Poll: Do you trust or fund kickstarters?

[Lilikins]

A friend showed me something today. I donno, these kickstarter things are getting a bit out of hand in my opinion. For instance, Star Citizen, has a kickstarter fund (the original goal was 500,000$) and at the moment its at...I kid you not, 47 million dollars.

Im not that knowledgeable with the work behind the games, or better spoken, the costs of doing so, but I think you can pull quite something with 47 million dollars.

Mind you this is kickstarter, so as far as my knowledge goes, they can just go 'nope, changed our minds, dont want to after all.' Of course if Im wrong and there are punishments for doing so, please do enlighten me, as spoken Ive no clue.

Nevertheless though, what are the escapists thoughts on that sum, and more importantly, with a fund like that? Do you think they'll deliver the product they are promising?

 

[furthestshore]

When you pledge to kickstarter, you select a reward. For example, I pledge $30 and my "reward" is meant to be a copy of the game and some stuff in the game.

If time passes and I don't get that reward I was promised, then the guys running the campaign have committed fraud and can get in huge trouble. So you can't just go "changed our minds," take the money and run. That would be extremely illegal. Some people try, but it doesn't work out well for them.

 

[Zhukov]

Trust. No.

Fund. Occasionally.

I've put money towards two games to date. About $80 each. However, I consider that money thrown into the wind. I hope something comes out of it, obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have coughed up, but I am prepared for it to disappear into the aether of the net.

I'd actually be more disappointed by a game I helped fund sucking than by it not getting made at all.

 

[DoPo]

Nevertheless though, what are the escapists thoughts on that sum, and more importantly, with a fund like that? Do you think they'll deliver the product they are promising?

All kickstarters ever? I don't know, but chances are the answer is no. Star Citizen? Yes, I think so. Other kickstarters? It depends. So far I've backed a few and didn't get burned. Heck, most recently, Divinity: Original Sin came out after I had backed it and it actually exceeded my expectations - so far it seems absolutely awesome. Other than that, I started playing Shadowrun Returns recently too (however, I missed the kicktarter campaign and didn't manage to back it) and that is really sweet, too. I've backed a few TT RPG's as well - they all panned out, I wore a T-shirt from one today.

If kickstarters are all scams...they don't seem to be particularly good at them. At least the ones I've been involved in.

 

[tippy2k2]

I never have and honestly...I probably never will.

For one, I don't PC game which kind of limits my options. However, even if I did PC game, I doubt I would. A Kickstarter is a gamble; you could not get a product, you could get a different product than you were expecting, your product may end up being a digital turd, the company may end up folding, and so forth and it's not really a gamble I see any need to take when I already have so much gaming to do.

I don't mock or hate the concept of Kickstarter nor those who do it; I just see no need for myself to gamble when I have so many sure-things already out right now (and if the Kickstarter does make it big, I can get it later once it's a real product).

 

[Ender910_v1legacy]

Some cases are gambles sure, but there's a fair number that are projects for game developers who've had a lot of experience in the industry. Obsidian's Project Eternity for example, Crate Entertainment's Grim Dawn, Star Citizen (from the creator of Freelancer), and the creator of the The Longest Journey getting enough backing to continue and hopefully finish the amazing series/story.

And as with anything that gains a lot of popularity and attention, you'll always end up with a lot of bandwagon hoppers who don't know what they're doing (Some of those iffy Steam GreenLight projects for example?). That's just the nature of market hype.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I wouldn't fund them even if I had the money.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

If kickstarters are all scams...they don't seem to be particularly good at them. At least the ones I've been involved in.

yupp agreed.

Not calling people idiots, but just use common sense/research and be okay with the fact that the money you are giving is now gone, there is a chance you will get an amazing product (barring special rewards like t-shirts and stuff, that is objective materials goods) but otherwise you are just helping fund something that you would like to see.

I've funded about 8 projects so far I believe, most of them were from well known people/developers in the industry already, and they were making something that I'm just drooling over possibly having. the last few were ones where I was interested in the idea, and it was so cheap to fund for a digital copy that I figured why not, better that then impulse buying on a humble bundle/steam sale.

 

[Elfgore]

I trust several. Star Citizen, Kingdom Come: Deliverance... and that's about it.

Overall, I haven't invested any money into Kickstarter yet. I think it requires a paypal account, which I shall have nothing to do with. And I haven't found anything that is still ongoing that interest me. I learned about Kingdom Come really late. If I ever did plan to invest I would do serious research before hand.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I've funded one Kickstarter. A band that had already produced four CDs did a Kickstarter for their fifth. I happily supported it, since I knew that they'd deliver. Which they did. They're going to do another Kickstarter for their next CD, and I'll support that one, too.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Used to, not anymore. Nowadays it's like pissing your money away.

 

[Little Woodsman]

When you pledge to kickstarter, you select a reward. For example, I pledge $30 and my "reward" is meant to be a copy of the game and some stuff in the game.

If time passes and I don't get that reward I was promised, then the guys running the campaign have committed fraud and can get in huge trouble. So you can't just go "changed our minds," take the money and run. That would be extremely illegal. Some people try, but it doesn't work out well for them.

I believe that Kickstarter now requires a prototype or samples of most products before allowing a crowd-funding campaign on their site.
Because they were having problems with boneheads who thought that they could just take the money and run.

 

[Dalisclock]

I've funded two so far.

Dreamfall: Chapters. Apparently it has a lot of the same people invovled from the first two games working under a different company(I guess Funcom kind of screwed themselves over with Age of Conan and the Secret World). Also, I really want to see what Dreamfall was setting up before it's 5 different cliffhangers a decade ago.

Hyperlight drifter, because it looks really interesting.

I haven't kick started the last door but I've probably bought the game 4 times over by now, because it's an indie company and I'd kind of like to see them be successful, especially with a lovecraftian, lynchian, poe-ian horror game.

Captcha: Live Your Dream. I guess somewhat also wanted to see a conclusion to TLJ saga too.

 

[EyeReaper]

I have backed a kickstarter once, and if I had the money and interest, I would back more. There's been plenty of starters that I wish I had known about while they were still going on (Krosmaster Arena and Mighty No. 9 come to mind) because... I unno, why not?

And 15 bucks is totally worth a new Shantae game.

 

[Jon Clemmons]

Nope. Anybody remember the kickstarter Smosh started for their Food Battle game? It turned out to be a rip off.

 

[AdmiralCheez]

I backed Unrest [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pyrodactyl/unrest-an-unconventional-rpg-set-in-ancient-india] a while back, which is set to release [http://store.steampowered.com/app/292400] in about two weeks. So far, that's the only game I've backed. I've also helped fund the printing of several webcomics, all of which were pretty safe bets that they would deliver. Generally, I only invest in something after a great deal of research and careful consideration, which has worked out so far for me.

As far as Star Citizen goes, I haven't backed it, but I have a pretty good feeling that they'll deliver something. It's gotten far too much press for them to just abandon it at this point. There would be outrage across the internet, and the developers would be found out rather quickly. Besides, they have working demos last I checked, so apparently they've done some work on it.

 

[AmberSword]

Fund? Never.
Trust? Slightly more than Early Access, just slightly.

Tides of Numenara is doing it the right way though, I'm waiting to see if they deliver.

 

[Arakasi]

I like the way TotalBiscuit puts it. You don't back a kickstarter if you aren't perfectly okay with the developers vanishing with your pledge.

That said, I have backed $300+ on Star Citizen. I trusted them, and my trust is being rewarded.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Trust?, nope, Pledge?, not really, even though I game on PC I've never once felt the urge to fund any project thus far because I don't feel any are worth pissing my money away for, if a dev runs away with the money I pledged them I am but the fool, I'd rather never have that but at the same time I'd want the experience and the game to deliver fully within maybe 2 and a half years and not say 6, even then changes will be made and if I'm not a fan then again my money would be wasted, I just don't see the point from my view in pledging and trusting Kick starters.

That said I'm wondering if the guys behind Star citzen will deliver in complete full, massive bells and whistles everywhere and within this decade at least, in the end even if it did come out it'd pull a massive middle finger to those without the proper specs.

I will say though, games like Castle Story are a waste of a good idea and a tiny bit of talent with the way that's gone and Day Z is basically having money pissed on.

 

[Gennadios]

It really depends on how much faith I have in the developers.

Obsidian I gave $70 each for Wasteland Torment, even if the final product isn't what's promised I could at least trust them to push out something with a decent story.

Hero U, from the makers of Quest For Glory... I wish I had a bit more faith but they hadn't been in the game in ages, I just dropped $15 as a token. As much as this is the game I'd be most interested in, I just wasn't as sure of the success here.

I've seen a few decent idea from complete unknowns, but meh.