What if the best RPG ever made came out a decade ago and nobody talks about it? Michael Stevens just discovered why a 2014 crowdfunded game might be the perfect blueprint for fixing everything wrong with modern gaming. Spoiler: it involves $2.9 million in Kickstarter funding and a conversation system that's older than most of today's gamers. 🎯 What You'll Learn: • Why Wasteland 2's 80+ hour campaign beats most modern RPGs despite using 1988 technology • How the original Wasteland literally created Fallout (and why that matters today) • The one design choice that makes branching storylines actually matter for your choices • Why keyword-based dialogue feels ancient but works better than today's voice acting 👤 Perfect for: gamers who remember when RPGs required actual planning and history buffs curious about how digital storytelling evolved. 📍 Chapters: [00:00] Michael introduces gaming's best kept secret [01:45] The $2.9 million Kickstarter that changed everything [04:20] Why Wasteland created Fallout (the real origin story) [06:50] Conversation trees that actually branch your story [09:15] 80 hours of gameplay that doesn't waste your time [11:30] What modern developers can learn from 2014 🔔 Never miss an episode: Follow When Rome Burns on your podcast app and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, and tomorrow Michael's covering why ancient Rome's tax system predicted modern crypto crashes. 🔍 Topics: Wasteland 2, RPG games, game design, Kickstarter success, Fallout origins

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-------------- Keywords: fall of empires, founding fathers, cultural disasters, australian history, d-day, catherine the great, military history

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