General / Off-Topic Are Kickstarters ethical?

[Zak Gordon]

Yes but my question wasn't really centred around that. A project failing isn't an ethics question. 30 years ago if a company wanted to fund a project they would have to raise capital either through the normal course of business or a share issue, giving investors a stake in the ownership of the company with voting rights (ie the company is accountable to investors). It feels like they've found a way now to convince you it's legitimate to ask for a handout without offering accountability in return.

Well you may have also noticed a sharp increase in people sleeping rough and beggers in the streets over this last 30 years also? Times are tough.

As a separate issue to the above i LIKE the idea that i can help fund a game that a traditional publisher would not. In the era of console AAA dominance, where only massive franchise fps games rule, it has been refreshing to see other types of game come out of the kickstarter phenomenon and all the stuff that gets released on places like Steam etc and the whole 'early access' thing.

Sure not everything is perfect, but we have had some gems over these years since kickstarter first arose as a method to fund games.

 

[Demascus]

Well that was the most mental thing I've read all week.

Your welcome

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Well you may have also noticed a sharp increase in people sleeping rough and beggers in the streets over this last 30 years also? Times are tough.

As a separate issue to the above i LIKE the idea that i can help fund a game that a traditional publisher would not. In the era of console AAA dominance, where only massive franchise fps games rule, it has been refreshing to see other types of game come out of the kickstarter phenomenon and all the stuff that gets released on places like Steam etc and the whole 'early access' thing.

Sure not everything is perfect, but we have had some gems over these years since kickstarter first arose as a method to fund games.

This kind of goes back to something I mentioned earlier. Would folk say Kickstarter was devised for the small 1 or 2 man band projects rather than multi million quid projects? Perhaps the way things have gone was not really what the person who divided KSer had in mind

 

[metatheurgist]

This kind of goes back to something I mentioned earlier. Would folk say Kickstarter was devised for the small 1 or 2 man band projects rather than multi million quid projects? Perhaps the way things have gone was not really what the person who divided KSer had in mind

I think the guy who devised KS thought he could make a buck by providing a platform for people to sell their ideas. He didn't think large companies would try to sell multi million dollar ideas and that people would be dumb enough to pony up the money but he ain't turning down the green, it's all the same color.

Did I make a post about that earlier? Oh, yes I did.

This is pretty much the entire reason companies exist. What's sad is how much we let them get away with.

 

[znôrt]

Yes but my question wasn't really centred around that.

yes, your concern seems to be lack of accountability, and no answer so far seemed to address this.

but in fact there is some accountability, at least in kickstarter. project owners are required to complete the project and deliver as promised. if they can't they are bound by the terms of service to explain and refund. if they don't, they risk their reputation and being sued by the backers. now, ks themselves don't take much responsibility, and tos might not have the legal weight of a bond issue, but they provide a way to clarify expectations vs actual delivery for a court to get an idea. so there is plausible accountability and i don't think the system is inherently unethical, although it of course can be used unethically by any of the parts. (and talking about ks only because i've not bothered to read the tos of other similar systems).

anyway, it's refreshing (or unsettlingly ironic) to hear someone in the financial sector worrying about ethics! [haha]

 

[Glock_N_Load]

I'll say one thing "Star Citizen".