I was mostly convinced I wanted to back them for $50 prior, but when I saw the "I Supported the Death of Themeparks" tombstone reward, I knew it was time to pull the trigger.  This is a mini stretch reward that all backers will get and will be able to display on their property.  Awesome.

~link~

I've been enjoying the discusson in the official forums too.  I love that the company is actively seeking suggestions for things to add.  My thread is the one called "Camps and Campfires" because I miss that so much as an old SWG player.

I'm looking forward to getting in the game and joining the community.  It sounds like these guys are on the right track.

ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT to get this and other rewards such as a land parcels, BETA ACCESS, and other nifties.

~MT 

EDIT:  the mini-stretch for the stone was reached.  PayPal payments are not counted on the kickstarter.com site, and they are well over $80K total now.

For almost a month now I have been so torn between seeing this project as a heap of red flags and wanting to do the $300 guild thing. Going by past experience, everything about this project says stay away, but Jason is an accomplished professional who has a great reputation and several successful businesses to his name. I doubt he'd throw that away creating some kindof pipedream or cashing out.

Greed Monger, you're pissing me off.

Every time a game is supposed to "kill" something according to its devs, I can't help but shrug and look away. I can't think of a single "X killer" that was a great game.

They should worry about their own product, first. If this game ever comes out and isn't horribly broken, we'll talk about "killing" things.

Originally posted by Scalpless

Every time a game is supposed to "kill" something according to its devs, I can't help but shrug and look away. I can't think of a single "X killer" that was a great game.

They should worry about their own product, first. If this game ever comes out and isn't horribly broken, we'll talk about "killing" things.

I'm pretty certain the grave stone is tonque-in-cheek, and a nod to their supporters.  To me it shows that they understand who their market is.  I don't think this little dev team believes Greed Monger is going to actually kill off all themeparks.  Frankly, I'm a little concerned that you actually thought they meant it.

This is likely to be a very niche game, and a great small business for the developers. If it grows beyond that and/or helps larger developers decide to dive into more sandbox /  emergent gameplay development, then I'm all for it.

Originally posted by Scalpless

Every time a game is supposed to "kill" something according to its devs, I can't help but shrug and look away. I can't think of a single "X killer" that was a great game.

They should worry about their own product, first. If this game ever comes out and isn't horribly broken, we'll talk about "killing" things.

Well eventually one game is going to come around and kill the current titan. It is bound to happen eventually. So many games that are years away and nothing really on the horizon to play except Darkfall if that is your thing.

Originally posted by kirak2009
i backed em,  just the wee 25 dollar pack,  i don;t get my hopes up to much anymore for games but ya never know

Every dollar helps them, man.  I originally did the $25, but I figured it would be a nice head-start in the game to have access to the PDF with the launch crafting recipes in it for $50 so I kicked it up. (though it will likely be online within a week of launch anyway)  This game has a lot of people in the higher tiers too, which is awesome.  A lot of people on the forums are $300+ backers.

I back stuff all the time, and just think of it as a donation.  That keeps me from taking it personally if they tank.  Crowdfunding isn't perfect, but it looks like all of us are going to reap the rewards over the long haul.  These indy projects are what this world is all about whether it's a video game, gadget or some other kickstarter thing.

I love it.

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by Scalpless

Every time a game is supposed to "kill" something according to its devs, I can't help but shrug and look away. I can't think of a single "X killer" that was a great game.

They should worry about their own product, first. If this game ever comes out and isn't horribly broken, we'll talk about "killing" things.

I'm pretty certain the grave stone is tonque-in-cheek, and a nod to their supporters.  To me it shows that they understand who their market is.  I don't think this little dev team believes Greed Monger is going to actually kill off all themeparks.  Frankly, I'm a little concerned that you actually thought they meant it.

This is likely to be a very niche game, and a great small business for the developers. If it grows beyond that and/or helps larger developers decide to dive into more sandbox /  emergent gameplay development, then I'm all for it.

I'm a little concerned that they get the "tongue in cheek" pass for making a statement while Trion, Arena Net, and every other developer or publisher gets nailed to the tree for making "poke the bear" types of claims.

Hey, a marketing gimmick netted them $50 from you so they must be doing something right.  I just can't see how a tongue in cheek joke is supposed to motivate me to pay them $50.

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by Scalpless

Every time a game is supposed to "kill" something according to its devs, I can't help but shrug and look away. I can't think of a single "X killer" that was a great game.

They should worry about their own product, first. If this game ever comes out and isn't horribly broken, we'll talk about "killing" things.

I'm pretty certain the grave stone is tonque-in-cheek, and a nod to their supporters.  To me it shows that they understand who their market is.  I don't think this little dev team believes Greed Monger is going to actually kill off all themeparks.  Frankly, I'm a little concerned that you actually thought they meant it.

This is likely to be a very niche game, and a great small business for the developers. If it grows beyond that and/or helps larger developers decide to dive into more sandbox /  emergent gameplay development, then I'm all for it.

I don't think it being a joke or not matters much. When your marketing relies on badmouthing other products instead of telling and showing people why your product is great and letting them form their own opinions, there's some reason to be concerned. I'm not making any far-reaching conclusions based on this one bonus, though. I just don't like it.

Besides, I don't find it funny. It's one of those things that you see and wonder if the creator is serious or just doesn't have a great sense of humor. It's like those TERA ads that told you how TERA is for people with pro skillz and other games are for carebears. They were "jokes", too. I think.

Originally posted by Scalpless

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Originally posted by Scalpless

Every time a game is supposed to "kill" something according to its devs, I can't help but shrug and look away. I can't think of a single "X killer" that was a great game.

They should worry about their own product, first. If this game ever comes out and isn't horribly broken, we'll talk about "killing" things.

I'm pretty certain the grave stone is tonque-in-cheek, and a nod to their supporters.  To me it shows that they understand who their market is.  I don't think this little dev team believes Greed Monger is going to actually kill off all themeparks.  Frankly, I'm a little concerned that you actually thought they meant it.

This is likely to be a very niche game, and a great small business for the developers. If it grows beyond that and/or helps larger developers decide to dive into more sandbox /  emergent gameplay development, then I'm all for it.

I don't think it being a joke or not matters much. When your marketing relies on badmouthing other products instead of telling and showing people why your product is great and letting them form their own opinions, there's some reason to be concerned. I'm not making any far-reaching conclusions based on this one bonus, though. I just don't like it.

Besides, I don't find it funny. It's one of those things that you see and wonder if the creator is serious or just doesn't have a great sense of humor. It's like those TERA ads that told you how TERA is for people with pro skillz and other games are for carebears. They were "jokes", too. I think.

Are you guys for real?  It's a joke, and people like me who are big sandbox supporters get it.  It's no different than having some silly name on an NPC as a nod to culture outside the game.

Here's a list of such comedic references in WoW from just one zone:

http://www.wowwiki.com/In-jokes_and_references/Outland

I guess Blizzard isn't serious about MMO games either, right?

The Death To Themeparks was just something I thought was funny on a Tombstone.

We have no dillusions that we are going to take out a billion dollar industry with our niche game.

We have established a large base of loyal and fun supporters as well as a small group of people who hate us and what we are working to accomplish. There will always be people trying to take up the role as naysayer or doom bringer but many of these people just assume far too much and have nothing better to do with their time. We don't look at our little tombstone as anything other than something fun we knew our fans would appreciate and it's a fun way of displaying the fact that you supported Greed Monger in it's infancy to all who wonder by.

We have only 4 days left of our campaign and have achieved over $80,000 in pledges. Since the start of the campaign I have hired 4 full time programmers, 1 full time modeler with 4 other free lance modelers, a digital cartographer and a 2D Icon Designer. We have our first 3 servers online with 6 more waiting at the colo facility to be turned on and plan on ordering another 25 blades to run the world map!!

This is a huge project and we are loving every minute of it with no dillusions whatsoever about taking anyone out. We are doing this because we want the game we are developing badly enough to do it ourselves! Nothing more. If others share in our excitment, well, join us! Our forums are blowing up, and our website and forums will be undergoing a complete redesign this week as well as we tie our games authentication system into our forums etc.

Thank you all for your continued support and we'll see you soon!

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Are you guys for real?  It's a joke, and people like me who are big sandbox supporters get it.

Note that I never said I don't think it's a joke. What I said was that...

1) I don't think it's good marketing, tongue-in-cheek or not

2) I don't find it funny, even though I like sandboxes

3) taking potshots is unprofessional

I don't know, maybe it's just because I'm tied of all those "sandboxes are for the bringht ones and everything else sux" people who seem to like this site a lot and post one every game's forum telling others how it's an apple instead of an orange and therefore awful. This looks like something one of them would find hilarious.

For the record, I don't claim you're one of them, but I just happened to respond to this thread and don't like being unclear.

Originally posted by Scalpless

Originally posted by MindTrigger

Are you guys for real?  It's a joke, and people like me who are big sandbox supporters get it.

Note that I never said I don't think it's a joke. What I said was that...

1) I don't think it's good marketing, tongue-in-cheek or not

2) I don't find it funny, even though I like sandboxes

3) taking potshots is unprofessional

I don't know, maybe it's just because I'm tied of all those "sandboxes are for the bringht ones and everything else sux" people who seem to like this site a lot and post one every game's forum telling others how it's an apple instead of an orange and therefore awful. This looks like something one of them would find hilarious.

For the record, I don't claim you're one of them, but I just happened to respond to this thread and don't like being unclear.

Opinions vary. I see the grave stone as harmless fun, and you take it much more seriously.  That's fine.

While I do believe, from experience, that sandbox games provide a much richer and thought provoking MMO experience *for me*, I'm also aware that there is and always will be a market for casual MMOs.  I don't think my love of sandbox gaming makes me better than anyone.  I just want something different than the current status quo, and it seems a growing number of gamers are feeling the same way.