Susan Wilson's Kickstarter discussion (split topic)

[babaganoosh13]

There is this about a 9 year old girl wanting to prove to her brothers that she can make an RPG using RPG Maker. John and Brenda Romero I guess gave her a plug.

 

It is to send her to RPG Maker camp at Towson University. She's funded, but my curiosity is piqued. I think I was about 6 or 7 when I made some (literally) basic games for my Commodore 64. Nothing like what she will make with that stuff, considering then I didn't make anything close to as good as

. My attempt at a

- type game even sucked. There went my prodigy status.

 

 

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited March 22, 2013 by babaganoosh13

[Oner]

How about I start a KS too? Give me money so I can hire professional advisor to help me find a better job. At $20 I say thanks, at $50 you get a Thank You.

Smash hit to be sure.

 

Whatever. It's cute, but I won't be pledging.

[alanschu]

If I was rich I'd totally put in 10k hahahaha

[BruceVC]

How about I start a KS too? Give me money so I can hire professional advisor to help me find a better job. At $20 I say thanks, at $50 you get a Thank You.

Smash hit to be sure.

 

Whatever. It's cute, but I won't be pledging.

I have issue with a 9 year old making a KS, I am finding it annoying. I am surprised her parents are letting her contribute to projects that  discuss adult themes. Are we now going to be bombarded with every sad or cute KS by people? For me this undermines what KS is. Seriously what does a 9 old know or understand about the design of KS projects. Let her play with her toys and at the appropriate age  and skill level she can join a development studio and get some hands on experience. Then make a KS that people can take seriously

[LadyCrimson]

I think it is cute, and well, if her parents say it's cool, why not. But yeah...I won't be pledging either. It's not what I personally want KS to be about. But it's not really that surprising that it may go this way, outside of the "bigger name" projects at least. I've seen plenty of silly or minimal concepts for KS projects long before this. It's not all about gaming, after all.

 

And y'know, I could use a new camera and a couple Canon lenses....so hey, if anyone wants to help me out with that, I'd be glad to send them a copy of every cat photo I've ever taken, in one downloadable .pdf file.

[BruceVC]

I

 

And y'know, I could use a new camera and a couple Canon lenses....so hey, if anyone wants to help me out with that, I'd be glad to send them a copy of every cat photo I've ever taken, in one downloadable .pdf file.

 

Now thats a different story, I would donate towards a cute cat project

[Hurlshort]

I started to read some of the updates about the 9-year old kickstarter, and I have a few reservations.  I wasn't going to contribute or anything, but I'm suspicious about it being a hoax.  Something doesn't seem right.

[BruceVC]

I started to read some of the updates about the 9-year old kickstarter, and I have a few reservations.  I wasn't going to contribute or anything, but I'm suspicious about it being a hoax.  Something doesn't seem right.

 

 

Hurlshot please do not fall for the "heart strings being pulled and I'm a cute kid KS"  subterfuge.

 

I agree it doesn't seem right,  I was genuinely worried you were going to tell us you felt that your $100  was going to  a good RPG in development

 

Phewwww...stress over for me

[Labadal]

I started to read some of the updates about the 9-year old kickstarter, and I have a few reservations.  I wasn't going to contribute or anything, but I'm suspicious about it being a hoax.  Something doesn't seem right.

 

They had another kickstarter for something else that failed. They asked for $20.000 for that one.

[LadyCrimson]

 

I started to read some of the updates about the 9-year old kickstarter, and I have a few reservations.  I wasn't going to contribute or anything, but I'm suspicious about it being a hoax.  Something doesn't seem right.

 

They had another kickstarter for something else that failed. They asked for $20.000 for that one.

*looks*

 

Hahaha....velvet superhero capes. If you had donated $25, a terrycloth cape! Donate $1000 and 4 deluxe velvet/silk capes! Hahaha.

[Hurlshort]

That doesn't make me feel any better about the campaign.  

[Oner]

One of the red flags for me was the KS pitch being written as if said by a 9 year old, but clearly written by an adult.

[rjshae]

There is this about a 9 year old girl wanting to prove to her brothers that she can make an RPG using RPG Maker. John and Brenda Romero I guess gave her a plug.

 

It is to send her to RPG Maker camp at Towson University. She's funded, but my curiosity is piqued. I think I was about 6 or 7 when I made some (literally) basic games for my Commodore 64. Nothing like what she will make with that stuff, considering then I didn't make anything close to as good as

. My attempt at a

- type game even sucked. There went my prodigy status.

 

The writing seems a little too polished for a 9-year-old. Hmm...

 

Ach, Oner beat me to it.

Edited March 22, 2013 by rjshae

[Labadal]

That doesn't make me feel any better about the campaign.  

 

That was the point I was trying to make, lol. I completely agree with everything you said about this project.

[LadyCrimson]

To be fair, she could be a genuine, soccer-mom sort who simply doesn't think/plan before leaping, vs. being a hoax/scam or something. But no thank you, just the same.

[Tigranes]

Of course the video, KS description, and everything else was done by the mother and/or other adults. There's zero doubt about that, and anyone who believes otherwise I would like to introduce to my Nigerian prince friend. That doesn't necessarily make the KS a hoax or immoral, as long as the money goes towards exactly what they promised. 

 

I would never fund this, but that's because (1) the family can obviously afford to support her, (2) if the point was for the kid to learn entrepreneurship, then not writing any of it herself or even appearing in the video means she isn't going to learn much as she hasn't really participated, (3) shoehorned gender schtick, yawn. It doesn't need to be a fake for it to be unappealing.

[Humanoid]

Perhaps sort of like that webcomic Axecop. Except for the whole "we need cash" thing obviously.

[alanschu]

Perhaps sort of like that webcomic Axecop. Except for the whole "we need cash" thing obviously.

 

Axecop's gun bill is really high.

[Oner]

Of course the video, KS description, and everything else was done by the mother and/or other adults. There's zero doubt about that, and anyone who believes otherwise I would like to introduce to my Nigerian prince friend. That doesn't necessarily make the KS a hoax or immoral, as long as the money goes towards exactly what they promised. 

 

I would never fund this, but that's because (1) the family can obviously afford to support her, (2) if the point was for the kid to learn entrepreneurship, then not writing any of it herself or even appearing in the video means she isn't going to learn much as she hasn't really participated, (3) shoehorned gender schtick, yawn. It doesn't need to be a fake for it to be unappealing.

To me it's more like they try to act cute to make you pledge money, which is just lame, hoax or not. Give them money because the girl is cute and the brothers are mean?

 

Also, they let their 9 year old daughter play Dragon Age II? Doesn't necessarily make them bad parents, but I'm wary.

[duskwind]

To be fair, she could be a genuine, soccer-mom sort who simply doesn't think/plan before leaping

She's a millionaire entrepreneur. And while the original goal could still potentially have been innocent enough, there's absolutely no justification for it getting to more than two thousand percent funded! She should be shutting it down, not adding higher reward tiers.

[babaganoosh13]

I thought she owned a clothing screening/embroidery store or something. Every tier from $15- under $100 are physical tiers that seemed to be an excuse to sell some swag. I mean, after the additional Kickstarter/Amazon fees, cost of materials/screening and shipping, I would bet more money would have been left over to go towards the cost of the camp from the $10 tier, than many of those other ones below $100. I'm assuming there will be a whole bunch of generic towns folk in there. A better idea would have been to name one of them for a few bucks a pop (rather than $100+.) I can buy a customized book with all of my kids names in it for a lot less than that. That 10K tier is just wrong.

 

Hopefully they do something good with all of that extra money. Maybe pay for other girls to attend the camp who couldn't ordinarily afford it, and buy them their own copies of RPG Maker, it it doesn't automatically come with the camp.

[LadyCrimson]

I thought she owned a clothing screening/embroidery store or something.

She has/had some entrepreneurial business that had projected 2008 funds of millions, according to CNN Money. Of course, projected isn't the same as realized, and that was back in 2007-2009, just before/while the US economy totally tanked. Haven't seen info on anything more recent yet. Regardless, as Tig said, it seems fairly likely that at the least, she could probably still afford to send her kid to RPG-camp on her own.

[TSBasilisk]

Apparently, she has her own female-only crowd-funding site.

 

So, considering her project is apparently violating several Kickstrater rules, here's how I imagine things may turn out:

 

1.) Project is cancelled by Kickstarter for blatant violations

2.) She wails to the many places she's been spamming that Kickstarter doesn't want girls to succeed

3.) She promotes her female-only crowd-funding site to counter the evils of Kickstarter and boys

4.) Her sons never call or visit for Christmas

 

---

 

In other Kickstarter news, The Dark Triad: Dragon's Death Kickstarter was cancelled. Between Shroud, Torment, PAX, GDC, issues with NA/UK pledges, and flubbing the pitch, the dev team decided they needed to go over their material and give it a clean start. They've also apparently decided to reduce the planned scope of their map, and thus their required goal, to make the pitch more reasonable.

 

For now, they're opening an IndieGoGo campaign.

Edited March 25, 2013 by TSBasilisk

[babaganoosh13]

It wouldn't be so bad to me, if it doesn't come across as a millionaire asking me for money to send their kid to school when you look into it. Heck, I wouldn't mind supporting it otherwise. If someone at work, or one of my parents friends/coworkers asked me to do it for their daughter, I would.

 

I think a big part of why the Richard Garriotts', Peter Molyneuxs', Joe Ybarras'... kickstarters have a hard time getting funded is because it is perceived that they have boat loads of money, and they don't need to use kickstarter to fund their games.

 

Ahhh classism.

 

EDIT: In the case of Garriott and Molyneux, it took a lot longer than one would think for a new Ultima and Populous successor, and isn't exactly raking it in even like what Shadowrun did.

Edited March 25, 2013 by babaganoosh13

[Hurlshort]

I am skeptical and dislike the whole 9 year old kickstarter as well, but I don't know where you guys are getting the impression she is a millionaire.  Everything about it looks like a typical middle class family.  I make low six figures, and $850 is not and easy amount to come up with after all my bills and necessary expenses. 

 

She looks like a stay at home mom who took a few business classes on her GI bill.  I guess you've got to give her credit for being really diligent about crowdfunding.  But I just don't like to see it used this way.  I've used donorschoose.org for my classroom to buy materials, and that raises just enough to cover the item or expense.