Why a Cancelled Kickstarter is a Good Thing

You might have noticed that I didn't post last weekend, but I was laid up in a so-not-American hospital being doped up on pain meds and NOT being treated for the reason I was admitted. Was quite the shi.....it sucked.

This last week I noticed a little bit of unexpected activity, mostly on Facebook, about a particular Kickstarter: Exwyn's Handbook to Heroism.

Now I'll admit this particular project holds no interest from me because...well I don't play 5E so I don't usually even give 5E projects a look, though anything that gives an option for solo play probably deserved a look from me (it's been too long since I slung dice).

I won't pretend to know all the in's and out's of running a Kickstarter, or the in's and out's of Pacesetter Games, but I do have a good opinion of those behind the latter (don't get me started on those behind the former!), and I'd rather see their projects succeed even if I'm not into them.

When I read the Facebook posts about them cancelling this project I actually had a good feeling about it, and while I can be a dick, please don't get me wrong I'm not trying to be one here so give me a little leeway. Now on the surface it looked like that Pacesetter was going to make their relatively low funding goal, but that the minimum funding wasn't going to cut it. These kinds of things get planned out well in advance, so things like the Hasbro licensing brouhaha can really muck things up. The end-run is that Exwyn's Handbook to Heroism was probably going to be too much of a resource sink for the small company and Pacesetter Games decided to "pull the plug".

So why is this a good thing?

In my experience the average gamer thinks it would be "awesome" to run a game store or be involved in a gaming company, but both are a lot of work and jobs........not 24/7 fun and games. Sure there are cool aspects to those jobs, but don't many jobs have cool aspects top them?

I like it when businessmen "do the math" and make smart business decisions. Pacesetter Games realized that they wouldn't be able to complete Exwyn's Handbook to Heroism to the level of quality they wanted and instead of putting out a (my words) shittier product, they cancelled the project.

Now long-time readers of the Tavern have undoubtedly heard about numerous Kickstarters where the product was either shitty, or never delivered......sometimes a little bit of both! Ok, like a little bit of the project was delivered and that little bit sucks.

One thing I learned in school was that with product development you can, at best, choose two of three factors: cost, quality, time. You can have a quick and quality product, but it'll cost a lot of money. You want low cost and high quality? It'll take forever....you get the idea. Pacesetter games could probably deliver a high-quality product in a decent amount of time, but the resources (cost) just wasn't there and instead of delivering a crappy product or taking forever, since the cost was fixed, they made a wise choice.

I know Erik has blasted a few (I'd dare say idiots) who have made unwise Kickstarter decisions, as have I, but we generally don't say good things about those who make wise ones.