[1262] Scampaigns
└ posted on Monday, 26 April 2021, by Novil
Here’s the obligatory link to our Kickstarter campaign for the Gaia anthology and Sandra and Woo books!
- Sign: Comics & Board Games
- Melody: Hmmm…
- Dubious vendor: Hey, you, pssst, … yes, you!
- Dubious vendor: May I interest you in my smart 3D printer? Thanks to its patented blockchain technology, you can print anything with it! Action figures, books, smartphones, houses! All that for only $399!
- Dubious vendor: It also comes pre-installed with a science-based, 100% dragon MMO.
- Melody: You gotta be kidding me!
- Caption: Never underestimate the power of the Russian army in a land war… and the one of a slick Kickstarter video.
- Melody: Oooh, shiny!
- Caption: The main problem is, however, that Kickstarter and Indiegogo don’t do nearly enough to remove obvious scam campaigns.
![[1262] Scampaigns](/comics/2021-04-26-1262-scampaigns.png "[1262] Scampaigns")
Hope that doesn’t apply to your Gaia campaign, too, Oliver! 😉
Gaia fan wrote:
To start with, my Kickstarter video is the opposite of slick.
It’s sad, but one only can wonder how many legitimate fundraisings have stalled because of the fear caused by those ruthless predators, and how many innovative ideas have gone to the wastebasket 🙁 . Luckily, Oliver’s seem to have no problem.
What is “obvious” scam campaign? Because there is literally no possibility to tell what is a scam and what is not. Like this cool ant game, that the creator used the money on some things (it was brothel I guess?). How would You know it was a scam? And things that are “too good too believe” often happens anyway. Thought, they are often different than people’s hype depict it. I’ve seen people complaining that “only idiot believes in Kickstarter and all of it is scam” anb the same apply to Early Access. But I want to know how to tell what is “obvious” scam campaign. I never ever seen anything like that.
Kitsune wrote:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playdreamworld/dreamworld-the-last-game-youll-ever-play
(Reads the 3d printer lies. Screams Internally in We Were Promised Jetpacks) But the lies are exactly what we want it to do.
Comics and board games shoppes should be eternal.
@ Grijan:
It’s not only the predators, game fundraisers specifically have kind of a sketchy reputation in part because of developers who over-promised or just plain didn’t have the ability to fulfill on what they said they would. They didn’t necessarily scam or lie to anyone, they just didn’t plan their game out well enough, or plan out how to realistically produce what they promised. Mighty No. 9 is an example of this. No scams no lies, just horrible mismanagement and production that yielded an unenjoyable final product.
@ Kitsune:
I believe that was Ant Simulator, and it’s such a sad story. The creator was super passionate about the game, and fully intended to deliver it as promised, but his business partners blew the money away on booze and hookers, then tied up the game’s Intellectual Property rights in court and refused to relinquish their control over the company, so the creator had to abandon his Project Baby.
This is why I will only kickstart an artist or project I already know about – e.g. this one, since I have been following Gaia from the start.
OK, but what does blockchain have to do with printing stuff? How would it even work?
@ Ryan:
That’s the point, isn’t it? Scammers will claim to use blockchain for anything whatsoever even if it doesn’t make any sense, because gullible people are easily fooled by technologies they don’t understand.
I’ve seen an ad for using blockchain in real estate.
Novil wrote:
You got me curious — what is making this an obvious scam? All I can see is optimism and naivety about user generated content.
3D printed houses are actually a thing. Pretty sure the ‘printer’ wouldn’t exactly fit on a desktop, though.
@ Klaus:
From their page:
“We know MMOs cannot be built with just $10K. We’ve secured the majority of our funding from some of the best investors in Silicon Valley.”
Yet they don’t mention any of the investors to backup their claim. That is a clear red flag.
Daniel Ibbertson aka DJ Slope has a whole series of YouTube videos on scammy KickStarter (and IndieGogo and GoFundMe) campaigns:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMC49V9zeXbGQwEM-my5XLiTWzy4-vf7j
While the problem is real the choice to use Melody as victim is interesting. The scammers should deliver in their promises or Bad Stuff™ might happen to them…
I was there to witness the WifiEx scam on Indiegogo. A device that was just like a portable power bank, but rather than electricity, you charge it up with internet data from your home connection and use it when you’re out and about.
… Yeah, I know. So much side-eye, I was looking at 8 o’clock without moving my head.
@ Dave:
Oh man, remember Mighty No. 9? The demo was better than the final product! How does that even happen?
Wait, why isn’t this Carisa’s Life Advice — Part 3?
@ Novil:
So… Coarse?
Eldor’s little brother Meldor has underestimated his prey…
@ Dave:
Then there’s this production which is so troubled that the developer created a roadmap for their roadmap. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/star-citizens-development-outlasted-an-entire-console-generation/
You know, I was not expecting to be reminded of the old science-based, 100% dragon MMO again. I thought that was long forgotten.
@ velomanus:
He looks what Eldor’s Sandril-body love child would be like.
@ jb:
I would like to think that this is a buffer strip used to buy time for the double comics that Pow is spoiling us with. They haven’t even gotten into “The advice that Larissa would like the world to follow, no matter that it’s so, so, wrong.”
@ Ratfox:
You can actually use blockchain for real-state. Also for energy markets.
And then there’s the ZX Vega Plus…
Kitsune wrote:
To start it, “dreamworld” mmorpg campaign, 67k funded up in so blatantly obvious scam that ppl funding it likely also believe in Santa Claus (and this is just among many, inexperienced team making overly high promises on overly low fund should pop alarm clocks but nah, idiots feed these scams constantly)
Ah, someone cast True Resurrection on Gary Gygax again I see.
I really dislike people calling these “scam campaigns.”
As has been said before: “Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.”
Most of these people are looking for money to do something they’ve never done before, and then the dunning-kruger effect comes into play.
Calling all these campaigns that fail to deliver “scams” is just going to hurt all the other kickstarter campaigns because it teaches the more casual users that the site is filled with scammers, which leads them to shy away from the site entirely instead of teaching them to look for indications that people can actually fulfill their goals
@ Novil:
They have a gif of “taming or being eaten” by creatures. It’s stolen from 2005’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 where the rancor eats you.
Marscaleb wrote:
That’s bad advice, beloved by the malicious.
Incompetence is often the cause of poor outcomes, but Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff and many others have made a living parting fools from their money.
Kitsune wrote:
Preachers with private 747s who tell their flock, that sending them money will lead to riches for the senders and the bigger the seed the bigger the fruit. Or, forecast the end of the world on a specifed date, when the Bible says, nobody knows.
Me-me wrote:
If scams had her as their consequence, they Would stop. Unfortunately nothing short of Them losing their heads to their campaign will be enough of a dire consequence to get them to stop.
Me-me wrote:
Not having tried the game, my guess would be feature creep.
I’ve seen plenty of games that start out strong, but when they start “introducing variation” suddenly become a chore. Whether its by making the gameplay cumbersome, or adding enemy types that are more annoying than challenging.
Same with games that force “open world” into a game, were it doesn’t match well and just ruins the pacing.
OldBrit wrote:
In what way does my statement say that people should be trusting of others? In what way does my statement say we should not be wary?
I am in no way saying that scams/malice do not exist, and I am still fully advocating that people be cautious with their money and such decisions.
What I am making a statement against is people being quick to call something a scam instead of an incompetent idea; particularly on Kickstarter where such claims damage the reputation of the whole site.
If a campaign or other ploy were an actual scam as opposed to just a bad idea that is incapable of leading to its stated goal, does that change anything about whether or not one should support it?
Ah yes, the infamous Kodama Obsidian 3D printer which raised more than $1.5 million and was a total fraud, and not one thing done by Kickstarter.
Turns out the actually correct quote here should be “Never underestimate the power of the Ukrainian army in a land war.” The more you know.
As of February 24 2022 that last panel aged Horribly