Reply To: Darkest Dungeon: The Board Game – Shipping surcharge

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

Alas part of the problem is, “is a kickstarter project needing investment to get off the ground, or is the creator using the platform as a storefront?”.

 

This causes so many woes with the kickstarter platform. Over the years backers have got used to seeing it as a discount/pre-order store with little or no risk (as many companies have successfully run multiple projects on the platform over the years). Then sometimes previously successful companies go under without sending the backers anything at all (I remember probably MERCS 2.0 being a good example here). And sometimes things change from what was promised during the campaign, to something different when the backer got things in their hands (the Occulus Rift was a classic example here where the motion tracking was removed from the headset to needing “base stations” with wires and USB sockets everywhere).

 

I feel that perhaps the whole kickstarter bubble has burst somewhat from what it used to be where gamers would literally throw money at a project featuring nice miniature renders but not even having the rules developed yet (Mythic themselves have been guilty on this count previously). Volumes are less, and thus so are profit margins.

 

Things with kickstarters aren’t as reliable as they probably were say five years ago on the gaming front, and I would say expect more of the same to happen with future projects from different companies. It may feel like the game is being held at a ransom by the creators, but then you’ve also got the possibility of a large number of backers not paying (or delaying paying) and the company folding (with stock on the shelves they can not move, and storage also costs money in the interim).

 

I would say however that the distribution companies after raking in massive (and unexpected) profits due to the whole CoVid thingy have been charging through the roof this past year (and even racking up the prices again in the last few months due to “fuel pricing”). Container prices/international shipping have quadrupled from what they used to be pre-pandemic, basically everyone (well the larger multinationals) along the whole chain of supply is making more profits (because they can).

 

You can blame the creator for “bad planning” perhaps, but at the end of the day it’s either they continue to operate with a profit or they go under. If you want the product (and future support) then backers will have to “invest” more (that the nature of the beast with kickstarters). But again it’s also hard for the backers to know if the project creators are running on a tight budget with a project vs using the platform as a “pre-order shop” (where they can put money down knowing it’s unlikely that things will change. Although sometimes the space between the campaign and the estimated delivery date can be a goodish indicator of that).