^Above comment is prescient:

Joystick: Police Warfare Kickstarter suddenly and mysteriously canceled

The Devs update:

"Thank you so much for the incredible response to the game," reads an update on the Kickstarter. "We're shutting down the kickstarter account but this is by no means the end of Police Warfare. News will be coming."

It's all KICKING OFF...

Kokatu: People Like You—Yes, You—Gave $9 Million to Kickstarter Video Game Campaigns Last Month

More cautionary tales from Gamasutra: More Kick than Start?

Gamesindustry.biz: Game-specific Kickstarter alternative to launch at E3

The scheme will allow investors to buy shares in game projects, which will translate to paid dividends if the game makes it to market and sees commercial success. The platform will launch in Europe, but the company hopes to spread internationally once some legal barriers are breached.

Penny Arcade: The ugly side of Kickstarter: the risks in backing game dev campaigns are greater than you think

• “So if someone is trying to sell you a Porsche on Craigslist for $5,000.00 you are going to naturally feel nervous. If someone is trying to sell you that they can make an FPS for under $2M they are going to give me cause to pause,” Dent said.
• “The area where most teams fail is insufficient polish. Cliff [Bleszinksi] always says there’s the first 90 percent of the project, and then the second 90 percent. Because once your game is completely playable and it works, you’re really only halfway,” Sweeney explained. “It takes an incredible amount of tweaking to get to the level of polish where people take your game seriously.”
• "Not all Kickstarter projects will succeed. It’s inevitable that some will fail. This is one reason why Kickstarter is very particular about using the term “backer” and avoiding the term “investor.” Dent explains, “It is not actually an investment in the legal sense of the word. The contributor is actually buying something to be part of the game.” Backers get tangible rewards in exchange for their dollars: shirts, videos, forum access, and (typically) a copy of the game if and when it is completed. It’s a purchase, not an investment." 
• Of those projects that do manage to ship, some will be good games and some will be awful, with most winding up somewhere in the middle. This is the reality of game development in the real world, and projects funded by Kickstarter are no different. The unfortunate truth is that many backers of game projects are buying the ability to wait 18 months to play a mediocre game.

I see it as the modern equivalent of patronage, you get the chance to fund the kind of games you want to see produced rather than wait for the big publishers to churn out another dumbed down WoW clone.

That said I reckon it works best in the later part of development: I  want to see some developer track record and considerable progress made already. If it was a completely new project then I'd want to see the same kind of return on my cash as any normal investor would - not that I'm into funding start ups in the first place.

Grim Dawn: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crateentertainment/grim-dawn looks like a good bet. But, if I'm wrong and it doesn't turn out well, I'm not going to jump out of the top floor window, or lose any sleep over it - and meanwhile it's fun to follow the development process.

@ Roc, that's where it's at: A juxtaposition of stances to take.

Here's 2 contrasting articles: Mud vs the Stars:

The Crowdfunded Revolution: How Kickstarter Can Change Videogames Forever

Kickstarting Ron Paul

I don't think anyone posted this linke yet.  Extra credits show on Crowd Funding:

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/crowdfunding

Crowd Funding turns game development back into an art form. People now have room to innovate without publisher's holding their purses and forcing them to imitate.

However, it scares me at the same time. Publishers are known for under-hand tactics to gain capital. If crowd funding becomes a viable source of income and can allow developers to completely bypass publishers, I doubt they *cough EA cough* would keep up their current pace. They might try to reach out to indie teams and start a program full of incentives. 

On the whole, this is something positive.

Gamers have shown they are willing to shell out 60 bucks on a mediocre product.  Here, they are shelling out 20 bucks or so (being cheap lulz) on what might become a good product, and you know your contribution helped it.

Also a great way for people to show off some innovation.

Far from fearing it, I think "big gaming" might see some benefit.  Since, let's be real, even the hottest indie game on kickstarter isn't going to scare them.  Yet it might show them where the trends are, and even who new potential employees might be.

This isn't just about "dead genres."  The very idea of an innovative game is quickly becoming a "dead genre."  Every shooter is the same.  Every MMO (out right now) is the same.  RPG's are going away from being RPG's towards being actiony games with maybe a story above the dudebro world, and that makes it an "RPG."

Gamasutra editors pontificate on Kickstarter:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/169357/Ask_Gamasutra_Should_I_do_a_Kickstarter_campaign.php

More discursive thoughts and feelings than anything really key, but a marker that suggests crowd source is hit and miss atm with people not sure which way the scales are tipping: Guess a few releases will gauge that over the next 6-12 months. No clear exemplars but a quick sketch of pattern:

• Double Fine, Shadowrun, Wasteland (pure cash/raw enthusiasm thrown in)
• Banner Saga, Starcommand, FLT (these projects seem best suited)
• Republique, Necro and more (interesting projects somersaulting to hit their targets)
• Class of Heroes, & many more ("ill-conceived projects")

Reddit: Kickstarter scam project Mythic: Story of Gods. Growing awareness

**Scam projects detection**

UPDATE:  Project has already been taken down by creator and all of the company's information is being deleted from the internet.

• Some SomethingAwful guys got the clues and someone forwarded to RPS link
• Points of evidence (Internet Detective-ing not mine, but from some nice young men at Something Awful):
• God character art is from here, just with a sepia filter applied.
• Backgrounds are from here and here.
• Poster consists of this icon on top of this texture.
• Their sword reward pictures are from here.
• The reward tier text and values are copied wholesale from The Banner Saga's kickstarter, with just a game name search & replace.
• Their office photos are just crops from the Burton Design Group.

Suspicious but not conclusive skeezyness:

• They're "the same team that left Activision / Blizzard in search of something better!" and apprently worked on Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft (2009-2011), which isn't very likely.
• "Animations will be done via motion capture thanks to some friends at Disney/Pixar!", also not very likely.

Project link: Mythic

Please raise awareness of this fact and report the project if you can.

Annnnnnd, from the pile of steaming *... to a project that might interest a lot of mmorpg, rp's:

KICKSTARTER Project Page: Storybricks, the MMORPG storytelling toolset

Gamasutra: Opinion: How long before the Kickstarter bubble bursts?

Makes all the difference for aged genres/ip's; large brands regarding crowd tracking down the place that the huge marketers usually are not showing for these. Excellent info I think to in which this specific is/could get.

I love the crowd funding angle. Of the games I'm looking forward too, and not just MMOs, 50% of them are via Kickstarter.

Wasteland 2

Shadowrun Returns

Shadowrun Online (will have a KS soon)

Pathfinder Online

I certianly believe that once Wasteland and Shadowrun Returns get made other developers of old school games that had cult followings wanting a updated game will find Kickstarter as the way to get it done. Especially if the developer has a real passion for their IP and only care about making their fans happy.

I am for that all the way. It is very very important to share and enjoy as a team rather than being herds into a cattle ranch for the sake a few greedy bums at the top.

Activision, Blizzard and EA is the proof in the pudding and a good reason why many of us are much more careful before purchasing a game.

Less than half of Kickstarter's game projects have succeeded - report

Full INFOGRAPHIC: http://www.appsblogger.com/kickstarter-infographic/

Gamasutra: Kickstarter success rate for games even lower than initially reported

OUYA, the Android console - naivete at work?

The pitch pushes all the right buttons for gamers.  The OUYA creators claim to take the value of a good gamepad very seriously.  

 

They claim their console will be "open" and "hackable".  So not only will you get to play all those innovative games the big bad publishers crowd out of normal console space, but you can probably get them for free (if you have more technical knowhow than ethics).  

 

The pitch includes fleeting glimpses of games that will resonate with hardcore gamers such as Minecraft and Gears of War clone Shadowgun.  The console's main interface features a game that looks suspiciously like Street Fighter 4.  Their fancy App-store looks like a refactored Xbox Live.  

 

Finally, their offices look state of the art, and the talking heads seem experienced and knowledagable.  Except the main speaker seems to say the word "television" a disturbing amount of time, as if she's harkening back to a bygone age when the whole family crowded around a 13 inch Magnivox.

 

That's where the uneasiness sets in.  I started to get the feeling that these people are in over their heads.  The more I learned about their plan, the more doubt and suspicions I had.  

 

I came up with this list of seven reasons why the OUYA is at the very least, a bad idea.