Kickstarter hate: exploring the reasons why - Nerd Age
Apr
24
24
There is quite a bit of hatred going on for Kickstarter and it’s supporters. To put it simply, the hatred falls on a lot of assumptions we are going to go over for you.
The developers did not get the joke.
Kickstarter Assumption #1: We Should Only Support Big Developers
This has been proven a plethora of times, they do not need support. They need a kick in the head. Professional developers are responsible for FIFA games and the mess that Mass Effect has devolved into. Shoddy graphics, poor coding and more are the mainstay of the “pro”. Several articles have touted promotion of big, pro developers even while quality declines among such developers.
Kickstarter Assumption #2: People Will Take the Money and Run
Embezzlement we do not hear about happens all the time. Stealing of company files happens to big developers too, it happened recently to NCsoft and Black Hole Studios. If you support this argument, you should never support any business. Any business can take your money and run. Be sure not to buy any groceries or a car either. Publix can take your money and run.
We see you hating.
Kickstarter Assumption #3: Developers Will Not be Accountable
This is perhaps the most ridiculous assumption. Who is accountable right now? EA? Activision? These companies keep appealing to the stupidest sectors of our gaming populace and ignore those who want good games. They have no sort of accountability, and do not have to pay for their mistakes. If anything Kickstarter developers are more accountable than larger companies. They not only have to get their funding to start with, but they have to keep fans happy for future games.
One Real Reason Big Sites Hate Kickstarter
Most online gaming magazines are in the pocket of big companies. They get their advertising revenue from them and other perks. Kickstarter bypasses these for many sites. As a result, it is troubling for these people who value money over journalism.
The Only Valid Criticism of Kickstarter
The only valid complaints you can levy is that big companies are now taking advantage of it. While we love Kickstarter, Double Fine had such a big following they did not even need to go there. They are now so big that they decline our interview requests. Way to forget your fans, Double Fine. Other big companies such as IGN are using it to promote their chosen people such as the Fist Puncher crew. This takes away from small developers who need help. (Note: We want to print a correction here, this probably came off as saying Fist Puncher did not do hard work. That was not how it was intended, although we can clearly see how it came off that way.)
On a Personal Level
Nerd Age is a small site, and in many ways we are the champions of the small developer. We do not take money to promote games, and we never have. We are not in the pocket of big developers like many other sites. Well, at least the semi-quality small developer. It is quite annoying to see mid-size and big sites gang up on something that helps smaller people. In many ways we are a quality smaller site.
Cool site. I think it is fair to question some of the big cheeses that are running to Kickstarter to grab cash (the real issue will be when one of these big projects just doesn’t get made). However, I have to correct your proposal that IGN is using Kickstarter to promote us (Team2Bit, AKA Team Fist Puncher). IGN has absolutely nothing to do with our Fist Puncher Kickstarter. Jake and I put our KS campaign together entirely on our own with zero outside help, resources, or involvement. We did get IGN to mention our KS in an Indie Open House press release and we did get them to have us on Up At Noon (hurrah for that!), but both of these were things that we had to propose and push for to make happen. Neither were IGN’s ideas. Essentially our entire KS media campaign has come down to Jake and I staying up all night and busting our butts to promote ourselves on Twitter, Facebook, our blog, Youtube, and through hitting every media source we can think of with emails and messages (most of the big guns ignored us). Heck, we already swallowed close to $2K during our campaign to go out to PAX East to try to promote our KS. Like everyone in the Indie Open House, we are a tiny team that is completely self-funded and does everything from art, music, coding, PR, marketing, etc. on our own. What IGN *does* provide is office space at their HQ and the opportunity to reach out to their staff and contacts (and a ton of free coffee!). They’re basically trying to provide some tools to help tiny Bay Area indie developers succeed (the same thing that you want to see happen, right?). Personally I think it’s awesome that IGN is trying to help out some local indies, but the reality of the situation is that at the end of the day the burden falls on our tiny studios to get the game development and marketing done on our own.
I think you are getting the wrong idea. We weren’t actually going for you guys with this article. And we did not intend any hard feelings towards you, although there were perhaps some implied for others. No apologies for those though. It was just that you were in our pile of press releases and we went on IGN to find a video of you. I would argue that the IGN backup is a massive part of whether your game will succeed or fail. It was not meant as a measure of your hard work, certainly. A well done game can definitely succeed regardless of who promotes it. My argument is that even some other very poorly done game could get similar funding with IGN backup. That is more than fair, right? We put something in there about our intention this time, to apologize. While we’ll stand up against anyone we feel is wrong in gaming, we don’t mean to hurt those who work hard.
No offense taken. And I know you weren’t after us. I just wanted to respond to the comment “Other big companies such as IGN are using it to promote their chosen people …” IGN is in no way whatsoever using Kickstarter or involved in Kickstarter in any way. IGN doesn’t make, publish, or help develop games. Our Kickstarter was conceived, planned, and put in motion by two guys living in Santa Cruz and involved no discussions with IGN. Does it help us that we won IGN’s Next Game Boss show? Yup. No doubt about it. But that is something that we (a 2 person team) worked hard for and earned. Will appearing on IGN’s The Next Game Boss help our game Fist Puncher succeed? It might help us get a little press (and again to clarify the press releases that you got were from us. We wrote and released those), but Fist Puncher’s success will boil down to us making a good game and not much else. The way I see it, we don’t really have “IGN backup”. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love it if we were on the IGN front page with a big message that said “Give These Guys Money! Support Their Kickstarter!” But that’s not going to happen. That’s just not how IGN rolls. We’re just two guys trying our hardest to take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way. Game Boss was one of them. IGN simply provided a platform. We worked hard and took advantage of that platform just as an indie dev should do when an opportunity arises.