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Kickstarter is officially dead to me,

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by dxcam1, Mar 25, 2013.

  1. khanstruct

    khanstruct

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    The basic response to her breaking the ToS by spamming was "well that's ok, maybe she didn't know". WTF!?
     
  2. dxcam1

    dxcam1

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    Looks like I found a way to pay my college tuition.
     
  3. BrUnO-XaVIeR

    BrUnO-XaVIeR

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    She is just teaching her cub how to milk the cow(you)! rofl
     
  4. UnknownProfile

    UnknownProfile

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    dxcam1, good idea. I want to raise $193,728 so I can go to college for 4 years and make a game afterwards. The game is what you're really funding in the long run.
     
  5. I am da bawss

    I am da bawss

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    $193,728 for college in 4 years? That works out to be $48,432 per year. I don't think even med students pay that much.....from oversea.
     
  6. Starsman Games

    Starsman Games

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    You do if you also want to eat and pay for housing without being forced to do any pesky "jobs."

    48,432 for the tutelage, 36.3k a year for staying alive and lazy.
     
  7. Khyrid

    Khyrid

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    Seriously, which one of us has access to the cutest kid? We should pull together resources, music, video editing, and we'll design a game and claim the kid is making it. We can then split the profits. Even if we did make a scam it would probably still end up being a more worthy project by the end. lol.
     
  8. dtg108

    dtg108

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    And it would probably make more money than any of our games combined, ever.
     
  9. MarigoldFleur

    MarigoldFleur

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    I could probably carve a potato to LOOK like a kid...
     
  10. dtg108

    dtg108

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    the sad thing is that they would probably fall for it. "Help this potato make a game."
     
  11. Khyrid

    Khyrid

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    Imagine.... life as a potato, the difficulties, the challenges. But now you can make a difference if only you potato. Donate now... and never potato potato.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2013
  12. IvoryOasis

    IvoryOasis

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    The sad thing is people keep saying they won't support kickstarter anymore...which means a lot of honest campaigns / people are being damaged by this woman.

    Oh, and of course how her milking the entire gender angle and "women in gaming" is hurting women everywhere. The next time the issue honestly comes up, people will think it is just being used as another scam to manipulate people .

    As they say, one bad apple spoils the bunch....
     
  13. nipoco

    nipoco

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    I still don't get, why KS doesn't shut that campaign down.
    I mean, scam or not, she violates at least two terms. Spamming and 'fund my life, like paying for tuition is prohibited and yet Kickstarter doesn't take any action.

    Understandable that people lose their faith in KS.
    Let's see what comes next. Someone tries to fund a birthday party, or wedding ?
     
  14. keithsoulasa

    keithsoulasa

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    KS is still a business , they don't care as long as they get their cut
     
  15. nipoco

    nipoco

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    That might be true.
     
  16. login4donald

    login4donald

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    Wait in line. I lost my faith in the human race a long time ago...

    But seriously, this makes me wonder what does on in people's heads. I've never had an ear towards KickStarter but this is just terrible. I don't blame the lady as I do the people. Both are equally at fault IMO but people throwing their money at this? And they wonder why the [world] economy sucks.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2013
  17. UnknownProfile

    UnknownProfile

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    I used the fees of the university I'm off to next year :neutral:
     
  18. IvoryOasis

    IvoryOasis

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    I think when things like this pop up.. it is easy to be tempted into thinking that just manipulating stupid people is how the world is and that is how you have to act to compete (she has out funded a lot of other serious developers in just a couple days). A lot of businesses think like this actually, they look over and see shady business practices as an "easy ticket" to success.

    If you want the most amount of return for the least amount of work...then yea, robbing the naive is probably easiest (which is why business gravitates towards exploitation).

    But, I think it is important to remember that not everyone is lowest common denominator. This is just one smaller portion of the population. There are still plenty of thinking people who value honesty and quality and all the other mutually beneficial attributes (for the business and consumer). So, don't be tempted to play to the fools.... don't pander or manipulate... leave them to be cheated by all the other businesses out there. Instead, focus on building a healthy relationship with healthy / thinking people, i believe that market is a lot better to work with (just look at companies who cater to the lowest common denominator, they have horrible communities filled with irrational angry bees that turn on you and constantly demand more).
     
  19. givecake

    givecake

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    The one possibility people haven't considered, is that it could be her mom funding her. Maybe people are really not funding her at all, except 1-2 and her mom?
     
  20. nipoco

    nipoco

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    I doubt that.

    I even doubt that this woman is millionaire at all.
     
  21. crispie

    crispie

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    IMO there are four items that violate the ToS or Guidelines:

    1) "I'm raising $829 to cover the cost of attending this RPG STEM Camp for kids 9-12 years old for a week" Is the stated reason for this project. The fact that it is has an unknown / unseen deliverable at the end is moot and not the reason for the creation of this project. Additionally money is being raised so she can buy a laptop and attend summer camp above the $829 raised for this camp.
    2) The creator has repeatedly spammed her twitter account with the project details: https://twitter.com/FundHer
    3) There are no details around the end product that will be delivered, only items around the camp she is raising money to attend, the software she is using and promoting awareness of the STEM campaign.
    4) The creator of the product is under 18 and is attempting to bypass the terms of service by either using an account that is not her own or the account owner is violating the ToS that states: "impersonates any person or entity, including any employee or representative of the Company"
     
  22. nipoco

    nipoco

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    And still KS gives a S*** :)
     
  23. crispie

    crispie

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    Generally speaking, if it was my companies ToS I would ......
     
  24. nipoco

    nipoco

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    Yeah. But as keithsoulasa pointed out, they're obvioulsy more interested in the money rather than their own guidelines.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2013
  25. Rivendare

    Rivendare

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    KS's interest for the money should have been dwarfed by the potential rep damage they could take for letting a project like this be published. For 5% of what (relatively) small amount the project gains, KS is getting bashed on a lot of media, including this one.
     
  26. Garrus7

    Garrus7

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    There is one important detail that is being overlooked.

    Once this scam was exposed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/9-year-old-kickstarter-campaign_n_2949294.html

    Kickstarter refused to remove it saying that it was a legitimate campaign because there was a game being delivered at the end for people who pledged more then $10. (The people who pledge less than $10 get nothing but that's another story)

    This implies that the 9 year old child is legally obliged to create a game. I'm pretty sure this is against child labor laws, and is considered child exploitation.

    As it stands, Kickstarter has not removed the project, and seeing that there is more than 20 days to go, I don't think this is over. I think Kickstarter is going to be called out for supporting not only a scam, but child exploitation.


    Edit: Also the way media has behaved is pretty terrible, people on 4chan are still finding out more dirt on this woman, she has a bunch of crowdfunding scams on Indiegogo, none of the actual "journalists" have done any investigating of their own.

    Here are the said Indiegogo scams:

    http://www.indiegogo.com/individuals/103307/campaigns

    One in particular is a pretty blatant scam where she buys iphone cases for $16 on Amazon and sells them for $40, claiming it's her own product.

    $JoY79YT.jpg


    When these latest details hit the media eventually, Kickstarter is going to lose so much credibility.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2013
  27. Noisecrime

    Noisecrime

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    But will they?

    So many reports over this have taken the opposite stand, clumping together everyone who dares bring up any complaint valid or otherwise as being part of the death threat group or as part of the growing sexism/gender discussions or any number of other unrelated social aspects, trolling or otherwise unpopular face of the interent. Its very telling that in many of the reports the 'journalists' have failed to look at the issue to any depth at all.

    What I find astounding is the number of supporters on the KS page, who seem incapable of distinguishing between valid concerns and their opinion that people are just trying to prevent a 9 year old from becoming a game developer.

    Of course backers are free to back whatever project they like, but the level of support this project is getting, whilst blatantly infringing KS TOS can only end up being damaging for KS in the long run.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2013
  28. nipoco

    nipoco

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  29. Garrus7

    Garrus7

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    Yeah, there's potential for a lot of heads to roll before this is over, Kickstarter and the "journalists" that came out to defend a serial crowdfunding scammer.

    Nobody is even stepping back to think, how can you put that much pressure on a 9 year old, a campaign that raised $20k in her name, and now she's supposed to deliver a game. Child abuse.
     
  30. Rivendare

    Rivendare

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    Looking at Garrus7's post, it sounds like KS is putting all the blame to the backers who, voluntarily and quite blindly I have to say, DID back it up.

    Seriously though. A 9 year old kid to make a game? Even if that could happen, and I would love to make it happen, there's no way to describe it other than child labour.
     
  31. RideTheT

    RideTheT

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    I tweeted the picture of the phone case scam to the author of the CNET article on this story. His response was:

    "So tell me how you know which of those was designed first, and by who?".

    Astonishing.
     
  32. dxcam1

    dxcam1

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    Nothing like a little arbitrage to kick off the day.
     
  33. MarigoldFleur

    MarigoldFleur

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    You know what? That's a valid question! So, being the kinda person I am, I did some super in-depth research! And by that I mean I looked at the oldest comment on Amazon.com and compared it to the date on the project.





    So yeah, the "Life-Case" came to IndieGoGo in August of 2012, while the Incipio case had been on the market for at least 8 months by then.
     
  34. RideTheT

    RideTheT

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    Haha I did the exact same research and tweeted him my findings. He didn't respond...
     
  35. nipoco

    nipoco

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  36. IvoryOasis

    IvoryOasis

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    Wow, this story just keeps getting worse haha. A series of aliases? Awesome.
     
  37. Garrus7

    Garrus7

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    And here's the most obvious evidence that the child not only doesn't look 9, but she's being coached / pressured into lying. Take note of the part where the mother says speak about the game, and she says no.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWY5iPQ9fno

    I guess people aren't going to believe it's a scam even if she confesses to it on video.

    People are weird.

    But Kickstarter has no excuse, Kickstarter is not just a gullible person.
     
  38. Dabeh

    Dabeh

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    First I thought saying "Child Abuse" was a bit over the top...then I saw this video.

    Also, what's interesting is she wants to make the game based off the show(Naruto). And then shes "giving" away these copies to people on Kickstarter. Bingo! She's breaking some laws now. She's wanting to make a product that clearly breaks copyright laws. There's no loophole anymore.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2013
  39. IvoryOasis

    IvoryOasis

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    ~_~ This is the child with "the big dream to make a video game" ?

    I have seen (and been) a child with a dream to make video games. This isn't one. They would be talking about all the cool stuff they were going to put in, not just talking about their favorite anime (and not even having it related to a game at all ...that all came from the mother).

    This is the girl people are trying to rally behind to "get girls into tech and support a dream"? Apparently the bar is extremely low for girls ~_~ You don't even have to want to make a game ~_~
     
  40. Dabeh

    Dabeh

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    Notice how at 7:50 the mother asks "Whats the whole point of the game?" and she explains the point of a different game. Which is a perfect example of what you just said.

    The ending is the best.. 10:50. She can't even say thankyou...?
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2013
  41. nipoco

    nipoco

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    This girl is so enthusiastic. Look at her eyes and hear her voice. That all screams 'I want to make this game so badly'
     
  42. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    Honestly. If you're stupid enough to fall for the scam, you deserve to lose your money.
     
  43. Dabeh

    Dabeh

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    Someone giving money to a child without really getting anything back does NOT deserve to get scammed.

    Get rich quick schemes and other similar things on the other hand, those people need to learn a lesson the hard way.
     
  44. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    Thats not whats happening tho. it is blatantly clear that this 9 year old girl is not actually doing this. Her parents have set up this scheme to pay of some debt or something and are using the girl as 'bait' Just like them people who post facebook pictures of their kids holding signs saying, '200,000 likes and my mommy says we can get a dog'

    Its utter bollocks that if you fall for, you deserve it.
     
  45. Dabeh

    Dabeh

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    So you implying you would of known this is a scam without any help? You also assume that she has some debt or something, I guess that's blatantly obvious right?

    These people need to learn a lesson; but it's not deserved.
     
  46. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    I haven't read any of this thread if thats what you mean. I have just been linked the kick-starter from the hangout some of us are currently in and had a watch. And yeah, I could figure it out just from watching it. As soon as I said to the guys, 'they're only asking for $800ish so its probably to pay of some debt' I was confirmed that it pretty much is. It is BLATENT that its a scam, I feel sorry for you if you cant see it.
     
  47. IvoryOasis

    IvoryOasis

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    Actually, I liked the very end ending.... she is definitely learning from this entire experience...if you are going to scam, copyright the merchandising slogan.
     
  48. Dabeh

    Dabeh

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    Firstly, I know it is a scam. Secondly, when did you confirm it was a debt? That would help us greatly so we can get it pulled.
     
  49. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    They ordered this before they even did the kickstarter. showing that they need the money.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets...6eb358f2dd502e4478661b1f_large.png?1363963878

    Either way, just saying, Its blatently a scam, like everything here knows, I don't see why one incident that people are silly enough to fall for effects the general perception of kickstarter. Just like ebay, if there is a scammer, you generally can tell, i,e: No images of the product, just pictures of the box. That doesn't mean you scarper away from ebay and hate on it, S*** happens. Im heading to sleep.
     
  50. dxcam1

    dxcam1

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    That video tempted me to call child services.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2013