There are the good Kickstarters – the ones with prototypes, extensive mechanic breakdowns or videos of an eerily earless Jim Rossignol* demonstrating in-game footage at length – and then there are the bad ones, the ones that dangle a name but not a lot more. Tom Hall and Brenda Romero’s Old School RPG rightfully acknowledged its own (perhaps accidental) cynicism and pulled the plug, but it was this week’s Elite: Dangerous project by Frontier Developments that really offended me. I obviously don’t know the circumstances of the fund’s creation, but it had at least the appearance of being hastily arranged and trading on pure nostalgia rather than any definite promises. No artwork, no video, no concrete features – just a vague outline very heavily based on what Braben & Bell’s original spaceship sim already did. After decades of Elite 4-based promises and talk of ongoing development, I for one felt insulted, entitled little shmuck that I am.

Now, the Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter page is in more like the shape it should have been at first, with artwork and videos added to the pitch at last. “At last,” he says, as though three days is an eternity. What have you done to me, internet?(more…)