butter_stick
Banned
In case you haven't been following, Republique, some kind of mobile phone game [now with a PC port] was just successfully funded for half a million dollars via send-us-money site Kickstarter.com. Some people, including a semi-close personal friend, put down $60. Others less, others more. But crucially, people are paying more for a game than it would ever retail for, in order to feel like they're "helping with a vision". From what I can see, Republique's vision is to release an ill suited to the format mobile phone game, with a bit of atmosphere to pass it off as an AAA console experience, wrapped in hipster credentials. But I don't know. I haven't played it.
A lot of people will say "but butter_stick, people are free to spend their money how they like, and they want to support a project they think looks cool". I guess. There's nothing inherently wrong with spending money. It is literally what we work for. But the way Kickstarters go about it, promising first and delivering later, seems like a recipe for total disaster. We haven't had our first Kickstarter Bomb yet, but it has to be coming. People will look back and say "damn, I paid $125 for a shitty mobile phone game". But until that happens, the games journalists who are often close friends with the people asking for your money will tell you to give what you can.
And that just feels wrong. You shouldn't be pressured in to giving money away like its charity. And it seems like every week there's a new Kickstarter that gets all the gaming press attention. I'm a strong person, I can't be influenced by the words of these people, but I'm sure a lot of people are going to regret being convinced by people that should be impartial that they should give money to somebody with only scraps of detail available. My friend told me Republique is guaranteed to be Game of the Year 2013. There's indoctrination going on here.
Republique may be good. Tim Schafers thing (remember that?) may be good (I guess). But do we really want a new developer begging us for money every week?
Is this the future of game development?
Do you agree?
Do you think Kickstarters are awesome?
Have you put down $125 for the special edition of Republique with an iPhone case?
Am I being unreasonable and just trying to crush someone's vision?
A lot of people will say "but butter_stick, people are free to spend their money how they like, and they want to support a project they think looks cool". I guess. There's nothing inherently wrong with spending money. It is literally what we work for. But the way Kickstarters go about it, promising first and delivering later, seems like a recipe for total disaster. We haven't had our first Kickstarter Bomb yet, but it has to be coming. People will look back and say "damn, I paid $125 for a shitty mobile phone game". But until that happens, the games journalists who are often close friends with the people asking for your money will tell you to give what you can.
And that just feels wrong. You shouldn't be pressured in to giving money away like its charity. And it seems like every week there's a new Kickstarter that gets all the gaming press attention. I'm a strong person, I can't be influenced by the words of these people, but I'm sure a lot of people are going to regret being convinced by people that should be impartial that they should give money to somebody with only scraps of detail available. My friend told me Republique is guaranteed to be Game of the Year 2013. There's indoctrination going on here.
Republique may be good. Tim Schafers thing (remember that?) may be good (I guess). But do we really want a new developer begging us for money every week?
Is this the future of game development?
Do you agree?
Do you think Kickstarters are awesome?
Have you put down $125 for the special edition of Republique with an iPhone case?
Am I being unreasonable and just trying to crush someone's vision?