Reply To: BattleTech: Mercenaries – CGL does a shipping booboo? Internet rages!

[limburger 22103xp 1]

Regulate how ?

It’s not illegal to make stupid decisions in a business. Fraud is already illegal and you better not lie to the IRS.
And unless they’re as subtle as a sledgehammer it’s impossible to prove that they wasted money.

Incompetence is not illegal and almost impossible to prove positive in court.

Besides … the stakes per backer are too low and there is no global court to use.
The best you can get is sueing them in whatever location they happen to call home.

Except CGL is based in the USA, which means their courts favour corporations over consumers, so you’re screwed especially now that the Orange Cheeto is in charge over there.

The best and only method is to simply avoid crowdfunding in general.
You’ll get better consumer protection while buying retail anyway …

+/- 300 crowdfunding projects backed over the years … and I’d say less than 10% failed to deliver after funding (probably even fewer than that).
And of those there has not been any actual fraud.
Incompetence ? Yep
Underestimating cost ? Definitely.
Basic failures ? Yep, those too. Some things simply were never meant to be.

There is no method for stopping people spending money even after you’ve told them in 10 foot letters that there is NO guarantee of completion or delivery.

You cannot fix stupid.

// —

Scale75 kickstarter delivered …
Port Royal kickstarter in transit …

No tracking mail from CGL/QML/GameQuest for the Battletech Mercenaries Kickstarter.
It sucks, but live goes on.

I’m estimating July 2025 at this rate.