$500k iFind Kickstarter Campaign Suspended, Possibly a Scam

[Yopaz]

I read that whole article, and I still have no clue what the iFind was supposed to be used for? Oh, good, your phone can find the tag... (sarcastices implied) But, one would presume you would want the tag for finding your phone... right? So, you need your phone to find the tag to find your phone? Or, maybe you want the tag to find your keys? There are far better buyable devices to help find your keys when they're lost... like the keyfob that you can have whistle at you...

There's tons of applications. You can use it to find your wallet, your passport, your laptop, tablet important papers and stuff like that. It's something those of us who are messy and constantly misplace our stuff has been dreaming about. Also if someone steals your wallet on the bus you might be able to track him down if you notice it soon enough.

That said I doubt a device of that size would actually be able to send accurate information and with multiple similar signals scattered all over your apartment you'd probably be more confused using the device rather than trying to use your eyes ad memory to find your stuff.

OT: I looked up the names of those who supposedly work on the project and the company. Seems like their credentials are faked. It seems like they use real names, but based on what shallow Googling they don't actually work in the area stated on the Kickstarter page.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I was backing that! I should be more careful in the future.

Dang. Tough break, Evil Smurf. How much did you sank into that?

$80 for a pack of 5 and the shipping. At least that'll free up some money for the date I'm got next week. ;D

 

[Sight Unseen]

You know, I didn't think people could be so gullible. I will never in a million years understand the success of things like kickstarter or early access.

"Lets give these random people money for a product tat may or may not work like its supposed to so they dont have to do all that hassle of investment and risk that is usually involved with making a business and/or product!"

Well at least Kickstarter has some standards and doesn't charge you if they know its a scam.

considering all the good things that come from early access and places like kickstarter it is not hard to understand why people fund these things, minecraft was early access as well and look how huge that got.

Lmao. Minecraft was not Early Access. Early Access is on steam sir. If steam would enforce some policies and rules for the program I would be a lot more accepting of it.

How many people need to get scammed so you can have a few interesting games/products that you may have had anyway?

You do realise when people say early access they just generally refer to the idea of buying into an incomplete game so that they can help fund development and play it at it's current stage, right? And not just the specific program?

Minecraft was most defiantly an early buy in game, also know as early access.

Its not my fault the use the wrong term. Early Access is the program on steam. Minecraft was not Early Access. It was a paid Alpha.

Also it doesnt matter if people call paid alphas/betas early access when they arent on the steam program because he was replying to MY post which was talking about it.

Umm... Steam created its early access program in large part BECAUSE of the success of Minecraft and other early alpha release games. So to say that Minecraft doesn't count simply because it was hipster and was early access before early access was cool is extremely disingenuous. Anyway it's not like there haven't been several high quality and/or promising early access games that are worth paying for on Steam. Prison Architect, Folk Tale, Project Zomboid, Gnomoria, and even State of Decay was early access for a while. So yes, while I agree that a ton of shit is being put into steam through Early access, there are also many good games that otherwise wouldn't have gotten Steam's exposure without Early Access. And really, Steam is putting out a lot of shit through Greenlight and regular publishing nowadays anyway so to single out Early Access is a bit unfair. If you don't like early access then don't buy into it, but don't act like the people that do are stupid or wrong because they want to support a developer to make a game they find compelling.

I've been a supporter of several kickstarter projects and early access games and I have never yet felt like I've ben scammed by any of them. All that you need to do is be careful where you spend your money, don't spend too much money on potentially dubious projects (first time developers and the like) and make sure you're confident that they can do the job before you pay.

 

[Ragnar47183]

Its not my fault the use the wrong term. Early Access is the program on steam. Minecraft was not Early Access. It was a paid Alpha.

Also it doesnt matter if people call paid alphas/betas early access when they arent on the steam program because he was replying to MY post which was talking about it.

Now that's just semantics.

Minecraft was early access before Early Access came into existence.

So it couldnt possibly be Early Access then could it?

You know, I didn't think people could be so gullible. I will never in a million years understand the success of things like kickstarter or early access.

"Lets give these random people money for a product tat may or may not work like its supposed to so they dont have to do all that hassle of investment and risk that is usually involved with making a business and/or product!"

Well at least Kickstarter has some standards and doesn't charge you if they know its a scam.

considering all the good things that come from early access and places like kickstarter it is not hard to understand why people fund these things, minecraft was early access as well and look how huge that got.

Lmao. Minecraft was not Early Access. Early Access is on steam sir. If steam would enforce some policies and rules for the program I would be a lot more accepting of it.

How many people need to get scammed so you can have a few interesting games/products that you may have had anyway?

You do realise when people say early access they just generally refer to the idea of buying into an incomplete game so that they can help fund development and play it at it's current stage, right? And not just the specific program?

Minecraft was most defiantly an early buy in game, also know as early access.

Its not my fault the use the wrong term. Early Access is the program on steam. Minecraft was not Early Access. It was a paid Alpha.

Also it doesnt matter if people call paid alphas/betas early access when they arent on the steam program because he was replying to MY post which was talking about it.

Umm... Steam created its early access program in large part BECAUSE of the success of Minecraft and other early alpha release games. So to say that Minecraft doesn't count simply because it was hipster and was early access before early access was cool is extremely disingenuous.

It doesnt matter if it was the inspiration for the Early Access program. It STILL is not Early Access. A paid alpha/beta is not equal to the Early Access program. Im not sure why I have to explain this to you.

Anyway it's not like there haven't been several high quality and/or promising early access games that are worth paying for on Steam. Prison Architect, Folk Tale, Project Zomboid, Gnomoria, and even State of Decay was early access for a while. So yes, while I agree that a ton of shit is being put into steam through Early access, there are also many good games that otherwise wouldn't have gotten Steam's exposure without Early Access.

How do you know that? Games have been getting made for years now. Theres no reason Prison Architect or the rest wouldnt been able to get funded and released by more traditional means.

That also brings up the point of how much is to much? How much bad does the good warrant? Is it ok to get 100 scammy piece of crap games if 1 good game comes out of it? I dont think so.

And really, Steam is putting out a lot of shit through Greenlight and regular publishing nowadays anyway so to single out Early Access is a bit unfair.

The only reason Early Access is singled out here is because the thread is about kickstarter which Early Access has a lot of similarities to. Trust me I dont like Steams policy lately. This isn't the android platform and I hate all the shovel ware and crap getting on to Steam now.

But that begs the question, if its so easy to get on Steam now, why do we need Greenlight and Early Access?

If you don't like early access then don't buy into it, but don't act like the people that do are stupid or wrong because they want to support a developer to make a game they find compelling.

I am sorry but if you give someone money for something on faith then you are pretty gullible. (Didnt say stupid anywhere btw)

I've been a supporter of several kickstarter projects and early access games and I have never yet felt like I've ben scammed by any of them. All that you need to do is be careful where you spend your money, don't spend too much money on potentially dubious projects (first time developers and the like) and make sure you're confident that they can do the job before you pay.

I have heard a few people say "make sure they can do the job" or something along the lines of that. I keep asking for an explanation but havn't gotten an answer yet. How exactly can you make sure they would complete the job short of having a time machine?

See here lies my biggest problem with Early Access. There is no reason for them to finish their game. Ever. There are no consequences for never releasing or finishing the product. Alls Steam has to do is make some kind of guideline or regulation as to how long something can be in Early Access and have consequences for not finishing or scamming players. They should make the devs enter some kind of contract so they have to use their legal full names and if their game isn't finished or was determined to scam people then they will NEVER (no exceptions) be allowed to publish on Steam again. They should also do this to ensure they only have 1 game on Early Access at a time.

There are so many things Steam could do to make this program better and they choose the lazy route of public moderation and I think that is a horrible idea.

 

[Maze1125]

snip

In your first post you said "early access" not "Early Access". Those capitals are important.
You might be able to justify saying that Minecraft was not Early Access but it was factually early access: by the very definitions of those words.

 

[Major_Tom]

What's the point of this? "I think I'll probably lose this thing, so I'm going to put this silly tag on it", said no human being ever. And it's not like it has a GPS so I can track down a thief who stole my wallet or something.