Okay, now this is probably gonna be a lengthy comment and I apologise in advance if this offends anyone (esp Susan) but I want to raise a few points.
How many backers here remember the original project and its intentions?
Now how many of you have seen the same project change and made better? Do you remember the old title? The evil brothers that belittled their little sister? The lack of females in STEM? Building an RPG to prove boys wrong? etc etc
Ask yourself what caused these changes? Did Susan have a change of heart? Did supporters of this project recommend changes? Or did Kickstarter intervene to suggest alterations to the project and its content?
These changes have been made primarily due to the backers that voiced their concerns. The people like @vernano that want to make sure that this project is in the best interests of all backers and is fully accounted for.
I mean, just look at how this project has transformed all because of a handful of critics (not trolls) that have offered to take their time and help (and are continuing to help, like RC) Susan make this a better kickstarter campaign.
I'll admit @vernano shouldn't be making jokes about other people's names, especially after that whole debacle with me and @privacy advocate. But I'll give @vernano the benefit of the doubt and attribute it due to lack of sleep and not the best sense of humour.
I don't want to start seeing kickstarter backers being labelled as for or against a specific project. I think all backers have the right to voice their concerns and if they are valid and justified, then have the project creator alleviate them. But turning this into a "with us or against us" attitude helps no one. Like I've mentioned in one of my earliest comments, rather than quashing people's concerns it'd be easier to just answer them.
I, for one, am one of the ones that have been a vocal critic as well as a supporter so I guess I'd be labelled as both with and against the project wouldn't I? I'd like to think I've made a small impact to help this campaign towards the right direction but if I had only intended to pledge $1 from day 1, would any of my concerns be less justified? Which brings me onto my next point.
Firstly, never underestimate the power of $1, especially on a crowdfunding site. Just look at the Veronica Mars project. Nearly 2700 backers have pledged only a dollar, and that's enough to pay for this project more than three times over and that campaign hasn't even finished yet.
Secondly (and this is the kicker), if the kickstarter dev team did implement any sort of system that allows project creators to deny, refuse or return any pledges then this site would be pretty much a ghost town.
Why?
Ask yourself, if such a system was put in place then who would benefit? (Now before I say this, I'm not directing this towards you Susan and sorry if I offend you)
One group of people that would be jumping for joy for such a system would be those who set up scam projects. Can you imagine, a system where if anyone who so much as raises an eyebrow to your project and pledges $1 to make others aware of any concerns, that the project creator could just refuse the pledge and thereby prevent anybody from speaking out?
Not to mention the myriad of abuse from other project creators who, how can I put this, are prejudiced towards others based on their gender or ethnic background.
Finally, the reply to @Vernano's question sends a very bad message. That message being: "give me more money and I'll take you more seriously". The fact that he only pledged $1 shouldn't come into it. If I upped my pledge to $100 and asked the same question would that have gotten me an answer?
I'm actually quite surprised Susan with your reply to @Vernano, seriously, cos that sounds like the sort of antagonistic reply I would expect from Julie. But to read that knowing that it came from you, I mean, I thought we were past all this.
Regarding the budget, don't take this the wrong way Susan but if I did go through the trouble of setting up a sort of shadow budget I'd probably just go the whole hog and set up a kickstarter for my nephew just out of curiosity as to whether he'd receive similar support (and I'd receive similar criticism) for an RPG project. @KS Backer did a pretty good job of it though and I don't think he missed out anything crucial so I'd probably take that as a base and work from there.
Sorry once again if I've offended you Susan or anyone else, that's not my intention and yes, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place on this project (note:to the guys on the GAF).
