This is in response to Johna, who responded to a previous post. Johna was taken aback by my saying ‘so what’ about the 120K goal set by Carey (aka HMDesigner). He asked “…but do you mean to say that you actually AGREE with that amount?” Not really Johna, I do not. That equates to at least 2,000 pre-sells of the game in 30 days, and I thought that was too many pre-sells in too short a time.
Let’s remember this point: He was not trying to blackmail anybody. Every supporter at or above $25 or $40 would get the game. There were simply not enough supporters to hit the goal. My whole point of view is that Carey should decide how many copies have to be (pre)sold, since he has to be the one to invest his time. And we should respect that.
My ‘so what’ was my reaction to comments on Kickstarter, one of which clearly said it was “wrong” of Carey to ask for 120K. It was wrong of Carey to decide for himself how many copies of the game have to (pre)sell to make it worth his time? Are you kidding me? And that, Johna, is the essence of the attacks on Carey for setting the goal at 120K.
It was wrong of Carey to decide for himself how many copies of the game have to (pre)sell to make it worth his time? Are you kidding me?”
We can all have an opinion about it but in the end only he can be motivated to sit down and make the game. He named his price…and the ‘market’ balked. HM4 = Time, and I respect Carey enough to let him decide for himself what his time is worth. Carey decides what his time is worth, Not I. I just accept it, whether I like it or not.
Sometimes I contact an artist about a commission and get a price quote I cannot afford, or perhaps even find ‘excessive’. Now, just how disrespectful would it be for me to say to him or her, “No, that’s ridiculous! You’re time is not worth that. You’re wrong to ask for that much!” Perhaps the price quote was unrealistic, but it would be disrespectful to act like that.
Now, was the 120K goal unrealistic. Yeah, I guess so, but not because of the $$ amount. I just have no idea what the market for Hollywood Mogul is and how realistic it is to reasonably expect thousands of people to pre-fund this particular game almost two years out, and to do it within a month. Carey says there’s obviously just no market for the game because the Kickstarter failed, and yourself and others think he’s wrong and that done differently it could still work. That about sum it up?
Seems to me like we, the market, should try better to motivate Carey to write the game. I guess if the pledges had gotten up to something like $40-$50K that this would be a different conversation, but the fact is he took the time to do the Kickstarter, he gave it a shot, and only 103 people put their $$ on the line. Maybe, just maybe, Carey has a point about the lack of demand and it makes not difference one what the goal was.
So, wrong? No. Unrealistic? Yes.
And yeah, I think it sucks.
I disagree, as I believe that yes, it was wrong to get our hopes up and ask us for 120k without putting any work into making that a potential reality. He should have at least done some research into the gaming community before relying on word of mouth to net him THAT much money. He greatly overestimated his own worth and it showed, so in that respect, yes I do believe he was wrong.
Also, I’ll concede to your point about artists and commissions and whatnot, but there are reasons why so many of those artists end up struggling in the end. Just like Carey, they’ll end up out of work.
Also, as of Carey’s last post on the forums, he was ready to sign over the series to somebody else. He’s clearly not interested in writing the game. He specifically dismissed any ideas to the contrary. Now that the Kickstarter has failed, he’s done. So it’s pointless to argue about whether he was right or wrong, as the game is simply NOT happening. That’s part of the reason I am not holding back in my words toward him; he’s done with the series, what should he care about our opinions?
To be fair, I think a lot of people were put off by his goal. I didn’t even bother tying up my pledge because I knew it was just going to be returned to me. At 120k he was trying to have his cake and eat it too with no personal risk involved in developing the game. That’s his prerogative, but if you expect me to lay down my money almost two years in advance, you should be taking a little risk with the development and not trying to cover every dime of costs and more in one month two years before the game is released. I can’t help but think I’m not the only person who didn’t donate because of that.
Robbie, you hit the nail on the head.
My problem is with those who claim they have been a ‘supporter for years’ then turn on him. It’s a bit like inviting your favorite band to play a gig and when they say they cannot, then saying to their face that they suck or something…it is not OK to disrespect someone just because they are not giving you what you want (in this case his time) for what you/we/us feel it is worth. It is OK to criticize, but not to disrespect the man.
Thanks for stopping by.