this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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One would think the gaming industry and consumers learned from the last 35 mistakes where big AAA titles had a dumpster fire launch because it was unfinished, unoptimized or over promised but no. This is gaming now.
Still attacking the devs and borderline creating a witch hunt is a bit too much. Just vote with your wallet. Or if you bought it refund it ffs.
I blame everyone who pre-orders as well. You are part of the problem!
I couldn't disagree more with you.
It's pretty obvious that they only published the game in the current state because of the lawsuit. The game is a total scam and they deserve the hate from the people that invested a lot of money when backing. Backing on Kickstarter has something to do with trust. Of course, the project may never be finished and that's okay. But it's obvious here, that they just took the money and did not use it for the game.
Backing a Kickstarter for a game is the same as preordering. Money leaves your pocket and enters the studio's before the game is out.
This has nothing directly to do with The Day Before, but: Backing a Kickstarter is something completely different and that has to come into peoples heads. Preorders are for a mostly finished product that will 100% ship. The devs have enough funding from investors and publishers, the game will be released no matter how little preorders they will get. Crowdfunding however is for an idea in its infancy that might never be finished. Crowdfunding is an investment.
But where is the difference in this case, The Day Before? Well, easy: When you invest in a kickstarter, the company has to use the money you invested to actually develop the game. They can't buy fancy cars with the money, they need to put it to good use. If the company uses the money for their own personal benefit, they can be sued for that. For preorders thats not the case.
I mean it isn't but sort of is at the same time. It firstly depends on what kind of kickstarter it is. There are many ways where its just a system for a publisher to gauge interest in the project. Those are typically just preorders however many others are just throwing money into a well and hoping something comes of it. I get people's hatred of crowdfunding and it can easily be a trap. Where a ton of people are just there to get the money and leg it or who are simply too incompetent to use the funds properly. Hell even experienced developer can be too incompetent, double fine studios/Tim Schafer is a poster child for this. While I love their work, they had a horrid run with crowdfunding and I guess it should have been expected since they are always late and overspend on their budget when they were working with publishers.
Now with all the negatives said, I think crowdfunding in all its forms can lead to wonderful project that simply couldn't have existed due to a lack of interest by publishers. Hell I doubt we would had Baldur's Gate 3 without crowdfunding and this isn't talking exclusively about BG 3 since the Divinity Original sin games really got the ball rolling for Larian Studios. Crowdfunding can lead to the rebirth of genres once thought dead.
Sadly, legally, it ain't the same.
That is important because in some jurisdictions "preorder" has legal implications and importantly, obligations for the seller. A kickstarter does not. Not yet at least, over in Germany there's a discussion about whether crowdfunding is just a form of taking preorders (in the legal sense), which would grant customers the same legal protections then.
You're both right.
Kickstarter is a separate kind of the same problem: Greedy fucks leveraging systems against us. Any time money is exchanged, there WILL be shitheads trying to get some for nothing.
It becomes a problem when the systems at hand reinforce those shysters. Kickstarter is rife with scams, and capitalism in general is rife with lazy greedy fucks. The problem is, they don't get punished for being lazy greedy fucks.
They have to rip off and harm a bunch of people before anyone will do a damn thing, and even then... If it's a rich person or corp, the government might just shrug and say it'd be too expensive to enforce the laws...
There is a BIG problem, and it's not the consumers.
It was the most wishlisted game on Steam, people are actively ignoring all the red flags and blindly throwing their money at anyone who can produce a half decent video online.
I'm not protecting the devs, the whole story is a huge scam and they straight up lied but again:
Stop pre-ordering, paying on kickstarter or buying stuff in early access unless you are absolutely sure you know who gets your money and what you are getting in exchange.
Yes the devs are scum, but does it really justify the cyber witch hunt? A lot of people just hopped on the hype bandwagon and jumped over the hate bandwagon without even knowing the details.
Just fucking refund or sue the bastards. I will only repeat myself: consumers are part of the problem. Stop buying incomplete buggy shit based on promises and pre-order bonuses.
Watch reviews, performance tests before buying. Everything is fucking digital, they will not run out of keys if you wait an extra day.
No meaningless dev of a meaningless video game is ever worth a witch hunt. As a consumer, you have better things to do with your time. Like in this case, digging around in your nose, watching paint dry, or pouring another coffee. All quality uses of time that aren't the waste that is getting angry at these devs.
But that is the thing, they do vote with their wallet. They still buy the games.
"Voting with the wallet" goes both ways.