Mythic Kickstarter is a Scam

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Mythic Kickstarter is a Scam


The Mythic: The Story of Gods and Men Kickstarter has been shut down.

A lot of really great things have been done with Kickstarter since the Double Fine Adventure helped turn it into the Next Big Thing for the videogame industry back in February. But like everything else in life, with the good comes in the bad, and so it's just about inevitable that every now and then we'll run into jerks who try to scam the system for their own personal benefit.

That appears to be what happened with the Kickstarter for Mythic: The Story of Gods and Men, which went live earlier this month but disappeared without warning a couple days ago. The project was reportedly being developed by Little Monster Productions, a team composed of former Blizzard employees who wanted to do "something better," and raised eyebrows by promising a blend of World of Warcraft gameplay with Skyrim visuals.

"Mythic is an open world concept that will allow you to choose where you want to go even if it does not coincide with the story line and current missions list (hey, sometimes we just like to explore to level up right?!)," the Kickstarter page [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/273246798/mythic-the-story-of-gods-and-men] says. "Depending on funding amount reached we will aiming to get a multiplayer version online by Summer 2013. Game engine is custom but built based off of Unity3D and animations will be done via motion capture thanks to some friends at Disney/Pixar!"

Claiming that Disney/Pixar would be handling motion capture, even in a very indirect fashion, was apparently enough to raise a field of red flags, which led to some digging by forum users at The Banner Saga [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?3301-Kickstarter-et-alia&p=122329&viewfull=1#post122329].

It's easy to say in hindsight but the Mythic Kickstarter page is actually a pretty amateurish effort, which makes me wonder if it's actually a scam or just a stupid prank-slash-troll. Regardless, 83 people actually signed up to back the project for a total of $4739 before the Kickstarter was canceled over the weekend. The project's website, mythicthegame.com [http://www.mythicthegame.com/], has also disappeared, as has its Facebook page.

Luckily for those folks who signed up [especially the guy who pledged $2500], nothing aside from a bit of pride will be lost. Kickstarter only takes money from backers once a project reaches its funding goal.

via: MSNBC [http://www.ingame.msnbc.msn.com/technology/ingame/kickstarter-game-mythic-story-gods-men-outed-scam-743972]


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RipRoaringWaterfowl

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Jun 20, 2011
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Well, crap. It had to happen someday, yet it just had to happen now. So early.

*sigh* Kickstarter will survive and thrive, though some public opinions are very fickle...
 

80Maxwell08

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Jul 14, 2010
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Lear said:
Well, crap. It had to happen someday, yet it just had to happen now. So early.

*sigh* Kickstarter will survive and thrive, though some public opinions are very fickle...
Except it's already been happening. Kickstarter has been around for a while and so have scams on it. This isn't new at all so everyone saying this really doesn't realize that it hasn't happened already which confuses the heck out of me. Why would they not think that someone hasn't tried to use it for a scam after so long?
 

RipRoaringWaterfowl

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Jun 20, 2011
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80Maxwell08 said:
Lear said:
Well, crap. It had to happen someday, yet it just had to happen now. So early.

*sigh* Kickstarter will survive and thrive, though some public opinions are very fickle...
Except it's already been happening. Kickstarter has been around for a while and so have scams on it. This isn't new at all so everyone saying this really doesn't realize that it hasn't happened already which confuses the heck out of me. Why would they not think that someone hasn't tried to use it for a scam after so long?
Of course, but as far as most of the public is concerned, Kickstarter might as well have been born yesterday. It's new to them. It makes sense that a few of them will think a "new" service is starting to be used for scams, despite that conclusion being wrong and illogical.

Kickstarter is suddenly in the sun. Expect these things.
 

80Maxwell08

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Jul 14, 2010
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Lear said:
80Maxwell08 said:
Lear said:
Well, crap. It had to happen someday, yet it just had to happen now. So early.

*sigh* Kickstarter will survive and thrive, though some public opinions are very fickle...
Except it's already been happening. Kickstarter has been around for a while and so have scams on it. This isn't new at all so everyone saying this really doesn't realize that it hasn't happened already which confuses the heck out of me. Why would they not think that someone hasn't tried to use it for a scam after so long?
Of course, but as far as most of the public is concerned, Kickstarter might as well have been born yesterday. It's new to them. It makes sense that a few of them will think a "new" service is starting to be used for scams, despite that conclusion being wrong and illogical.

Kickstarter is suddenly in the sun. Expect these things.
Fair enough. Also for some other news the record Double Fine set for most donated was already beaten a while ago.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android?ref=discover_pop
It was beaten in 4 days since it started.
 

JaceArveduin

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Mar 14, 2011
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80Maxwell08 said:
Lear said:
80Maxwell08 said:
Lear said:
Well, crap. It had to happen someday, yet it just had to happen now. So early.

*sigh* Kickstarter will survive and thrive, though some public opinions are very fickle...
Except it's already been happening. Kickstarter has been around for a while and so have scams on it. This isn't new at all so everyone saying this really doesn't realize that it hasn't happened already which confuses the heck out of me. Why would they not think that someone hasn't tried to use it for a scam after so long?
Of course, but as far as most of the public is concerned, Kickstarter might as well have been born yesterday. It's new to them. It makes sense that a few of them will think a "new" service is starting to be used for scams, despite that conclusion being wrong and illogical.

Kickstarter is suddenly in the sun. Expect these things.
Fair enough. Also for some other news the record Double Fine set for most donated was already beaten a while ago.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android?ref=discover_pop
It was beaten in 4 days since it started.
It's a fancy watch?
 

Volstag9

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Apr 28, 2008
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80Maxwell08 said:
Lear said:
80Maxwell08 said:
Lear said:
Well, crap. It had to happen someday, yet it just had to happen now. So early.

*sigh* Kickstarter will survive and thrive, though some public opinions are very fickle...
Except it's already been happening. Kickstarter has been around for a while and so have scams on it. This isn't new at all so everyone saying this really doesn't realize that it hasn't happened already which confuses the heck out of me. Why would they not think that someone hasn't tried to use it for a scam after so long?
Of course, but as far as most of the public is concerned, Kickstarter might as well have been born yesterday. It's new to them. It makes sense that a few of them will think a "new" service is starting to be used for scams, despite that conclusion being wrong and illogical.

Kickstarter is suddenly in the sun. Expect these things.
Fair enough. Also for some other news the record Double Fine set for most donated was already beaten a while ago.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android?ref=discover_pop
It was beaten in 4 days since it started.
I am suddenly interested in that watch...

OT: I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner! I don't really think this will have any real negative impacts on Kickstarter, after all, no one lost any money.
 

IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
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Can't say I'm surprised. Kickstarter's very concept is pretty idealistic to begin with.

Consider this: an upstart dev whom you've heard nothing about crops up on Kickstarter with a decent spiel, a few fetching pieces of concept art, decent tier rewards and a professed history of competence. All it asks in return for their efforts in producing a game is a pledge on your part.

Seems legit, right? Except you can't verify any of these claims. Even as scam attempts go, this is plainly amateurish. Don't go and claim that you've got contacts at Disney/Pixar when you're one little indie studio; that's just way too big a fish for anyone to swallow. Even assuming the project got funded, what's to say the scammers could have simply turned tail and blasted off with the acquired funds?

What we've seen was just a trial run. I'm pretty sure we'll eventually hear about some douchebag pseudo-dev who will have been more than happy to take off with a few painlessly earned hundreds of thousands.
 

Dastardly

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Apr 19, 2010
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Actually, I think this serves as an effective demonstration of Kickstarter's safety. Folks figured out the con pretty quickly, and no one involved lost anything. It's even entirely possible that, as shady as this looked, the con-men themselves pledge a lot of that money just to add an air of legitimacy (It's what I would do)... which would mean not many people were fooled at all.
 

oldtaku

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Jan 7, 2011
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I'm willing to bet that the $2500 pledge was one of the scammers salting the pot so it looks more attractive.
 

Robert Ewing

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Mar 2, 2011
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I was wondering when the first kickstarter scam would crop up. Although to it's credit, it was a lot later than I anticipated.
 

Lunar Templar

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Sep 20, 2009
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Robert Ewing said:
I was wondering when the first kickstarter scam would crop up. Although to it's credit, it was a lot later than I anticipated.
same, surprised it took this long. which i suppose can be interpreted as a good thing
 

SenseOfTumour

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Jul 11, 2008
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Yeah, it's a shame, but filthy, greed ridden fuckers will always find a way to get their stinking hands into anything good.

Just pleased little damage was done is all.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Was only a matter of time. I'm surprised it took this long.

Just wait until someone who knows what they're doing pulls one of these scams.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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yepp was always only a matter of time. glad people caught it so soon though, that is surprisingly quick.

in b4 the parade of people who think kickstarter is the worst thing to ever happen saying "I TOLD YOU SO! LOL ALL YOU BAD KIDZ WHO CALLED IT! I DID! BECAUSE I'M SO SMART AND BETTER THAN YOU!"
 

ThePenguinKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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Ever since I seen Kickstart I awaited a story like this. I cant help but also wonder what would happen to donated money if the developers suddenly dropped the project a month or two after achieving their goals, what legal action could be taken?
 

vxicepickxv

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Sep 28, 2008
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ThePenguinKnight said:
Ever since I seen Kickstart I awaited a story like this. I cant help but also wonder what would happen to donated money if the developers suddenly dropped the project a month or two after achieving their goals, what legal action could be taken?
That would depend on a large number of factors. The largest would be the total amount of cash that was taken. Others would include country of origin, and the countries of the backers, and how generous legal departments were feeling.