Wasn't like what people expected? That's possibly true, but the first video was more or less exactly what I was expecting.

Oh, I take it you're referring to the fact that she didn't actually play the games that she included screenshots and footage of. I'm not sure if she played the games at all though.
Presumably the people who backed her KS were doing it so that she could cover the cost of games to critique on top of whatever her cost of production was.

They would be the victims, whether they feel victimized or not is probably another story.

I don't have any hard data either way, so it's mostly just my own speculation at this point. My own observation is that in situations like this complaints are usually a prelude to action- usually those complaining are only a portion of those actually dissatisfied, and that complaints come from people who still care, but who will end up walking away if things don't change. So like I said, it's pretty much all speculation, but complaints can (and have) been an early warning to a mass exodus, so can be quite dangerous to ignore.

As for the rest, I feel that we're starting to just retread the same ground. I think we've both said our piece on the matter, so there's no need to go in circles retreading the same concerns.

Ultimately my prediction is that the next 2-4 years will be a critical time for crowdfunding. I think we'll either see reforms implemented to address the issues leading to current complaints, or that crowdfunding will end up significantly diminishing due to either being hampered by lawsuits and/or government restrictions or by people walking away after having been burned too many times. Only time will tell if my predictions have any merit.

Backing especially small, obscure kickstarters is always risky. Heck, even the big ones with experienced people behind them can go belly-up.

Kickstarting is always more of gamble than "pre-purchase".

Dont kickstart more than youre willing lose... Thats my rule of thumb.

Again, my apologies for the delay in my response. ^^;

As you say, the argument seems to have somewhat met an impasse. I would like to answer just one point (quoted below), but otherwise am content to leave the argument as it stands. ^_^

One way or another, I look forward to seeing what does happen to crowdfunding in the next few years: whether positive or not, it should be interesting.

That's a good point, although it seems to me that complaints like this can also come from a vocal minority, with a viewpoint somewhat divorced from the average.

Honestly, I hope that it is a vocal minority, both for the sake of crowdfunding and in the hope that it's relatively rare that people have the impression that crowdfunding is anything other than helping projects by donating money.

Just a quick follow-up of my own, or rather some apropos news regarding this topic. Looks a half-million dollar scam is currently unfolding on Kickstarter (short version: project claims contradict physics). Currently 4 days remaining before the project creators walk away with over a half-million dollars; if that happens then when this project inevitably craps out it could create some pretty serious waves in crowdfunding (mainly due to the many people calling out the impossibility of the project claims yet Kickstarter letting the project continue to go ahead, and even while being in contravention of the current rules about needing a prototype for gadgets).

Ugh, how did I know as soon as I read this that it was going to be some kind of 'magical energy source' thing? Reminds me an indiegogo project I stumbled upon a while ago.

Ah... here it is. $18,000 raised for free quantum energy. No prototype, of course. Check out the comments, kind of cultish. :/

Wow, some kind of religious /new age cult nutjobs? Who would seriously believe a guy, that if he is the engineer he claims to be, didn't actually have 7k of his own money to fund a business venture.

Oh, I won't say that scams never occur, nor that there are no points on which I'd like to see improvement from the crowdunding platforms.

I do note that iFind has apparently been cancelled by Kickstarter, at least. I will say that I'm disturbed that it took as long as it did, and I'd like to see Kickstarter more closely enforcing its rules; on the positive side, I'm glad that they did at least take action.

With regards to the quantum energy project, I'm inclined to at least give the project creator the benefit of the doubt and assume that he honestly believes that he can build such a device--although I'll admit that this allowance is stretched somewhat if he is indeed an engineer.

(I'll confess that I don't know Indiegogo's track record with regards to closing down scams and the like; I'm afraid that I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they were even less assiduous about it than Kickstarter, since they do seem to me to in general be more relaxed than that platform.)

[edit]
Amusingly, I just stumbled upon the "TrackR Bravo" on Indiegogo, which looks an awful lot like the iFind--save that, at a glance at least, it looks plausible (for one thing they admit to having a battery inside the thing). I wonder whether the iFind was actually inspired by the TrackR (which launched on the 9th of June; I don't see a starting date for the iFind offhand)?