heres my introduction so far-
The video game industry has had to evolve a number of times since it’s inception in the 80’s. And over the years, this has seen it grown to the point of being a cultural behemoth which regularly draws in more annual income than Hollywood.
That said, with so much developer money being allocated to big budget AA games, ones which are considered a far safer investment, this has left the mid and lower tiered indie titles often struggling to find funding.
Luckily, with the advent of the internet, a solution to his problem would come in the form of crowd sourcing. And since that point, crowd sourcing has gone on to also become a big factor in the creation and development of many MMO’s. But is this a good or a bad thing, well that’s what were going to try and break down today, all as, hopefully, well also give you some valuable information on how the video game industry operates.
But before we go any further, we have to define our terms, and the two main terms here are crowd funding and MMO’s. So let’s start with the former then. What is crowd funding?
Well, in short it’s the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large group of people. Historically, this has been done by those looking to funds artistic projects, sell bonds during times of war, or even fund medical bills in some countries. In fact, in one particularly notable case in 1885, crowd funding was even used to help save construction of The Statue of Liberty after that project had hit a financial snag.
And while years ago, money may have been gathered through things like fundraisers or door to door work, in modern times its more commonly done through the internet, with there now being a number of websites specifically set up for such a purpose.
In fact, so ubiquitous has the practice now become that, in 2015 alone, it was estimated that over 34 Billion US dollars were raised worldwide through the process of crowd funding.
So, now that we have a better understanding of what this is, let’s move on to our next term, MMO’s .
Well, while we’re sure any gamers out there will already be familiar with the term, for those who aren’t as adept with the industry, an MMO is basically short hand for the longer term MMORPG, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Fast forward to today then, and MMO’s have in many ways taken over the video game industry, with more established franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and The Elder Scrolls now starting to dip their toes into the waters too with smaller online versions of their own games.
And while this has allowed for a lot more interaction between gamers who previously would have had no connection with one another, the success of the genre has meant that, as with other big money making titles, funding for MMO’s has largely been saved for bigger titles that are more likely to make large amounts of money.
As well as that, there was also the noteworthy case of TitanReach which, in 2020, right as the scandal of Chronicles of Elyria was making waves amongst the MMO world, was in as equally grim of a state when their developers, Square Root Studios, were outright accused of committing fraud.
Why is that you ask? Well, after raising almost 200,000 US dollars in a Kickstarter campaign posted earlier that year, it came to light that, even though they hadn’t met their initial goal of $430,000, the team would be keeping the money and adopting a month to month crowd funding model from there that they hoped would see them be able to raise the remainder of the necessary money as they went on.
Sadly however, come August of 2021, one of the lead developer’s would announce on the games Discord that the whole project was going to be cancelled effective immediately, with him reasoning that, as was the case with Chronicles of Elyria, they had simply run out of money.
And while this quickly raised alarm bells within the game community, it would soon get worse as it would later come to light that, at least according to the accusations of an anonymous YouTuber who claims to be close to the project, much of the funding for the title had been wasted by the developers on crypto currency.
Yes, it seems like, in an attempt to raise the remainder of the money necessary to complete the work, Square Roots Studios had decided to gamble what they had on online investments, with them even allegedly buying shares in Tesla at one point.
In the end though, this looks to have backfired on them as, with crypto currency in particular being a notoriously volatile market, they seem to have lost it all, leading many to accuse them of mismanaging their money instead of using it to build the game that they had promised.
So, surly then, the answer to avoiding a situation like this would be to opt for an alternative method of investing? Well, as it happens, that may not necessarily be the case.
But before we look into that any deeper, let’s take a second to define what exactly this other source is, as when pledging just doesn’t work, you might want to opt for purchase instead.
So, with this once again leaving more middle and small tier developers struggling, they’ve found themselves turning to crowd sourcing, bringing us right back to where we began.
Yes, without crowd sourcing, the reality is that many of these titles simply would not get made and, as a result of this, a lot of great art simply would never see the light of day, works such as Pathfinder Online, released in its alpha stage in 2014, Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown, released in its beta stage in 2015, or Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, a game with is currently in pre alpha testing.
And most of these projects have been funded through the number one website for such purposes online right now Kickstarter.
Of course, even if you’re not that familiar with video games, you should be familiar with Kickstarter as, since its inception in 2009, it has become the go to platform for those looking to crowd source a project. And this is because of the ease of use it allows, with it letting users sign up, put up an ad, and offer any number of incentives for people to make a financial pledge from there.
In fact, so popular has Kickstarter become, it has helped to fund a number of big projects over the years, including the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality gaming headset that was later purchased by Facebook for 2 Billion US dollars.
That’s not to say they’re the only game in town though as, outside of Kickstarter, there are a number of crowd sourcing websites out there, including but not limited to Indiegogo, Bonfire and Fundly.
As well as that, there was also the noteworthy case of TitanReach which, in 2020, right as the scandal of Chronicles of Elyria was making waves amongst the MMO world, was in as equally grim of a state when their developers, Square Root Studios, were outright accused of committing fraud.
Why is that you ask? Well, after raising almost 200,000 US dollars in a Kickstarter campaign posted earlier that year, it came to light that, even though they hadn’t met their initial goal of $430,000, the team would be keeping the money and adopting a month to month crowd funding model from there that they hoped would see them be able to raise the remainder of the necessary money as they went on.
Sadly however, come August of 2021, one of the lead developer’s would announce on the games Discord that the whole project was going to be cancelled effective immediately, with him reasoning that, as was the case with Chronicles of Elyria, they had simply run out of money.
And while this quickly raised alarm bells within the game community, it would soon get worse as it would later come to light that, at least according to the accusations of an anonymous YouTuber who claims to be close to the project, much of the funding for the title had been wasted by the developers on crypto currency.
Yes, it seems like, in an attempt to raise the remainder of the money necessary to complete the work, Square Roots Studios had decided to gamble what they had on online investments, with them even allegedly buying shares in Tesla at one point.
In the end though, this looks to have backfired on them as, with crypto currency in particular being a notoriously volatile market, they seem to have lost it all, leading many to accuse them of mismanaging their money instead of using it to build the game that they had promised.
So, surly then, the answer to avoiding a situation like this would be to opt for an alternative method of investing? Well, as it happens, that may not necessarily be the case.
But before we look into that any deeper, let’s take a second to define what exactly this other source is, as when pledging just doesn’t work, you might want to opt for purchase instead.