Kickstarters I have known and/or loved
I've backed over 100 kickstarters and, not unsurprisingly, spent over one thousand dollars doing so over the last ~2 years. I don't expect anyone is actually interested in every kickstarter I've back, but I'm going to try and write a little bit about them all, flaws and all. Perhaps we'll discover interesting trends besides what I've noticed! And I'll probably be encouraged to play all the games I've back and never played. :)
I recently wasn't backing any kickstarters and didn't notice. This is only the second time that's been true since I started this all, and last time it made me feel all weird and unhappy. This time I didn't notice. This is probably better. I really love helping people produce cool things and live their dreams outside mainstream methods, which can really enforce dominant sorts of voices and not encourage diversity, so backing kickstarters really makes me feel happy, and that's why I'll back some for low amounts and no reward - I want my friends to see it on my backed list, and to up their numbers a little.
If you want my advice after all this kickstartering, it's this:
(1) No kickstarter is a guarantee or preorder. Treat it accordingly. You are investing in a (varingly) risky venture! Don't put any money if you can't afford to lose.
(2) Never look at dates. If you need something by a specific date, do *not* use kickstarter. If you never look at dates and so never expect things to be "on time" you will (almost certainly) be so much happier. I see creators begging people to stop being horrible to them because they, like hundreds of kickstarters before them, are stuck in customs limbo or can't communicate with Chinese suppliers, and I can't imagined what entitled jerks their backers are. Sure, some kickstarters squander resources and are jerks, but I have *never* seen that happen and I do have a decent sample size (though as we will see, it is limited to a few wedges of the kickstarter project type pie).
If you follow those two suggestions, I think it will really eliminate the majority of angst I see.
I'm intending to go chronologically, but here's a link to the only active one I've got, a horror tabletop roleplaying game. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shiftyginger/ten-candles-a-tragic-horror-storytelling-game
Trying out crossposting from dreamwidth! http://laura47.dreamwidth.org/1060496.html
I recently wasn't backing any kickstarters and didn't notice. This is only the second time that's been true since I started this all, and last time it made me feel all weird and unhappy. This time I didn't notice. This is probably better. I really love helping people produce cool things and live their dreams outside mainstream methods, which can really enforce dominant sorts of voices and not encourage diversity, so backing kickstarters really makes me feel happy, and that's why I'll back some for low amounts and no reward - I want my friends to see it on my backed list, and to up their numbers a little.
If you want my advice after all this kickstartering, it's this:
(1) No kickstarter is a guarantee or preorder. Treat it accordingly. You are investing in a (varingly) risky venture! Don't put any money if you can't afford to lose.
(2) Never look at dates. If you need something by a specific date, do *not* use kickstarter. If you never look at dates and so never expect things to be "on time" you will (almost certainly) be so much happier. I see creators begging people to stop being horrible to them because they, like hundreds of kickstarters before them, are stuck in customs limbo or can't communicate with Chinese suppliers, and I can't imagined what entitled jerks their backers are. Sure, some kickstarters squander resources and are jerks, but I have *never* seen that happen and I do have a decent sample size (though as we will see, it is limited to a few wedges of the kickstarter project type pie).
If you follow those two suggestions, I think it will really eliminate the majority of angst I see.
I'm intending to go chronologically, but here's a link to the only active one I've got, a horror tabletop roleplaying game. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shiftyginger/ten-candles-a-tragic-horror-storytelling-game
Trying out crossposting from dreamwidth! http://laura47.dreamwidth.org/1060496.html