It was the best of Kickstarter, It was the worst of Kickstarter

[wraith808]

So, we have two stories on Kickstarters- one that, in my opinion, was one of the best successes that I've backed, and one that was the worst failure that I've ever come close to backing.

First up, we have Shadowrun Returns.  A pretty ambitious game, and one close to my heart, Shadowrun was a SNES game back in the 90's that I played through several times.  It was based off of a PnP game, Shadowrun, that's recently released its 5th edition.  Shadowrun is basically what happens when someone wants to release a Cyberpunk game but gets beat out by a bit (and they have that info as a bit of an easter egg in the game)- a combination between Cybernetics and Magic based on the end of the Mayan Calendar.

The game just released, about 6 months behind schedule, and it's a great implementation, with the right mix of homage to the old game, introduction of the updated gameplay, and adherence to the game systems.  It's been getting great reviews, and is one of the best backings that I've done on Kickstarter.  It's available on Steam, and at only 6 months late with the amount of content that was added in the way of stretch goals, I'm impressed.

Next we have the The Doom That Came To Atlantic City!  It was touted as Lovecraftian Mythos meets Monopoly.  And that's just one of the things that got it in trouble by way of Hasbro.

The post is here (along with a clarification), and the post from the actual developer explaining that basically they don't know where the money went is here.

Several people have filed fraud charges, and things are getting ugly.  I guess the point is that Kickstarter is not a silver bullet- things can go well, and thing can go spectacularly bad.  I wonder how this will affect Kickstarter specifically, and crowdfunding as a whole?

Other media coverage
http://www.geekosyst...h-baker-kickstarter/
http://www.geekosyst...-board-game-failure/
http://www.geek.com/...y-collected-1563478/
http://www.gamepolit...refunds#.UfLlJtLOvW0
http://www.escapistm...laims-of-Malfeasance
http://penny-arcade....-released-refunds-mi

[40hz]

Based on my experience in business, methinks Erik Chevalier is in a bit of a legal bind that making copious apologies won't do much to help him avoid.

That's one reason every business I was ever involved with avoided bringing in outside investors. There's far too many opportunities to burn yourself legally when you're using other people's money.

And fraud is a complex area of law. You don't have to take the money and run. You can make a perfectly normal business mistake or comment and find yourself in violation of laws you never heard of where fraud is concerned. Sometimes something as little as not sending out a letter on a timely basis, or failing to get someone a shipment within a certain period of time is all that's needed to break the law.



If you're going to gamble with a business (and it sounds like this Erik person was doing just that) be smart about it and only use your own money. That way if do you fail, you're only going to be broke - instead of broke and worrying about your legs getting broken too.
 

[superboyac]

^^wise advice.

[Deozaan]

So which one is the best and which one is the worst?

[wraith808]

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.

[wraith808]

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