(Kickstarter) BattleTech: Mercenaries

[zemjw]

KS for BattleTech. Massively overfunded, so much so that hopefully they'll be able to cope

Runs until April 21 - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries

[Cat]

I was rather surprised they were able to cope with their first KS that ended around $2.5million.  At least they have a better idea of what they're getting into this time.
 
Last time, I backed just for a pile of dices and some other bits of swag.
 
Looks like no dice this time for me though.
~ , ~

[Condottiere]

I might upgrade my pledge from Veteran to Company, as CGL has improved the stretch goals and perks, due to complaints. I might even cancel, as the fanbase is trying to outdo GW's fanboys in nastiness! This is the first CGL KS I'm backing and it looks really chaotic: putting up add-on prices almost two days after launch, for instance.

[Maniac]

I think the campaign has a couple issues, some of which are not Catalysts own making.

1.  Kickstarter is, for better or worse, a no/low interest loan for the folks running campaigns.  It was, in most respects, intended for small individuals to bring ideas forward but has been a bit co-opted by various firms who don't want to take a bank loan. As such people do tend to expect something for their money, and can have sometimes ludicrous expectations of what their money should give them (as humans we tend to value things more highly because they are ours, not because of it's intrinsic value).  This creates all kinds of problems given the fact that Kickstarter does nothing for the backers besides act as a middle man to collect said backer's money.  The complaints about more or it's enough directly stem from Kickstarter, not intrinsically Catalyst (as these sorts of gripes show up on tons of other campaigns).  No venture capitalist or bank worth their salt would agree to give you money for no stake in what you are using it for (which is exactly what Kickstarter does, meaning this is a Kickstarter problem, not Catalyst).

2.  Catalyst shot themselves in the foot with hyping it up only to go off to Adepticon with a campaign that wasn't ready.  As a result it's been a bumpy several days getting things ironed out and clarified.

3.  The production time, while probably accurate, is very long.  With over a year of no return on investment, people are going to get a bit crabby about things.  Essentially 1 and 2 are mixing to create new problems with 'Catalyst sucks' or 'You guys saying that are greedy ____'.

I'm in it for now, but that long delay to rewards makes me wonder if I cannot just print out what I want and buy a smaller portion then (they could say I get one of everything for free, and that's still a long way to go, given Kickstarters I've seen fail or go even longer than their already long timelines).  So unsure if I will stay with it the whole way or not, and that has nothing to do with 'free' stuff or not.

[beefcake]

I've backed. I was happy with the first kickstarter. Got some nice mechs, not expecting a lot of freebies to be honest.

[Cat]

A few days ago, I threw in for $1 to get into the pledge manager and just grab some bits of swag.  Now they've just announced they are adding dice, and dice trays, after all.  So looks like I'm in for swag and bling.
: 3
 
Plus, having bought dice the first go-round, I'll be getting some sort of credit to apply this time.  I only got Inner Sphere dice, and was happy with those, apparently it was some of the Clan dice what had significant problems.