(KICKSTARTER) DUST TACTICS Operation Babylon

[General M@yhem]

Well, I hope BF get a major kicking for this. I, like many I would imagine, thought the risk for this KS was minimal with companies like Dust Studios and Battlefront involved.

[Glitzer]

Sad to see it end like this. I wanted to salvage some of their more historical acurate minis for Cthulhu and pulp games. Let's hope they'll somehow survive this desaster.

[Anna Elizabeth]

I'm sincerely sorry for those of you that got hit by this.

Is DUST Tactics dead? I love the things I have for it, I have mostly painted large Allied and Axis forces, and a small amount of SSU.

[Predatorpt]

I've not received this e-mail yet.Should I be concerned about that?(in addition to being absolutely furious about the KS failing and losing my money!)

Did you send your invoice to Dust Studios when this mess started? I gather they sent the email to everyone who did that (and only to those).

[Predatorpt]

And now BF sent this update:

For backers only

We absolutely and utterly refute the statements made by both William Yau and Paolo Parente in their letter to backers.
The wave two product has only just been completed and despite asking for the last four months what exactly has been made we have never had that information. They have simply refused to share any detailed information in trying to resolve the dispute.
We will send out a formal response to all backers early next week to not only refute this one sided propaganda but illustrate just how much these two men have chosen to leave out when claiming to be the victims in their own farce.
BF

All in all, I lost a lot of money and the only thing I have from that KS is a "Operation Achilles" box...that I don't need nor want - I only wanted single mechs and tanks for my SOTR games.

[Redmao]

At least it made battlefront come out of their hole.
Dust claims that BF hasn't sent them the money and BF claims that they are the victim...
Since Dust wants to dissolve their partnership, battlefront should issue refunds and be done with all of this.

The Dust offer won't be free stuff, that's for sure, so who in their right mind would pay twice for a single order?

[leonmallett]

The end of ks is near....
at least for Tabletop/Boardgames.....
So many failures.....

Totally disagree that the end is near. The failures are noteworthy, so stay in people's minds, but the rate of success remains high (even if many hobby projects are late, if they deliver what was promised they are an arguable success).

I think crowd-funding will evolve, especially in governance of platforms, but ultimately it has been a democratising thing for the hobby, that has seen ideas come to fruition that otherwise would never have got off the ground. It has offered a solution to allow lines/ranges to grow more rapidly than would otherwise be feasible. It has de-risked the business model for manufacturers/publishers to a certain extent.

This is a high-profile failure for sure. And we have probably had the end the gold-rush era of hobby projects as a lot of hobbyists have acquired a lot of hobby 'stuff' through crowd-funding in recent years. I still think there will be big and small projects, I just think backers will increase their discernment which will affect how the crowd-funding sector of the hobby changes. Going forward I suspect we shall see a change in how projects are presented, and how far they are prepared to stretch with added-on goals.

[Anna Elizabeth]

For myself, I'm glad I stayed away from this Kickstarter, and I never will do any Kickstarter/crowd-funding for any game.

[Lovejoy]

The end of ks is near....
at least for Tabletop/Boardgames.....
So many failures.....

I don't think so myself; I just hope it leads to a more rational approach, with less emphasis on stretch goals and freebies, and more focus on just ensuring the core goal is met. Basically all the stuff LeonMallett said...  

For myself, I'm glad I stayed away from this Kickstarter, and I never will do any Kickstarter/crowd-funding for any game.

That's understandable, but the problem is that a lot of projects may never make it to market without Kickstarter. Certainly the one we just ran, for Burrows and Badgers, was only possible because people backed us. If everyone had decided to avoid crowdfunding and just wait for them to be released, they'd be waiting for ever. We couldn't have afforded the moulding costs without KS.

This Dust KS is just a big mess though... and the usual checks wouldn't necessarily have worked. I mean, sure, they started throwing stretches and freebies at it which is a warning sign, but both companies had established global miniatures businesses. I would have assumed they knew what they were doing.

[Anna Elizabeth]

I have nothing against small producers, but I live on fixed income and just can't afford to take a chance on KS.

This month, my new eyeglasses were cheaper paying cash than using my stoopid insurance, but that also meant that the only hobby thing I got was my Mahdist Wars Sourcebook. Any KS failure, or delay, would wipe out a month or more of my hobby money, so personally I will not take the risk.

I do wish the smaller producers all the best with their projects. For a large company like Battlefront to have allowed this disaster is beyond shameful, and it means I won't be buying "Fulda Gap" from them later this year, either.

Back to looking at Micro-Armor, I suppose, for my Cold War gone Hot fantasies.

[harleyface]

There are so many problems all my friends decided neverto back again....
I personally still back some projects...
Personally i lost now 2000 € if i include avp
Delays are no problem for me but received 3ks out of 20

[obsidian3d]

I should have listened to my gut and avoided this one. I'm in for over $600 USD, and have received less than 1/3 of the stuff I was supposed to. Both Dust Studios and Battlefront are culpable in this, and the terrible thing here is that the it's the customers and fans who are very literally paying for it.

If Dust and Paolo think people are going to send them MORE money to get the stuff they already paid for I think they're f**king dreaming. We already paid, the product has been made (it's available in my local shop...I've seen it!). I don't care who tries to spin it any which way, all the KS backers have been the victims of fraud. I simply want my money back now, because who the hell am I going to play the game with after this cluster-f**k?!

[rwwin]

And so it begins......

Miniature Market is having a fire sale/clearance sale on all of their Dust items:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/table-top-miniatures/dust-tactics.html

although the only Bablylon item listed as in stock is the Desert Jagdluther

[Predatorpt]

And this after Battlefront sent a new update...saying it's all Dust Studio fault  The blame-shifting continues and the backers still haven't seen most of their orders 

[obsidian3d]

Something that really makes me upset is that, if I could get what I paid for all would be forgiven. The sad reality is that the likelihood of that scenario ever happening is near zero. If the backers don't get what they paid for, I don't feel bad saying that I hope both companies drown under huge pile of shit they're shovelling. If they were professional at all they'd get their poop in a pile, take care of the backers and then sort the rest out behind closed doors.

Whether Dust is a good game or not, dragging people who supported you like all the backers have is unacceptable and they should feel the repercussions of it by losing their reputations and their businesses.