I think you are delusional. If you invest more than the street price of the game when it hits the market, it's charity. If you honestly think you are going to have a say in the game, at that investment level, you're flat out wrong.

Investing is investing. If you want to donate some money to a Kickstarter enterprise, feel free to do so. If I choose to do so it's because I expect to get a better return on my investment than the 2% I get from my local bank. And that scenario isn't happening here.

So don't participate. What on earth is this investment talk about anyway? Kickstarter is all about crowd funding, and it never pretended to be anything else.

Erm.. so just don't? 15 bucks is a fair price for a game, and if you think the higher options are not worth the goodies associated with them, don't pay it. It is not charity at all.

How much do you pay for new games anyway? Please send me links to the stores you use, I feel like I must be missing out on potential savings :crazy:

$15 is more than a fair price for a game. Are you under the impression that your $15 investment is going to get you a free game?

Erm... yes, that's how it works. It's essentially a pre-order.

Yup, 15 bucks for a DRM free game. You pay more if you want a physical commercial copy of the game or other extras(collectibles, etc). Consider it a pre-order.

I don't want to insult your intelligence or anything like that, but you really should read the prospects of the kickstarter projects and the rewards associated with each pledge tier. Supporting projects isn't charity at all, you can actually get great value for your money. Unless off course you are in the habit of pirating games... then I can certainly see why you would think 15 bucks for downloading a legal game is outrageous.

In the case of the 3,336,371 dollar Double Fine Adventure (I guess the hype passed you by, Mr. Rtrooney... that's Tim Schafer's Kickstarter project, backed by 87,142 people) the $15 tier is a real bargain. Not only will the game be much bigger than originally planned because so many people supported it, but you also get on-line access to the monthly episodes of the Making Of documentary, exclusive access to the Beta on Steam, and access to the private discussion forums where you can ask questions, post ideas, etcetera.

...not counting the potential risk of the developer "taking the money and running"...
A pre-order is for a game that's already in the ending stages of its production, but not released yet. A Kickstarter is for funding a game that is yet to be developed.
If a pre-order gets postponed indefinitely (*cough* Bracken Tor *cough*), you'll get your money back. If a Kickstarter fails (for whatever reason), your money is gone.

Kickstarter is in the first place based on trust. There's risk involved, and that makes it closer to an investment than to a pre-order.
I definitely understand what rtrooney is saying.

People like Jane Jensen and Al Lowe won't make a run with our money... you people can be ridiculous sometimes. These people have been working in the games industry since before most of us were born, they are not the kind of person you wouldn't trust to develop a game.

There are already cases where small developers didn't deliver(kickstarter has been on for a while), but that is expected from people without a track record. Use your common sense and all will be fine.

Btw, this is of interest:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...t-kings-quest/

According to the Replay Games website, Al Lowe will be doing a user contributed interview on Reddit this Friday (the 13th) at 6pm Pacific Time.

Here's where it will be posted: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAMA

A good chance to clear up questions you may have and reminiscence over the better days.

I'm afraid that common sense really is not enough, as I've tried to argue in the Heather Logan thread. I did back someone with a fine track record. Kickstarter is only one form of crowdfunding and a very risky one at that. For backers.

Having said that, I am now supporting three Big Names: Tim, Jane and Al. What am I, crazy? :crazy:

Paul Trowe tells all!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=d5zom_UtgRE#!

I'm glad you came around. I think the Logas situation (which i only know from the thread on here) is unfortunate. I do, think, though that Tim and Jane can't afford to not produce - their careers depend on it.

Heathers nor Plotkins do not - they're doing these projects as hobbies, not business.

I have backed a couple of Kickstarters, notably "The Dead Linger," where I have a bit of fear. Not just at it not going through, but of the concept being too bad, but I take my risks there.

I have very little doubt Tim, Al, Jane, and Brygo at Interplay will come through - hence much larger pledges.

Brief animation demo:

http://www.adventuremob.com/wp-conte...Hit_v08CS4.swf

I think you guys are out of your minds if you are going paranoid on Lowe and Jensen because some unknown indie took your money and ran. It is utterly preposterous to think that an industry professional with a reputation to uphold and a career to mantain would bury himself like that.

Really... It is actually quite unfair to put kickstarter and these developers we love down because of what Logas did.

Like I already have said many times, I backed someone who is well-known in his field of expertise, whether you've heard of him or not. That was the context when I used the words Big Names. And yes, I do think that lots of things may go wrong with big projects, even with a 3.3 million game. But although I am bitter about the whole Kickstarter thing, I don't mean to hurt the Pinkerton and Larry projects.

Interestingly, you're the one who told Logas she didn't need to apologize as long as she was still working on the project. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that!

Kickstarter protects project creators in many ways. You don't want the world to know that your project is not going well? All you have to do is make your updates accessible to backers only. Of course Kickstarter does absolutely nothing to protect backers, that's not in their best interest.

Backers don't sign any non-disclosure agreement, nor is there language like that in the terms of use. So disgruntled backers can just leak the updates and there's not much the developer can do about it.
Contrariwise if the developer does not deliver on time you can file a claim through your credit card company or payment processor as you would for any online seller.

That's called revenge. Yes, of course. But I was talking about protection.

Sorry, I really don't think that's a viable option for Kickstarter projects in general. Especially not after two or more years. Should backers start filing claims when they have received nothing by the *estimated* time of delivery...? That doesn't spell any good for Tim Schafer, with his outdated October 2012. :P

Did anyone here see the Reddit interview? They love Al! And damn, him and Josh are still funny. These guys need to be working on games.