Wait… what? are some pints in order here or something?
PM sent… 
Speaking of Elder Scrolls! They are going to charge!!! I know we are getting off topic, and I was really excited for Elder Scrolls, I’m even testing it with them currently, and like it, but I can’t bring myself to a monthly subscription - its really hard to when a companies original statement included them saying free to play once purchased…
I just read the opening post and my opinion is:
Crowdfunding is just another venue of getting funds.
All this hubub about power to the people and such is just noise.
In order to create a triple A title you still need the proper funding, so what Crowdfunding does is to cut out the middle man.
Its the same as with the record labels, in a world where an artist can easily sell the creations by him/herself worldwide, digitally as well as on physical media, why would a sane person use a label offering only a bad deal?
Why should a company like Double Fine beg at the doors of investors, when people are already willing to pay for the envisioned game?
In a simple world if I like something I just give money to the person creating it.
All this risk assessment stuff and banks and investors deciding what products to invest in was necessary, because nobody could really easily decide what would be a success and what not and even when millions were spent success was not guaranteed (remember waterworld?)
All that complex stuff had its time and place, but will become much less commonplace, because things just got massively easier.
There will be investors now, that will only back projects if they are successful enough on a crowdfunding platform.
But all of that is only risk assessment - it does not prevent the creators from failing at all.
That is okay though, its not different than before.
Maybe the risk to fail is a little bit smaller even, because most crowdfunded projects stay in good touch with their community and sometimes external input does make a difference.
Crowdfunding is just another manifestation of how the internet and free flow of information and - well - funds is making the world a simpler and easier to understand place.
We have gotten used to having so many proxies and middle man and organizational structures in place because complex situations could just not be tackled without that.
Better get unused to that because the tackling game is changing 
Notable examples would be OUYA which got some investors like NVIDIA and some other wellknown ones after the kickstarter campaign.
If I remember well, Chris Roberts too will get some investors for Citizen, but the more he gets from backers, the less he will have to ask for.
Well… we are there again with having greedy big companies who are even changing their official statements. It is their right of course but still… I am pretty offended with such actions, saw them every now and then with statements about payment but after having the games running and making changes they had said they would not make happen…
And… I was looking forward to TESO as well, no Beta-access though… but still was looking forward to it.
1 Like
It wont be long and all games will be subscription based! well if certain big companies would have their way anyway.
little history factoroni. M$ tried to bully their way into charging people for the plesure of using the internet in its early days. They had set out a bunch of standards and protocols which would be used with their browser. The company would then charge you for using its software. It was eventually rejected by the courts but this is a shining example of what would happen if people allow it too.