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Kickstarter: Interesting questions
This is an interesting video where some questions are asked about a kickstarter project:
Now this is not a game and its based on something political (US libertarian/Ron Paul types) so I made that link at the time point where the host starts asking business and investing directed questions. Kickstarter Q/A stops around 19:00. So between 15-19 you can avoid almost all political stuff.
The host is Peter Schiff who some may have seen on CNBC or attempting to run for senate in conneticut. Regardless of your political or personal views on him he is a professional investor and cuts right to the heart of the business matter even though he is favorable to the project.
He gets into what kind of income it counts as, who gets a cut (Kickstarter and Amazon), salaries/accounting, proof that they do what they say, how much of cut, the nature of the "purchase" (i.e. he concludes rather succintly its closer to a charity or a cause than an investment ). The guy getting interviewed, Ben Swann, interestingly has many of the same sorts of reasoning for the benefits that indy game makers do about publishers. Of course since his bit is about journalism and publishers are the gate for both journalism and games that is not too surprising.
One thing I would say to anyone thinking of backing a Kickstarter game, ask these question Schiff asks. Particularly about the accounting for what they are doing. You back them, they tell you what they are doing with the money. You should demand this as part of the "deal". Many kickstarter projects do this, for games in particular they are finding it actually helps them with content. Wasteland 2 has found this.
