When is an upcoming product not all about the hype?
I think maybe these people object to marketing, not funding methods.
Indeed. In a way, Kickstarter puts a lot of small providers on an equal footing with larger entities in that it allows for the pre-release attention the small providers (who might only put out one or two things a year) would love to have and that big entities have built into their marketing with every release. So, it turns out that Kickstarter is not simply a funding source but a marketing program. Folks who want to be cautious about new products can still wait for the actual product release and for some reviews to come out. Perhaps they don't trust themselves to not succumb to the marketing? In any event, there are so many podcasts and video shows and blogs on gaming at this point, it is worthwhile for there to be more light shed on products in the many pipelines so they all have something to
kick about.
I think you're both right here. First because it was some sort of novelty and now because it is a well followed platform, Kickstarter is a really good way to market your product, even if you don't really need the funding to launch it.
And Morrus is totally right, an upcoming product is all about the hype, whether it is a game or a new type of toilet paper.
Worth pointing out, though, that the thread I referred to is all about boardgames, not RPGs, and it seems that the boardgames crowd is a lot less permissive of change than we are.
Without having done any research and purely based on that thread and this one, it seems that the way Kickstarter is shaking the way boardgames are being produced and people are not used to that sort of change. Although boardgames are becoming mainstream (and it's a matter of a little time before they go mainstream full time) the funding, production methods and channels have remained pretty much unchanged until Kickstarter came into the scene.
Now one doesn't have to have a massively deep pocket to get something off the ground. The same person doesn't have to go the publishers. And that same person can ship the games.
The RPG industry has been doing that for yonks and we are in a much direr state than the boardgames industry, so for us Kickstarter is a welcome sight and full of potential, whereas for boardgames it threatens a lot of their models.
There is something else, and this is just me being cynical, so take it with a pinch of salt: I think boardgamers are annoyed that they get left behind.
If a game comes out in Kickstarter with a rather limited print-run, it happens to be a good game and then people can't get hold of it, they feel left behind.
Of course, this also happened before Kickstarter, but because it was a lot more difficult to hear about the game, you didn't care about what you didn't know. I'm sure no one complains that they can buy Alien Frontiers, Sunrise City or Fleet now that they're everywhere, even if they came from Kickstarter projects.
Toldyou I was being cynical!
