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Are gamers suffering from crowd funding burnout?
Arndush
Member Posts: 303
Over the last year or so, we've had some pretty extraordinary successes in crowd funding. Star Citizen, Planescape, Project Eternity, Camelot Unchained, etc. However, I'm starting to notice more and more Kickstarter games failing to reach their goals. For example, Trials of Ascension and a game that is currently rated #5 on this site's most hyped games list, Pantheon. So, is the gaming community starting to suffer from crowd funding burnout? Was this a quick fad that is falling by the wayside? Or, could these recent failures simply be attributed to bad timing?
Between the four successful projects I've mentioned, the gaming community has invested roughly 50 million dollars in games we haven't been able to play yet, and likely won't for at least a year or more. Could it be that ToA and Pantheon didn't make their goals because gamers want to see the results of their initial investments before they take the plunge into crowd funding again?
What are your thoughts on the crowd funding phenomenon?
Comments
I doubt it, nothing really of interest other than CU has come through KS for me to want to put some money towards. Bought into SoTA also, interested to see what RG and team will do with it. Kind of got into that one out of curiosity more than anything lol.
Pantheon didn't really interest me at all so I didn't feel the need to back it, I'm not a PvE person and also thought it was lame they said it was for paychecks and an office to work out of. The lack of enthusiasm and the way they went about the KS kind of rubbed me the wrong way, not to mention it was just money to get an alpha together to get shop for a big investor anyway.
Never heard of ToA's kickstarter so they must have done a bad job of getting the word out for it.
After seeing Pathfinder and how they have come along so far it has peaked my interest at it.
I wouldn't call it burnout.
The total pool of people interested in crowd funding a niche mmo isn't unlimited and I've got to think that a lot of those who are interested have already contributed to/are invested in one already, so it's easy to see how there is simply less money out there floating around looking for an mmo to invest in.
Has any kickstarter MMO successfully launched yet?
I could see where several have been funded so now it's time to see if there can be a successful launch or two before players start filling the coffers again.
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I'm just not a big fan of Kickstarter. I have yet to see any of the mmo's from Kickstarter actually release a successful game. I have however backed 1 mmo and that was Camelot Unchained. I was drawn in by the similarity in pvp of DAOC RvR and being able to watch them draw up concept art and work on character animations. It was well organized, the tiers were well thought out, and I could see everyday Mr. Jacobs and his team were working hard communicating with the community and information flowed out daily about the game. They interacted constantly with the backers and potential backers.
There was none of that with Pantheon. They had no enthusiasm, seemed arrogant, I got the impression they thought they were too good to interact with the community much, and seemed they lacked organization and that isn't promising. You can see how they ran their Kickstarter and it gives me the impression that's how they would run the mmo as well, very poorly.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
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I suppose people ran out of money buying virtual ships in Star Citizen.
=P
-Hey, they can always take out 'high interest loans' to buy more ships.
I think thats the next phase of KS- The developers offering loans to the people to then give the money back to the devs. The devs get the money, the interest payment and WIN.
EDIT- I can see it now- "Well, the devs gotta eat too...They cant just loan you money to give to them without making 24% interest APR... What, they should work for free? If you dont want to play cookie cutter garbage you must take out a loan and give it to X KS- Put your money- er...Loan...where your mouth is..."
-On a serious note- I have no 'KS Burnout'- I have backed several games, all single player indies asking for under 50K and providing a working prototype. Indies who needed the money to either update graphics/sound or finish a game which already exists . I have been quite pleased.
These MMO KS scams (imho) or VERY high dollar 'ideas' are destroying the spirit of KS=- Far easier to sell hype and an idea over an honest dev just trying to finish his game- The games that should be funded are often overshadowed by big names and ideas.
Thus far there has been NO released MMO on KS that I am aware of- But enough money being tossed around to fund some Governments. Its a fine day to be a dev.
It propably has to do with the current batch of kickstarters not being launched yet. I doubt people will want to fund a lot of games at the same time without any of those launched yet, and the upcoming crowdfunding "successes" need to actually success to put some faith in people to shell out more money on the same system.
I personally dont crowdfund at all because I dont trust enough on the promises of these companies/devs. However I do preorder games often based on solid knowledge and facts about what kind of a game I will get my hands on. I cant wait for StarCitizen but I havent invested any money on it because it could be a turd just as much as it could be awesome when it launches.
Interesting. I didn't think I would get such a wide array of responses but, I think most of feelings can be condensed down to;
Personally, I am burned out on Kickstarter and its ilk.
I am tired of hearing about every "savior" on the horizon, begging for money.
I am tired of seeing post after post begging everyone who looks at it to "go visit Kickstarter and pledge!" I try my best to skip those threads all together now.
I am tired of the static/cliche responses that direct players to Kickstarter and pledge their money to gaming "concepts."
I am tired of developers, like Paizo (Pathfinder), that use Kickstarter to save themselves a little bit of cash (tech demos), or to show REAL investor's some interest in the game to help them decide to invest in their game.
Yes, I am burned out on Kickstarter.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
"savior" ... of what? Games are just entertainment products .. they don't "save" anything .. aside from boredom for a little time.
I think that's why you don't care about people paying money for real items. The game is just a side attraction to you. For instance some players in sports (games) say they love to play the sport more than anything in the world. The same could be applied to any type of game.
Not for everyone, clearly.
I wouldn't say games are only a side attraction .... it certainly is one of the more time-consuming hobby ... but you are right, it certainly is not the most important part of my life. I enjoy many other hobbies at least equally, if not more.
What is the part about "you don't care about people paying money for real items" .. i am not getting what you are saying.
Last I looked the increase in games kickstarted (number of, total spend etc) was increased from year comparison. They've also opened in new territories to expand the reach.
But I think due to dev time, there must be a stage where punters can't give enough eye-ball time or cash to new kickstarters and probably the mmorpg genre more than most, given the higher cost of tiers and the fact mmorpgs are big commitments anyway.
Also, probably experience:
1. Back only projects you're 110% excited by even 90%.
2. Back fewer so you can keep up more with the ones you do back
3. Take fewer risks in backing and allow funded projects to pay their way to release instead of adding stretch cash.
Would be my take-homes to anyone thinking of backing for the first time.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
I believe if you don't really care about the game you are playing and the time you invest in it then you are not going to care that other people can buy items in game that you can't get yourself or set aside a lot of time (which you invested in the game) to get. Basically allowing people access to items outside the game trivializes what is inside the game to people who commit a lot of their time and effort to it. It's probably why I haven't played many MMOs past World of Warcraft or didn't last long in them. Since they are now simple entertainment or a side attraction I don't feel it's worth it to invest any time in them.
ah .. you are talking about others using money to buy virtual items in game. The phrase "real items" threw me off.
And no .. i don't care. Other people don't impact my fun. And i don't "invest" time or anything in a game .. if it is fun, i play it to be entertained .. if it is not, i move on.
There are still MMOs where the gameplay itself is fun enough for me.
I am waiting to see some payoff before putting more money into a KS.
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I do think we are entering a phase of burnout HOWEVER. I do not understand the OPs statement.
By that I mean define failure. If a game is still in development and even if its late its not a failure. Closed doors are a failure. So my question is which games are we refereing to as failures here?
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
This is a great observation that describes my exact situation. I backed CU, Pathfinder, Tides, Project Eternity, and was heavily invested in Pantheon. I'm still looking forward to playing any of those games, MMO or not, more than ESO or Wildstar, which are the two main stream games I'll probably check out. I like the idea of kickstarter. I've backed and received some really cool stuff from kickstarter, from music to tabletop gaming. I don't regret any of it, since I've got my product and it's great.
Video games are different, though. I won't see them for a while, and I'm okay with that. I understand what has to go into making them and I'll just wait patently. It does, however, put me in a position where I can not just keep throwing more money at something that I'm going to be waiting on for a long time. It's more of a timing thing really. I have no problem paying for something that I think I will enjoy, and I would even say that I'll pay more than most to help get it made. There is also a point where I have to stop and wait for the projects to get made, play them, enjoy them, and then later down the road, maybe back something else. I'm there now.
Sorry if I wasn't clearer. I did not mean the game itself is necessarily a failure. However, their Kickstarter campaigns were unsuccessful after some rather amazing successes over the past year. I hope that clears it up for you.
Or may be it is just a case of familiarity breeds contempt?
When KS is new, people are attracted to new things, and if the amount of money is small .. they go "why not"?
Now KS is no longer new and novel, and potential backers are scrutinizing the projects more, and less likely to just back something if the idea sounds good.