Space The Final Frontier
I’ve been on a bit of a sci-fi kick lately when it comes to both reading and writing. In the last 3 weeks I have devoured almost three thousand pages of good hard science fiction across 5 books. Perhaps I’ll do a post on that another time (and in the meantime I am accepting recommendations – my reading list grows short.)
So much of what is labeled sci-fi these days are really just fantasy stories with space props or space opera. Hard science fiction that really makes a vivid and alien future seem interesting without completely ignoring the constraints of science as we currently understand them is always hard to find though, even in the best of times. That’s not what I’m hear to talk about though.
Today I want to talk about how we are already living in the future.
Monday Miniatures: Re-Heated Edition
What a week. I’ll be honest – it is entirely possible that I missed one or more miniature related projects this week. I’ve spent most of my time packing and planning and all that. Someone needs to Kickstart a way to make moving less painful. Seriously.
Back to the topic at hand though, both projects I did find have one thing in common. They have both successfully funded very similar projects in the not too distant past. Can there be too much of a good thing? Being that both of them have already funded, the crowdfunding audience would seem to be saying no (but then anyone familiar with the playing card phenomena knows that.)
The Little Guys
We’ve talked quite a bit about big companies taking advantage of the fertile ground that is Kickstarter and whether or not it hurts the little guy. Its a good topic, but then that is what everyone is talking about. All of the big blogs will talk about Kickstarter projects these days, but only if you are well known or wildly successful. The conundrum is of course, how do you get that attention if you really need it to succeed.
In effect, we are falling into the same trap as everyone else – we are only talking about the big projects and trends that are already getting enough attention from elsewhere. I hope you find the topic as interesting as I do, because today we are going to talk about some projects you have probably never heard of.
Seriously, James?
If you’re a regular reader, you know by now that David and I have some pretty strong opinions on what should and shouldn’t be crowd sourced. No matter how the narratives around Kickstarter and Indiegogo may be changing to become more inclusive of established creators, the institution of crowd funding is rooted in the idea that people with the means to give can support the creative endeavors of people without the means to realize them. I’m talking about helping out the little guy–the weekend warrior, the lay craftsperson, the dreamer–get a leg up and maybe bring something wonderful into the world. We’ve long held that the more established creators that leverage the crowd, the less support there will be for the indie creators. This is especially true in media driven categories like video games, movies, and music, where backers are likely to fund an obvious winner, or where fans may choose to back a favorite, rather than try their luck with an untested indie artist looking for a break…
That lengthy preamble brings us to today’s news: James Franco has launched a project on Indiegogo.
I’m pretty sure crowd funding jumped the shark today.
Monday Miniatures: One is the Loneliest Number
It really is. This week there just isn’t much going on. My paints are now officially packed, so expect nothing further from me until July. Kickstarter was largely a ghost town this week where miniatures are concerned.
Still, the show must go on.
Delayed Gratification
I mostly back products at the digital level, or as a straight donation. Mostly. When I don’t, I back for the swag. On more than one occasion where miniatures are concerned I have been known to pledge more than is reasonable to theoretically secure some awesome swag that might someday belong to me.
In this whole process (I reached 101 projects backed near the beginning of the week) it never occurred to me that I might, you know – move. I was pretty happy with where I was, but recently an opportunity forced itself on me that requires me to move. Moving means changing the shipping address on the 19 projects outstanding with physical rewards.
So after I lost an hour or two of my life navigating a dozen different backer survey formats I got to thinking about Kickstarter and how it relates to me. Keep reading if you’re interested.
An RPG Classic Turns Up on Kickstarter
Still on a high from the success of the Exalted 3rd Edition Deluxe Kickstarter, I stumbled across another classic game leveraging the crowd to fund a new product. Chaosium Games’ seminal horror title, Call of Cthulhu is up for a 7th edition (is that an industry record? I’m not sure…), and they ‘re asking for the help of the Kickstarter community to kick it off. After my fervor for Exalted, you might think I’d be slavering all over this project. But I’m not.
Peek below the fold to find out why.
Monday Miniatures: Heavy Hitters
Week after week we continue to get large projects on new mega projects on Kickstarter. It appears like miniatures have become a major feature of the crowd funding landscape. Is this a symptom of new leaner manufacturing techniques and digital sculpting techniques? It’s hard too say, but it is certainly fascinating.
This week there are 5 new miniature projects worth taking a look at.
Exalted Smashes Records
A couple weeks ago I mentioned that a project long awaited by gaming geeks the world over finally launched on our favorite crowdfunding website. Since then, the Exalted 3rd Edition Deluxe project has not only knocked down Onyx Path Publishing’s previous “high score” for the Werewolf the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, it has also gone on to smash the funding record set by Monte Cook’s Numenera, making Exalted the most highly funded tabletop RPG on Kickstarter to date. With a total fast approaching $600K (at the time of this writing), that isn’t a record that’s likely to be challenged any time soon–and there are more than 24 hours left to go, so we haven’t even seen the end of the tail spike.
All that said, I think Onyx Path could’ve done even better. Peek below the fold to find out how.
Caffeineforge 
No Time for Nerdity
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