I think Kickstarter, and the crowd funding movement are great. They allow people to create thier vision without the need to have deep pockets. Find interest and spread the cost amongst thousands and no one really loses.

I am an avid boardgame player as well and have funded a few boardgames in Kickstarter. As long as you realize that it is not a store and it will take time to see the realized product then you will be OK. I have yet to be dissatisfied.

I kick started three PC  games at this point, Banner Saga, Obsidan's project, and Grim Dawn. While my boardgame experience with Kickstarter and Indiegogo has been great we shall see when it comes to PC titles.

Oh and FTL is fun, deserves its rating here, but is hard as all get out.

No, I'd like to actually see a game before I buy it.

Donating based on pure hype is dumb.

Originally posted by OG_Zorvan

No.

I pay for products and services.

I do not pay for maybes and promises.

Agree,

With so many kickstarts they would need to pay me for my time just to take a look at all of them and decide which ones I would like.

It depends.

I KS'd a few times now. I first have to recognize the company which menas they have made a successful product and shipped before. So I won't KS an indie company making an MMO, especially a themepark one. I have KS Pathfider Online's demo. They get a pass because the company making it is under Paizo, a pen and paper company whom I've done business with before and that has been around a long time. The other is Shadowrun Online. It is made by a company that has shipped games (Cliffhanger Productions) on top of CP working very closely with the Shadowrun PnP game's publisher (Catalyst) as well as SR' creator's comapny (Jordan Weisman and Harebrained Studios) and their SR singleplayer game they are making.

So that's MMOs regarding KS. All my others are single player RPGs by folks who, again, have made SP RPGs in the past I've played. I don't KS a brand new company's efforts as I don't know if they will ship their project.

No, though its mostly since I don't have funds. Trutfhully I should try kick starting my own project. My biggest problem is I'm hesitant about taking risks and my cluster of different ideas would make picking one particular game to start quite difficult... that and I'd need people for the project that would actually have some MMO backing. I do know programming and I can touch base on most departments but its pretty much setting yourself up for failure trying to begin a project from scratch and delivering the product your supporters want the way they imagine it set up.

I have participated in kick start of a game or two.  Minimal amounts of money to help out a company and keep me on the cutting edge of mass manipulation of Barnum followers.  Meh ..... not a biggie in my opinion.  I did learn something interesting concerning Pay Pal payments to said companies however.  I'm not exactly sure how this came to be, but, PayPal is holding back funding until Saurpod Studio releases a working something by the 20th of this month I think.  It was claimed in their kickstarter somewhere and PayPal is straight up holding them to it.  This is both good and bad in my opinion .....

LINK

~  " Transferred the quasi-totality of the Kickstarter funds into our canadian bank account, where we can actually use it. Hurray! Much care has been taking in doing that in complete legality. Most of the Paypal funds, however remain inaccessible because they still don’t trust that we will deliver what we promised. More on that further down."

~ "Paypal has given us a deadline of Tuesday the 11th to deliver on our promise of giving the Paypal backers the Beta registration we promised them. It is in their policy to allow a maximum of 20 days to deliver and we intend to keep that promise. So expect everyone (even Kickstarter backer) to receive an official login request early next week. Again, this system is very sensitive since it will contain personal information, so we are taking extra steps to making it as secure as we can."

The good is it keeps the companies remotely honest for a minute, the bad is it doesn't help pay the bills when the money is tied up ....

On a side note, have you seen the "Oculus" (just peed my pants).  I almost sent them money to get my hands on one of the prototypes during the kickstarter.  I have messed with unity and would love to play with it and the the "Oculus" (peed my pants again).   You can still buy into a prototype on their website, first release is around the beginning of 2013.  Remember "Oculus"  (off to change pants) I can't wait for something like this .....

~Hairysun

Originally posted by Pumuckl71

 

Do i play roulette by paying for something that isnt yet accessible to me and is in the making ? I guess i do to certain degree. 

When donating money to an MMO kickstarter you are playing roulette to the degree of betting that 00 will come up 5 or 6 times in a row.  

I've donated to a couple of projects. Key things I look for are team history in the industry, how far the project is and how realistic the project seems. A lot of the MMO projects are overly ambitious and have a team of obviously inexperienced members, so I generally avoid those. The Repop was an exception for me, because that team seems to have a real handle on what's needed to not only create but also maintain and expand an MMO backed by what seems like the talent to actually pull it off.

My new career:

1. Write out detailed design plan of "WoW-Killer" mmo.

2. Post list with "packages" for people to "donate" ( you ain't buying shit, you're owed nothing, I love Kickstarter ).

3. Once "funding goal" is met, money is all mine and you don't have a chance in hell of ever getting it back ( I love Kickstarter ).

4. Take a few moments every few months from my new life to post "updates" and a few Maya models I paid a squab $5 to make.

5. Finally get tired of "updating" after a couple years and announce "financial and technical issues" have forced us ( me, there was never any "us" ) to "let go of our dream and terminate the project".

6. Spend some time reading forums and game sites laughing as the suckers discuss how "visionary" I was and how close you all were to a "great game".

7. Rinse and repeat evey couple years with a shell company and ghost name when the moneys low or I'm just bored.

Originally posted by Cleffy
Anyone wanna donate to my sitting around eating bon bons kickstarter?

You should join my "mmo team". All the bon-bon's you can eat!

Originally posted by OG_Zorvan

My new career:

1. Write out detailed design plan of "WoW-Killer" mmo.

2. Post list with "packages" for people to "donate" ( you ain't buying shit, you're owed nothing, I love Kickstarter ).

3. Once "funding goal" is met, money is all mine and you don't have a chance in hell of ever getting it back ( I love Kickstarter ).

4. Take a few moments every few months from my new life to post "updates" and a few Maya models I paid a squab $5 to make.

5. Finally get tired of "updating" after a couple years and announce "financial and technical issues" have forced us ( me, there was never any "us" ) to "let go of our dream and terminate the project".

6. Spend some time reading forums and game sites laughing as the suckers discuss how "visionary" I was and how close you all were to a "great game".

7. Rinse and repeat evey couple years with a shell company and ghost name when the moneys low or I'm just bored.

 

Funny! I don't donate to Kickstarter, sell me a game, not hope of a game.

I haven't done KS for games but I have done it for albums and books and have a pretty good record of getting what I paid for. I see it as a chance of to help a team actually publish their work who just need a bit of funding. It's like pre-ordering something that just hasn't gone to printer yet. Plus it helps artists say independent and not part of some large company more interested in profit than the product. But I won't KS something unless they have something ready to make and just need some help on that last step.

I give kickstarter projects major consideration before I contribute. If the developers impress me with what they have already and seem to have a firm grasp on things I consider it. If all they have is a wing and a prayer and not even started the work on it then no thanks. I can wait till if/when it releases.

As it stands i think it is a great vehicle for small indie developers/groups to source funding in a meaningful way. Just as it is a good way for big names in developing to make the games they always wanted to without worry of a publisher ruining the vision. Thats why I backed wasteland 2. I know of Fargo's work very well so anything with his input is a win by me. I also backed obsidians new rpg and 1-2 other titles that show great promise on indiegogo. But in the end you have to make the judgement call for yourself if its worth it for you. I would never back an MMO kickstarter. Too much risk.

I would just reccomend you only back someone if they have some gameplay footage at least and something more than concept art.