Reply To: (KS) Ninja Division/Soda Pop out of money for Super Dungeon Explore: Legends

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@soulsorcerer that’s perhaps a little harsh considering he has lost a lot of money, I think anyone who loses money on an investment is entitled to feel some anger and disappointment.

That said I think people do need to view Kickstarter in very different terms, as you say it’s not a pre-order system it’s a funding generation tool.  When you make a pledge on kickstarter, officially you are not pre-ordering anything, you are making an investment in someone else’s business and you have to accept a level of risk that you might see zero return on that money.  Irrespective of what Kickstarter’s terms of service might state, if a business goes bankrupt, then you as a backer will be unlikely to get anything in return and kickstarter will be powerless to change that.  Even the courts in the country in which the business operates will be unable to change that – if the company has no money and does not have the means to complete the work then no court decision will change that.  It’s also important to understand that legal consequences is not the same as ciminal prosecutions.  The only reason that there would be any criminal prosecutions as a result of business bankruptcy is if there was evidence of financial misconduct beyond  mis-management of the business.  So for example fraud.  However I do not believe that this is the case for the majority of failed kickstarters and certainly not Ninja Division (I reserve the right to be wrong, this opinion is based only on the information I have to hand).  Ninja Division have clearly done some work on the projects but have gone massively over budget on all of them.  Unless you think that they have taken the money and been living a celebrity lifestyle whilst doing absolutely nothing on the kickstarter projects, I don’t see how anyone would come to the conclusion that Ninja Division have committed fraud.

@ratzinger I completely understand how angry you must feel about the failure of Ninja Division;  it totally sucks.  However, what exactly do you think should happen to the owners of Ninja Division?  Should they be prosecuted and if so what for?  And if people are to be prosecuted for owning businesses that go bankrupt and fail to pay creditors, who on earth is going to take the risk on starting their own business in the future?  At the moment starting a business is already a risky proposition – you have to invest your own time and money and could very well end up with nothing – but the rewards for success are great in that you can earn a lot of money and you are always your own boss.  But if you also add to the already substantial risk that not only will someone starting a business potentially lose all the money they pump into it but that they will also go to prison or get a criminal record if they fail, nobody in their right mind is going to chance it.  So I am not going to tell you that you shouldn’t be angry, bitter or disappointed – honestly I completely understand how you feel because I have also lost money on kickstarters.  But as angry as you are you have to accept that kickstarters are a risk and that unfortunately, there isn’t anything that you can do now;  unless someone invests significantly in Ninja Division, your investment is lost.