ItchyBarracuda

I see no distinction between Sega and a bad company

Pssh, I'm going to buy 1 for myself and another 4 as a financial investment.

Also, to build on what I was quoted on in this article, the idea of Kickstarter has noble intentions, no doubt. The problem is when it comes down to it, the service really is "begging" in the 21st century. You can entice people to "donate" with the prospect of receiving something in return.

I remember when I was in film school a bunch of classmates started Kickstarter pages thinking someone would give a damn about student film projects, from film students who were dirt poor. They had nothing to offer and absolutely nothing to justify asking for the amounts they needed in the space of time required. It isn't fundraising, it's begging, with the prospect of POSSIBLE "rewards" for the donaters that may or may not be fulfilled.

I think that's the main area open for discussion. Success is measured by one's drive. Think of all the people that worked hard for what they accomplished, related to ANYTHING in life. Why the hell should anyone pay attention to the tens of thousands of people pouring into this site now essentially asking for the same thing under the same pretenses?

Secondly, there is no REAL confirmation of how the money will be used, or where it will be allocated to (persons, etc). You could set up the most elaborate hoax and walk off a bloody millionaire. It's amazing to me people will throw money at stuff like this so blindly. I can understand raising money in a traditional way like community projects or meet and greets etc, but it is positively perplexing that anything without some kind of pre-established following (Schafer, Cipher Prime etc) expects ANYTHING to come of a page like this, let alone that anyone actually donates under these pretenses.

Wow, I was quoted in an editorial. I feel special.

Thanks Joystiq!

Kickstarter is a sure fire way to fail in the long run. Too many people with too many projects they "believe in" begging for money creates the YouTube effect. So many people flooding a gateway with "plz we need monies 4 project" and then half the time the "reward" for giving different "levels" of donations are increasingly pathetic.

I understand it's the only viable means for a lot of people at certain points but to be the main focal point of how you operate your business is suicide, seriously. The site is a fad that, once used and abused by enough people overrunning it with projects no one could give a damn about, how do you make yourself stand on consistently?

Occasionally we have the fluke money bombs like for Psychonauts 2, but it's because of a motivated, established following. You'd be hard pressed to have that from the get go in most cases.

Man I'm just gonna rage if it doesn't ever come out. There might as well be a massive quake if it doesn't so the world can face it's doom.

@Zimmy I think you misunderstood what I was saying. This isn't a question of "amount sold", and considering how new this property is (despite how old the franchise of Spyro itself is). Secondly I find it hilarious you think I wasn't alive when Pokemon became big. I was 8 when it reached boiling point (1998). I was part of the percentage that represented that spending craze, everything from 1st editions of entire card collections to every single game ever released (up until the time I turned 12).

The point I was making is that a company has managed to appeal to a similar sort of niche that will likely grow over a period of time, just like Pokemon did. Pokemon did not sell "30 million" over night. The fact that Skylanders is what you can call a completely new IPO and franchise despite the character's history and has sold this much in the space of time it's been out for the price, it's phenomenal.

I've stated it's merely managed to replicate a similar formula that has resonated with it's target audience, something company's spend millions in market research and investment alone to understand if a product is a viable venture to attempt to make return on the initial investment.

A company finally did it, it struck gold. They have created this generation's Pokemon, who would have guessed this would be it?

I just checked, it has an overall 1 star on the App Store xD

Keep it up guys

I think the main point that no one mentions is that despite the developers pouring their heart and soul into trying to connect the experience to the player on a deeper level, like physically imagining themselves right there, connected to the events of the game, they miss the point that the majority of people that play games have absolutely no capacity to invest themselves in something that allows them to vicariously live through a fictitious person's actions and escape reality for a few hours, without any consequence.

It's the "what if" factor that brings people back, because there are no repercussions in the game world. Why was GTA so popular? Because you got to do outrageous things that in real life are viewed as quite honestly insane and completely unacceptable. It's merely a gateway to the "what if" for the majority of people accessing games, and that's why there won't ever be a successful, all encompassing attempt at this type of storytelling unless the individual themselves WANTS to become engrossed in the experience.

I remember when people thought Bioshock was this shocking when making the choice for Little Sisters. The problem was that after the 3rd or 4th time of seeing the same cutscene, you were already desensitized to the impact of the action. It just became the same thing over and over and made no impression on the player. It had the right idea but for the impact to stay the same some things should be varied in how they play out at the least.