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5701

Living Room / Re: Semi-happy ending to 'The Doom that Came to Atlantic City' Kickstarter campaign

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 08:59 PM »

Oh.. I know that there's dispute over 1.  That's why I said that he picked a bad time and a bad way to say that.

As far as the other, industry veterans over at BGG have chimed in that the $35k was never going to get the game made and shipped.

I'll say this... after raising over $40k for Chicken Caesar and $46k for Mars Needs Mechanics, realistically printing Doom with those miniatures was going to cost more than $35k. Shipping from China to the U.S. is $5-6k alone unless you can piggy back with someone else's order. The molding fee is $1,000-$1,500 per model. Depending on the number of copies he was going to print (I'm assuming more than 2k since he had over 1k backers), he was looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-$40k just for printing. I'm pulling these numbers out of my head based on our experience printing with a high quality printer in China. If he was going for cheaper materials, he might have been able to shave up to $10k off that cost. But if it is anything like our experience, this game might have cost him a solid $50-60k to print, ship to the U.S. and then ship to backers.

And from my personal experience, if he did the right thing in regards to getting the C&D from Hasbro and had a lawyer to handle the correspondence and such... that could easily run a pretty penny right there.  Just from doing due diligence on a venture that I was in on, we ran up about 10k in lawyers fees.

This isn't to say anything one way or another, but just to say that things aren't as clear as they may seem.  Up to, and including the fact that the Forking Path could have been incorporated in *any* state.  Amateur night in the investigation business isn't going to be conclusive in court, and there's a lot that has not and is yet to be revealed.  And if he's smart, he'll realize that there are people that are really out to get him no matter what happens, and have already made their conclusions, so he'll not reveal anything until such time as he has to, and will treat this matter as adversarial.

But yeah, he has a hard road to slog ahead no matter what.

5702

Living Room / Re: Semi-happy ending to 'The Doom that Came to Atlantic City' Kickstarter campaign

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 07:42 PM »

My understanding was that was more based on several things he said he had done by way of excuses before he thought better of it - or (more likely) finally got some competent legal advice. I think it's more him realizing he'd better stop being stupid rather him getting smart per se.

-40hz (August 03, 2013, 07:31 PM)

Basically he said:

1. That it was understood that the kickstarter was for the formation of a company to distribute Doom.
2. That he had quit his job to run that company.
3. That he had moved to Portland.

Now, from a purely business-related standpoint, when you make over 100K, 1 should be a given.  There are going to be tax concerns, and having those under the Aegis of a company is smart.  But the phrasing was bad, and the timing was bad for him to say such in that manner.  As far as 2 and 3, there's no indication that he was living off of the 100K... but that is the assumption.

The burden of proof will of course be on him, but it's nowhere near a given.  People are mad, and people are speculating.

Not only did he run the kickstarter badly (apparently), but he ended it even worse.  He should have already talked to a lawyer, come up with a post mortem, and phrased it better and talked to the designers beforehand.  Those things compounded to get things where they are.

5703

Living Room / Re: Semi-happy ending to 'The Doom that Came to Atlantic City' Kickstarter campaign

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 07:07 PM »

Supposedly he co-mingled funds and diverted investment money for his own personal use.

-40hz (August 03, 2013, 04:18 PM)

All of that is speculative based on what people *think* happened.  He got smart and shut up too late.  And it's *not* an investment, and Kickstarter does indeed stipulate it.  Basically what people are doing is 'donating', and the rewards are strictly that... rewards.  It's really a murky area...

5704

Living Room / Re: The fun of installing custom router firmware (tomato, dd-wrt) - an introduction

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 04:27 PM »

I've been thinking about doing this... my NAS isn't compatible with my current router for doing some advanced functions.  But I've never been able to figure out if my router is actually supported.  That, and not wanting to screw up have kept me from the modding scene.

5705

Living Room / Re: PLease help superboyac build a server (2013 edition).

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 04:25 PM »

What specifically did you not like about it?  What features would you have preferred to see as your server box?

-superboyac (August 03, 2013, 02:32 PM)

Screws for the enclosures.  They're thumb screws, but in a server, I really don't want any screws.  Take off the side to access the inside.  On a server, I like for it to be a door.  Airflow.  It was good for a computer with two drives... but when I really started to use all of the bays as a server, heat became a real problem.  And that cool looking fan was *no* help.  I was also upgrading from a metal case... and I really wish I had a metal case back for my server.  That's just a personal preference.  Getting to the other side.  Not very easy at all.  The one door... like I said, thumbscrews.  But the other door was a pain.  And no motherboard tray.

It's just not a server box, IMO.

5706

Living Room / Doom! to Kickstarter and the $999 game company

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 04:16 PM »

from http://www.boardgame...he-s999-game-company

This was going to wait, but with the failure of "The Doom That Came To Atlantic City!" to the tune of $122,874 of backer's money, the time seems to have come to me. In the update "Terminus" the creator describes part of the failure as a result of "forming a company" and "I left my job" among other things.

So, I will show through example how one can create a game (and through it a game company) with less than $1,000. The budget in fact will be $999 total. I spent $12 today to register a domain, so there is $987 left in the budget. What are some ways you would spend money on a game company pre-Kickstarter?

Why?

Not just because it can be done, but because in the course of running TMG I have come across some great games which do not fit for TMG for one reason or another. Right now, there are 3 games. One game which would be best to show as a potential drinking/gambling game. Not acceptable for the TMG brand.

One game which would require more POD style manufacturing. Using lasers to etch things like dice and cut things like wooden boxes. Additionally, the play style of the game is too mass-market and not gamer-centric enough. Not for TMG...

And another which due to the amount of components could not be the correct price. If TMG did it, and it sold in retail stores, it would need to be at least $29.99 which would be a horrible price point for the game. However, $20 direct should work, and I can't sell direct only with a TMG product.

Thus, Paradise Game Labs is created. And it will only use a budget of $999 to start. Of course, revenue and profits from the first Kickstarter project would allow the continuation of the company.

And $122,874 of pledges would certainly be many times what is needed on the initial funding.

To make sure that you keep up with how things are going, and if you want to be notified of newsworthy things for the company, signup to receive emails at:

http://paradisegamelabs.com

We will be starting with a dice game by Scott Almes, designer of Martian Dice and Kings of Air and Steam. It is fantastic, requires 24 custom dice, cards, and some more stuff. And we need to target a price point of $20

More to come, including a print and play...

http://paradisegamelabs.com

Should be interesting for a variety of reasons...

5707

Living Room / Re: It was the best of Kickstarter, It was the worst of Kickstarter

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 04:15 PM »

More coverage and backlash:

http://www.inc.com/e...otect-backers.html/3

http://geekdad.com/2...ckstarter-is-broken/

(and I love the reply from Greg Stolze that I'll reproduce here)

Saying that KS is broken because of “Doom” is like saying that cars are broken because one drunk driver mangled his Ford Torus. Like all tools, financial or physical, it can be used well or poorly. It can be used in a variety of ways. If “Veronica Mars” wants to use KS, who is supposed to say “Oh no, you’re too successful!” To me, that casts KS as the kiddie table of art funding, when in fact it can do some things BETTER than the traditional model. Once you start throwing up fences and saying that Zach Braff and Spike Lee are too GOOD to use KS, where exactly does that end?

http://www.katu.com/...south-217199911.html

5708

Living Room / Re: It was the best of Kickstarter, It was the worst of Kickstarter

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 03:57 PM »

Well, I should hope we can figure that out.

And though I didn't back Doom, and can't reply to the postings... he should really get legal help before posting his post-mortem.  Because even doing things right, and having real investors with the SEC behind them and having done nothing wrong... people that have invested have sued.  I was at a company that went public right at the end of the .COM era, and their stock was affected, even though they did have proceeds and such.  There was a class action of the stockholders to sue because of the drop in the value from the offering to the time that the suit was filed.

5709

Living Room / Re: Semi-happy ending to 'The Doom that Came to Atlantic City' Kickstarter campaign

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 03:53 PM »

That's really cool... and might end up saving the person that was the forking path some legal issues.  Then again, people being what they are, they will probably receive the game and still sue him... 

5710

Living Room / Facebook 15 second auto-play ads

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 02:34 PM »

I was on Facebook just to connect with family members (and because of Words with Friends and Galaxy Legion)

The first day this happens is the day I say goodbye to my friends on there.

Using Facebook is about to get a lot more annoying

5711

Living Room / Re: Couple Visited by Feds After Google Search for Backpacks and Pressure Cookers

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 02:27 PM »

The whole year after thing was the biggest thing that didn't pass the smell test to me... (or it could be 4 months, re-reading, the article isn't clear.  Last april means April 2012 to me... but I suppose they could mean 2013)

Oh, and I didn't get this on first read... it's pretty hilarious.

Have you ever looked up how to make a pressure cooker bomb? My husband, ever the oppositional kind, asked them if they themselves weren’t curious as to how a pressure cooker bomb works, if they ever looked it up. Two of them admitted they did.

5712

Living Room / Re: PLease help superboyac build a server (2013 edition).

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 02:25 PM »

For 9-bay cases, the ones that I like are the following:
Antec nine hundred: (see attachment in previous post)I like this one because it has the full 9-bays, but also the huge 200mm fan on top.  Looks kind of hip too.

-superboyac (August 03, 2013, 02:16 PM)

I have this one, and I loved it for my primary box.  Now that its been relegated to my backup box/server... not so much.  For the role that you're anticipating, I personally wouldn't choose it.  And the fan on top doesn't help with heat exchange as much as it might seem that it would.

5713

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 12:19 PM »

Here's a prediction... A DC comics movie about the Flash. Involves time travel. Sometime in the next 2 years.

-Renegade (August 03, 2013, 12:08 PM)

Not sure if that qualifies as a prediction since they've already said it, and it's in production slated for 2016.

They're trying to follow marvel's successful path, i.e. phase 1 to intro characters, group movie, phase to to develop those and more, group movie 2, phase three introduces more... ad infinitum.

5714

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 12:17 PM »

Yeah, I saw it. Should I remove it? Or might it encourage others to click-through to the new Wordpress blog?

-kyrathaba (August 03, 2013, 11:39 AM)

I didn't know if you could edit it.  Perhaps even make it a bit more concise to talk specifically about your authorship.  With a long one, not really sure how many people will read it... but a short one, I'd think so.  And not sure where that profile is shared... but if it is with other places, it can be self-promotional.  Any little bit helps

5715

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 11:28 AM »

LOL... I'm not being clear enough.  Go to your old blogspot blog.  Look to the right.  There's something about you there... probably not a big deal, but I figured I'd mention it.

5716

Living Room / Re: How Much Do You Trust Wikipedia?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 10:57 AM »

http://en.wikipedia....er_talk:156.33.241.5

That's more telling than anything...

5717

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 10:54 AM »

The about me that I saw on your blog didn't seem to contain any mention of your burgeoning authorship, nor links to your site, so I didn't think it was up to date.

* wraith808 shrugs

Also, many of your links posted on your G+ stream now go to 404s.  You might want to update or delete those.

But that's cool about the purchasers, and the hard copy

5718

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2013, 10:45 AM »

wraith, I've reestablished my Blogger blog to point to the new Wordpress blog: kyrathasoft.blogspot.com

-kyrathaba (August 03, 2013, 09:11 AM)

It can only help   You might want to update your about me also... any little bit of promotion helps, and some people actually look at those profiles when you post elsewhere

5719

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2013, 09:16 PM »

 Obama ran on the "We Want Change" theme.  Well, we got change alright....  

-Tinman57 (August 02, 2013, 04:55 PM)

Actually, we didn't.  That was pretty much the point IMO.  He's pretty much the same as W in the ways that count, and has continued the programs of his predecessor.

-wraith808 (August 02, 2013, 06:14 PM)

Oh no, we got change alright.  More money spent than any president ever, national deficit doubled... blah blah blah.  But you still have to read in the sarcasm in that post....  

-Tinman57 (August 02, 2013, 08:25 PM)

Yeah... those numbers are disputable.  Both sides are to blame... and definitely not just the president.  Or do you believe that Clinton left office with a surplus almost double what the deficit was when W was in office?  I don't believe the hyperbole either way... both are the same... we have the Republicrat party, and whoever is in power just gets the most money at the time.  

“Senator Obama warned about Patriot Act abuses. President Obama proved him right.”

5720

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2013, 06:14 PM »

  Obama ran on the "We Want Change" theme.  Well, we got change alright....   

-Tinman57 (August 02, 2013, 04:55 PM)

Actually, we didn't.  That was pretty much the point IMO.  He's pretty much the same as W in the ways that count, and has continued the programs of his predecessor.

5721

Living Room / Re: Show us a picture of your.. CAR!!!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2013, 05:59 PM »

Ah... I didn't see the 0..60.  Thanks Deo.

And as far as the availability, I'm looking at this like what it is... a startup.  And with it being a startup, none of the things in standard auto manufacturing are a certainty.  So I'm looking at it with a much finer eye than I might if it was from an established manufacturer, especially as Paul Elio's strength seems to not be in that part of the process, but more towards the prototyping and engineering stage. 

More information that I've dredged up:

http://www.popularme...-wheel-cars-15506622
http://www.esgeng.com/ (former company)
http://www.spoke.com...29c09e597c1003872ce3 (has more about the other people in the company)
http://investing.bus...?privcapId=141045816
http://www.consumerr...sportation/index.htm
http://gas2.org/2013...wheeler-why-it-cant/ (interesting op ed)

Again, nothing bad... I really want this to be what it is.  But I'm always one to do my due diligence 

5722

Living Room / Re: Show us a picture of your.. CAR!!!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2013, 04:01 PM »

Thanks for that... I'm checking it out... but I think I'm all in.

-wraith808 (August 01, 2013, 08:46 PM)

  Oh yeah, I'm ALL IN with the non-refundable $1000.  Now for the hard part, waiting for it to come off the assembly-line.....   

-Tinman57 (August 02, 2013, 03:43 PM)

The only two things I still have to research are the maintenance/parts and acceleration.  If they're in high demand and your car needs a part... are you going to be able to get it?  Are there going to be mechanics certified to work on it, or how easy/hard is it to work on?  Especially with those exposed wheel mounts.  And they mention top speed... but not acceleration...

5723

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2013, 02:46 PM »

No problem

Also... a question... on your blog, you have transcendant living... shouldn't that be transcendent?

5724

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2013, 02:24 PM »

Some G+ groups that you might want to consider joining:
Science Fiction Writers: https://plus.google....07050163381285462290
Writers' Corner: https://plus.google....03081619947922397754
Speculative Fiction Writers: https://plus.google....12515101312869340641

5725

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2013, 01:04 PM »

^^ Thanks for the explanation.
Sheesh. I don't know how the electorate cope with such "ambiguity" in an elected President's mandate.
The thing seems to have more twists than an Agatha Christie thriller.

-IainB (August 02, 2013, 12:18 PM)

Historically, it's been with Hope.  A Hope for Change.  And the judicious spending of political capital has helped to make the strings less obvious with those that came before.

But with Hope and Change having been key tenets in this electoral cycle... it's pretty depressing.