When you don't give a damn anymore – KS burnout

[coxjul 13301xp 1]

There has been real disruption caused over the last couple of years by C19 lockdown and global logistics issues – it’s been interesting seeing how the different projects have handled that, particularly the comms.

I understand your frustration with KD:M – it has been a sorry saga but there has been genuine personal issues – although they should be at a point of resilience to carry on after that injection of cash.  Looking forward to my Gambler’s Chest in 2023!

Don’t get me started about Mythic Games. Last two delivered with badly written/buggy rules etc. after long delays with Hel and Siege massively over-running.  Not going there again…

Good news stories are worth mentioning:

Fria Ligen / Free League have ran, developed and released a number of RPGs and a board game within schedule or maybe a small delay on the board game.   Screwed up with the design of the One Ring dice – just reprinted them and sent out replacements no fuss.

Garphill/Shem Phillips has been regularly exceeding delivery expectations with his board games, Wayfarers is only the most recent delight.

Common theme with bad experiences – bloody miniatures!

[sundancer 42903xp 0]

Common theme with bad experiences – bloody miniatures!

That sums it up quiet good I think 8)

[coxjul 13301xp 2]

The “Should you back it?” YouTube channel is worth a watch as a sanity check before you back something – or after you’ve backed it to get the 24h bonus and wondered whether you jumped too quickly in a FOMO moment. You can always cancel before the end of the project – something I’ve done probably 70-80% of the time recently.

https://www.youtube.com/@shouldyoubackit

[pojoh 2063xp 2]

Honestly the Canadian Dollar is horrible right now, and the cost of shipping anything KS related is crazy.    For me its better to support my FLGS and save some money.   I am also learning that I have enough, and I have a backlog of minis to catch up on.    The only exception is Burrows and Badgers lol … can’t get them from a retailer, and I’m pretty much caught up from their last KS.

[taochi 6267xp 2]

I used to back an enormous amount of KS projects, and quickly got swamped by piles of boxes that would never have seen my table. I sold a lot the past two years, often at a loss and am now limiting myself to a couple (preferably one) large project a year. however, my love for the OSR brings me to back plethora of little projects (zines and small books) on KS, which agreement my campaigns or are at least fun to read.

[skiptotheend 4524xp 2]

Mine is:

Tenfold Dungeon – Modular Dungeon Crawling Terrain

its literally just carboard boxes. But weirdly this is the one I am most annoyed about. Mainly because some backers got theirs and that you can buy it right now in some stores…. So thats what infuriates me. The fact its in stores but backers for the majority weren’t given theirs!

However that was a while ago, since those heady days the KS I have backed have changed. Majority of the ones I back are successful but I have been more strict on what I back and they’re normally the concise ones with not alot of unlockables:

Bad Squiddo Games – Definately Not Damsels
Star Schlock Astro Guards
Kids on Wheels
Drug War Z (mainly 70s drug cartel and police i backed)
Mad Bob Folding Terrain
Aftermath Miniature

These were all successful I think from being concise. There were definitive borders to what they wanted to achieve and for the most part smaller volumes. I think this is what I back now and so far since the crappy cardboard box debacle haven’t been succumbed to any of the ridiculous OTT KS.

The above list I would back those companies again because of how the have acted.

[somegeezer 18431xp 1]

Oh gawds I remember them. They were on a Weekender right? I didn’t back it but yeah that’s super shitty.

[skiptotheend 4524xp 1]

i only backed it thinking to use it with the board game adrenaline, so you could make different ‘arenas’ easily…alas it never came to be!

[horati0nosebl0wer 19611xp 0]

This is a slow burn thread with quite the spread of stories. Perhaps the back and forth of looking at why we buy what we put cash into might help us all. The matter of looking at the business of Kickstarter as a business investment and not a hobby related outlet might temper those who might find it interesting. Granted, it might’ve been our understanding as customers that was skewed, but it might be present framing of the business to us as investors that is off. Lamenting the past us won’t help future us and others.

[sundancer 42903xp 0]

We all need some kind of impulse control. Maybe.

[bubbles15Participant 2308xp 1]

I look on kickstarter as folk should look on gambling or share buying. You could lose everything. There are no guarantees, no legal protections (which is why companies love it). No one and nothing and force a company to give you your money back (at least, that’s my memory of Kickstarter saying they weren’t liable).

For other things it can simply be a matter of patience. I forget when Mythic Battles Ragnarok went live, but it’s been a while and we’re still waiting on release. So be it, there’s plenty else.

I think folk look at it and see a ‘bargain’, without seeing the massive flashing neon sign ‘caveat emptor’.

[coxjul 13301xp 1]

It’s easy to gripe about everything – and I’ve contributed to that above… however consider the following:

There are games and other products that would not have seen the light of day if it weren’t for the crowdfunding business model.   I’m talking partly about the big box games such as KD:M, Gloomhaven+, Mythic Battles:X and others, especially those one-off runs.  I’m also talking about small niche offerings that aren’t at a scale to be commercially viable.

Alternative, conventional business models require a combination of the following:

• a need to evidence potential demand that supports the business case to go through expensive development and production cycles long before that demand can be hopefully realised as sales.
• a need to borrow from third-party investors whose only goal is to make money from that investment to fund development and production. Such investors will typically be relatively risk-cautious, mitigating that risk with bloated demands on returns. The economics of this leads to a ‘just-enough’ product model.
• a business model that relies on ongoing production and sales to get return on any initial investment as well as an expectation of ongoing revenues/returns.

Kickstarter and other crowdfunding approaches:

• Provide an up-front customer base (yes, I’ll call us customers as a generic term) committed to seeing the product come to existence and on their shelves
• Provide interest-free up-front funding from customers prepared to pre-pay (funding the bulk of development/production) that changes the debt model from meeting investor expectations to meeting customer expectations.
• Allows one-off production runs for product that would never otherwise be viable.

The issue in not the model itself, but how certain players have exploited it as a wild-west funding model based on pre-orders that provides the ability for some to turn around later and hold backers to ransom – “give us more or we can’t do it”.

I can thank sources like BoW/OTT for revealing opportunities to participate in campaigns, but there’s a fine line between providing information and stoking the FOMO flames.  I’m afraid to say I now treat any recommendation from any source with a pinch-of -salt, and do my due-diligence.

[guillotine 16038xp 1]

I’ve pretty much stopped backing crowdfunders. The only exceptions I did last year was the expansion for Destinies, because it’s actually a game we regularly play and will soon have finished the previous campaigns, and few small ones for STL files.

There’s few old Kickstarters I backed few years ago, which might still deliver. I’m trying to get out of them via refunds and honestly would prefer if they didn’t even deliver, wouldn’t want the boxes even if it meant I lost a bit of money there.

[doomzombie 5478xp 1]

I don’t back games anymore, i just look at KS that are 3D printer files. Even then if it doesn’t get me, i won’t back it. The last one i did back, was the Bates Motel. Now i just need to get printing it for her, for Halloween.

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