Crowdfunding and Pre-E3: CoNcast Episode Seven
Since E3 is more or less underway right now, we also take a few minutes to talk about to what we're looking forward out of the show this year. Another spoiler - the cynics that make up your favorite podcasting crew are a bit "meh" on the whole thing.
Source: The CoNcast Subscription Feed, The CoNcast on iTunes
Posted in: Gaming Industry News, CoNcasts
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Rangers51 |
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| Member Since: 1997-07-31 | |
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Comments
| Glenn Magus Harvey | Comment 1: 2013-06-14 20:32 |
| Tiddles confirmed to be org. (FYI that's what the game Fortune Summoners calls what we'd typically call an ogre.) Re caring about the characters' meatspace existence, in Ready Player One: A year or two ago I read the .hack// Another Birth series of light novels, which are a take on several MMO players' quest to save a friend who's soul was trapped in the game (something like that). It follows the same storyline as the .hack// tetralogy for the PS2 but instead it gives a lot more perspective on the meatspace life of the player behind the character BlackRose, and I thought it was pretty interesting because of that. > instruction manual IF YOU NEED HELP GETTING THROUGH THE HOTELS, CHECK OUT THE ENCLOSED INSTRUCTION BOOK > Kickstarter It seems that this is basically like crowdsourced venture capitalism. And in that vein, I'm actually not really surprised that some projects have fallen apart. Actual startup companies also sometimes fall apart for reasons unrelated to funding or lack thereof. That said, one big difference is that Kickstarters are for projects, many of which are one-time things, rather than persisting things like companies and other organizations. (Of course, some Kickstarters are for things like f2p MMOs.) And I was amused at the editing. And the Fat Chocobo music. Though it was a bit hard to hear the talking. Maybe if you also let the pitch go up, rather than holding pitch constant while just upping the speed... Also, I've seen a bit of Veronica Mars. Seems like an interesting show. Couldn't keep up with the storyline because my schedule was irregular, and it was soon replaced by the various Law & Order subseries, which I could watch episodically. I didn't know that VM was getting a kickstarter, though; this is pretty cool. I have heard of Dreamfall: the Longest Journey, for what it's worth. I think this whole thing about "paying twice" for the Kickstarter investment and then the actual product is a bit of a misunderstanding rooted in our microeconomic way of thinking -- i.e. the "what do I get out of this" sense. That's because Kickstarters -- especially in those lower tiers of funding where you don't get much (e.g. you generally don't get the game, or sometimes anything at all, if you only give $1 or $5) -- have shown quite a bit of evidence that that people perceive what economics calls an "existence value" for these things -- basically, you're not going to get anything tangible (digitally or physically) out of it for yourself, but its existence (i.e. the success of the project) matters to you. (If any of y'all are economists I think you can go further and try to quantify this using concepts like "consumer surplus" and "producer surplus".) And I think it's cool that this is happening, because this connects content producers directly with their fanbase/customer base, including those people who might not want to pay the full price of (say) a game but feel that said game's existence might lead to certain results (say, more of that sort of game in the future). Also, one of the most epic Kickstarters ever is not a game, but more like a technology portrayed as a toy: the 3Doodler. And I actually don't see that much of a problem with a big-name company like Squenix using Kickstarter. Though I do understand the argument that they've been operating as a company, i.e. having the money to invest in big projects in the first place, so they ought to have the money already. > What could Squenix do to get you to get you to preorder a game from them? Allow Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes to proceed to completion, and endorse the project with official backing (like Capcom did with Street Fighter x Mega Man). (Note that official backing is not the same as canonization.) And that was a nice choice of ending music. | |
| laszlow | Comment 2: 2013-06-14 21:28 |
| For fun, here are the six KickStarter's I've backed. Project Eternity (video game, funded) I'm only peripherally familiar with PC RPGs of the late 90s and early 2000s, but I've always wanted to try one. A new game with huge support from an RPG developer I respect? Sure. Seems like a good place to start. Final Fantasy VI: Balance & Ruin (album, funded) An enormous 5-disc Final Fantasy VI remix album made by the talented men and women of OCRemix.org, with backer rewards of a FF I album, an FF IV album, an FF VII album, a Sonic the Hedgehog album, and a ****ton more options added via updates along the way. I didn't give enough for ALL of the remixed albums, but I'm happy with my investment. Discs should be coming in the mail in about three or four weeks. The Veronica Mars Movie Project (movie, funded) I'm a huge fan of the Veronica Mars television show (which I got into around 7 or 8 years ago on Neal's recommendation) and I happily backed this one. I almost broke my rule of never giving more than $99 to a KickStarter. Almost. Shovel Knight (video game, funded) This is exactly the kind of game I wanted to see on KickStarter. Original, interesting, but still reminiscent of a few of my favorite franchises (Castlevania and Mega Man in this case). The concept and trailer 100% sold me. Amusingly, none of the eight members of the Order of No Quarter share a name with a traditional Mega Man Robot Master (King from MM&B doesn't count). Penny Arcade's Downloadable Content Podcast (podcast, funded) I love podcasts, I really like Penny Arcade. Access to a new podcast of theirs sounds great. Double Fine's Massive Chalice (video game, 13 days left) Brad Muir, a developer who is one of the most likeable human beings I've ever heard in an interview, is developing a turn-based strategy game that involves a huge number of factors. Citing Final Fantasy Tactics, X-Com, and Fire Emblem as important influences. Sounds great to me. EDIT: fixed. Thanks, GMH. | |
| Glenn Magus Harvey | Comment 3: 2013-06-14 22:05 |
| Your first link goes to your profile page, rather than the Project Eternity page. Anyway, more thoughts on crowdfunding: I know that businesses have so far been (I think) built on the model of acquiring operating capital that can be invested in projects. But the crowdfunding model seems to make so much more sense than the "here's an idea, now how can we make money off of it" arrangement that's currently in use, because crowdfunding like this pays for the project before it's released. So I wouldn't be surprised if we actually start to see companies built wholly on the idea of crowdfunding, especially for projects with large up-front investments. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Mega Man 11 were crowdfunded. (I wonder if the crowdfunding model could be used for things other than entertainment media. After all, the "existence value" concept is something I learned in an environmental economics class...) | |
| laszlow | Comment 4: 2013-10-01 17:17 |
| My favorite indie development studio, Zeboyd Games, just released a KickStarter for their newest project a few hours ago: Cosmic Star Heroine. It's a retro science fiction RPG and it looks AWESOME. | |
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Caves of Narshe Version 6
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.