Kickstarter Backer Pulls Pledge for Devs Not Fulfilling Vision

Over the last several years, the rise of crowdfunding has given gamers more of a voice in the development process. Games like Star Citizen, HEX, and Elite: Dangerous have all raised millions of dollars to bring them to market. While some will argue that backing a campaign shows faith of vision and concept, others feel it means far more than that. Meet Nick Kidwell of Providence, Rhode Island. Nick has been an avid gamer for as long as he can remember. He often regales the younger folk with tales of Vanilla WoW and "the time battleships were the largest ships in EVE."

Recently, Nick has fallen into a bit of a rut when it comes to MMOs and has been searching for the next game that will hold his attention. "Every game I pick up starts off so promising and it's easy to ignore its faults at first," said Kidwell. "But after a while, they do get to me and the time between logins becomes longer and longer. Ideally, I am looking for a polished game that combines all of the MMO mechanics I have grown to love over the years." Naturally, he turned to Kickstarter.

 In late February 2015, Artcraft launched a crowdfunding campaign for their work-in-progress Crowfall. In a matter of days, their funding goal was reached and has since broken the seven figure mark. "Within two hours of hearing about how popular this game was on Kickstarter, I was all-in with a pledge of $30," Kidwell recalls. "This project had momentum on its side, so I figured I would take advantage and start posting my ideas the forums." And post he did. Cries of hijacking the "suggestions" category on Crowfall's boards were rampant as Mr. Kidwell created no less than seventeen threads in a matter of days. With posts such as "My idea for a looting system", "Final Fantasy 2 style combat is a must!", and "Why in-game marriage should be added", Nick's excitement and anticipation grew considerably. That is, until Artcraft began publishing more and more information about Crowfall.

"I couldn't believe what I was reading. It's as if they didn't read a single one of my suggestions. As someone who was financially AND emotionally invested in this project, I felt swindled, hoodwinked, and all around bamboozled. How do they think this game will succeed if they don't listen to its backers?" said Kidwell, adding, "This is NOT the game I initially backed."

UPDATE: Nick Kidwell has officially pulled his pledge from the Crowfall Kickstarter. The Global Cooldown has since received Kidwell's official reason for cancellation as typed into the comment field: "If you can't promise the game your backer's want 17 days into your campaign, how are you supposed to deliver two years down the road?"