Is InXile a Ponzi scheme?

[existential_vacuum]

Backers: 74,405
Current owners: 79,925



Can the ponzi scheme last long enough to see Fargo though retirement age?

EDIT: fixed image hosting fuckery

 

[MarkedOne]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(video_game)

Brian Fargo has always been a short-sighted businessman/one-dimensional hype-exploiting merchant since day 1 -
"Cain worked with fellow employees at Interplay in their spare time, starting in 1994. He built the engine alone in six months, given no money and no resources, only time."
"The game was nearly cancelled after Interplay acquired the licenses to the Forgotten Realms and Planescape Dungeons & Dragons franchises, but Cain convinced Interplay to let him finish the work on his project."
"Later, after the success of Diablo, Cain successfully resisted the pressure to convert the game to multiplayer and real-time based"

 

[Ismaul]

Suddenly 3 newfags with less than 10 post appear.

They shill for inXile. What do you do?

 

[Severian Silk]

I haven't backed a game on KS yet, but I did buy Underrail in early access. I guess I choose my projects wisely.

I backed Battle Brothers and Stellar Tactics on EA as well. Already kind of sick of BB due to all the grinding/sameness. ST is very very primitive at this stage.

 

[an Administrator]

I heard it may have even broke a world record for the most words of dialogue in a video game

Most of the words are not "dialogues", they are mostly lengthy paragraphs describing what you can see with your own eyes.

 

[Pirata Alma Negra]

2 games now, and the other 2 kickstarters weren't that long ago to be concerned about them not being out yet. Also both these games have been well received by both critics and customers. Cut content sucks, but sometimes its necessary for various reasons. It happens all the time in this business, in fact probably most games have cut content to some degree because its far easier to think of an idea than it is to actually make it happen. The console launch wasn't a surprise because that was announced months ago, and that was also done with Wasteland 2 as well. Keeping the game PC exclusive wouldn't make as much money as going multi-platform. It was a logical move and a smart business decision.

So no, there's no wrongdoing here and it isn't a Ponzi scheme. Its just business. I think your problem isn't really with Brian Fargo; it is with capitalism in general. Without Brian Fargo a lot of great franchises like Wasteland would never exist to begin with, let alone be brought back today. The man is a legend and deserves far better than this shit. Why don't you hurl your slings and arrows at someone more deserving - like, say, Todd Howard?

Every ponzi scheme has to occasionally deliver too, to keep the faith and the money flowing you know.

 

[Ismaul]

No, you just tap a new gullible audience.

First it was RPG-starved fans, and then, since you "proved" you could bring in the customers, it's the naïve first-time publishers like Techland or ones that are starved for VR devs like Facebook.

When you've exhausted this scheme, you sell the company to a big publisher, maybe some frenchman wanting to tap into the american market.

After a while, you think you can do it again / need some cash flow, so you start a new company. You call it Outerplay, and say you're going back to your roots.

Just riding the wave of the first games that happened to be good despite you, because some young devs put all their hopes and efforts in them.

And then you die a hero to those that didn't play your games.

 

[Davaris]

I think kickstarter should be more for groups that already have a demo but are too small to have any real budget on their own and want 50k-100k to pay for genuine expenses like some art and music and crap. As a means to fund a whole game with millions it's just retarded and as we are finding out, doesn't really work. WL 2 was OK I guess, but not nearly what I hoped, and they have gone much further afield and much more mainstream since then, with little to show for it so fuck them.

A demo wouldn't cut it for me. The game engine would have to be finished and much of the scripting. All there should be left to do is art. Even so, there is no reason an indie can't do their own art as well. Just scale it back. All the way down to 2D and Microsoft Paint if necessary.

I don't get why he's still using crowdfunding when the dude lives in a 5$m+ mansion.

Because he want to continue living there. If he had risked his money to make W2/Torment and then tried to sell people the final releases and not the concepts, right now he would be under a bridge. So, we can concede that to him, he knows how to do business without risking his money.

Max: The two cardinal rules of producing are one: Never put your own money in the show.
Leo: And two?
Max: [yelling] Never put your own money in the show!

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

I think kickstarter should be more for groups that already have a demo but are too small to have any real budget on their own and want 50k-100k to pay for genuine expenses like some art and music and crap. As a means to fund a whole game with millions it's just retarded and as we are finding out, doesn't really work. WL 2 was OK I guess, but not nearly what I hoped, and they have gone much further afield and much more mainstream since then, with little to show for it so fuck them.

A demo wouldn't cut it for me. The game engine would have to be finished and much of the scripting. All there should be left to do is art. Even so, there is no reason an indie can't do their own art as well. Just scale it back. All the way down to 2D and Microsoft Paint if necessary.

With 3d even making shitty 3d art takes forever for a large game. And people expect a lot more.

 

[DragoFireheart]

This is all a shame since I'm enjoying Wasteland 2 atm.

But I do know my gut said "don't back anymore Inxile games".

Now I know why.