Dungeon Master Forum

What do you think.

I have a negative attitude about crowdfunding.
A way to fund R&D by the customers, an open door to selling untested products, virtuality, videos, photoshoped images.
At worst a rip off. On the mild side, an opportunity for guys who have illusions, tons of ideas rather than skills in product design and developement, more great stuff that will be unusable.
IMHO: Just another internet scam.

May be good ? Do you know of successful crowdfunding ?

That's a pretty negative view! Sure, there are lots of silly things being made by silly people with too many illusions and not enough credibility, but there's also tons of good things that have been funded and built through crowdfunding. You only need to look at the success stories on Kickstarter to see some of the amazing things that have come out of it.

There are downsides of course and many projects swallow up all the money and don't deliver on their promises, but on the whole I think it can be a very good way to fund projects that otherwise might never get made.

Yeah, I've backed several Kickstarters and they're moving along at varying rates. The best has to be Elite: Dangerous, which is currently ploughing through the Beta phases and will hit Gamma in perhaps a month or so, I reckon.
Godus, on the other hand...

Ha, is Godus still going? I did back it but gave up on it a long time ago without ever playing a single version after it became clear it wasn't the game I thought I'd backed...

I see both the upside and downside.

What I don't like is when large companies that can fund their own R&D turn to crowdfunding instead, and what I like even less is when people actually fund them. It's essentially just a way of guaranteeing a profit without risk. For indies who just don't have the capital, it's much more of a plus.

I have seen a few big names, but not big companies. I would agree that those who don't need it shouldn't use it, as it lowers their standards..potentially anyway.. considering some of the tripe we already see on market.

crowd funding is a chance for hungry devs to make innovation and competition for big companies which are less motivated to care when they think they have the market cornered..I have considered crowd funding for my projects in the hopes of having free time to work on my projects and to hire a solid team..

steams greenlight thing seems a decent option. Though much harder to find on their page these days