Friday 15 April 2016

Kickstarter stretch goals are becoming a farce.

I really am getting old.

And just to prove the point a women offered me her seat on a bus the other day, first time... sigh.

Then one of my KSers sent out an update email advertising one of their new figures, Deodric the Drunk.  My first thought was 'thats a nice figure', which it is, but 'why are they portraying a drunk as a happy good thing in a game for kids'. They could easily have called it Deodric the Drinker and avoided the good portrayal of something that is bad.... yes being a drunk is bad. Believe me, I was a big drunk in my earlier years, but with time my views have changed... being drunk is a comparative waste of my valuable time, especially if I don't recall a lot of it.

Anyway then I moved to my next email for another KSer to find them raving about being close to their first stretch goal. When I look at that stretch goal I roll my eyeballs, it is so obviously a token effort. Its a digital product, and they are offering a few extra digital items... you really think I am so dumb to believe:

a. You haven't already done all the work for it, and if you haven't why not?
b. You will offer that later on, probably for free.
c. Why isn't this part of the basic package, it is obviously part of the whole point of the product.
d. If it isn't part of the basic package, WHY ISN'T IT!

Really, what these KSer are doing is developing a product, then breaking it down into its components and making those that can be into stretch goals. Many of them are so blatantly a part of the core product that I feel insulted... AND then there are the ones that offer something as a stretch goal that are such good ideas... AND they don't make it!  REALLY! You aren't going to do it anyway?

I think twice about KSers that do this now.

And just to fill space, my pet peeves that annoy me about KSers. (ps I have 308 backed projects)


  1. LONG list of purchase options that are so convoluted I need to read the details three times to work out what they are offering.  For god sake you are trying to SELL an idea, not a product range with expansion sets. SELL THE DAMN IDEA, have a basic offering, a full digital offering, a full kit offering and the Give me all your money offering... AND that's it! Sell me the rest on the second KSer.
  2. HAVE the product done, at least to a complete proto-type. I want to see a nearly completed physical example of your product. Do not sell me a fucking idea that you might one day finish.  I used to buy into role playing games simply based on their idea of a game... no more, too many failures, too long a wait time... and even reputable names can do this... eg 
    1. Mutant Chronicles - Aug 2014. I got the last of the PDFs (I think, there were a lot of them) just recently.  This is a major company and their estimate of timing was way off, because they were writing the books as they went. I'm not sure if their estimated date was for the basic books only, but they were late anyway.  They have delivered however, and I am happy with the product.  I have backed several of their KSers and recommend them.
    2. Elfwood - May 2014. Nothing delivered so far. AT least they are still sending out updates, occasionally.
    3. Shaintar - Feb 2014 - I actually expected this one to go badly, and it has. One or two people promising to write a huge number of books, not even started yet... they are slowly delivering. Way over ambitious.
  3. HAVE REAL STRETCH GOALS... It should be something extra, or a real addon, not a component of the original product that you have broken off.
  4. DIGITAL PRODUCTS ARE NOT A CASH COW! Over priced digital products turn me right off.  I am in Australia and the cost of postage a the number one consideration I have with KSers. I buy digital versions wherever possible unless they have attractive postal options.  It isn't common but I have seen some pretty nasty pricing.  As a guide I tend to be happy to pay about $10 per 100 pages.
Of course my biggest peeve is non-deliveries, fortunately I have a fairly low % of those, but some have hurt - Up Front, CST-01 Watch.