I think you're assuming that the more money, the better.
Well more money usually is better.
This isn't always the case, because the more money, the more orders that have to be fulfilled *by the projected shipment date*. For example, Reaper's KS offered paints, but they were not able to obtain enough (get this) eye droppers for the paints by the first shipment date. So they had to delay the paints for (something like) *six months*.
I remember the follow-up podcast Reaper did about their Kickstarter, in particular about having to draw a line on how much they could deliver and simply decided "no more" at a point because the costs (manufacture/shipping) would outstrip their profits, and who wants that? Of course to buffer these types of costs you add optionals that boost the overall sales and help restore some degree of balance. Of course some of the optionals are exclusives, which can't be reused later. I'm having trouble balancing the profits and expenditures, but I'm sure GG had thsi sorted out even before the Kickstarter so I doubt they'll run into any issues.
One "problem" about KS is that the parties sponsoring the project don't really know how much money they're going to get.
True. And in this regard we can bet that as the Kickstarter progressed the stretch goals were adjusted based on how quickly GG felt the money was collecting, shown by the fact that at one point stretch goals went from $40K down to $25K then back up to $40-50K. I get that GG probably has pre-defined stretch goals setup and once they're all used... there won't be anymore stretch goals, so they want them to last for the duration of the Kickstarter campaign.
With, say, Reaper's KS, additional funds were (otherwise) fine. The more money they had, the more metal plastic injection molds they could make for their *existing* line of sculpts. But with a boardgame, what do you add besides bling? You can't add new $100 expansions, because the rules haven't been developed and playtested yet. I'm sure many of the later KS-exclusive character stats haven't been revealed to us *because they haven't been playtested* yet.
Fair enough, I won't argue that. However the formula seems to primary be adding more zombies, optional survivors, and free survivors. I'm sure these types of "add ons" factor heavily for GG in terms of space/shipping costs, not to mention production costs. Still, I would like to see other options, like more equipment cards, mixed zombie spawn cards (classic/toxic/berserker/dog randomly on single cards), a helicopter token for "escape" maps (rather than just the Exit token), different types of vehicle tokens (2 seater sports car, 6 seater shuttle bus, ect). I know someone asked for a new double-sided tile... but I wouldn't expect to see one... even though it would be kinda awesome.
Someone posted that the first Zombicide KS had enough money to fund TCM. Certainly this KS has enough money to fund quite a few other Zombicide or CMON projects. That's about all I can think of why they would want the KS to keep going.
We'll I'm certainly glad to see GG making lots of money because this does translate into the game's longevity. So I'm glad the Kickstarter has been so successful for them.
But manufacturing lines have an optimal range of production. Too few units, and you don't make money. Too many units, and your manufacturer doesn't have the capacity to deliver. Then what?
You sound just like my old Macro-Economics teacher.
I think it sorta makes sense to slow down a KS if necessary (and it's week three, the usual slowdown period for a KS). I'm wondering if S2 will have the last-minute rush of money KS's are supposed to have, or if CMON will offer only token climax bling as the last Stretch Goal.
I can assure you there will be a rush (there was last time). It's for this reason I wanted to see more stretch goals posted, to account for this fact, and yet as I stated above we know they probably have a limit and until they know the approximate end value of teh Kickstarter I assume they don't want to predict the goal "spacing" ($$$) and then fall too short.
I've already posted my comments on Stretch Goals in the Update #25 comments (?) but lemme know if you want a repost.
No worries, I'll check it out.
Here's a semi-obsolete Wired article of other problems, including the IRS:
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/07/st_kickstarter/?pid=682&viewall=true
Thanks for the information.
As for me, I guess I'm partially peeved because of another Kickstarter game. It was a Eurogame called "Drum Roll" (circus management game) that they wanted to reproduce/sell in North America. In it they provided stretch goals as well, which were more/new cards. Needless to say I was interested in the game because it wasn't like anything I had played before. Then I watched a review video of the Euro version of the game and I was surprised to see that the stretch goal cards were in the set he was playing with... so I came to the conclusion the stretch goals included cards from the original game that they were just adding back into the game. Needless to say I was disappointed. Because of that experience whenever I see stretch goals I think "Are they really giving us 4 miniatures, or was there always room for 5 and they removed one to just give it back to us as a stretch goal so we would be grateful...?"
*sigh*
Anywho, like I said, I'm buying the game because I enjoy playing Zombicide and so do my friends, but it's just hard not to be a bit cynical due to my past experiences with other Kickstarters. But enough of that, it's not like I want to debate the merits/issues of Kickstarters. I prefer suggesting ideas for additions to Zombicide. That, and I hope to one day win that damn Kyoko miniature... I just need to keep on sending GG more mission ideas...
