General crowdfunding.

[GuyNwah]

Claims made by Herve Caen that anybody actually works for him can be dismissed as fiction. He's been out of business since June 2011. He has no money to pay anybody. He's just trying to cover next month's rent, so he doesn't come to his office one morning and find his desk out on Wilshire.

$20 to tell him he's a fool on his own forum? Maybe that's not too bad a bargain.

 

[Sirnaq]

That justifies the whole idea?

Where did i said that?

 

[Guest 2091327]

Exactly. I read that post in the opposite direction, that this was a fool's errand. Guess it was just a matter of time before somebody tried to do this, since kickstarter has been such a huge success.

 

[lycos]

Guess it was just a matter of time before somebody tried to do this, since kickstarter has been such a huge success.

Not surprising though, its just that Interplay wasn't very subtle about it.

Greaseball Herve had been sodomising Black Isle's corpse for cash for years until Bethesda finally shut him down (the Fallout franchise). Also Feargus (Obsidian's CEO) mentioned at one point that big publishers had approached them to use Obsidians name to push a money grab via Kickstarter.

When Obsidian scooped up 4 mill pretty much on their name alone for Project Eternity, you could bet that vultures hould show up.

At least for the video gaming market, others have been scamming on quietly on kickstarter for some time.

 

[80maxwell08]

Something of note is this isn't the first time Interplay has done this. There was a battlechess kickstarter a while ago while Interplay has an entry for a new battlechess game right on their website. So this isn't even new for them.

 

[CostinRaz]

What's sad is that this guy has apparently made thousands of dollars already.

 

[80maxwell08]

What's sad is that this guy has apparently made thousands of dollars already.

A few thousand from what RPG Codex posted before. Though I haven't seen an update on that number for a while. The sad thing is unlike Kickstarter they get the money immediately and they put a clause on there that says they have no obligation to do anything they say they are going to do. Doubt that would hold up under anything. Also their update makes me sad. I believe that the people there honestly want to make this game but I will not give anything to the current Interplay. Also something else that relates to this.
http://www.indiegogo.com/SaveInterplay

 

[GuyNwah]

A few thousand from what RPG Codex posted before. Though I haven't seen an update on that number for a while. The sad thing is unlike Kickstarter they get the money immediately and they put a clause on there that says they have no obligation to do anything they say they are going to do. Doubt that would hold up under anything. Also their update makes me sad. I believe that the people there honestly want to make this game but I will not give anything to the current Interplay. Also something else that relates to this.
http://www.indiegogo.com/SaveInterplay

Clever. But even if you could get current stockholders to sell for a penny or even two cents a share, which they won't, you'd be buying a can of worms. Interplay is so defunct that it hasn't even filed financial statements since June 2011. The last time they did, they showed $189,000 in current assets, $3.4 million in current liabilities, and a quarterly operating loss of $358,000, after which their auditor gave up and refused to certify their statements.

You wouldn't be buying Interplay or Black Isle. There is nothing left of Interplay or Black Isle except Herve Caen's debts. You'd be buying Herve Caen. You don't want him.

 

[80maxwell08]

Clever. But even if you could get current stockholders to sell for a penny a share, which they won't, you'd be buying a can of worms. Interplay is so defunct that it hasn't even filed financial statements since June 2011. The last time they did, they showed $189,000 in current assets, $3.4 million in current liabilities, and a quarterly operating loss of $358,000, after which their auditor gave up and refused to certify their statements.

You wouldn't be buying Interplay or Black Isle. There is nothing left of Interplay or Black Isle except Herve Caen's debts. You'd be buying Herve Caen. You don't want him.

Actually I posted that up so people could get a laugh out of it. I don't think they are scamming (otherwise they would have put flexible funding) but I do believe they are delusional.

 

[GuyNwah]

Actually I posted that up so people could get a laugh out of it. I don't think they are scamming (otherwise they would have put flexible funding) but I do believe they are delusional.

Yeah; I just wanted to illustrate exactly how big a delusion it is and exactly how far Interplay has fallen into a financial black hole under Herve Caen.

Like buying an aquarium infested with Bobbit worms, at a penny a fish.

http://vimeo.com/28280553

(Anybody see the resemblance to TW1's Giant Centipedes?)

 

[dragonbird]

RPS have picked up on the Black Isle story. Same interpretation as you guys.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/22/black-isle-asks-for-your-money-badly/

 

[80maxwell08]

Well this makes my 3rd Kickstarter I've donated to.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gaspoweredgames/wildman-an-evolutionary-action-rpg

Also of some note is this Gamasutra article though ignore the MOBA part. Nowhere in Gas Powered Games' pitch does it ever use the word MOBA.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/184775/Gas_Powered_bets_it_all_on_a_new_Kickstarter_campaign.php
EDIT: PC Gamer has a bit of info on this.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/01/14/chris-taylors-secret-project-is-wildman-a-barbaric-rpgrts-hybrid/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/01/14/wildman-interview-chris-taylor/

 

[Demut]

I am not sure if someone posted this video yet but here is a pretty interesting presentation about crowdfunding by Chris Roberts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZWaBnpSvUk

What I like about this video in particular is that we get some insight into the development process in both cases (crowdfunded projects vs. publisher-funded projects) as well as some actual numbers. For instance, looking at a $60 game about $12 of each copy go to the developer with the traditional model. With crowdfunding that amount lies between $48 and $51 per copy! This also means that they have to sell way fewer copies in order to break even which means they have to worry less about sales and appealing to the mass market and can actually develop niche/hardcore games while still being profitable.