Does one of the guys T’s say “Think I’m Lesbian”?
Kickstarter is Pinterest with bigger numbers and more tech. Scams, money grabs, crap projects with insane budget requests, big companies hitting it up on already established games that dont need it and the indie flake train that never seems to end flock to kickstarter.
I’ve seen several really great projects there, but they’re also getting scrutinized unfortunately, and even after using KS still need to do a ton of marketing to pull through. Just disappointed in where it’s gone recently.
I can see where the anger comes from but:
- Every project on Kickstarter trys to exploit its system to: make money.
- Success of a project is proportional to the sympathy of the backers and not to the quality or honesty of the idea.
This kickstarter has nothing to do with game making. It’s about the kid. And of course this kickstarter is more successfull then most indie games:
- Percentage of kickstarter users which are gamers and would consider backing a game: Low.
- Percentage of kickstarter users which like kids or even are parents themselves: High.
Its simple… most people would spend money to help out a little kid but wouldn’t spend money on “another random indie game”.
Hahaha, are some of you people seriously defending what is a actual abuse of more than half the kickstarter rules?
The father ‘has collected comics since he was a child – which means we have stacks of pristine white boxes filled with comics in plastic sleeves hidden in a closet.’ why don’t these parents sell a few of those to raise the money to send their kid on this trip?
Why spend your money when someone else is willing to spend their money for you.
This kickstarter is extra cool. I’m supporting it. No Joke.
It’s not “cool”, it’s a scam and a violation of the ToS. There’s actually valid reasons to question whether or not this daughter even exists considering shit like this.
The entire thing was written by the mother, who now has one of her friends calling people who disagree with the project “misogynists” on Twitter. Not only that, but the mother CLEARLY has the money to put her daughter into this program on her own. This is a complete disgrace to kickstarter and crowdfunding in general, especially considering how overfunded it is.
Let them be, resistance is futile.
Support kickstarter or don’t, but there’s no need for a big drama.
fraud
/frôd/
Noun
Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
That kickstater project screams it, just look at the facts as posted before: http://h13.abload.de/img/1364168115669gafg5.png (The one reply on the project page has the same image / photo as that of the “Fortune top 10 individual” if that’s even true to begin with 
Won’t abandon the site, just these sorts of projects are getting out of hand.
Even if everything about this Kickstarter is completely, 100% legitimate - it’s still a clear violation of the terms of service. I’ll be very surprised if it’s not removed before ending, especially considering how much it’s blowing up on sites like Reddit (bad PR for Kickstarter is bad PR for thousands of business).
How is it a violation of the TOS?
- Funding for projects only.
Check - it’s a game.
- Projects must fit Kickstarter’s categories.
Check - it’s a game.
- Prohibited uses: No charity or cause funding. No “fund my life” projects. No prohibited uses (pornography, etc).
Check - it’s an RPG game.
Looks like it passes all of the Terms of Service.
Wrong. It’s for a camp.
Wrong again.
No, it doesn’t because you didn’t actually look at what the project was or apparently how that applied to the ToS.
Try looking at the image someone actually posted.
http://h13.abload.de/img/1364168115669gafg5.png
Sorry, that’s blocked where I am at. What does it show? That the family is eating caviar out of diamond-encrusted glasses whilst driving around in Lamborghini’s? Or a bunch of college boys posting the kickstarter while laughing about the fools that back it?
At face value, the kickstarter looks good to me. A 9 year old is making a game with her mom, due to be delivered in June. So it will be bad, I could care less.
It shows that the mum is a “Fortune Top Ten Entrepreneur”, whatever that is, runs $100 million companies, makes millions off domain squatting and buys $1,700 shoes. Yet needs to start a kickstarter to send her kid on a $829 training camp and buy a laptop. The image also clearly points out how she is violating Kickstarter’s terms of use.
It actually shows that she’s wealthy, owns her own crowdfunding website for ONLY FEMALES. (Why not use that? I mean part of her reason for this is to get more females into STEM).
The kick starter and all the proof gathered screams abuse. It’s just too much to list. She’s abusing gender issues to get funding for this project and I love how she is exploiting her sons for her 9 year old daughters benefit.
Just enough to fund the mothers failed kickstarter from last year for making capes
Really not sure about this. On the one hand I applaud young people getting into game development and being constructive with their time, on the other this seems somewhat exploitive in so many ways (pulling on heart strings, sympathy etc). What will make it worse for those who see this as having no place on kickstarter is that it will likely end up hugely over funded due to both of these points.
Of course we should expect a flood of similar kickstarters in the next few days (unless KS change there T C) and a backlash against them. It would be tempting to see this as a ‘beginning of the end’ of kickstarter, but I doubt that will happen. I’ve always felt there is a natural balance in KS, so whilst some ‘kid’ projects will be funded, sometimes way in excess of their goal, the majority will simply fail.
This is one case where I have a feeling KS will have to make a change to their T&C as it could be seen to make a mockery of their aims and T&C. No one would deny this kid the opportunity to go to camp to make an RPG, or that its a creative use of KS and for that reason despite the apparently accurate claims that the T&C have already be broken many times I doubt it will be pulled.
However the potentially exploitive nature of such a Kickstarter (even if people are happy to pledge) would I think suggest a change needed for T&C. For example the mother had one for making capes last year, she raised $450 on a $20k goal, whilst her daughter has raised $21k in a few days of a $900 goal. Does that mean projects from now on will tag on a child (if appropriate) to garner additional attention or sympathy? A simple change such as a limit to the goal (and no over-funding) for anything related to a child/children being directly funded, but note I do mean directly, I do not mean for the funding of projects that benefit children.
Then again i’m kinda of surprised this got through the approvals process in the first place, since I would guess the age limit for creators was put in place for exactly this situation (and others). Although they get around it by having them as a co-creator I would have thought this went against the spirit of the T&C and would have thus been flagged?
I’d like to say that this is a questionable project, when compared to what you would expect on KS, but really its not (ignoring braking of current T&C). Pledges are still receiving a product at the end and though I doubt it will be very good, questionable value of a product has always been allowed. People are free to pledge to whatever cause/project they like, its their money, neither us nor KS have any responsibility to prevent them, other than clearly fraudulent projects. Other popular projects exceed their goals too, so that shouldn’t be a problem either.
Yet ultimately something just doesn’t sit properly with me about this.
Will be very interesting to see what happens, what Kickstarter does, if anything, how many similar projects crop up in the next week or so (how long does it take for approval?) etc.
Read the highest pledge you can make and tell me your opinion on that. And I agree with all of the things you said. But that pledge is the exact opposite of what kickstarter is about(Not to mention that is 10x the amount she originally wanted).