Kickstarter (Yay or Nay)

[Topolopis]

So, if you have been anywhere near games or gaming websites sometime in the past 5 months, you may have heard of Kickstarter.

Kickstarter (or it's English equivalent 'Indiegogo') is a website which allows people to fund games in order to get things done without the need for big companies to do it. However, as you can tell, you are placing money on an unfinished product which is obviously a risk because what happens if it ends up not being made? They could just run off with the money and go quiet about it.

So, is this website a good thing or a scam waiting to happen?

 

[Duffie]

Well, since nobody posted yet, and as you said, it could go either way.

There are quite a few games who have developed excellent games from the help of Kickstarter. But, I have never went on Kickstarter, and there are probably some games which have not made any development at all, and never plan to.

So, what I'm saying, it depends on the person if it's a scam or not. Not everyone is on Kickstarter to steal people's money, but not everyone (apparently) is on Kickstarter to get help to make video games.

As it has always been a deal with money, be careful where you throw it.

As for Yay or Nay, you kind of threw in an either-or question, rather than a yay-or-nay question.

 

[Dragosh]

I love this website. Of course you should do some background research before actually using any money, but I think the concept is great. I have visited the website many times, and many people that are legitimate will post progress or things like that. Sometimes it's just fun to go on to see what ideas people have thought of.

 

[Defiant_Blob]

Tons of legitimate start-up projects use this. Freddiew himself used it to create VGHS. Putting money into it is that same as everywhere else online. You wouldn't buy something online if the seller wasn't widely known or you hadn't done a background check (or you should have).

 

[JKangaroo]

Kickstarter is a risk.
Some projects won't be funded, or will never actually come to fruition even if you do donate.
However, Kickstarter is great for many projects, many which are just starting (best with an prototype), ones that are near its end and just need a bit of an extra economic boost to get it out the door, and many other reasons.

Although I don't go on Kickstarter personally very often (maybe once or twice in a long while), I still enjoy donating to great games / music / etc that will hopefully do well and become real products.
Again, it is a risk. And like investors, we are risking our money which we are donating, on a hope that this will be a selling product / service / etc.

As a scam? People can easily state that if a project fails, it was just a scam to get money. That ties in with the risk factor. But there hasn't really been any scams on Kickstarter; or at least none that were made public to my knowledge. They probably will be a scam one way or the other in the future: I believe some people are debating wether that new console, the OUYA, will be a scam, or an actual product and such, and we really can't tell until the, or any product is finished.

I would say Kickstarter is great, but it has its bad points sometimes. Instead of Yay or Nay, lets just have a middle ground and say its useful in certain circumstances.

 

[Topolopis]

Kickstarter is a risk.
Some projects won't be funded, or will never actually come to fruition even if you do donate.
However, Kickstarter is great for many projects, many which are just starting (best with an prototype), ones that are near its end and just need a bit of an extra economic boost to get it out the door, and many other reasons.

Although I don't go on Kickstarter personally very often (maybe once or twice in a long while), I still enjoy donating to great games / music / etc that will hopefully do well and become real products.
Again, it is a risk. And like investors, we are risking our money which we are donating, on a hope that this will be a selling product / service / etc.

As a scam? People can easily state that if a project fails, it was just a scam to get money. That ties in with the risk factor. But there hasn't really been any scams on Kickstarter; or at least none that were made public to my knowledge. They probably will be a scam one way or the other in the future: I believe some people are debating wether that new console, the OUYA, will be a scam, or an actual product and such, and we really can't tell until the, or any product is finished.

I would say Kickstarter is great, but it has its bad points sometimes. Instead of Yay or Nay, lets just have a middle ground and say its useful in certain circumstances.

I agree, I just thought of asking around as some people have been pointing fingers recently after prototypes haven't appeared for a certain product. A set of HD camera glasses was reported as a scam (I never donated nor even saw this) but it just make me ask, thanks for the reply.