The Video Game Critic

I'm a big fan of Jeremy Parish, I really enjoy his writing and his views.  However, I see that Retronauts (one of my favourite podcasts) is going to continue for another year but they are asking for money through Kickstarter so Jeremy can fly to the location where the podcast is being taped, rather than using Skype. 

This got me thinking.  I think people are relying too much now on Kickstarter rather than coming up with ideas to generate revenue so that they can continue these projects.  I really liked the idea of Kickstarter at first, you know, to help someone who has a great idea or project, and help them get it off the ground, but now it seems that people just continue to ask for investors year after year.

Back to Jeremy Parish, he has a Gameboy World website where he's trying to review every Gameboy game and again, continues to ask for money for the games, recording equipment, etc.  Same with his Gamespite books. 

Also, there's Retro magazine, (which I'm a subscriber) and they are asking for money to add more features, etc for their 2nd year. 

I'm not trying to call out Jeremy here, as I said I'm a big fan of his, and I could be very naive as far as how the business works.  (please educate me if I'm missing something here!)  I'm sure he doesn't get a whole lot of money for his projects.  But, it's helping him create his brand, for which he makes a living off of.  It just seems that these people need to find ways once their project is off the ground, to get revenue rolling in without having to always rely on Kickstarter. 

I look at The Critic, and all the upgrades and good work he does to this site, not once is he asking for donations.  The only thing he asks for is to click on his Ebay and Amazon links, which is very reasonable.  I'm sure there is a lot of money he needs to put into this (hosting, physical servers, maintenance, etc), but he makes it work. 

What are your thoughts?  Are you getting burned out on Kickstarter?

Interesting observation, and I think we had some negative kickstarter vibes concerning Oculus.

Kickstarter is a way to gain capital without giving up any ownership stakes or taking on debt.  There are no shareholders, nor leveraged assets or banks involved.  Its even better than ads, which sully the brand and the experience.  He wants to expand and keep control and minimize risk - who doesn't, really? If the venture takes off, he reaps all the rewards.  If it fails, there is less fallout.  There is still risk, as kickstarter need not be charity.  Seems a pretty good deal for small scale commercial projects, or art or labor of love kind of projects.  For larger scale commercial projects (think Ouya), more traditional ways of starting capital are going to be needed. 

Contributing to this existing podcast Kickstarter does not seem to get a listener much more than they do, and is actually creating the negative feeling you write about.  The podcast guy (Jeremy Parish) could explore other avenues from looking at his scope -- does he really need to travel in 2014, or does he just want to travel? to looking at other sources of funding -  Could he affiliate with a larger group to share costs and cross promote?  Could he take on traditional partners or investors? Could he bet it all at the craps table? Instead of buying and keeping every game and piece of equipment, could he buy them, review them, and then sell them to finance the next purchase instead of beefing up his personal assets?  Could he apply for a small business loan or development program?  Could he take on more advertisements? Etc etc.  

Its hard to grow and expand without loss of control and acquiring debts or risk.   Its understandable the creative person would see Kickstarter as a way to reasonably expand, but your message shows there is another risk (of alienating listeners) that maybe was not fully taken into account.   

I think it is essentially a scam. I do not blame people for using it, I just continue to be surprised by how many people participate in it. It is free money for Parish, literally.

Since this topic has been opened I thought I'd share my kick starter with you all. I'd like to translate the command menus on the super famicom fire emblem games to English. I'm just planning on doing the menus in English so that we can at least play the games. The command menus consist of things like "attack","wait" "change weapons" and "use item". I have no plans to translate the story or dialogue as I'm not that ambitious. I figure it's going to take me some time to translate as I don't know any japanese and my time of course costs money so that's where all of you come in to finance this project. Upon completion I will send all contributors a paper copy of the japanese commands next to their English counterparts. Once I reach my goal of $500 I'll be able to complete this project. Also just so you know if I don't reach $500 and unable to complete the project there is no refunds. Please remember that this is a kick starter donation and not a legal contract. Thanks all.

Kickstarter seems to be okay.  I have Gamestick and it was made with money from Kickstarter.  Well it is fair to say that it is a pretty useless attempt at a games system.  It is android but if that is Android I am surprised any one buys any games on it.  Though maybe I am being a bit hard on it. 

So I think it is quite good all things considered.