Yeah, this. Just this.

I wouldn't be so sure. It would seem to me skepticism will ward you from fraud and loss AND increase the chances of progress and gain!

And I think that is one of the reasons things like Kickstarter flourished so much, "professional judgement" has become extremely conservative, traditional funding methods (especially for projects that requiere *lots* of monies like games or movies) have become too conservative and will only fund generic, recycled, safe, recognizable, casual, dumbed down and/or lowest-common-denominator projects.

There was a vacuum and it has been filled by crowdfunding, and I think they will both coexist rather peacefully. Bigass publishers and studios fill a part of the market spectrum, self-funded fills the other end of the spectrum and crowdfunding will fill the middle of the spectrum that has been so relegated in the past decade or so, simply because it needed more resources than self-funding allowed but was either too small or too risque for big business to grant funding. All of these are worthy of existing and I'm glad they can now!

And from my experience the "crowd" has been very effective in ignoring shitty projects, calling out on spammers/fraudsters and funding worthy projects. In fact I think the main problem is probably the number of worthy projects that don't make it!

I think in a way KS just allows to do what anyway fans wanted to do the whole time along. They wanted to give their money directly to developers/producers but didn't know the way. Pre-ordering games of the big publishers wasn't the way. KS just offers the infrastructure. It's up to the backers and project creators to make useful things with it.

But also highly polished, stable, graphically stunning, easily usable and enjoyable products attracting millions of people.

With movies btw it seems different. Hollywood knows how to make movies that millions want to watch.

In a time were most games takes around 2 - 3 years for development and cost 15 - 30 millions
the companies fear about losing money. And right so, look at THQ.
So their solution is to stick with established names. Why do we see so many games with *2* *3* ?
Because they can guess how many copies they can sell with the next in the series.

And thats were Kickstarter jumps in. Studios with little or no name won't get a major publisher.
So the Backer are investing in something they hope to see (and play) in the future.
Its not a real investment, because you don't have a say how the people behind the idea
spend the money....its also a high risk for said people. I am waiting for the first news about someone
who complains to court because the product does not correspond to his expectations ;-)

I don't think less profitability = less desire or benefit, its only one criteria profit and even that is only an estimation. People investing for profit will nearly always focus upon tried and tested investment options over the more risky ventures. Of course some people do risk on the new ideas, its harder to get the funding, but it clearly does happen and can create a whole new unrealised profit potential.

I think that the market needs something like KS - populations are massive, esp when you go cross country and I see no reason that business must be restricted to only the "BIG" names and ideas. Granted KS also works for the big names as well, letting them launch new ideas or cater more directly to their fan base.

Which is something in itself - many companies can end up going onto the stock market and soon the focus for their product isn't their customers, but their shareholders. This can dramatically change a company in how they operate and can mean that customer interests fall to one side. KS is a move toward giving power back to the consumer in a very direct way.

Obviously skeptics will occasionally get things catastrophically right and avoid mass misfortune, but e.g. the industrial revolution was mostly kickstarted by the guys that saw unskilled labour + manufacture type production = good investment. The guilds were somewhat skeptic of this newfangled and doomed to fail venture.

When thinking of investing, smart skepticism is, of course, crucial, but few ventures of worth are ever waterproof. Therefore, you must weigh in the pros and cons and take a calculate risk if you think the gains are worth it.

I'd prefer to call it 'mob funding'. The projects are credited by the mob. I don't like it and I know this will often fail. The real danger are projects, which won't be finished in time or ever or don't supply remotely the amount of items and I think we'll see plenty of that. There's a storm coming!

Thats why it isn't an investment. Its a project. There has been one or two cases where the dev's ran out of money that im aware of. Don't see it as a storm. People donating to the project are well aware of the risks involved. People really have no real right to complain.

Even in the KS terms and conditions a company that fails to meet its target is required to offer refunds. However its important to realise that if a company utterly fails chances are there won't be much if any money left and when it comes to dividing up the assets from going into bankruptcy chances are if there is anything left it won't be very much unless the individual put in a very considerable amount.


In the end it is a risk and yes even in regular investment people lose money and never get it back .

If people choose to think its an investment, then they didn't do their research and its their problem.Most of us who donate to a kickstarter more often than not do it because we want the project to succeed. There ARE physical and digital rewards, however they are not the main goal of the kickstarter. Backers receive those as a benefit of a successful kickstart. Any reasonable person who can read and comprehend can understand this. People who put money into kickstarters i would have thought (and as a reasonable person) researched as to whether it was worth the risk or not, and if things don't work out, understand the consequences ie lose donation.
If people are made aware of the pro's and con's of a kickstarter before they donate, i wouldn't have thought (nor by a reasonable persons standards) they would be able to complain or have any recourse or action available.

Your argumentation does not work for any big projects, where your small sums you spend aren't going to make a difference. It's very irrational behaviour from someone who is capable of reading and comprehending. I don't think someone who behaves this way could understand the consequences.

The amount donated shouldn't be of any consequence.
If people going into a project, big or small is aware of the possible outcomes or consequences (ie if it succeeds or fails), they should in general not be able to complain or sue or do anything else. I'm not a lawyer. I'm speaking from what a reasonable persons view would be.

Gonna have to agree with nijuu here, there's tons of disclaimers on the KS site and one you have to look at every time you donate. People may be "mad" at failure, but unless the project people took the cash and ran without even trying to meet their obligations, they'll probably not have much of a leg to stand on either legally or morally.
By and large these are NOT the video game projects that are getting funded. There are exceptions, of course, but most of the no-names are failing to fund no matter what level of material they already have to present.

Crowd.. Mob.. what's the difference?

There may be a "storm" coming of repeated failures to deliver on promises from project creators- maybe just by the noted deadline maybe ever. This is why I have a set of simple rules to follow as a backer, it helps prevent getting burned by failures.

There have been some awesome things done because of Kickstarter, and I foresee it continuing to provide a source for more awesome projects, until such a time that scammers and under-prepared people over run Kickstarter with doomed to fail projects.

That said, it's certainly not for everyone.
As someone else said.. being skeptical and avoiding Kickstarter keeps you from being burned.. but it also keeps you from being part of awesome projects.