Star Citizen: Not even there yet, but still selling strong.

[mvgulik]

Wow. How to make money with a game ... that's not even really there yet.

Keep selling promises ... before the game is out. (Actually nothing new of course, Vatican City is build by it.)

Anyway ... Warning: Long read ...
wired: fans-dropped-77m-guys-buggy-half-built-game (2015/03)


Selling pre-beta slots to H&H-2 might have been a good, although a bit devious, Aprils fools yoke.

[TeckXKnight]

This horrifies me but doesn't surprise me. For as long as we literally buy into promises, there will be people more than happy to take our money. I really wish there was some form of accountability with crowdsourcing though.

[overtyped]

Wow. How to make money with a game ... that's not even really there yet.

Keep selling promises ... before the game is out. (Actually nothing new of course, Vatican City is build by it.)

Anyway ... Warning: Long read ...
wired: fans-dropped-77m-guys-buggy-half-built-game (2015/03)


Selling pre-beta slots to H&H-2 might have been a good, although a bit devious, Aprils fools yoke.

Speaking of false promises, does anyone remember trials of ascension? they have been scamming people since 2002. They have scammed people out of 60,000 dollars most recently on their website, but who knows how much more they've gained. I bitch about this because it's right before my eyes, but I know the 1% has been fucking people over way worse.

[Saxony4]

Elite Dangerous is better and less of a massive cash grab


I mean seriously, who pays 200 bucks for a space ship in a game?

[TeckXKnight]

I mean seriously, who pays 200 bucks for a space ship in a game?

$2,500*
Apparently 200 people do.

[mvgulik]

I really wish there was some form of accountability with crowdsourcing though.

I'm not sure what rules currently are in place, as I have not kept up with crowdsourcing in general. But to me there seems also something to say for low or no accountability when there is/was no foul play in the demise of a project.

The thing to me is that:
1) Crowdsourcing allows for projects that otherwise would not even have seen the light of day.
2) Accountability can be a killer when it comes to imagination.

And judging and proofing potential foul play can be a difficult and slippery slope.

Tricky stuff I think.
With Star Citizen being a case where I start to wonder where all that money is actually going to.

(Elite: I would pick Ian Bell over David Braben any day of the week. There is just some thing about that Braben guy that makes me distrust him with a passion. Actually, ... I love hating the guy. )

[Arcanist]

Despite those caveats, all 200 Javelins sold out. In less than a minute.

It looks like a really good way to launder $77M, what's the problem?

[TeckXKnight]

This is true, I hadn't even thought about that. As a money laundering operation it's genius.

[loftar]

I really wish there was some form of accountability with crowdsourcing though.

I would be quite surprised if it weren't possible to sue a fraudulent project for "bad faith" or whatever the US legal term is, if you can make the case that they never even intended to fulfill their end of the bargain.

[LadyV]

I really wish there was some form of accountability with crowdsourcing though.

I would be quite surprised if it weren't possible to sue a fraudulent project for "bad faith" or whatever the US legal term is, if you can make the case that they never even intended to fulfill their end of the bargain.

There is but most who scam like that end up releasing something even if utterly horrible so they can say we tried. The problem with such laws is they never judge intent in most cases. They judge did they attempt to provide the service the promised. So in most cases just releasing something gets them out of legal prosecution. Law is still trying to catch up to the digital age.