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

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@phaidknott if I look at the many projects I’ve backed and the risk … it has been effectively 0. (or minimal).
I’m pretty sure I’ve got over a hundred projects on my profile and only a very very small percentage completely failed after reaching the finish line.
It’s hard not to get complacent when you’ve got stats like that to back up your gut feeling.

The problem (IMHO) is that the low-entry of many kickstarters makes it easy for people to buy into projects when they should not.
I’ve seen (too) many comments from the 1$-level backers that say something like : I can’t afford it now, but when the pledgemanager becomes available I will …
That to me always sounds like an addict claiming that he isn’t addicted and he’ll go clean next time. I’m often tempted to tell those people to just wait for retail instead of risking their precious resources on a crowdfunded project no matter how good it looks.

@redscope the overfunding of projects is a real problem … it makes them appear more successful than they are.

When I discovered kickstarter a few years ago the idea of ‘stretchgoals’ was new, now it’s become standard.

And I think it is rather silly and should be seen as a warning sign for projects with initial estimates that are too low to be realistic.

@blinky465 you are absolutely right. *if* kickstarters were webshops then that sentence about ‘your game’ being ready would have been legally correct. There’s still caveats that could stop them from shipping the game to you (I suspect bankruptcy would throw a big spanner in the works) but … kickstarters aren’t (yet) considered in the same legal framework as webshops.

There’s the additional problem that kickstarter is US-based .. so would likely follow US laws, but then I’m no lawyer so don’t know how international law would work and if it could be solved on a global level. (heck … we can’t even agree on global trade agreements without backdoor shenanigans and some fairly twisted lobbying ..). I wonder how we has backers could ever organize into something that would make lawmakers stand up and listen.

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Biggest issue is that Kickstarter & co have no reason to fix any problems, because they need/want the money as badly as the creators of those projects do (they take a fairly large cut … which may be the real reason why shipping costs are often moved to the pledgemanager … ). The companies involved have no real need to fix any problems either.

I wouldn’t be surprised if kickstarter introduced features for a second funding period.
They did something similar once projects started ‘over funding’ by introducing the stretch goal concept in a more platform/creator friendly manner …

I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I can’t emphasize enough that kickstarters aren’t webshops with 100% delivery satisfaction.  Better spend your money on tiny webshops that can ship your goodies today. Heck, if you’re anything like me you probably have more than a few unfinished projects that could need a bit of your time (and money), so no need to add even more to your pile of opportunity if you can help it 😉