I’ve noticed a trend (among TT games and other product categories), of established companies using Kickstarter. Mostly I think they use it as a hype machine/pre-order system, but that doesn’t quite feel like the ethos behind Kickstarter. Full disclosure, I have backed some of these myself!
A few examples (some are on Kickstarter-adjacent sites)
There has of course been bad behaviour and bad faith in a whole bunch of Kickstarters.
On the other hand, RPGs are a marginal business even for most “established” companies, with the exception of Wizards of the Coast. Almost no one gets rich off this business. So while I back stuff only quite infrequently, I’m not mad that companies do it.
I’m not opposed to crowdfunding tabletop games in principle. Even bigger companies might need some guaranteed cash up front before ordering a huge print run of their product. In that respect, it’s basically a preorder.
However, there’s a lot of habits surrounding kickstarters that I could really do without. Arbitrary funding goals and contrived stretch goals (“we can make a game if we get funded at 40k, but now that we have 2m we can give you the game as intended all these extra bits!”), preying on FOMO, overpromising and underdelivering, launching half baked and undeveloped ideas as a kickstarter, etc. All of that just screams to me that their main goal is taking my money, instead of creating an awesome game and being solvent while doing so.
I don’t really do crowdfunding games anymore. Instead I wait until it hits retail, pick up a second hand copy if it doesn’t, or just don’t buy it. There are exceptions to this of companies I trust to deliver, but they’re few and far between.
That said, I kind of like what Cephalofair is doing with their current Gloomhaven campaign on Backerkit. It’s basically a preorder for a bunch of new products that’ll go in production soon, clear information, no extra FOMO bullshit, lots of content creation and events around the new products, and a really good deal compared to MRSP (and historically, their crowdfunding campaigns have been by far the cheapest way to get their products).
Not a fan at all.
I forget the details, but one established company who I foolishly backed on Kickstarter used the stretch goals to offload some old stock on us backers.
I only support small projects that might actually need it. Not interested in deluxe editions with giant boxes of plastic and I don’t mind waiting for retail and a good deal.
I prefer Gamefound now. Because they at least have terms for guaranteed fulfillment or you get refunded. And they have payment plans if it gets expensive (like Firefly the Game 10th anniversary).
As for established companies using them (like CMON, Celophair, etc), I suppose I don’t mind it too much because it is actually easier for me to get what I want since I don’t have a local game shop I trust to ever get these things in (I’ve tried, and they always disappoint in some way).
Companies will use platforms to their fullest advantage. Path of least resistance to maximum profit. Kickstarter and the like, provide that, and especially Kickstarter means if they don’t fulfill, there’s very little we as consumers can do about it.
