Kickstarter video game project exposed as a scam

[thulfiqaar]

Crowdsourced funding site Kickstarter has suffered its first publicised scam.

An effort to raise cash for a role-playing video game was exposed as a fraud by users of Reddit, Something Awful and other sites.

The project had $4,739 (£2,922) in pledges out of a target of $80,000 at the point it was pulled by its creator.

Kickstarter could not provide comment at this time. The site has successfully funded nearly 22,000 schemes since it was created in 2009.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17915305

[Fadi]

There's been a couple Kickstarter scams in the past month. There was also the game based on Ron Paul that used a bunch of stolen assets.

[thulfiqaar]

shocking that, you would think that they would fix it before publishing it. At least it's not gone life and people haven't lost their money.

[Rizwan1]

Personally I don't think giving money to kick-starters that want to produce a digital product is a sensible idea. With kick-starters that aim to produce a tangible product I can understand why money is needed (prototypes for example), also with kick-starters that are digital there is no real benefit to giving away your hard earned cash, sure you get yourself a copy of the game upon release and maybe access to beta versions but I don't find that a good reason to invest. Maybe if your given a percentage of the profits that the game makes then I can see some viability in investing.

With investment of digital kick-starter projects where does the money go? I'm assuming that they already have the software to develop the game (how else would they have learnt the necessary skills) and I'm sure that they don't need to hire anyone (why would they go to the effort of announcing a kick-starter if they haven't already got the ball rolling and they don't have a means of creating the game, Its like me starting a kick-starter project in designing a new game when i have no proper programming/graphics/sound artist experience.)
The only real place the money goes to is advertising i suppose (which isn't entirely necessary if the game has a new and fresh concept: Minecraft), and even that can be done on the cheap.

[thulfiqaar]

Completely disagree with you Rizwan.

1. The reason Kickstarter is great because it gives people that love certain type of games, that are just no longer created because publishers refuse to fund them, a chance. And it gives indie developers a chance.

Now let me give you an example. I absolutely Loved Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, but let's face it Fallout 3 is NOTHING like the original games. Do you think that they will go back to creating games like Fallout and Fallout 2 again? No definitely not. This is where kickstarter comes in.

Thanks to kickstarter, people like me are able to get a game that we love, one that is old school. Developed by the same guys that created my favourite game Baldur's gate and of course other great games such as fallout and fallout 2.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

I pledged initially $15 that would give me a DRM free copy and it's pre-ordered and not only do I get to have it DRM free, I ensure that games that I love are released again. This is proof to the publishers that games such as these still have followers and people want more of this. After they said that if they manage to get behind a certain mark, Obsidian would help develop the game with them, which means all the original developers get to work on it, I pledged $65. Because I want a game that I love just like back then. How I loved Fallout 1+2, and how big and massive they were.

Kickstarter gives developers that have a dream a chance and gamers that would love to see a game released, a way to back it up and ensure that it is released. I for one am EXTREMELY grateful that Wasteland 2 is in production thanks to Kickstarter.

Get this, They started with a goal of $900,000 but they ended up getting $2,933,252
That just shows how badly the community wants games like this to be released.

There are plenty of kickstarter project that I think are boring and I am not interested in them at all, but any project that comes out like this one again, that looks legit and with people that have experience I would gladly pledge in again.

They just don't make games like they used to anymore, but now I can do something about that. THAT is the power that kickstarter gives us gamers and developers.

[gengis]

and as usual I disagree with you thulfiqaar.

The kickstarter model is open to exploitation and that is exactly what has been happening and will continue to happen. You should be supporting the WMD model, not the kickstarter model of supporting devs.

While i agree that yes, it is beneficial to support the dev and get a free game in the process, the WMD model actually benefits gamers, the kickstarter model has no benefit.

Dont say you get a game and a game you wouldnt have received otherwise. The WMD model does exactly that, but it also returns profits to gamers. there is an actual tangible benefit with WMD, there is no tangible benefit with Kickstarter. all you are doing is encouraging devs to milk gamers, use their money and publish a game, keeping all the profits int he process.

You and I both know, WMD model does everything that Kickstarter does, but does more on top of that. You keep saying to me on TS, why dont more devs jump on the WMD bandwagon? Because people like you dont buy WMD games and support kickstarter, thats why...

[thulfiqaar]

gengis we have been through this. Let me make 1 thing clear first

1. This ain't about what is better WMD or Kickstarter, but rather whether kickstarter is bad.

I will tell you right away WMD is a better MODEL/IDEA, but unfortunately they have no other games. The only game they have is a racing game simulator, which I don't care one bit about. There are plenty of race sims and I don't like any of them. I prefer Arcade racing.

So how can I support them when no developer chooses them? And one other thing, I will most definitely say you get a game you wouldn't have received otherwise. I mean seriously do you see another fallout game coming out that is like the old school fallout? And let's someone out there does do it, how do you know it's going to be good? these guys are triple A game developer veterans. I put my faith in them before any other indie developer. And not only that the guys that are creating Wastlenad 2 ARE the original fallout developers lol. How is that not a great thing? Come on man bro, stop being pessimistic.

"The kickstarter model is open to exploitation and that is exactly what has been happening and will continue to happen."

what you talking about bro? lol the scam wasn't even successful, but ok ok ok let's just pretend that it was successfull.... it's been just that one occasion which didn't even get funded! You do know they don't actually take any money out of you unless they reach the goal and end date.

Whilst I agree that they really shouldn't have been able to put it up online, I do think you are SERIOUSLY exaggerating by making it out to be as if that has been happening all along. Gengis bring it down a few notches bro, calm down. I know prefer WMD (as I do) but you can't just start making things up lol.

all you are doing is encouraging devs to milk gamers, use their money and publish a game, keeping all the profits int he process.

Why Gengis are you always looking at it from one point of view? EVEN indie developers you fight against? Come on bro, these guys are not milking anybody, we gamers want a specfic game type that is missing in the games industry, the profit we gamers get is what we gamers love most "THE GAME ITSELF". Get it? Gamers? Get a game? Just read my post again bro.

I am dying to play an epic game like fallout 1+2 or even baldur's gate, but I know for a fact that those days are long gone, but Kickstarter gives us a chance to do just that! Fund a game that we WANT TO SEE in the games industry, one game (type) that has been missing for many years. If you can't understand that then your not as passionate as I am about gaming, in particularly that game genre.

You keep saying to me on TS, why dont more devs jump on the WMD bandwagon? Because people like you dont buy WMD games and support kickstarter, thats why...

Games on WMD = 1 (Project Cars)
Games fully funded on kickstarter = nearly 22,000
If WMD had any other games, I would pledge, but alas as you can see THERE IS ONLY ONE! lol

....? Do I need to say anymore gengis ......?

[thulfiqaar]

By the way.... I love you gengis !

For more info about wasteland 2 please visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

lol!

[Rizwan1]

I'm a noob: What is WMD?
I want to get involved in some sort of scheme where i buy into an idea and when it goes to market i get some of the profits, is there such a system in the U.K.?

[thulfiqaar]

Read this: http://muslimgamer.com/developer-confer ... velopment/

[ZPE]

Lotsa text in this topic and I skimmed through but has there been one kick-starter project that has delivered it's promise?

[Rizwan1]

Lotsa text in this topic and I skimmed through but has there been one kick-starter project that has delivered it's promise?

I'm pretty sure Project: Cars was a kick-starter and it looks sexy, plus people who donated get a percentage of the profits raised.

[gengis]

I couldnt help myself, I made a whole article cause of this, thanks Rizwan + Thulfiqaar....

http://muslimgamer.com/kickstarter-grea ... scam-2012/

[Rizwan1]

I couldnt help myself, I made a whole article cause of this, thanks Rizwan + Thulfiqaar....

http://muslimgamer.com/kickstarter-grea ... scam-2012/

gengis there seems to be an issue with the mobile news site: I tried to read the article but the newsite has a black background and a grey font (basically just a really dark page although the urls were highlighted red.
Please fix!

[ZPE]

Lotsa text in this topic and I skimmed through but has there been one kick-starter project that has delivered it's promise?

I'm pretty sure Project: Cars was a kick-starter and it looks sexy, plus people who donated get a percentage of the profits raised.

Not out yet though, just wondering if there's a properly released game that was funded by kick-starter 100%. Anyhows, I was never interested in paying developers for a game idea, I only pay for the final product. You might be happy to do otherwise but that's up to you, just don't let it get in the way of rational thought.