Tag: Airboy

02/27/18

Some Thoughts on Kickstarter Financial Benefits and Risks

Is the risk worth the reward? ~

Avery Abernethy, 27 February 2018

Kickstarter has provided significant start-up funds for many gaming projects. Pillars of Eternity raised almost $4 million dollars. The 7th Edition of Call of Cthulhu raised over $561,000 and many smaller PC, boardgame, and tabletop games raised enough money to fund their project. But for individuals, funding a kickstarter game project is fraught with risk. There are no guarantees that a funded project will be completed either on time or ever. Kickstarter itself does not guarantee that projects are legitimate or that they will be completed. There are a number of horror stories about funded Kickstarter projects which never completed their project and ultimately returned nothing to backers.

From a financial perspective, how can you decide if contributing to a Kickstarter Campaign is a good bet? I’ve recently helped fund a couple of kickstarter projects after overcoming extraordinary levels of apprehension. I’ve got a few thoughts on how to consider a decision to fund a Kickstarter game project.

 

The Unavoidable Risk Is Huge

Even a casual reading of Kickstarter’s legal language shows Kickstarter itself does not stand behind any funded project in any way. They do not promise that a funded project will be: competed; completed on time; or completed in a manner consistent with the project’s promotion. Kickstarter’s policies have been tested in US courts. Legally, if you pay into a funded Kickstarter project and the project fails, your only recourse is suing people responsible for the individual Kickstarter project. Good luck collecting from a failed funded project. If an individual or a company does not have any assets, you will not collect anything even with successful lawsuit. The conclusion I draw from this is pretty simple. Don’t fund a Kickstarter project if you are unable to accept the risk of losing 100% of your pledge.

 

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01/23/18

GrogHeads Reviews The Quest

RPG on the go?  Sure.  But how does it stack up against PC games ~

Avery Abernethy, 23 January 2018

The Quest is a light RPG which is playable on your phone, tablet or PC. The game has a single person viewpoint and you cannot gain party members or henchmen. This design choice will drive most characters to develop both fighting and magic skills. The graphics are state of the art 1990s and reminded me of Might and Magic 6 which was released back in 1998.

You start out as a first level character with the seemingly impossible mission of finding out what has happened to the Governor of a large province. Of course, the Governor is far away and inaccessible to your starting character. Your character then solves a bunch of quests, kills a bunch of monsters in the wilderness and gains levels which allow you to become more powerful.

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11/20/17

TANKSgiving – Tanks and Armored Cars 1919-1939

Another gallery from a visit to Bovington  ~

Avery Abernethy, 20 November 2017

The tanks used in World War 1 were monstrous beasts that stood well over the ground. Most carried machine guns or at best very light cannons. After 1918 the industrial powers realized that anti-tank guns (and even anti-tank rifles) could easily knock out a WW1 era tank because of its thin armor, weak engine, slow speed and very high gun profile.

Much of the interwar period saw the development of Armored Cars and light tanks. Armored cars were much faster than the WW1 era tanks (especially on roads) and carried either similar or heavier guns than WW1 tanks. Thus the armored cars were faster, lower to the ground, less expensive to build, easier to maintain, and had more firepower than a WW1 tank.

Many armored cars were developed immediately after World War 1 through the early 1930s. As they developed, they became lower to the ground.

The development split into three directions.

In one direction the gun was removed and it became a scout car.  An example is the Dingo Mark 3.

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11/16/17

MACE 2017 Convention Report

Our intrepid conventioneer checks out another of the South’s excellent game expos ~

Avery Abernethy, 15 November 2017

MACE (Mid-Atlantic Convention Expo) was held for the 21st time in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 10-12, 2017. I had a great time. There are a number of MACE events annually in North Carolina with MACE being the largest.

MACE is a gaming convention. There is no costume contest, concert, film show or game shows. MACE is about gaming. Except for two live action role playing games (limited to a single room) and three game panels, everything was RPGs, Board Games, Miniature Games or Tabletop Games.

There was a lot of gaming going own. There were a total of 174 RPG sessions, 121 Board/Table Top Games, 101 Card or Deck building games and 22 miniature games. This does not include the “play to win” games, pick-up games from the game library, demos, or spontaneous games started by attendees.

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10/4/17

GrogHeads Reviews Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition

Revisiting a classic and telling new tales ~

Avery Abernethy, 4 October 2017

Gabriel Knight is a point and click adventure game. Gabriel attempts to solve the Voodoo Murders in New Orleans which are occurring in the early 90s. Psychological and physical horror abound. Gabriel is a slacker rogue who wrote several unsuccessful mystery novels and owns an almost bankrupt rare book store. Gabriel is also amazingly vain and attempts to seduce most young females crossing his path.   Gabriel is haunted by a terrible dream sequence which becomes more detailed with each passing day.

New Orleans itself is a main character. New Orleans history, geographical highpoints, and the history of voodoo are all worked into the story line. Gabriel visits the Voodoo Museum, Tulane University, Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, St. Louis Cemetery #1, among other locations. All existed in the 1990s and most are relatively unchanged today. The idiot destroyers of history have not pulled down Andrew Jackson’s statue yet!

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