Back in the old days, devs released a crappy game and prayed some poor idiots bought it before the word spread it was shite. Hell, devs still do this today.
But now days we have what's called kick starter where you just promise a game and people will give you money. Can it be legitimate? Yes. But the potential for abuse is great in my opinion. What are the safe guards so people don't lose their money?
I pay $60 for a game if I like it. There's a lot of great ideas or games I would like to play but have no funding. Would I be willing to pledge $1000 or $10,000 to a game's development to see it to fruition with no payout other than to play what in the end is a $60 game for what amounts to a few online trinkets, a title, or some other digital equivalent marking me as a founder. Hell to the fooking no.
Now...if there was a promise to share in the rewards at release, like purchasing of stock or bonds, I might have a different view.
Back in the old days, gaming was about having a good time. Now it's all about microtransaction, freetoplay scams and finding ways to part little nerds from their hard earned cash.
That's my take. Anyone here made any money from their 'investment' in kickstarter?
Well.. for me it is some kind of prepurchase. As most MMOs nowadays offers prepurchase with beta access 6 month before release, a kickstarter is prepurchased in the very beginning of the development cycle.
I usually dont invest more than 50$, mostly less around 30$ with beta access, and only in projects i believe it will be released and they have actually some experienced game developer and some credit. Games like Star Citizen or even a MMO like Pathfinder. Is it worth it? Well.. it is more or less as much worth as any other game i bought without a lot of research before. Some are shit, other are great, but after all its just 30-50 bugs.
And the advantage of crowdfunding is, that the developer have full creative control over the project, and this is a huge advantage in the hand of a veteran designer like Chris Roberts or Peter Molyneux. And in all honestly i fully understand that a lot of veteran designer now go the way with kickstarter, without any restricting publisher, because of the creative freedom.
And all of those veteran designers got there bad experience and headaches with publishers in the past.
But is there the potential of fraud? Of course, and everytime i see a kickstarter promises the heaven, and want to accomplish it with just a few hundred thouseds or even less, i basicly know they dont know what to do, and will never be able to deliver anything worthwhile. (so never invest in a mmo kickstarter with less then 1$ million projected goal, and for a single player game anything less than 500k is very dubios)
But do i believe Star Citizen will be a playable game? Or the recently funded Torment: Tides of Numenera? I would bet almost any amount that they will be playable. Will they be fun for you, or me? I guess its up to preference, as with any game.
Buttom line is that veteran game designer have regulary made good to very good games, and were in the past more often than not restricted from publishers. Just look at the biography from design legends like Peter Molyneux, Chris Roberts and a few others. If you invest in nonames you will take the full risk.
Back in the old days, devs released a crappy game and prayed some poor idiots bought it before the word spread it was shite. Hell, devs still do this today.
But now days we have what's called kick starter where you just promise a game and people will give you money. Can it be legitimate? Yes. But the potential for abuse is great in my opinion. What are the safe guards so people don't lose their money?
I pay $60 for a game if I like it. There's a lot of great ideas or games I would like to play but have no funding. Would I be willing to pledge $1000 or $10,000 to a game's development to see it to fruition with no payout other than to play what in the end is a $60 game for what amounts to a few online trinkets, a title, or some other digital equivalent marking me as a founder. Hell to the fooking no.
Now...if there was a promise to share in the rewards at release, like purchasing of stock or bonds, I might have a different view.
Back in the old days, gaming was about having a good time. Now it's all about microtransaction, freetoplay scams and finding ways to part little nerds from their hard earned cash.
That's my take. Anyone here made any money from their 'investment' in kickstarter?
This sums it up pretty well for me. Kudos to you Terranah.
I just want to play a fucking game that is well made and reward the company that made it.
Is KickStarter just a charitable contribution without a tax deduction? Is that what Kickstarter really is?
Yep, that is exactly what Kickstarter is.
You are donating healthy people in productive age that are absolutely not in any material need.They should have no issue to find a job, yet they are begging for money.
Quite disgusting in my book...
This indeed. Meanwhile, people on the other half of the world starve to death or are exploited to get us the cheapest products. Humanity at it's finest.
As a donor, you really just need to view Kickstarter is just a pay-up-front sales model that gives creators/businesses a barometer of market demand. It just helps answer the question, "If I make this, will enough people buy it?" If the answer for the individual is, "Yes, I'll buy that," then you "donate." But you're essentially just paying up front for the donation rewards.
It's an incredibly useful tool. The only way it's not a win/win is if you go around throwing your money at things you don't actually want. Obviously with a video game that hasn't been made yet, you run the risk of being disappointed.
Personally we'll be depending on Kickstarter for our game. Could we fund it ourselves? Maybe. But that wouldn't give us any idea if people were actually willing to subscribe to play it. By paying for a subscription up front, we can guage demand proportional to fundraising. It not only gives us capitol to invest in the project, but provides an indispensable measure for how much we should be investing in the project based on the level of interest and demand.
You cannot make money by giving to a kickstarter. Kickstarter is not a financial investment.
You don't need to make money to be part of capitalism, when you buy a product in a free market economy you are part of capitalism, you are investing money in kickstarter with the goal to own capital, that is pure capitalism. It sure as hell is not the same as charity.
I don't even know why I'm arguing something this straighforward, you can have your opinion and I'll leave it at that since I think you're being stubborn for no apparent reason.
You have a flawed grasp of the concept of capitalism. Purchasing goods for consumption and use is not capitalism. Goods can be sold to obtain capital but are not themselves capital. What is most straightforward is you don't understand Kickstarter. Kickstarter contributions are not a financial instrument. They are a gift.
Nothing is more crucial to capitalism than consumers purchasing goods for consumption. In an ideal capitalist society you always buy a video game because you believe the enjoyment/benefit/happiness (it doesn't really matter what you call it) of owning the game exceeds that of owning the money it costs.
As far as Kickstarter goes it ISN'T anything in particular; you can interpret it in any number of ways. You might say that it is a "capitalist idea" because consumers invest money in something they believe will provide a future return (not in money, but in happiness/enjoyment/benefit). You could also say that it is charity, but it's an odd sort of charity that expects the sort of return I mentioned above. Then again some might argue that charity just tends to be about making yourself feel better, which makes that a sort of investment as well.
In any case it doesn't really matter. What does matter is whether or not Kickstarter can be used to transfer money tax-free. xD
Kickstarter is a scam to get investment into a game you cant get private investors to pay for except you get no profit sharing or stock in the game you're investing in.
I really don't get the hate kickstarter gets. Does it have risk? Yep, but what doesn't? Every time you buy food you run the risk it will give you food posioning. Everytime you buy an item you run the risk that it's flawed or defective. Even with games you run the risk that it's going to be crap. Do you think the majority of SWTOR, aliens colony marines, DA2, etc... don't reget buying it?
What's the difference between never getting a game or getting a crap one on kickstarter or getting a crap game you're never going to touch again? In both cases you wasted your money, in both cases you want your money back and in both cases someone else got paid.
The benefit of kickstarter is you can support games that no publisher would touch. EA wasn't going to pay for FTL, activsion didn't want to pay for wasteland 2, ubisoft wasn't interested in Organ Trail: Director's Cut, etc...
But more than anything kickstarter does one thing that the normal publisher system doesn't, it shows support for a genre/ideas outside of the normal crap publishers make.
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
Comments
Well.. for me it is some kind of prepurchase. As most MMOs nowadays offers prepurchase with beta access 6 month before release, a kickstarter is prepurchased in the very beginning of the development cycle.
I usually dont invest more than 50$, mostly less around 30$ with beta access, and only in projects i believe it will be released and they have actually some experienced game developer and some credit. Games like Star Citizen or even a MMO like Pathfinder. Is it worth it? Well.. it is more or less as much worth as any other game i bought without a lot of research before. Some are shit, other are great, but after all its just 30-50 bugs.
And the advantage of crowdfunding is, that the developer have full creative control over the project, and this is a huge advantage in the hand of a veteran designer like Chris Roberts or Peter Molyneux. And in all honestly i fully understand that a lot of veteran designer now go the way with kickstarter, without any restricting publisher, because of the creative freedom.
And all of those veteran designers got there bad experience and headaches with publishers in the past.
But is there the potential of fraud? Of course, and everytime i see a kickstarter promises the heaven, and want to accomplish it with just a few hundred thouseds or even less, i basicly know they dont know what to do, and will never be able to deliver anything worthwhile. (so never invest in a mmo kickstarter with less then 1$ million projected goal, and for a single player game anything less than 500k is very dubios)
But do i believe Star Citizen will be a playable game? Or the recently funded Torment: Tides of Numenera? I would bet almost any amount that they will be playable. Will they be fun for you, or me? I guess its up to preference, as with any game.
Buttom line is that veteran game designer have regulary made good to very good games, and were in the past more often than not restricted from publishers. Just look at the biography from design legends like Peter Molyneux, Chris Roberts and a few others. If you invest in nonames you will take the full risk.
This sums it up pretty well for me. Kudos to you Terranah.
I just want to play a fucking game that is well made and reward the company that made it.
This indeed. Meanwhile, people on the other half of the world starve to death or are exploited to get us the cheapest products. Humanity at it's finest.
As a donor, you really just need to view Kickstarter is just a pay-up-front sales model that gives creators/businesses a barometer of market demand. It just helps answer the question, "If I make this, will enough people buy it?" If the answer for the individual is, "Yes, I'll buy that," then you "donate." But you're essentially just paying up front for the donation rewards.
It's an incredibly useful tool. The only way it's not a win/win is if you go around throwing your money at things you don't actually want. Obviously with a video game that hasn't been made yet, you run the risk of being disappointed.
Personally we'll be depending on Kickstarter for our game. Could we fund it ourselves? Maybe. But that wouldn't give us any idea if people were actually willing to subscribe to play it. By paying for a subscription up front, we can guage demand proportional to fundraising. It not only gives us capitol to invest in the project, but provides an indispensable measure for how much we should be investing in the project based on the level of interest and demand.
Nothing is more crucial to capitalism than consumers purchasing goods for consumption. In an ideal capitalist society you always buy a video game because you believe the enjoyment/benefit/happiness (it doesn't really matter what you call it) of owning the game exceeds that of owning the money it costs.
As far as Kickstarter goes it ISN'T anything in particular; you can interpret it in any number of ways. You might say that it is a "capitalist idea" because consumers invest money in something they believe will provide a future return (not in money, but in happiness/enjoyment/benefit). You could also say that it is charity, but it's an odd sort of charity that expects the sort of return I mentioned above. Then again some might argue that charity just tends to be about making yourself feel better, which makes that a sort of investment as well.
In any case it doesn't really matter. What does matter is whether or not Kickstarter can be used to transfer money tax-free. xD
I funded FTL on kickstarter and yes, I made my money back in terms of enjoyment x100.
Jeez, is that game awesome!
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
There are none...well, apart from KS donees laughing their asses off about human gullibility.
Is the developer a recognized non-profit or not-for-profit organization?
No.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
I really don't get the hate kickstarter gets. Does it have risk? Yep, but what doesn't? Every time you buy food you run the risk it will give you food posioning. Everytime you buy an item you run the risk that it's flawed or defective. Even with games you run the risk that it's going to be crap. Do you think the majority of SWTOR, aliens colony marines, DA2, etc... don't reget buying it?
What's the difference between never getting a game or getting a crap one on kickstarter or getting a crap game you're never going to touch again? In both cases you wasted your money, in both cases you want your money back and in both cases someone else got paid.
The benefit of kickstarter is you can support games that no publisher would touch. EA wasn't going to pay for FTL, activsion didn't want to pay for wasteland 2, ubisoft wasn't interested in Organ Trail: Director's Cut, etc...
But more than anything kickstarter does one thing that the normal publisher system doesn't, it shows support for a genre/ideas outside of the normal crap publishers make.
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.