Why pay for alpha key?
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This is a sticky issue with me (on principal I am one of those folks who will not 'pay' for an alpha key).
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The idea behind a kickstart is to present an idea that requires a certain amount of funding; and those people who are interested in seeing the idea implemented help fund it. The 'pay for alpha' amounts to "I really want this game funded so I am willing to pay a bit more to move the project along" the 'alpha' portion is a method to attach a value to that additional funding. Where it becomes sticky is that if you sell alpha i.e, allow the 'fan' to 'purchased' alpha you can no longer make alpha freely available for testing purposes. The fan wasn't really buying 'alpha' they were expressing their desire to see the product realized by contributing a bit more but the tangible aspect has created a catch-22.
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So in that sense i actually feel it is a mistake to 'sell' alpha and beta access.
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Actually I have a real issue with kickstarts when we talk about tier significantly over pre-order because this is not a joint venture. If you contribute large sums of money towards the product (large >> base cost) you do not share in the revenues if the product is a massive success but you have in fact taken the risk to move the product forward.
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Lets take veronica mars. Individuals contributed a very large amount towards production of this movie (perhaps over contributed relative to the base cost). The excess funds will likely go towards filming in more exotic locations and perhaps stay in nicer accommodations. Assuming the film is well managed (they do not spend beyond the kickstart funds) and is a success ($$$$ is made upon the final product) what happens to these $$$$? Do they go towards more veronica mars movies? Do they get return to the original investors? Does the studio execs receive a larger bonus ?
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Anyway we see the cruft of the situations. Given the above I still have contributed to several kickstarts. Why? I don't know - I think it because either I trust the specific teams I contributed to or I though they had a unique idea that I wanted to see realized (i.e, a few I've contributed include xile, obsidian, Crate (I think everyone else was very small) but I avoided a few that didn't feel right (to me) (I will only mention one of them as this can be quite sticky) doublefine and most of my contributions have amounted to pre-orders or perhaps (in the case of D:OS) marginally more.
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Where planetary annihilization ran into trouble is they carried over their request for funding to product purchase price on steam - for lack of a better way to phrase it the carry over changed the perspective of 'crowd funding' to 'purchase price' (perspective is everything - not the actual $$ but how you view those $$ being spent).
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How does this relate to D:OS - the original poster (I think) out of concern for D:OS wanted to show what would happen if you attempt to use STEAM (store front) as a method to raise additional funds via selling 'kickstart' like add-on. As others (raze) have noted the appropriate method to do this is to sell the add-on via the website and use steam as a distribution method and I suspect that taking that approach would carry no backlash.
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Still I much rather tee-shirts and similar be sold then things like 'alpha' and 'beta' access.
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Crowd funding is a very amusing concept and I think it has cross some grey areas (ala abuse). It is one thing for the starving artist with some talent to indicate that the only way to produce a painting we all want to see is if you help pay his cost of living while he is painting; but it is another thing (imho) for a major studio to request that you fund their films (i.e, they take no risk) but they pocket all profits.
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As a parting note how I personally see a difference between [xxx] Studio and (for example) Obsidian? I believe that if Eternity is successful they will support the game well after release (fixing bug, adding new content, ...) as needed I do not see [xxx] Studio releasing a free film with the excess money they earn.
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[disclaimer: I do not know factually that kickstart will fund 100% of the film production cost; that it will make $$$$ upon release; and what will become of $$$$ if it makes $$$$; but I do believe that most of the kickstarts I've supported (at least the ones I mentioned by name) will attempt to support that product well after release (with in reason).]
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Anyway I think I've said too much and hopefully haven't offended too many people this morning.

Last edited by meme; 11/07/13 01:18 PM.