size). Playing bass in RB actually inspired me to want to start playing an actual bass guitar and I bought one the same year I picked up Rock Band 3. The game also opened me up to a bunch of new musicians and artists I may not have listened to otherwise, so thank you for that.

Fun fact: I made a transatlantic move soon after I started getting into GH. GH2 guitar boxes were juuuuust barely small enough to count as a "carry on item" on the flight I took from the US to the Netherlands. :D I and my boyfriend each had one on the flight. We may have gotten some funny looks as we stowed them in the overhead luggage compartment.

I've backed the Kickstarter and I'm desperately hoping for it to succeed. As I'm also a PC gamer, I'm incredibly excited about the composers you've just announced who will be contributing if it succeeds, as I'm familiar with a lot of their work.

Okay, sorry for the fangirling, now for the actual questions!

• You stated on the blog and in the Amplitude Kickstarter FAQ that the reason the Kickstarter was so short is that the developers will need to be assigned to other development projects if the KS doesn't succeed. However, if the KS does succeed (and I hope it does), doesn't that mean that the projects they would've been assigned to will still have fewer development resources attached? One assumes that wouldn't cause an issue if you are indeed willing to commit those devs to Amplitude, but doesn't that also mean that those devs/resources aren't necessarily critical to the other projects? If the date was so important, why wasn't the KS started 12 days earlier, or why can't the date be extended? Basically, I'm trying to convince as many people as I can to back this, but these are the questions my friends are asking, and I'm wondering if you could address this. If you can't due to contractual/professional reasons, I understand, but I was hoping you could shed some light on it for us laypeople who aren't as familiar with developer resource management.

• Would it be possible for you to do a funding breakdown for the Kickstarter, as in X amount is going to salary, Y amount is going to music license rights, etc.? Many potential backers appreciate that kind of transparency on KS, and it would be awesome if you have enough information for that to be made public.

• Considering that Amplitude's rights are still held by Sony and thus the game is limited to their consoles, would it have been possible to do a "spiritual successor" that was available on more platforms, such as PC, without having the game tied to Sony's IP rights? The reach (both financially and audience-wise) could've been larger that way and possibly have more people willing to back the KS.

• Did you ever anticipate that Guitar Hero would become the massive cultural phenomenon that it did? What are your thoughts about the trajectory the franchise took (if you want to discuss it) after Activision acquired the rights? I'm personally rather bitter about the way they handled it, the latest kick in the teeth being the fact that EA made an announcement that they were taking down the DLC for GH/Band Hero/DJ Hero merely a week and a half before they permanently did so. I greatly appreciate the quarterly DLC announcements that RB makes to give us enough warning. It really shows that you appreciate your fans and their support.

• Can you comment at all on how Chroma is going to do monetization? The site says "Free to play but not pay to win" but there's not much detail, though I do realize it's still in alpha. Will there be, for example, DLC songs to add to your "arsenal"? Would other people be able to hear those if they don't have those themselves or would they have to, like you had to to play together online with friends in RB?

I apologize for the wordiness. Thank you in advance if you actually decide to go through my essay of questions and answer them. I love Harmonix and music/rhythm games in general and I'm really hoping the KS will make it.

I'm in love with Necromancers and was able to check out a Sylvari Necromancer at Gamescom. There I was able to check out the Jagged Horror, which I could nom on for health.

Can you give us any details about the other undead summons Necromancers will be able to have? Will we be able to have Minion Masters as they are in GW1, running around with a small army, or have the functionality goals changed? Will there be a limit to how many undead summons spells you can have at once?

Wow, that sucks. My b/f and I each bought a copy of the Collector's Edition lifetime subscription versions of the game when it launched. We, ah, have not done that with any game since. :/

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! You've really made my day! :D