I changed the title of the thread and I completely agree that Kickstarter is awesome in many instances. I've contributed to Oru Kayak, Death Machine Boardgame and the new Torment game by the crew who did Planescape. The rename of the thread is tongue-in-cheek and more a poke at Lord Dick Garriot than a knock against Kickstarter. Pandering? Eh...if anything I've been one of the more fervent defenders of Kickstarter in the thread.
I've been following the Neogaf thread on this and the rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper. It's starting to look like this is more than just a simple crowdfunding scam and there's some "catfishing" involved:
There ARE some valid reasons for a company to do it. For the devs its obviously win-win. They get the consumers to pay for the thing before they even start. no risk at all. Then keep any profits.. Its no surprise that devs are ditching producers for this. And is that really a bad thing? In a digital marketplace we don't really need producers fighting for shelf space, and advertising. So all they are really doing is fronting dev costs.
It should be obvious to anyone with any business acumen whatsoever why even successful companies use kickstarter. The money from the kickstarter investors has almost no strings attached. It is basically free money. Only a fool would turn that away.
There's no shortage of fools willing to give their money away, and even if that did come to pass: the people abusing it will lose nothing, they'll just move onto the next thing to exploit.
It wouldn't go away completely, but if it got a reputation as being filled with scammers, there would be a definite decline in people willing to donate. Obviously the scammers don't care, it's the legit kickstarts and the consumers that lose
Does not compute.
And when the date comes for the game to be released and the 20th Bioshock is also being released the same week for 40+ dollars more than my KS game, I will enjoy keeping that money in my pocket until the eventual 60%+ off sale on Steam in which then I use that money to buy that Bioshock game.Does not compute.Preordering a game via Kickstarter that *may* be released in 2, 3, or 5 years in no way is a deal or savings. I might be missing your meaning here, though.
I believe the idea of Kickstarter is bad. I particularly loathe very wealthy people peddling for cash from young gamers. Again, just my opinion but it seems akin to pyramid schemes and Amway. It's great for the people getting the cash, but there is little benefit for the average person.
First, there isn't even any guarantee that your KS game will be completed. Curiously enough you may have more legal recourse if it isn't completed, than if it is completed and is horrible. If you KS a game and it is terrible, you're just going to have to be happy with it. Especially if people cannot argue an implied warranty of merchantability due to the position (Kickstarter's and the Projects themselves) that you aren't BUYING a game, that you are DONATING or PLEDGING. Given how difficult it would be to recoup your monies from a PURCHASED game, think you stand a chance with Kickstarter? And with the way that Kickstarter is structured, Kickstarter itself will not get involved (they have stated many times that they simply match pledges with projects, and that it is up to the people who pledge to pursue recourse) so it comes down to you and the project. Oh, and most of these people incorporate, so GL.
Kickstarter is a great idea and it offers consumers options in the marketplace that would never see the light of day otherwise. But it is also a great platform for scammers. So it is up to the individual to understand the possible risks involved when they invest, which is true in any investment.Does not compute.Preordering a game via Kickstarter that *may* be released in 2, 3, or 5 years in no way is a deal or savings. I might be missing your meaning here, though.
I believe the idea of Kickstarter is bad. I particularly loathe very wealthy people peddling for cash from young gamers. Again, just my opinion but it seems akin to pyramid schemes and Amway. It's great for the people getting the cash, but there is little benefit for the average person.
How do you determine the scammer from the legit project one should support? The only way one can really determine anything is via name recognition, and in my opinion the guys we know with the big bucks are the least deserving of the lot on KS. It's not a big risk to spend 20 bucks, but it's a waste of money, in my opinion.
Except not everyone with name recognition has big bucks. There's well known people doing the RPGs, but they are not rich people who could fund games. They went to Kickstarter because no Publishers are interested in funding their dev studios to make those kinds of games anymore. Dev studios use publishers because they can't just fund games on their own. Kickstarter is an awesome alternative to that.
I didn't say that. My point is for every legitimate game and group how many scammers are on Kickstarter? What percentage of these 'projects' will actually develop into something worthwhile? More importantly, what accountability is there for these entities? The last point being the biggest reason I'm against KS.
