Goodman Games has just launched a massive Kickstarter for their update and expansion of the Purple Planet setting and sent out updates featuring their entirely white male staff on a company retreat: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/goodman-games/return-to-the-purple-planet/updates/3466?ref=bk-noti-project-update-3466

I know they have at least one woman (Jen Brinkman) on staff, but she's not in the photos.  [Maybe they made her take them, in true sexist fashion]. Not backing this and not on social media but does anyone know if the SJWs have come out yet with a scree about representation, given Goodman's recent fiasco surrounding the Indie Game summit?  You'd think they'd have learned.  Or maybe Joe finally grew a pair and this is just a middle finger? 

(culture war tax)  Tourist fun is heresy, boo! May the diarrhea cataract flush them through Lombard Street into the bay! Bitterness, roar!

Nah, seriously I am glad they had a good time in SF Bay Area and wish them well on their Kickstarter. Kinda bummed I missed out on watching a theatrical re-release of Dragonslayer.  Sounds like a good time had by all. Even the Pineapple Express came out to play! 

(back to culture war tax)  RPGs are teh serios stuf and you apostates play the badwrongfun! Waarblegaarble! 

I hope everyone does the right thing and ignores the SJW's so the minimal "power" they possess through their complaints is totally taken away for good.

Of course immature nerds getting any power, you know they are going to abuse it (see rpg.net moderators and admins)

Obviously they should have hired only writers and artists from the Purple Planet itself.

Quote from: Zalman on February 08, 2024, 10:02:40 AM
Obviously they should have hired only writers and artists from the Purple Planet itself.

Then they'd be declared pinkophobes...  It's never good enough!   

I for one still like Goodman Games, I'm getting tired of kickstarters in general though, and I'm getting really tired of woke/sjw/life draining commie garbage that sucks the fun out of playing with friends. If they're turning away from woke stuff, I'll be all glad to keep supporting GG. If they keep capituating to backlash for doing nothing wrong, I dunno, at least I have the stuff I already do own. I can keep writing other stuff too.

I can't stand the changes made to their introductory page of the 10th Printing. I hope they revert to the original, that withstood the other printings' test of time.

No Jaquays anymore to support their lil fiefdom and the SJW's have moved on to other projects to kill off.

The question I have is why does Goodman Games still need to rely on crowd funding?  Aren't they established enough to just put stuff out?  There are many other companies for whom I'd ask the same.  If you've got multiple kickstarters that have cleared in excess of 500K, where the Hell did all that money go?  And don't tell me art or production costs.  Goodman is still producing all their stuff in the freakin' PRC.

Quote from: Persimmon on February 08, 2024, 09:09:09 PM
The question I have is why does Goodman Games still need to rely on crowd funding?  Aren't they established enough to just put stuff out?  There are many other companies for whom I'd ask the same.  If you've got multiple kickstarters that have cleared in excess of 500K, where the Hell did all that money go?  And don't tell me art or production costs.  Goodman is still producing all their stuff in the freakin' PRC.

More Kickstarters increases the amount of money that isn't their own budget they can spend. If people give it to you why stop?

Quote from: WERDNA on February 08, 2024, 10:13:40 PM

Quote from: Persimmon on February 08, 2024, 09:09:09 PM
The question I have is why does Goodman Games still need to rely on crowd funding?  Aren't they established enough to just put stuff out?  There are many other companies for whom I'd ask the same.  If you've got multiple kickstarters that have cleared in excess of 500K, where the Hell did all that money go?  And don't tell me art or production costs.  Goodman is still producing all their stuff in the freakin' PRC.

More Kickstarters increases the amount of money that isn't their own budget they can spend. If people give it to you why stop?

This.  And more....

a) Kickstarters reduce risk (as in their money).  If a company raises enough money to cover the basic production costs (content/art/first run of printing) and the product is a flop.  Then no real loss.  If it's a success, then the rest of the money is all gravy.

b) Free Marketing.  People look for and watch for Kickstarters.  Even if a singular person doesn't fund a particular kickstarter, odds are they will start a conversation about it.  It might be with a group of IRL friends.  It might be online.  But it doesn't change the fact that people are talking.  Like Oscar Wilde said....There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Quote from: aganauton on February 08, 2024, 10:55:30 PM
b) Free Marketing.  People look for and watch for Kickstarters.  Even if a singular person doesn't fund a particular kickstarter, odds are they will start a conversation about it.  It might be with a group of IRL friends.  It might be online.  But it doesn't change the fact that people are talking.  Like Oscar Wilde said....There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Honestly, I think this is a way bigger aspect than a lot of people give it credit for. KS adds, in my estimation, three whole new dimensions to consumer psychology that each supercharge word of mouth marketing.

First and most obvious, FOMO. Offering any kind of exclusive perk to backers is going to make a lot of people impluse buy a lot more than they would otherwise, even if it's something as basic as a bundle discount.

Second, while the kickstarter is in the early phases, people that have backed are almost literally invested in the funding succeeding, so they have a lot bigger incentive to share it among their own circles to get other people to also back it and make their perceived investment seem to "pay off", even if in reality it's the opposite since typically the project will only even take their money if the goal is meet. Of course this phycological investment effect only applies until the KS is fully funded, which can sometimes be a very short period, but that's when the third effect kicks in, bandwagoning.

Once a project is fully funded, and especially if it was fully funded within a few hours like the most hyped ones are, there's a real, obvious, tangible, objective measure as to the popularity of things, and people want things that they perceive to be popular. It's a super basic huristic, if other people want thing, it must be worth wanting. By exceeding funding goals, and especially doing so quickly, prospective backers have a number that directly quantifies how much other people want something, and that can be a huge psycological factor.

_{I've fallen for every one of these.}

Quote from: Zenoguy3 on February 12, 2024, 01:52:14 AM
First and most obvious, FOMO.

The amount of stuff I find online that's not available because the Kickstarter ended is infuriating.

I've backed two kickstarters now. One was a web comic artist and I did it because I liked her work and wanted her to go full time.
The second was Snap Ships Tactics. That was FOMO, but I felt a bit justified in that I was 99% sure Lyvander Studios would deliver, and I really liked what I saw of the system.

I don't plan on backing any more. Put it on a store shelf or I'm not interested.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on February 12, 2024, 05:04:48 AM
I don't plan on backing any more. Put it on a store shelf or I'm not interested.

Yep, after getting screwed on a kickstarter if its worth it I will wait for it to be on the shelf or available to purchase online.   No more kickstarters for me.

7 plus years later they are still saying "it will be done soon!"

Quote from: GhostNinja on February 12, 2024, 10:33:32 AM

Quote from: Ratman_tf on February 12, 2024, 05:04:48 AM
I don't plan on backing any more. Put it on a store shelf or I'm not interested.

Yep, after getting screwed on a kickstarter if its worth it I will wait for it to be on the shelf or available to purchase online.   No more kickstarters for me.

7 plus years later they are still saying "it will be done soon!"

While I've only been totally burned by 1 kickstarter (Sandy Peterson, who currently has about 5 that are years behind), only a couple, notably Greg Gillespie, have ever delivered on time.  Goodman Games, for example, is always at least a few months late, sometimes more.  Troll Lord is the same.  So by the time I get stuff, I'm sometimes no longer interested in the product or maybe not even playing that particular game.

I'm trying to pull back on it because I just have too much stuff and not enough time.  Right now I think I've got 4 things coming, one of which was backed in 2022.