After four years of excuses some KS backers are getting fed up and at least one went to the Washington State Attorney General's office after being refused a refund.

This is how to not run your KS.

Finally though some updates and chapter peeks at least as of August 2015.

So much for that 2011 release date?

Anyone else back this train wreck? Looked interesting, A sort of Shanghi Noon or Kung Fu, Western meets Martial arts RPG.

Oh. Repeat rinse and wash for his Buckaroo Banzai RPG too. Where did he even get the money to license that?

Nope. Premise didn't grab me.

Quote from: Omega;857277Oh. Repeat rinse and wash for his Buckaroo Banzai RPG too. Where did he even get the money to license that?

I dunno, Kickstarter?

He also did pre-orders for ICONS Team-Up. That, at least, released in PDF (exceedingly late), and is very good, but I paid for hardcopy, and never saw a refund on the extra. I hope as many backers as possible go to their State's Attorney General to pursue this; he deserves what's coming to him.

I have not really followed this story, only heard about what a clusterfuck it turned into. It is kind of fascinating in a horrible way, like car-crash fascinating.

Then I looked up the guy... it is the Adamant Entertainment guy! I remember him being responsible for all sorts of cock-ups. He did a monthly supplement thing where people paid in advance for X months. And, surprise, he never delivered! He also had China Mieville involved in his company to do an RPG setting, something I really looked forward to, which never materialized.

It is a shame really, the guy has some good ideas.

Quote from: The Butcher;857288Nope. Premise didn't grab me.

Nor me.

From what little I know, the guy has had some difficult health problems and I wish him the best on that.

As far as kickstarters are concerned, I just assume they're a gamble, unless the project sponsors have a really strong KS track record, and even then, stuff happens.

Quote from: Saplatt;857309From what little I know, the guy has had some difficult health problems and I wish him the best on that.

Yeah, too bad those had nothing whatsoever to do with the delays, which had been ongoing (with a large helping of lies) for years by the time that happened. The only relationship health troubles have to the current fiasco is that he may have spent all the remaining Kickstarter and Pre-order funds to cover medical expense. Only he would know, but he certainly claims to have no money for anything else.

Quote from: Saplatt;857309As far as kickstarters are concerned, I just assume they're a gamble, unless the project sponsors have a really strong KS track record, and even then, stuff happens.

They're always a gamble, no matter what, because, as you say, stuff happens. Nevertheless, some behaviour is acceptable when problems are encountered, some is not.

The number of Kickstarters that fell apart due to personal tragedy and/or illness makes me wonder if there's a curse or something.

Also the latest excuses from James Wallis are pretty laughable ("my laptop broke down, and I lost all of the working files!"). That excuse wouldn't have worked 10 years ago. Well, maybe if he backed everything onto Zip Disks. Those things were fucking AWFUL.

He also did the preorder for Warlords of the Apocalypse, the Pathfinder Gamma World setting. That one was before all of these others and it never surfaced either, but at least I got my refund on it.

Quote from: Necrozius;857319The number of Kickstarters that fell apart due to personal tragedy and/or illness makes me wonder if there's a curse or something.

You may have already gathered this from the above, but just to make it crystal clear: these projects were already completely borked looooooong before GMS had a whiff of health trouble. Mentioning "health troubles" in conjunction with these projects just muddies the waters, and suggests that there's some legitimacy to the absurdity. There isn't.

Quote from: Necrozius;857319Also the latest excuses from James Wallis are pretty laughable ("my laptop broke down, and I lost all of the working files!"). That excuse wouldn't have worked 10 years ago. Well, maybe if he backed everything onto Zip Disks. Those things were fucking AWFUL.

Funny enough, GMS used this one on ICONS Team-Up, too. All the working files lost. Really, all things considered, it's amazing that any book was EVER forthcoming on that one (or any of them).

Quote from: Saplatt;857309Nor me.

From what little I know, the guy has had some difficult health problems and I wish him the best on that.

As far as kickstarters are concerned, I just assume they're a gamble, unless the project sponsors have a really strong KS track record, and even then, stuff happens.

I've been pretty interested in this one. I don't back kick starters so looking at this as a non-backer. I feel the same way on the health issue. I wasn't following this closely early on and haven't really been able to make much sense of all the back and forth surrounding the issue. I do see that he is legitimately sick with something related to diverticulitis and required pretty extensive surgery to treat it. So at least since that has been happening I expect it is going to impact his ability to work on things. What happened before that, I can't really weigh in on. I can say, having a condition like that myself, that these sorts of illnesses can build for years in stops and starts before culminating in this kind of acute infection and that can definitely impact a person's ability to work. I don't know his personal situation there though. Personally I am inclined to be patient for it to come out when he is able to put it out. Seems like a sincere guy to me based on the interactions I've had.

Quote from: Necrozius;857319The number of Kickstarters that fell apart due to personal tragedy and/or illness makes me wonder if there's a curse or something.

Unfortunately "Its delayed! Health Problems" is the number 2 excuse given to stall people or to garner a sympathy waiver. The number 1 excuse is "Working on it! Going to the printers soon! Working on it! Going to the printers soon!"

An artist I used to work with has made into a business "Im sick! Commission me to help pay the bills!" while regularly ripping off customers with the same gag. This has been going on since the late 90s.

It makes it ever harder for indie designers with actual health problems during production to be believed.

I backed it as my first KS. but from what I have seen since the spectacular failure of this one is all down to Gareth Michael Skarka, who has consistently shown himself to be toxic, incapable, and thoroughly unprofessional. Though he has been seriously ill, this really doesn't wash when the project is looked at a whole.

I will never have anything to do with him again and, given how he treats his backers, I have no sympathy with his accusations of being abandoned by other contributors. I cannot blame them for avoiding his work like the plague.

This is obligatory at the moment: http://www.isfarwestoutyet.com/

Funnily enough, even this website has given up tracking the release dates.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;857341I've been pretty interested in this one. I don't back kick starters so looking at this as a non-backer. I feel the same way on the health issue. I wasn't following this closely early on and haven't really been able to make much sense of all the back and forth surrounding the issue. I do see that he is legitimately sick with something related to diverticulitis and required pretty extensive surgery to treat it. So at least since that has been happening I expect it is going to impact his ability to work on things. What happened before that, I can't really weigh in on. I can say, having a condition like that myself, that these sorts of illnesses can build for years in stops and starts before culminating in this kind of acute infection and that can definitely impact a person's ability to work. I don't know his personal situation there though. Personally I am inclined to be patient for it to come out when he is able to put it out. Seems like a sincere guy to me based on the interactions I've had.

I have two close members of my family who have suffered ruptured bowels due to this illness. It is terrible and life-threatening, and I would wish it on no one. Having said that, bringing it up in the context of these products and their delays is disingenuous at best. A couple who have done so here, yourself included, have admitted that you did not follow the situation closely "early on" (whatever that means, as it has taken years to get here). If that's the case, then quit repeating second-hand information that is highly misleading.

The situation with these products was a bad joke long before GMS became ill. They were all due months or even years before that happened. Suggesting that illness somehow explains what happened is just looking for an excuse for someone's virtually fraudulent behaviour. Moreover, GMS had his reconnection surgery more than a year ago, with supposedly a full recovery, and yet the situation with the products mentioned has simply been more of the same. Even GMS has not tried to excuse all that's happened with his unexpected illness, so quit trying to do it for him. It's misinformed, misplaced, and worse, does a complete disservice to someone who ends up legitimately having problems delivering due to illness.

Quote from: Bobloblah;857347I have two close members of my family who have suffered ruptured bowels due to this illness. It is terrible and life-threatening, and I would wish it on no one. Having said that, bringing it up in the context of these products and their delays is disingenuous at best. A couple who have done so here, yourself included, have admitted that you did not follow the situation closely "early on" (whatever that means, as it has taken years to get here). If that's the case, then quit repeating second-hand information that is highly misleading.

It means I didn't become aware of the project until I saw Skarka's posts about his surgery. It flew under my radar and wasn't paying a lot of attention to kick starters at the time. Since then, his posts on the subject have seemed believable to me and the condition serious. As far as I know I haven't repeated any misleading second hand information. Was pretty clear that I didn't follow it early on. If you don't find his explanations believable, that is fine. Think what you want. Personally I am inclined to believe the guy based on my own experiences and what I've seen him say. Again, if you feel otherwise, I don't really have an issue. But don't insist everyone else has to agree with you or be just as pissed off about a late kickstarter. My point was having had bowel surgeries and IBD issues, I know how long this stuff can simmer before it really comes to a head, and I can imagine that this may well have been at months or years before he had to go in for any surgeries. It makes me inclined to believe it could have contributed to delays prior to that point. Even if it wasn't, I read his present posts as sincere, believe he is working on it, but that it will take time because you don't just recover instantly from this sort of illness. It takes time, and you can hit a lot of road bumps along the way.