Kickstarter's finally gotten out of hand

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterkewlgames/yogventures

Yep, the YogsCast have decided to prey on the dim-witted folk of the internet. The problem here is: This is going to get funded, and then the game is not going to get made. These guys can't even be arsed to finish Shadow of Israphel, and now they want to make a game alongside a developer who hasn't made a game before. This is setting a horrible precedent, though I'm glad it will finally kill off the Kickstarter fad.

Not to mention it's basically a heavily modified Minecraft. Thoughts, fine folk of Giant Bomb?

Never liked them, won't be giving them money.

So don't give them money and hope noone else does? What does this thread gain you and why do you think you know so much about the future of this kickstarter and all the others? Delusional at best.

Yogscast...the same duo that do that annoying Minecraft commentary? They're making a video game that is based off of Minecraft...and are trying to get people to fund it?

My god. They even made a video for it. Please, please fail. I'm sorry, I'm just stunned that people on YouTube known for their commentary are going in the direction of a video game.

Bound to have people hopping onto the bandwagon while it's hot. Some people only learn their lesson the hard way anyway.

Speak with your wallet and don't give them your money and don't give them any free publicity by posting their kickstarter in forums....... Oh well, guess it's going to get funded thanks to OP.

Don't these guys make ton of money from youtube? they are pretty famous at least.

"finally" ? It got out of hand 2 days after the Double Fine announcement.

Kickstarter threads are the new Mass Effect 3.

I just hope the people who listen to their podcast don't get tricked into giving them money, thats pretty damn shady.

I like YoGScast; I liked it a lot better when it was a WoW thing though.

This is the worst http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brokenbulb/ninja-warz?ref=category

If Ninja Warz gets funded, I don't know what...

I already have Minecraft and play it occasionally. No need to purchase the same game again.

I don't see how its got out of hand. Shit like this doesn't get funded therefore no problem

If it does...well you didn't put any money in so who cares?

Boo-fucking-hoo 
I like the Yogscast guys, they're entertaining.  
If they wanna get a kickstarter going to try and fund a game (yes, it's gonna be made. Try reading some more) then that's fine.  
And the Shadows of Israphel thing is still going on. 

I will now give them $500 just to spite everyone bitching. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

i really never liked the idea of kickstarter. ofc its a case by case basis but its more the, you pay us to make a product that you then pay to buy while we keep all the profits.

also never liked the yog guys

There are bad games on Steam too. My solution: just don't give them your money.

@Cheesebob said:

I don't see how its got out of hand. Shit like this doesn't get funded therefore no problem

If it does...well you didn't put any money in so who cares?

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

@Grillbar said:

i really never liked the idea of kickstarter. ofc its a case by case basis but its more the, you pay us to make a product that you then pay to buy while we keep all the profits.

Generally the buy-in cost secures you a free copy of whatever product comes out of a given Kickstarter. Also: you're not an investor, you're a backer. So I'm not sure why it's a negative that the profits go to the entity doing the work.

@Skald said:

There are bad games on Steam too. My solution: just don't give them your money.

Or buy them in bulk when they're less than $2 and maliciously gift them to your friends.

I don't see why this is a big deal. If it offends you so much just don't give them money. Not that hard.

So it's getting out of hand because... random internet user says so?

People are trying to throw shit at this because they don't like seeing other aspirants aspire with the possibility of succeeding. Thats about it really. Most of the gaming community are rotten at the core and this anti-kickstarter sentiment is a good example of that.

Don't worry, you can always buy super hyped PR department shit the likes of EA, Ubisoft and Activision pay IGN, gamespot and gametrailers to advertise. That model wont be going any place anytime soon.

So could someone explain what any of this shit means to someone who doesn't have the faintest clue as to who any of these people are and why I should be feeling outraged?

@Grillbar said:

i really never liked the idea of kickstarter. ofc its a case by case basis but its more the, you pay us to make a product that you then pay to buy while we keep all the profits.

also never liked the yog guys

I always thought that you get the game if you support it with a certain amount of money (15 Dollars for the Doublefine Adventure)..

Maybe I was wrong. However, it is always a good thing to support what you believe in. That is democracy at a very basic level. Of course you may end up being disappointed, but at least you helped create something instead of doing nothing.

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@Cheesebob said:

I don't see how its got out of hand. Shit like this doesn't get funded therefore no problem

If it does...well you didn't put any money in so who cares?

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

Because at this point Kickstarter news are basically just fancy spam-mail. Sure once in a while there's actually something worthwhile there, but 99% of the time it's just trash.

So it's pretty much a Minecraft clone? Don't these guys play that game and talk over it for a living? Are they going to start doing that for their own game? Double the money? Money?

@James_Giant_Peach said:

I will now give them $500 just to spite everyone bitching. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

It's your $500 you're potentially losing there... lol

$250,000 for ambitious promises by a team who hasn't made a game before? I can see it ending poorly but good luck. If it releases and turns out well I'll check it out.

I don't know who they are but that game seems really ambitious and complex for the budget they are asking for.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

So it's getting out of hand because... random internet user says so?

People are trying to throw shit at this because they don't like seeing people do well. Thats about it really. Most people are rotten at the core and these hipsters slinging around shit about kickstarter are a good example of that.

I would love to see the YogsCast do well. I've been a huge fan of theirs for many years and have gotten tons of entertainment from them. So... ya know, fuck off.

This is bad because they're basically using Kickstarter to say "Hey! We game developers now! Give us money!" when this idea is unlikely to go anywhere since (you'll know this if you're a Yognaut) they don't know how to make a game. I read up a bit on the development team they're working with and this is their first game; they all came from DreamWorks and similar places, which shows from the frankly gorgeous artwork. Just go read their overly ambitious pitch for the project and tell me it doesn't sound like the pizza tycoon's Kickstarter that was mocked on the Bombcast recently.

What's next? A popular book critic funding a novel this way? iJustine deciding to make a Portal clone via kickstarter? That cunt Ray William Johnson making a movie? Use your head before being so quick to tar people with your brush of hatred and vitriol.

Forget this, I just saw that Takedown actually made its funding goal. Way more interesting. Also surprising.

@Ares42 said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@Cheesebob said:

I don't see how its got out of hand. Shit like this doesn't get funded therefore no problem

If it does...well you didn't put any money in so who cares?

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

Because at this point Kickstarter news are basically just fancy spam-mail. Sure once in a while there's actually something worthwhile there, but 99% of the time it's just trash.

Practically every video-game coming to peoples attention hasn't even passed the preliminary development stage. So it seems to me you have just spouted a baseless subjective opinion for the sake of jumping on a hipster bandwagon.

For one thing, these AAA games get millions spent on advertisement with gaming websites basically acting as advertisements. Yet Kickstarter is "spam" and apparently these coke can production line games don't produce shit for the lowest common denominator.

My KickStarter project to start a site identical and yet completely unrelated to KickStarter.com that I planned to call KickStartHereInstead.com was rejected.

Too specific I guess.

@GunslingerPanda said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

So it's getting out of hand because... random internet user says so?

People are trying to throw shit at this because they don't like seeing people do well. Thats about it really. Most people are rotten at the core and these hipsters slinging around shit about kickstarter are a good example of that.

I would love to see the YogsCast do well. I've been a huge fan of theirs for many years and have gotten tons of entertainment from them. So... ya know, fuck off.

This is bad because

Sorry, not reading the rest.

@Ares42 said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@Cheesebob said:

I don't see how its got out of hand. Shit like this doesn't get funded therefore no problem

If it does...well you didn't put any money in so who cares?

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

Because at this point Kickstarter news are basically just fancy spam-mail. Sure once in a while there's actually something worthwhile there, but 99% of the time it's just trash.

Practically every game asking for a kickstarter hasn't even passed the preliminary development stage. So it seems to me you have just spouted a baseless subjective opinion for the sake of jumping on a hipster bandwagon.

People are allowed to waste their money on whatever they want. Personally i would never give to a Kickstarter project because simply put i don't believe in giving donations to money making companies no matter their size, it makes no sense to me.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@GunslingerPanda said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

So it's getting out of hand because... random internet user says so?

People are trying to throw shit at this because they don't like seeing people do well. Thats about it really. Most people are rotten at the core and these hipsters slinging around shit about kickstarter are a good example of that.

I would love to see the YogsCast do well. I've been a huge fan of theirs for many years and have gotten tons of entertainment from them. So... ya know, fuck off.

This is bad because

Sorry, not reading the rest.

Oh, you don't want to throw around the term "hipster" one more time with complete disregard for it's actual meaning? Because, you know, that's cool to do, right?

@ZeForgotten said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Ares42 said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@Cheesebob said:

I don't see how its got out of hand. Shit like this doesn't get funded therefore no problem

If it does...well you didn't put any money in so who cares?

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

Because at this point Kickstarter news are basically just fancy spam-mail. Sure once in a while there's actually something worthwhile there, but 99% of the time it's just trash.

Practically every game asking for a kickstarter hasn't even passed the preliminary development stage. So it seems to me you have just spouted a baseless subjective opinion for the sake of jumping on a hipster bandwagon.

There's nothing hipster about people pretending to be Psychic and know everything there is to know about game development

Stating the obvious is not "Psychic" or knowing everything about game development. It's called "basic fucking logic".

Anyone can use it. Even you if you try hard enough.

Low budget, first-timer development team and an incredibly ambitious concept?

This all sounds like a catastrophe waiting to happen.

@Krakn3Dfx said:

My KickStarter project to start a site identical and yet completely unrelated to KickStarter.com that I planned to call KickStartHereInstead.com was rejected.

Too specific I guess.

If you ever get it going, I'll donate up to $120 for an exclusive poster. I'm a sucker for exclusive posters.

@Cloudenvy said:

Super low budget, first-timer development team and an incredibly ambitious concept?

This all sounds like a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Isn't that what Minecraft was? I agree though, I wont support this. It seems to be basically selling personality. They have a huge fan-base and can use it.

Tim Schafer has a pretty big fanbase as well but thats because he made awsome games as opposed to 20 minute videos sounding like campy British people from a carry on film saying "fuck" every 2 minutes.

@ZeForgotten said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Ares42 said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

@Cheesebob said:

I don't see how its got out of hand. Shit like this doesn't get funded therefore no problem

If it does...well you didn't put any money in so who cares?

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

Because at this point Kickstarter news are basically just fancy spam-mail. Sure once in a while there's actually something worthwhile there, but 99% of the time it's just trash.

Practically every game asking for a kickstarter hasn't even passed the preliminary development stage. So it seems to me you have just spouted a baseless subjective opinion for the sake of jumping on a hipster bandwagon.

There's nothing hipster about people pretending to be Psychic and know everything there is to know about game development

Stating the obvious is not "Psychic" or knowing everything about game development. It's called "basic fucking logic".

Anyone can use it. Even you if you try hard enough.

Never heard of them. This sounds shitty though, since this fad is actually producing some interesting things.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock: Somewhat, though Minecraft didn't seem half as ambitious as this before it started making hell of money.

@James_Giant_Peach said:

I will now give them $500 just to spite everyone bitching. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Yeah I don't really see how this affects people in any way if they don't contribute.

@SpunkyHePanda said:

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

My reason for not supporting Kickstarter video game pages are simply because it is just another level up to take advantage of fans (or at least make people react thinking that they have). The uproar over ME3 for example was because of player expectation from what they were promised and what was delivered - imagine the same thing happening but this time they have already lost their money before any reviews are out. Imagine if halfway through a dev. says they can't add a feature and continue the project with out it? What if someone had backed it with the tipping point in choosing to side with it being that one feature and now they lost it? Imagine how much of a frenzy either of those would make and then added to that the number of people who will try and sue them for it.

My second reason for hating it is that is only helps big/successful/well-known developers really as they have the credibility (or the fan following) to get their money. It pushes out the help that could instead go to new ideas outside of already well known people. This means that indie dev.s would then have to turn to Publishers like they already do now, but this time with the Publishers being able to give them worse cotracts adding things like "you could always start your own kickstarter program if you think we are being too harsh" knowing full-well that the chance of getting enough money would be very low. They could also be given worse offers by having stupid clauses be put in like "If you can amass X amount of money by kickstarter for the project then we will think about giving you a bonus", allowing the publishers to get more money (via the kickstarter) while at the same time not guarenteeing any of it will go to the development of the game.

The reason I hate it is because it incentivises:

• Suing culture
• The monopolisation of video game ideas
• Shitty business practices on pay for workers
• Fan-entitlement mentality
• Profiting from bad products (as you have already been paid for it, so why keep high standards - how are they going to boycott it now?)

I don't think Kickstarter is a bad thing overall, but I do think in the videogame medium it causes more harm than good. Ont he other hand this simply means I will never support them and nothing more - I am not going to ask it to die as it is always up to them to choose if a business deal/avenue is worth it, and every individual consumer to stay away from what they think is bad business models. I will congratualte anyone who succeeds from kickstarter and I hope I am very wrong with the avenue it could take - but still the fear of how badly wrong it could go for the entire industry will completely stop me from ever supporting one.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Cloudenvy said:

Super low budget, first-timer development team and an incredibly ambitious concept?

This all sounds like a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Isn't that what Minecraft was? I agree though, I wont support this. It seems to be basically selling personality. They have a huge fan-base and can use it.

Tim Schafer has a pretty big fanbase as well but thats because he made awsome games as opposed to 20 minute videos sounding like campy British people from a "carry on" film saying "fuck" every 2 minutes.

A key difference, at least to me, is that Notch was asking people to fund his game while giving them a pretty fully functioning thing to play with. Sure, Minecraft was exceedingly simple when it launched, but there was still a lot you could do with it, which was the very reason it took off. In this scenario, a group of dudes who make some mods for a pretty simple game and are better known for profitting off of videos based on someone else's game are trying to get people to fund the game they want to make, despite it being a pretty obvious rip-off of the game they already mod and make video content about and despite none of the people involved having ever developed a video game before. It's like you said before - they're selling nothing but personality.

@NegativeCero said:

Never heard of them. This sounds shitty though, since this fad is actually producing some interesting things.

Do you visit youtube much? Everytime I go on youtubes main page now it's basically them making campy "ouuhhh" noises, Machinima jerking off to Call Of Duty. Or Total Biscut whining like fuck trying to tell the world how to work properly. Perhaps it's a region thing but even just entering youtube they are all over the place.

I think the Yogscast group is pretty cool. They all seem like decent people and do extremely good videos.

I wish this was more about them using kickstarter and their internet fame to bring up a new dev team and make a game for fans, but this looks far more shadier then that.

I can't wait for this Kickstarter thing to blow up in everyone's face. That will be a good day, followed by an eternity of creative tyranny and conservatism. Let's have a good laugh while it lasts, shall we?

Kickstarter was around before Double Fine you know. It's where a lot of amateur films get made and other products. I'm thankful for Double Fine for raising Kickstarter's awareness. Why is kickstarter so bad everyone? Don't like it don't buy it.

@Dixavd said:

@SpunkyHePanda said:

I honestly don't understand why people want this trend to stop. If people want the game, it gets funded. If they don't, it doesn't. Simple. I think it's pretty brilliant. Are they just sick of hearing about it? Are they worried developers might not follow through on the promises? I would genuinely like to know.

My reason for not supporting Kickstarter video game pages are simply because it is just another level up to take advantage of fans (or at least make people react thinking that they have). The uproar over ME3 for example was because of player expectation from what they were promised and what was delivered - imagine the same thing happening but this time they have already lost their money before any reviews are out. Imagine if halfway through a dev. says they can't add a feature and continue the project with out it? What if someone had backed it with the tipping point in choosing to side with it being that one feature and now they lost it? Imagine how much of a frenzy either of those would make and then added to that the number of people who will try and sue them for it.

My second reason for hating it is that is only helps big/successful/well-known developers really as they have the credibility (or the fan following) to get their money. It pushes out the help that could instead go to new ideas outside of already well known people. This means that indie dev.s would then have to turn to Publishers like they already do now, but this time with the Publishers being able to give them worse cotracts adding things like "you could always start your own kickstarter program if you think we are being too harsh" knowing full-well that the chance of getting enough money would be very low. They could also be given worse offers by having stupid clauses be put in like "If you can amass X amount of money by kickstarter for the project then we will think about giving you a bonus", allowing the publishers to get more money (via the kickstarter) while at the same time not guarenteeing any of it will go to the development of the game.

The reason I hate it is because it incentivises:

• Suing culture
• The monopolisation of video game ideas
• Shitty business practices on pay for workers
• Fan-entitlement mentality
• Profiting from bad products (as you have already been paid for it, so why keep high standards - how are they going to boycott it now?)

I don't think Kickstarter is a bad thing overall, but I do think in the videogame medium it causes more harm than good. Ont he other hand this simply means I will never support them and nothing more - I am not going to ask it to die as it is always up to them to choose if a business deal/avenue is worth it, and every individual consumer to stay away from what they think is bad business models. I will congratualte anyone who succeeds from kickstarter and I hope I am very wrong with the avenue it could take - but still the fear of how badly wrong it could go for the entire industry will completely stop me from ever supporting one.

Fair enough, there's potential for some bad stuff to go down, though at this point it's all speculation. Guess we'll have to wait and see.