Why games are rubbish.

[metalcraze 290]

Except with the "accountant" there's no risk. With non-KS game when it's out you know immediately if it's crap or not (reviews, videos... even previews are often enough to know if the game is derped).

With crowdfunding of a non-existent project you will never know. You will be promised one thing and then you will get Aliens Colonial Marines. Sure gambling is exciting - that's why casinos are so successful at taking people's money.

The only correct crowdfunding that doesn't smell of a scam is a la ArmA3 (because community alpha with its tiers is exactly like crowdfunding... except no stretchgoals - BIS will add stuff if people will ask hard enough). You pay now and you can immediately know how the game is. With Kickstarter you often have absolutely zero say in how the game will be and post release date it's just too late.

[dm 9]

Key word is integrity, not everyone has it.

I just wanted to post a couple of examples as to how you can easily get burned. In both of these cases, the developers are somewhat of an unknown.

That's fine if they want to risk it, but it shows developers that they can throw up a concept with very little in the way of actual work done, and basically make money.

You're locked into that the moment you pay. That's the part that I see as being very abuse-able and the most worrying... ...It just has a very shady downside.

Oh, for sure, there is most certainly a risk element. You have to judge whether or not your willing to take that risk.

The point is, the option to take all those different risks is now there. Previously the accountants would have shut the idea down before anyone ever even knew about it. The possibilities (good and bad) that it opens up are the good part of things like kickstarter.

Except with the "accountant" there's no risk.

There is and there isnt - just look at simcity, or some of the other recent debacles...

With non-KS game when it's out you know immediately if it's crap or not (reviews, videos... even previews are often enough to know if the game is derped).

Yes, once it is released, but that is why companies are pushing harder and harder on pre-orders. Again, look at the simcity debacle. The test build that the pre-release reviews were done on worked great, and looked wonderful. That sucked in millions of pre-orders. Then release happened. We all know the rest...

Kickstarter or not, you're still at risk of getting a crap product at the end. You can wait until post release in both cases.

The difference with kickstarter is that it takes the overall control away from the publisher. It prevents them from making sweeping design changes, last-minute or not, that can have a seriously adverse affect on the games development/quality.

With crowdfunding of a non-existent project you will never know. You will be promised one thing and then you will get Aliens Colonial Marines. Sure gambling is exciting - that's why casinos are so successful at taking people's money.

The only correct crowdfunding that doesn't smell of a scam is a la ArmA3 (because community alpha with its tiers is exactly like crowdfunding... except no stretchgoals - BIS will add stuff if people will ask hard enough). You pay now and you can immediately know how the game is. With Kickstarter you often have absolutely zero say in how the game will be and post release date it's just too late.

And like I said, thats why more and more publishers are going big on the pre-orders. Since it circumvents that post-release-poor-reviews issue.

Arma3's preorders are a little of both - crowdfunding (tho we can safely assume that DayZ made them a fair bit of $$$ too) to keep the project alive and pre-order to avoid those release day blues that have plagued earlier Arma releases...

[NoRailgunner 0]

Its just somekind of impatience or artificial hype which makes people pre-order something that actually needs to be done or is just "WIP"/"ALPHA" status. Guess making more PR aka teaser/trailers/interviews/devblogs/screenshots etc is a bit easier and less risky for game devs + publishers.... If people just throw their money on game pre-orders or kickstarter projects - you can't blame game devs and publishers for making money with wishful thinking/dreaming or fanboy-ism.

[metalcraze 290]

The test build that the pre-release reviews were done on worked great, and looked wonderful. That sucked in millions of pre-orders. Then release happened.

Sounds no different from KS & Co.

Except KS is a preorder too, but there is zero game info, only vague promises and some more notable KS projects already move away from those promises after they got money (Banner Saga and Shadowrun most notable examples thus far). And those that did preorder Sim City didn't get test build, did they? So it was just as blind waste of money. Serves people right really.

Arma3's preorders are a little of both - crowdfunding (tho we can safely assume that DayZ made them a fair bit of $$$ too) to keep the project alive and pre-order to avoid those release day blues that have plagued earlier Arma releases...

It's indeed a perfect solution thus far and hopefully more devs will follow suit.

(Of course there was "early" access before but that usually meant finalized beta where you just end up squishing the last bugs and can't influence anything)