Aquamarine
Member
You might want to put something about the "John" controversy in the OP as well.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=51470628&postcount=1171
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Millionaire tries to get $829 via kickstarter to send daughter to RPG maker camp?
- Thread starter Goon Boon
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You might want to put something about the "John" controversy in the OP as well.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=51470628&postcount=1171
In fairness I'm not sure it's really domain squatting...unless someone else owns the trademark/ip. The feed and the picture are unfortunate enough for her in light of the current context though...
As I understand it, admittedly from my limited tinkering years ago, RPGMaker doesn't really require too much expertise in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics...
I could be wrong, and in which case please let me know...
However, learning how to use one particular piece of software/framework to develop a narrow set of products isn't really going to do much to get you into STEM. Learning the fundamentals of the field would be far more appropriate as it is software/framework agnostic.
Aquamarine
Member
It teaches the fundamentals of object-oriented algorithms on a general, abstracted scale.
There IS actual programming support in the client, but it's way too inaccessible for a 9 year old.
A typical scenario is like this:
As you can plainly see, it's not deep into STEM at all. But it does pave the way for greater exploration into STEM-related careers, assuming she remains interested in it afterwards.
It's still a pretty useless way to make yourself money. Nobody else in society is really going to benefit from it... in fact the only other people involved will lose when they have to pay an inflated price, and so I would say it's just as morally reprehensible.
Then again, I do have some unconventional objections to the idea of intellectual property anyway... so I am biased.
ebullientprism
Member
I feel bad for Polygon in all this mess. They should have just waited for RPS to do a story on it and copied it like before. 
It teaches the fundamentals of object-oriented logarithms on a general, abstracted scale.
There IS actual programming support in the client, but it's way too inaccessible for a 9 year old.
A typical scenario is like this:
As you can plainly see, it's not deep into STEM at all. But it does pave the way for greater exploration into STEM-related careers, assuming she remains interested in it afterwards.
I see. Thank you. I knew that there must be some way of setting out the logic of your games, but I had not expected it to be so... raw... It certainly looks like a kid could learn a thing or two about simple scripting, sure...
Also, I assume you meant algorithms... Besides which, I don't see much object oriented stuff... just looks like sequential script to me... but perhaps that's because I am not familiar with the language... and it's only one screenshot.
mercenar1e
Member
why is the Kickstarter still up? it clearly violates the TOS
Delusibeta
Banned
That's why we're still complaining about it.
foobarry81
Member
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
Or she picked a common mans name in hopes that it would pan out. We're still waiting for any sort of official word.
So Susan's bestie Julie Brown just posted this link in the comments: http://lists.oshwa.org/pipermail/discuss/2013-March/000339.html.
How she found this or what it exactly is, I am not sure. However I did google John Dimatos. And he does appear to be connected to kickstarter according to his twitter account.
John Dimatos' Twitter Account
Anybody want to send him a tweet asking for comment?
How she found this or what it exactly is, I am not sure. However I did google John Dimatos. And he does appear to be connected to kickstarter according to his twitter account.
John Dimatos' Twitter Account
Anybody want to send him a tweet asking for comment?
Aquamarine
Member
Here is his official Kickstarter page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/40103929
http://www.kickstarter.com/profiles/40103929/bio
His account is from "April 2010." If he has been a Kickstarter employee since then, wouldn't he be reflected on the official staff Kickstarter page?
----Assuming the Kickstarter page is out of date and he is a legitimate employee, you can see from the projects he's backed that he hasn't done anything with this Kickstarter.
He posted such a GLOWING endorsement of her Kickstarter, yet hasn't pledged anything... I'm still suspicious.
foobarry81
Member
Portugeezer
Gold Member
Lol, a fake KS message? It just gets better.
And if the message happens to be true and John exists, then yes they're endorsing it.
And if the message happens to be true and John exists, then yes they're endorsing it.
Delusibeta
Banned
His account is one of the 57 followed by the Kickstarter Twitter account, all of which mention being employed by Kickstarter in their Twitter description. Yeah, he probably works there (and considering the order the Twitter followed accounts, he almost certainly started after the last time the staff page updated). I still maintain my belief the e-mail in question is fake. I would advise again mass spamming him, however, that will definitely piss him off.
Mr. Bubble
Member
Aquamarine said it much more eloquently, but RPG Maker for youngsters is meant to spark interest into STEM fields. If they really like something, they can explore the next steps beyond just the RPG Maker software.
It's no different than teaching kids how to make water-propelled rockets so they might be interested in aerodynamics or physics, or whatever. There's a lot of careers out there, but sometimes the first step is knowing what kinds of careers exist.
faceless007
Member
I was really skeptical about trying to use the official roster as definitive proof--companies have no reason to make public all of their employees' names.
It's still fishy (especially because of their policy of not endorsing projects) but I would be very cautious of trying to pinpoint specific Kickstarter employees.
foobarry81
Member
Angela Reese said:
Lol, did this woman even read the project description?
"Kenzie" only wanted $829, which is just to pay for the tuition fee. She even took a screenshot of the receipt to prove it. So it IS just for the sake of the training. This whole thing about working out a budget is a fake argument. If she had equipment (a laptop) in mind it would´ve been easy to add that to her "budget".
Some people just don´t want to see the truth.
foobarry81
Member
Julie Brown, Susan Wilson´s bestie, pointed to this John in the KS comments.
This is all quibbles but rpg maker camp, would be closer to a filmmaker's camp. Sure you're gonna learn some technical stuff like how to use a camera, but mainly it's about writing and art. It's much more of a fine arts experience, then a technical one.
Megalosaro
Banned
It's kind of funny that they shut down the Kaiju Combat kickstarter the moment WotC contacted them, but it's been quite some time and this filth isn't down yet.
The corporate lawyers probably helped speed up that process.
Flying Toaster
Member
No one messes with the lawyers. Honestly though I see this thing staying. I am not a fan of what she is doing but I doubt kickstarter is going to can it.
faceless007
Member
...How would she know the full name of who sent Susan the email? I guess she could have told her, them being friends, but still...
Seems like she got lucky using a common name for a fake email.
It will set a dangerous precedent, people will open similar Kickstarters since it's easy money.
And once that starts happening, it isn't long before Kickstarter begins losing credibility and eventually dies.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57576194-1/trolls-take-on-9-year-old-girls-kickstarter-project...and-lose/
Hmmm investigative journalism hard at work it seems...
Hmmm investigative journalism hard at work it seems...
foobarry81
Member
Or it will remain alive and well, but more as a charity vehicle than anything else.
Even though that is against their ToS.
Wibblewozzer
Member
Looks like that's good enough to call the fun and games over. I'll still look through Kickstarter for people needing funding but will donate directly to them through Paypal or some other means.
C'est la vie.
Mr. Bubble
Member
Not sure what you're replying to in my post? because I agree with you. Someone said they couldn't see how RPG Maker didn't offer much for developing the technical skill, and I was just replying that it wasn't really about its technical learning capacity, but more about sparking interest in STEM-related fields. In the end, RPG Maker is mainly a hobbyist's engine. Maybe I don't expect much from 9-12 year olds?
SolidSnakex
Member
Amazing!
The quote is from a kickstarter spokesman, so I guess that's that unless the story is actually picked up by someone with the time to actually do five minutes of investigation. She'll get twenty grand (minus kickstarter's fee) and have absolutely no oversight. Here come the copycats.
If they can't see a scam when it's in progress, there's no reason to give them a cut.
I hardly see why some dude's article on CNET (not what I would consider a reputable website) signals the end of the whole thing.
Wibblewozzer
Member
Because he was able to get a direct reply from someone at Kickstarter that endorsed the project. And I'd think it's quite fair to assume that they replied after looking into it a bit more and didn't just reply to a journalist approaching them on the subject without double-checking the project itself. Kickstarter personnel support it to stay up and pretty much just say that the backers will determine if it should remain valid.
So, Kickstarter supports this project so I don't support Kickstarter. Unless some big change happens, which seems unlikely at this point, I'd say that's done.
undrtakr900
Member
Exactly. Why have just one sugar daddy like Donald Trump, when you can have 1000+ "daddies", who gives you money ... and you don't even have to give up any "sugga". Brilliant!THIS WHOLE THREAD IS SO MISOGYNISTIC. YOU GUYS JUST DON'T LIKE RICH, POWERFUL, INDEPENDENT WOMEN.
They don't need no sugga daddies.
Ahh. Re-read it. Yeah, I guess so... It's not coming down, and Kickstarter loses any potential support I might have given it.
Delusibeta
Banned
I'm just saying it's more likely to spark interest in Fine Arts than STEM fields. This is not important though.
Well if that's KS' take on it then...
Does this really mean that anyone can just launch a project to fund, say, a college course, with the product reward being the assignments I complete while I'm there? Is that not a teensy bit bullshit?
Does this really mean that anyone can just launch a project to fund, say, a college course, with the product reward being the assignments I complete while I'm there? Is that not a teensy bit bullshit?
They almost immediately disabled comments. Wow.
edit: Nvm -looks like it was just a temporary glitch.
That's pretty much what this means, yes.
Edit: To clarify, if those assignments were art or something with a defined kickstarter category then yes. If it was some other class, no.
Have you really dug through kickstarter? I mean, really dug through it. This isn't a new precedent. Terrible "fund my life" projects have existed since its inception. I'm surprised neoGAF wouldn't have a thread dedicated to them by now
Go ahead. Try it. I have a hunch it won't generate as much of a negative response, though I can't explain why.
foobarry81
Member
According to Kickstarter´s statement in the CNET article the project is about making a game, so not against the ToS
Even though the project clearly states that they need $829 to pay for training.
I think KS likes the controversy. Probably good for business...
She has screencaps of everything, including her paying for the camp and the death threats she received, yet there's no visual evidence of any email from Kickstarter. She just typed out the "email from John" in an update; that's not evidence.
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