Question for kickstarter backers

[Hooplah]

...Anyway, will you still feel that you are owed more than the rest of us plebs when you are not contributing to the development costs?

I don't know how one would think this in so many ways. It is not kickstarters versus plebs. Kickstarters just per the more time in-game have also provided more contributions than later arrivals as they backed the beginnings of the game with real money and are still here years later playing, reporting bugs, testing Beta and contributing to the Forum.

Kickstarters did not get the expansions for free. My cost for Beta and the Lifetime Expansion Pass ($75) was $163.48 USD...Of course that also included a pin badge and a T-Shirt! Still it will take a number of seasons to balance that out. Meanwhile Frontier has honored the deal and continues to do so. That is a fair arrangement and I have no issues with it. Those that do are usually about not being able to purchase the Lifetime Expansions. As it looks that will probably not be offered again.

Meanwhile I've so far spent 653£ ($816) supporting ED directly not including computer, controllers or a recently purchase PS4 Pro for the upcoming ED release. This combined with the numerous bugs that I've reported in 2.3 Beta I'd say this Kickstarter is definitely supporting the game.

 

[amigacooke]

It will take more seasons than three for me to be in a better position than those who have bought retail.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

So what everyone else said but I'll just point out as Robert has that Elite has sold over 2million units (whatever they class as units) <- I think this is right, it was 1.4mil in Jan 2016 and 1.7mil in Jul 2016.

Kickstarter had a total of 25,681 backers (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous). They now make up 1.28% of the people who have bought the game. Taking just the 6000 that Robert indicates got the lifetime pass and lets say an additional 6000 bought the Lifetime pass (as I did) post launch - being generous, it's probably closer to 3000.
Thats still a total of 0.6% of players that won't be buying updates which is a tiny amount by comparison. I'd bet the number of people who have bought but never fired the game up probably comes close to that..

And I tend to find the lifetime pass owners are the ones that spend most on cosmetics and other stuff as they contain a lot of the biggest fans who brought the game into being.



The answer to the question in the OP: I feel entitled to what I purchased, the lifetime of updates until the game ceases development. I bought that for £130 on top of the £40 base game at a huge risk. Elite could have bombed and never released past season 1, it could still decide not to progress after season 2. And I'd have not had any chance of a refund or even been able to post a rant. I knew what I'd bought and the risk that came with.

I do continue to support development by buying certain paintjobs (probably spent about £40 on extras over the 2.5 years I've been here, I could check for an exact figure. I also bought a 2nd account in the sale, still need to get Horizons for that acc.). I also contribute in a infinitesimally small way by doing my best to help others here, on reddit and also join in with the community at places like Lavecon and in some player groups.

At the end of the day I purchased a product and I feel entitled to exactly that, what it said on the store page when I pressed "buy", nothing more. I got a "deal" because I was in effect gambling on the games future.

 

[LKx]

Anyway, will you still feel that you are owed more than the rest of us plebs when you are not contributing to the development costs?

Yes, and you should feel bad for not being a backer.

Spoiler

 

[Komemiute]

Ok, the website states funds were a little shy of 1.5mil so on average the 6,000 may have paid about £140? (I think that's a pretty generous figure), lifetime pass plus a load of other stuff including pushing their agenda.
Money well spent but still won't mean a thing without lots of others paying for the expansions

Which is why many here are buying Vanity items and whatnot from the Store. So?

 

[Kyokushin]

Anyway, will you still feel that you are owed more than the rest of us plebs when you are not contributing to the development costs?

How do you know what we are contributing? Can you check our bank accounts?

 

[starman]

For me a mystery is the big difference between the SC and ED funds raised. Is the explanation due to the 'size' or the local market? Or how it was marketed. Its always a niche game. Frontier IPOd to raise further funds and is now subject to the usual shareholder demands for 'profits' and market speculations on future4 earnings. Obviously there are pressure to diversify its gaming portfolio and PC goes after the Minecraft crowd. What is a bit of a paradox is the general Frontier philosophy on what a video game should be. ED and PC are to ends of the spectrum ie Violent or non violent gameplay.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Ok, the website states funds were a little shy of 1.5mil so on average the 6,000 may have paid about £140? (I think that's a pretty generous figure), lifetime pass plus a load of other stuff including pushing their agenda.
Money well spent but still won't mean a thing without lots of others paying for the expansions

The 5,681 backers at £80 or over pledged £947,315 (60%) of the £1,578,316 total, an average of about £161.

Remember, it was Frontier's decision to offer the Digital Download Pack (and subsequent LEPs), not the backers / players.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

For me a mystery is the big difference between the SC and ED funds raised. Is the explanation due to the 'size' or the local market? Or how it was marketed. Its always a niche game. Frontier IPOd to raise further funds and is now subject to the usual shareholder demands for 'profits' and market speculations on future4 earnings. Obviously there are pressure to diversify its gaming portfolio and PC goes after the Minecraft crowd. What is a bit of a paradox is the general Frontier philosophy on what a video game should be. ED and PC are to ends of the spectrum ie Violent or non violent gameplay.

Bit of everything but mainly Local market. There's a huge demand for shooter games at the moment, anything that's similar to COD or Battlefield or whatever. Star Citizen went for the jugular and said were going to have a totally integrated space FPS combat game and it'll also be about flying a space ship.

Then it went up and up adding stretch goals until it promised to be the game of all games (more or less). Having physical things in game that people can buy (ships) helped a lot. Then all this contributed to marketing as it's easier to market a game when it breaks records like highest game kickstarter ever and stuff like that.



Frontier stated back then that the Kickstarter was a bonus to them, they could have started and released the game themselves and not used kickstarter, but it'd not have been anywhere near the game we have today. They said that their main intent was to gauge interest and use it for projections as well as reward the early customers and build some hype.
Not having the FPS at launch was the biggest difference imo. The non-PvP focus (it's there but not the main selling point) means a lot of people who play the aforementioned hit AAA games like COD/Battlefield won't even give it a glance.


In short pretty much all of what you said.

 

[Cmdr-Wotherspoon]

I'm a Kickstarter backer, but I didn't pledge for the lifetime expansions. I have a lot of respect for those who had sufficient faith in the project to pledge those higher amounts - there was no guarantee that the game would be a success (see the Star Citizen debacle for a reference).

We are all supporters of Elite: Dangerous. Frontier Developments has sold a number of different packages to backers and then purchasers. It knew what it was doing, and has made a commercial and critical success of the game. Let's celebrate that success.

 

[Komemiute]

I'm a Kickstarter backer, but I didn't pledge for the lifetime expansions. I have a lot of respect for those who had sufficient faith in the project to pledge those higher amounts - there was no guarantee that the game would be a success (see the Star Citizen debacle for a reference).

We are all supporters of Elite: Dangerous. Frontier Developments has sold a number of different packages to backers and then purchasers. It knew what it was doing, and has made a commercial and critical success of the game. Let's celebrate that success.

True this, hindsight is 100% right all the time. Sometimes it's easy to forget that...

 

[dayrth]

Yes. I am entitled to EVERYTHING, and I want it NOW!

Seriously though. I am a premium beta backer with LEP. I have since bought a second account and I pay for the expansions on that one. I have bought merch and extras for both accounts. I believe that entitles me to the right to play the game and maybe make a suggestion or two on the forums. Nothing else.

 

[KING5TON]

As a KS backer I agree that we shouldn't get preferential treatment but as a KS backer I might know a thing or two that none KS backers don't know due to being around a long time so I might refer to being a KS backer in a discussion when length of involvement is a salient point.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Backed pretty early on day one, apparently I was Backer 1500 odd, I had to get the kids to school and head into work before I could pledge £100.

I pledged at that level because it was as much as I could afford, I've followed FD for a long while, I wanted the projuect to succeed and It's a game I'd wanted for a very long time.

The expansion pass has been very useful but it wasn't a consideration when I pledged.

I don't feel I am owned anything and irrespective of when and how much you've spent on the game we're all the same.

So, attempting to create a division between what you see as different tiers/levels etc between KS backers and as you call it "plebs" isn't really very productive.

Whenever or however we paid for the game is not the issue, we all enjoy the game...well most of us do.

 

[Bobbydylan]

Feeling owed? I guess. I mean, I paid £200 for alpha access and a litefime pass. So, yeah, I guess I do feel owed.
When I buy a 1/2 chicken at Nandoes, I also feel owed a half chicken to be delivered to my table.

 

[JeffRyan]

I pledged more than I'd get away with now with a wife and a kid , but no I'm not 'owed' anything. Though I'd like to see the Founder's thing be an actual thing. I don't think many of us feel EffDev owes us. We backed the project out of love.

PS. I still contribute, paintjobs and the store.

 

[Jason S]

Ok the 80 GBP KS option was a very good deal.

The DDF was a bad deal I think.

Naming your star was a bad deal given how many there are in my opinion.

Being an early adopter can mean risk but a big upside if you are lucky. Bitcoin shows that.

 

[Rob At Work]

ENTITLEMENT ! - that's the problem (IMO).

We make payment and we feel entitled to something. If it's not clear we add our own. Problem of course is, if your backing a development you are backing someones vision/expectation, and just like a race horse, there are hurdles to overcome and it may not win. Disappointment then sets in and all the emotions that go with it.

 

[dayrth]

Backed pretty early on day one, apparently I was Backer 1500 odd....

I didn't know you could find out your backer number. I went and looked mine up, backer number 675

ENTITLEMENT ! - that's the problem (IMO).

We make payment and we feel entitled to something. If it's not clear we add our own. Problem of course is, if your backing a development you are backing someones vision/expectation, and just like a race horse, there are hurdles to overcome and it may not win. Disappointment then sets in and all the emotions that go with it.

When I payed I wanted a game that would bring back the feeling I had when I first played the original on my BBC B in 1984. That game just blew me away back then. Luckily for me I got exactly that. I guess my expectations were lower than some peoples, but for me it was all about how the game would make me feel rather than specific mechanics, features etc. I have to say I was not one bit disappointed. Here I am more than two years later and I still feel the same.

 

[babelfisch]

And I don't have a problem with kickstarters getting them for free, it's just the regular posts about I paid a nominal amount and now I'm entitled

These posts don't exist though. At least not regularly. Or just in your imagination. What's wrong with you that you feel the need to make this stuff up?