Simcity

[Wiglaf]

Otherwise known as a scam designed to prey on disappointed/frustrated/naive people who despite being unwilling to pay $60 for Maxis' AAA citybuilder, will part with $40-55 for software that does not exist in any form by random unknown losers online.

[Dinner]

There's a Civitas Kickstarter for those unhappy with the changes.

It seems like a lot of the stuff on kickstarter these days aren't really charitable or community orientated things and instead are just regular small business plans. I'm not really into funding other people's start up businesses for free unless there is some sort of charitable or community benefit to be done. I mean I just went to kickstarter and searched for current listings in San Diego and found a teenager who wants to make recumbent bicycles], bartenders who want to make their own drink bitters, some nerd who wants to launch a playing card game, and some stupid light bulb which looks like a hoax.

Of those only the light bulb idea might actually have any sort of social benefit for society (and that's provided it isn't a hoax) yet kickstarter was originally supposed to be about things with community value or which do social good. Now it seems to be degenerating into a low end free venture capital funding place.

[Dinner]

I guess it does work as a venture capital source though. Just look at this guy who wanted $10,000 to start a new watch company making watches out of wood but who ended up getting almost $130,000. Personally, I think it's a dumb idea especially since watch sales are crashing but I guess other people still like the idea.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1173836746/original-grain-all-natural-wood-and-stainless-stee?ref=live

[Wiglaf]

Jon Shafer is using it to fund his game At the Gates, now that Firaxis and Stardock have decided he's useless and no publisher will touch him with a ten foot pole.

[kentonio]

It seems like a lot of the stuff on kickstarter these days aren't really charitable or community orientated things and instead are just regular small business plans. I'm not really into funding other people's start up businesses for free unless there is some sort of charitable or community benefit to be done.

Kickstarter isn't really about charity or community stuff, it's about getting small ideas of the ground that traditional investors would consider not viable. For games its especially good, because getting a game idea past a publisher is like banging your face repeatedly into a rock. This way you know in advance that you have a big market, and you get the funding regardless of what the business types think to your idea. As the contributor you get to support games that would otherwise never be made, have an influence into the direction of the game, and get not only a copy of it when its finished but often cool extras like getting your name in the game and suchlike.

[Guynemer]

MySim mode as I understand it let you incorporate a Sim from the Sims games and "follow" him around. It was all artificial. It was a little minigame.

What you just described seems to match up exactly with what the new SimCity professes to do.

[Dinner]

Jon Shafer is using it to fund his game At the Gates, now that Firaxis and Stardock have decided he's useless and no publisher will touch him with a ten foot pole.

I know he used to post here and all but he screwed up Civ5 so badly I wouldn't ever buy anything which had his name on it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonshafer/jon-shafers-at-the-gates

With two days left to go it looks like Shafer actually got almost $100k for his mini-civ style game.

[The Mad Monk]

Kickstarter isn't really about charity or community stuff, it's about getting small ideas of the ground that traditional investors would consider not viable. For games its especially good, because getting a game idea past a publisher is like banging your face repeatedly into a rock. This way you know in advance that you have a big market, and you get the funding regardless of what the business types think to your idea. As the contributor you get to support games that would otherwise never be made, have an influence into the direction of the game, and get not only a copy of it when its finished but often cool extras like getting your name in the game and suchlike.

...and how.

[Dinner]

Kickstarter isn't really about charity or community stuff, it's about getting small ideas of the ground that traditional investors would consider not viable. For games its especially good, because getting a game idea past a publisher is like banging your face repeatedly into a rock. This way you know in advance that you have a big market, and you get the funding regardless of what the business types think to your idea. As the contributor you get to support games that would otherwise never be made, have an influence into the direction of the game, and get not only a copy of it when its finished but often cool extras like getting your name in the game and suchlike.

I guess that's true but all I seem to see there are 3rd rate self published video games, D&D nerds who think they can make a better version of an RPG, tons of garage bands by teenagers who think they'll be the next big thing in the music business, and bad authors who couldn't get published any other way. It's just not exciting me the way the project to build a new public market here in San Diego did as that project at least had lasting community good as part of it's goal and I don't see how paying to have some no name band self publish their own CD will do any public good.

[MrFun]

You're not able to save a game with SimCity??

[MichaeltheGreat]

Umm, you haven't been around here much have you? That's Wiglaf on his meds.

Wiggy's on-meds rants used to be much shorter. His off-med rants were longer, so I thought this was one of them.

[Wiglaf]

What you just described seems to match up exactly with what the new SimCity professes to do.

Having 200,000 MySims is very different from having one. As another example, in SC4, to spread fire coverage you adjust funding and place buildings. Then you are done, within a certain radius. In SC5, you have to consider rush hour traffic. If the route from the fire station to the outer edge of its radius fills with Sims heading to work, the truck will not arrive. It will visibly be sitting there. To solve this issue (and fires are an unrealistically big issue in this game) you need to think about the interaction of systems SC4 did not make you think about. Also, the limited space really makes it less of a sandbox and more of a "game," with tough choices.

[Wiglaf]

You're not able to save a game with SimCity??

This is right, because of the region play.

[MrFun]

This is right, because of the region play.

You don't have a problem with that?

[onodera]

I guess that's true but all I seem to see there are 3rd rate self published video games, D&D nerds who think they can make a better version of an RPG, tons of garage bands by teenagers who think they'll be the next big thing in the music business, and bad authors who couldn't get published any other way. It's just not exciting me the way the project to build a new public market here in San Diego did as that project at least had lasting community good as part of it's goal and I don't see how paying to have some no name band self publish their own CD will do any public good.

Hasn't Kickstarter always been a place for startups? It's not really about public good, unless you count supporting a business as a public good. I think you're misinterpreting the purpose of that website.