Jerykk wrote on Apr 17, 2012, 02:16:

Sepharo wrote on Apr 16, 2012, 23:07:

NKD wrote on Apr 16, 2012, 22:27:
I don't think people realize the costs in printing thousands of t-shirts or books. The exclusive in-game stuff is actually much cheaper to produce, leaving more money for the actual game.

As long as the in-game exclusives are not overly significant, I don't have a problem with it. I consider it the cost of getting the games I want. Expensive to produce out-of-game perks are not going to support this business model by themselves.

There's lots of different ways to do the backer rewards... as we've seen with all the major gaming Kickstarters so far. Exclusive DLC missions shouldn't be one of them.

I don't really have a problem with backer-exclusive DLC. There's a pretty big difference between that and retailer-exclusive pre-order DLC. For one, backers are investing in a game based on faith alone. Without this faith, the game would not be made. It's much safer to wait until a game is released and then read reviews or wait for a sale so backers are taking a bigger risk than post-release buyers. Secondly, retailer-exclusive DLC has nothing to do with gamers and everything to do with publishers trying to get maximum shelf space for their games. Retailer-exclusive DLC screws consumers in favor of retailers. Backer-exclusive DLC rewards consumers who took a risk and ensured that the game would get made.

Aside from ensuring that the game gets made, backer funding helps make the game better by allowing it to expand and/or polish its content. This doesn't happen when you pre-order a regular game. Pre-order DLC is done to make a game profitable as quickly as possible and ensure more shelf space. Publishers like to recoup their costs as quickly as possible and they want to maximize sales within a week. The money that goes into pre-orders doesn't go back into development. It goes into the pockets of the publishers. Conversely, supporting a Kickstarter helps make its games better.