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

[blinky465 17028xp 4]

@phaidknott nails it – Kickstart is *supposed to be* about investing and bringing products to life, whereas many companies simply see it as a (relatively) cheap pre-order system for gauging public interest or a channel to sell a product (that may have even raised funding through different means).

If we stick to what Kickstart is supposed to be about, people get less hung-up about failed projects. But the companies who are now failing to deliver on their Kickstarter projects have always treated it like a pre-order store front, and present their campaigns in a similar way – so at the very least, they are misleading “customers”.

In this particular instance, though, it’s the “those games, over there stuck in China, they’re yours” attitude that really sticks in the craw. And the “offer” to store them “for as long as we can” is another example of making out this is a problem for the buyer to resolve. You can’t claim to have “delivered” a project and not then… you know… deliver the product!

Those boxes stuck in China, they belong to Mythic, not the individual Kickstarter backers. Mythic didn’t go to a manufacturer and ask “can you make one game for John, two for Geoff, another one for Sue….”

“They’re made, they’re yours” just looks like a pretty crappy attempt at shifting the obligation/risk onto the customer.