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Mike McVey was first and foremost GW's star miniature painter. His first sculpted mini for them was for the Blood Angels' Chaplain Lemartes (why you would let someone with no proven experience in a given field sculpt a special character is beyond me), and that mini was and still is a laughingstock (wind funnel chaplain or something) and was later replaced by a better sculpt.
Something else that needs to be factored in is the speculation culture that's popped up in Kickstarter's shadow, and how the early bird pledge levels and stretch goals fuel it. There's no penalty for reducing or dropping one's pledge, so why wouldn't I try for one of the best value price slots and see how the stretch goals shake out, especially if I don't care how the game plays? And a cursory glance at Blood Rage reveals that they've made a special point of stating that things marked "Kickstarter Exclusive" will only be available to backers or at conventions, thus making it more attractive for resellers and the fence-sitters who are worried about missing out. The crazy thing about reselling is that you don't even need to wait to get the game, you can just sell your pledge because there's always someone who was late to the party and missed the campaign. I don't know how you'd track such a thing (number of eBay auctions? Surveys?) but I'd be interested to see how many people plan to sell their pledges/exclusives from certain projects. Based on the level of delusion among the backers who are bound and determined to make chicken salad out of chicken shit as long as they get something for their money (Myth, Sedition Wars, etc.), part of me wonders if it will take a high-profile speculation collapse (rather than a failed campaign) to let the air out of the KS bubble.
All that being said, it looks like things are getting slightly more sane with less extravagant stretch goals and a slow disappearance of the one-size-fits-all free shipping. I'm glad I got in on Reaper Bones I and a couple of others because we won't see their likes again.
As for me, I'm still waiting on Doublesix Dice (funded 1-10-14, ETA in about 3-4 months) and Cthulhu's Vault (funded 5-15-14, ETA 4-15-15). Neither one cost me much, though it's amusing to me that I pledged for Doublesix Dice on a whim to use in Shadows of Brimstone and I've since played what amounts to an entire character arc of SoB and am taking a break, and the dice still aren't here.
There's a fair chunk of Futures market to it, isn't there? Given that you can buy on 100% margin it's probably good business to purchase every early bird offered with zero intention of keeping it unless you have a cleared check prior to deadline. There's zero investment cost and zero risk if you take care to manage your accounts correctly.
I'd be curious to know how much of this is something that Kickstarter considered, and how much is the sellers working the toolset in unintended, unpredicted ways. As best I can tell none of this is driven by Kickstarter, it's something that has grown organically on top of it. Given the delay between decision and payment you have 30 days to play with at no charge.
And I agree on the collapse factor. There's already been a collapse where stretch goals disappeared at the last minute, I could see a bigger version of that happening as more people get in strictly for the commerce aspect. Heck, you may end up with three or four people purchasing the first 100 copies of most games at some point in the future. A couple of them bailing could result in a couple of thousand dollars worth of correction with minutes (or seconds) to spare.
SebastianBludd wrote: Based on the level of delusion among the backers who are bound and determined to make chicken salad out of chicken shit as long as they get something for their money (Myth, Sedition Wars, etc.), part of me wonders if it will take a high-profile speculation collapse (rather than a failed campaign) to let the air out of the KS bubble.
SebastianBludd wrote: Based on the level of delusion among the backers who are bound and determined to make chicken salad out of chicken shit as long as they get something for their money (Myth, Sedition Wars, etc.), part of me wonders if it will take a high-profile speculation collapse (rather than a failed campaign) to let the air out of the KS bubble.
Chaz wrote: I'm totally cool with waiting a few weeks or months after release to find out if a game is worth the money or just pretty pictures and hype. If a game is really good, it'll be available that long, and I've got a shit-ton of games to keep me busy anyway.
THIS. A thousand times.
I'm of the mind that I'd rather pay 200$ each for Kickstarter games that are PROVEN good (all 6 of them, ever) knowing that I saved THOUSANDS on not buying into a ton of games that panned out to be shit or "Solid 7".
Thanks. I had forgotten about my lone experience buying from that joint; but that thread brought it back in full. I apparently had the full NewWave experience--immediate charge on a pre-order, incomplete order shipment, AND shredded invoices as packing material. And as a bonus, my former brother-in-law, also part of an experience I had mostly, and rather happily, forgotten about by this point in my life, appeared in that thread to boot. Yeesh...
Sorry about that, dogmatix. That sucks, man.
I would have thrown a search link up with the keywords "David Doust newwave fraud" for a variety of sources, but my tablet functionality is limited.
Seems like a mix between the quest progression and combat of Lord of the Rings LCG and the deck being your life and earning new cards of Pathfinder ACG. The game is moderately priced and looks pretty meaty, could be great solo.
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