I've been here just over a year now, and I have seen many mentioning Kickstarter in Reviews, and I admit most if not all of the comments are not encouraging.

So what is the benefits really, and why would I even sponsor a campaign with my hard earned money?

It seems developers promise things they never deliver on, even tell lies, and often the sponsor gets a bad deal in one way or another, because of changed goal posts and bad discounts on the finished product, which is seemingly not what they sponsored anyway.

The more I read these bad reports, the more I think it foolish to become a backer ... and it just seems like many developers, who go the Kickstarter route, just shit in the bed they lie in.

A lot of the time the complaints are from people who think Kickstarter is preordering. It isn't. If you know what you're actually putting money toward, you should have reasonable expectations and should almost always find that they are met.

Data from last year was that about 1% of Kickstarter projects fail. That's a really good rate. For reference, I've backed, apparently (had to look it up) 41 projects on Kickstarter. Games, clothes, even stuff like an ice ball mold so I can have pretty ice spheres for my whisky ;) I've only been disappointed with 2 of those 41, and those did actually deliver, they were just worse than I expected (Jagged Alliance reboot, and Stonehearth)

People are only going to report about the things that they didn't like, because people complain at any perceived slight, and again - they think they're pre-ordering, often. When you back a project, you're trying to get an idea, that probably won't happen without some help, to become a reality. Do your homework, make sure you have good reason to believe that the team working on the project should be capable (don't just go, "Oooh, shiny!" and hope for the best). Basically, be a smart customer, and you should find Kickstarter to be a perfectly acceptable platform.

EDIT: Oh, let me give you a short list of reasons why Kickstarter is a good idea for people who like to play games:
Pillars of Eternity wouldn't have happened without it.
Wasteland 2&3 (Fig wouldn't have been started if Kickstarter had failed hard, in all likelihood)
Torment: Tides of Numenera
The Harebraned Schemes Shadowrun series, and their newer BATTLETECH game
Divinity: Original Sin 1&2
Banner Saga
Satellite Reign
Grim Dawn
Darkest Dungeon
FTL
Skyshine's BEDLAM
Xenonauts
Halcyon 6

And those are just some of the better-received titles from the list of games I backed.

My experiences with kickstarter haven't been pleasant, all of the three games I backed and followed turned out to be trash.

I'm happy to buy games that were funded on Kickstarter (or some other platform like it), so in a way I'm grateful to the people who funded them, but I myself don't and likely won't ever join in. I pay for stuff that's ready and done. Preferably also reviewed, patched, "Director's Cut" and all that.

That's what it boils down to! Spot on do you want to be one of the mugs trudging through an unpatched mess or do you want the finished product?

It worth it because people like the spend money on promises and stupid things. So if you make a project you will earn easy money this way.

Thanks for your reply. I gathered that, but personally struggle to relate to it ... at least on some levels. You are taking an awfully big gamble, and we've all the seen the failures out there, and ones that never get made in the end. But perhaps, as I would never ever pay the high release day price, mine is a different perspective. When I buy a game later at a much cheaper price, I see myself supporting the developer, but they may not see it that way. Clearly not. Good to hear at least someone with a more positive report. Well, that's the thing for me, I feel the whole shebang is compromised right from the start, and feel it would be foolish to have specific or too high an expectation. Well that is a fair number, and clearly makes you somewhat of an authority on the subject ... and realistically know what you have gotten yourself into. Goodo, and I guess you are a winner if they made you happy enough.

SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
When you back these games on Kickstarter, do you ever get a chance to get some kind of royalty payments? It seems to me you are very much similar to a shareholder.

No, but FIg allows people to buy in shares of a project and get royalty payments. You are in no way a shareholder with Kickstarter, but you may choose to be one with Fig.

Kickstarting is financing a project from people you likely don't know that don't share with you any details of their planning or budgeting. In this situation, it's a bet where you don't win much most of the time (game + freebies), as I see it.

So it's really all about how you market your project to try to attract investors (passion project, interesting features, etc.). It worked well enough for Larian Studios in the past which kickstarted Divinity OS and its sequel. They gained the trust of their investors and it might be a good case to study, but they didn't come out of nowhere either.

No. You're not considered an investor, although there is that option on FIG. But it requires an investment in the thousands.

As you'll have noted by some of the other replies, this type of thing isn't for everyone. And that's fine. It's something that I consider very carefully, which (IMO) is why I haven't really been burned yet, but I'm comfortable throwing a few bucks at a dev every now and then to see a game I'd really like to be made at least have a chance of being done.

Well, I guess some of it comes from your own financial situation, and whether you are prepared to risk your spare money on a great sounding venture. The more affluent of course, the less of a risk to care about.

And your views on giving encouragement also play a part, I would guess.

Developers get pretty pathetic support sometimes ... even devastating.

I guess it takes a certain world view.

I do get what you are saying, you are right. The thing which discourages me is that they are not held to account once hou hand over your hard earned. Maybe it's completely unworkable I'd like views on this though projects just go dark sometimes without any sort of repercussion.

Thanks all of you for responding.

GROOT gave a pretty good solution, but OneFiercePuppy deserves an honorable mention, plus some others.