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Artist gets $35.000 for two weeks of doing nothing

  • inb4 fanboys attacking

  • the following statement by Yogscast: "“Although we’re under no obligation to do anything, instead we’re going to do our best to make this right, and make you really glad you backed the project!”" it basically means "f**k you suckers, we took your money and now we might have pity on you and throw some cheap bone." C'mon they're easily one of the wealthiest "youtubers" and they could do refunds (or even fund a large chunk the game in the first place) they just don't care.

I'm sick and tired of these so called "youtubers" parading as businessmen and celebrities. Most of them are untalented idiots and it would be hilarious to see them mess up if not for the people they harm.

  • Legal question for the smart ones: Can Kickstarter submitters be legally forced to provide a precise (I mean precise) account of their expenses, and where the money went? Not like a contract drawn on the back of a milk box, more like proving it with tax forms, receipts, bank statements etc. If the proofs of expenditures aren't matching the Kickstarter goal then it's violating the agreement with the backers and they can be sued. It seems Kickstarter is being run like a pig farm in Southern Dakota...

accountability

9 years ago*

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As much as I hate Kickstarter, people need to realize backing a project is not the same as preordering a product. If you just throw your money at whatever without proper consideration, don't expect me to feel sorry when the whole thing goes belly up with nothing to show for it.

9 years ago
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Actually, I would say it is the opposite. Pre-order games stop development all the time, before being finished, if there is a legal mechanism to go after these developers it is a pretty uncertain one. While it is pretty obvious some minimal amount of legal responsibility is taken on by any Kickstarter developers.

9 years ago
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You can cancel a pre-order game at any time if it doesn't get released. So there's no harm done there.

Backing a kickstarter is actually investing in a project that may or may not see the light of day. you're not buying any product. Getting the game at the end, or whatever else you were backing, is actually a bonus.

9 years ago
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i was living under a rock the last years. what is this "yogscast" thing, and why should i be mad about it?

9 years ago
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Some popular shitty Lets Players known for being obnoxious in minecraft for hundreds of hours.
AKA they're not only profiting hugely off other peoples work in the first place, they're also now not delivering on promises they made to fans and were given more than $560,000 to complete.

9 years ago
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That's an insult to pig farmers in South Dakota. (

9 years ago
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As much i might dislike youtubers, and for most part i actually do, there was a games company that didnt deliver, wasnt it a kickstart for a game?!

9 years ago
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Yeah, and at first I figured 'well it's the game devs fault' but they still aren't refunding anyone, won't deliver most of the rewards promised (even besides the game), and have the nerve to say they're "under no obligation to do anything" when their fans gave them more than 500k on faith.

Their youtubing aside they're being total shylocks and they're a good example of why I don't fund kickstarter projects.

9 years ago
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"more than 500k on faith"

"on faith"

"faith"

9 years ago
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Believe in Steven.

9 years ago
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I heard that the money went to the 'gifts' and stuff

9 years ago
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I used to love the Yogscast, but I haven't been very impressed with them lately. Feeling a bit sick of them and crap like this.

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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I honestly don't understand how anyone can enjoy them. I watched one video of them. The one where they're showcasing what they have of their own game or whatever before they cancelled it and scammed everyone, and they're just so friggen arrogant and unfunny. The smugness reminds me of dsp. Pewdiepie I don't like but I get, he doesn't seem like an ass. But yogscast? Ugh. They're so punchable.

9 years ago
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Well the backers should have thought clearly before they did it. I would rather back kickstarters run by professionals like Kingdom Come Deliverance and Mighty Number 9.

9 years ago
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I have backed 4 games and C&H series.

All of the developers behind the games were industry veterans and as such should be able to make at least competent product.

9 years ago
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So next they are getting in to taking cuts from other devs...

9 years ago
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hehehe...
yogscam :D

9 years ago
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+1

9 years ago
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I smell a class action lawsuit.

9 years ago
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I do hope so

9 years ago
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all they need is just little bit of street justice. maybe we can create a kickstarter project for it :D

9 years ago
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unpopular opinion? O_O

9 years ago
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every opinion is unpopular to somebody O_O

9 years ago
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oh okay, I thought you meant unpopular in the sense it's not what most people think or something :P

9 years ago
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lol they gathered more than double their target amount and they still do this.. I hope karma bites them back in the ass.

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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while i think their attitude is kinda shitty, they're right. people who throw money into kickstarter projects, do so knowing that the project could likely fail and they will get nothing for their money - they have no rights to the money, they're essentially investors, not customers.

theoretically. however, i wonder if they could sue for mismanagement of funds... but regardless, the company is under no obligation to refund anyone... investors dont get their money back if a project fails.

9 years ago
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Clearly you didn't read the accountability section of the Kickstarter site.. a part of it is even in the thread.

9 years ago
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But Kickstarter is different. If the project gets successfully funded, the party in question is supposed to deliver on their promises. Also, I think you meant backers. I'm pretty sure they use that term over investors cause an investor is someone who allocates capital with the expectation of a financial return.

9 years ago
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Follow through with the REWARDS, the actual project is under no obligation to follow through, especially if its an impossible project. The backer rewards are the things on the side, pay us 100 dollars for a free signed copy of the game and so on.

9 years ago
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Kickstarter chooses their words with great care, and it makes a big difference for legal distinctions.

9 years ago
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Actually, they are obliged to follow through if the reward IS the final product.

9 years ago
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Honestly the only Yogscast content i regularly watch is TB, Sips and Hat Films, i doubt either of them got any of that money so this will in no way affect me watching their channel. And yes, Simon is a dick, i'm surprised it's taken people so long to get this.

From what i can understand people did get most(i'm not a backer so i have no idea what this means) of the physical rewards and they're getting this other game that seems to be doing the same thing their game set out to do so it's not exactly a "took the money and ran" and ran kind of deal. That said, if Simon and Lewis are smart they will take the financial "hit" and refund anyone who asks for it, otherwise the PR damage will be cost them a lot more.

9 years ago
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TB isn't a part of the Yogscast...

They both just happen to have the same parent company, which is Polaris, that's the only affiliation that TB shares with the Yogscast.

9 years ago
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wait... those youtube guys have parent companies now?

9 years ago
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Yeah. o_O

What do you think Machinima is?

Basically every YouTube personality that does YouTube as a full time job is partnered with a "parent" company (Not the exact terminology they use, but I can't remember the exact word for it), that helps them with legal matters and pretty much allows them to post game footage without getting hassled by most of the really large video game companies like EA and Ubisoft etc.

Just being "partnered" with YouTube isn't enough, hell, I'm partnered with YouTube and I haven't even uploaded a video to my channel in almost a year. lol

9 years ago
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Gonna be a shitstorm over this. Hopefully there's actually a lawsuit because I would like to see that. I hope Totalbiscuit does a video on this topic as well... he would no doubt blast Yogscast and Kickstarter

9 years ago
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Far worse scams have happened on kickstarter than this with no punishments or actions taken. Like that guy that sold the wristband that supposedly tracked your cals in and out just through science and stuff. Supposedly would KNOW exactly how many calories you ingested as you ate and how much you expended as you moved around. It was completely proven to be impossible by a LOT of actual scientists and kickstarter just shrugged it off. It raised a few million dollars for a lump of plastic essentially.

9 years ago
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well, i guess that sums up Yogcast in a nutshell

9 years ago
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I don't know what actually Yogscast is. Just remember it is from some YouTube channel. Anyway, this doesn't sound legal, action must be taken immediatly!

9 years ago
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In the meantime... on Greenlight
And there's still good (and finished) games there, waiting in the oblivion.

9 years ago
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No, you did not understand it correctly at all, it was WinerKewl's job to deliver the game and they failed(you can see that because the project on Kickstarter was made by Winterkewl Games LLC and not by Yogscast) because they promised too much for the money they made they were only a 10 man team and then they hired some guy who worked on LucasArts without signing any contract and that guy only worked on the project like 2 weeks then sent winterkewl shit, NOW seeing that the game wasn't gonna release being stuck in alpha for 2 years Yogscast took the remaining money 150.000k $ to send the backers their pledge rewards and also they will send them a different game to say sorry for the failed one, so no Yogscast did not scam anyone, it was just their inexperience in the game creating domain that led to the failure of creating it.

9 years ago
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Hmm, I don't quite understand Kickstarter then:

"Is a creator legally obligated to fulfill the promises of their project?

Yes. Kickstarter's Terms of Use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill."

So why don't people get their money back now? Luckily I don't indulge in fun and wonders that Kickstarter, Early Access and pre-orders offer, but I surely feel like some folks just got butt reaped hard.

P.S.: I mean money back from WinterKewl, not Yogcast.

9 years ago
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They can try, but it'll likely take a lawsuit, lawyers willing to take the case, and there has to be something they can actually receive. Backers would be lucky if they ended up getting 10% of their pledge back.

9 years ago
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The rewards are the immediate rewards, IE fly out and meet the creator! Kind of things or free game keys. It doesnt require that they actually follow through with the promises set out in the campaign itself like, ultra realistic graphics at 8k resolutions!!

9 years ago
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The problem with that is that you can't pluck feathers from an already plucked chicken.
Winterkewl is looking at a negative cash balance, the odds of anyone getting a refund at this point is slim.

9 years ago
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They're making donations, not investments, so they (backers) lack the legal authority to demand to go through their books. They might be able to win a lawsuit if they could prove maleficence, but probably not for simple incompetence.

9 years ago
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The kickstarter FAQ actually specifically mentions that in the case that a kickstarter can not be fullfilled the people that ran it are required to provide a certain number of things (including an accounting of the money).
If they do not, the backers are legally in a position to sue.

That said, the money involved for an invididual backer isn't going to be worth going to court, so they'd need to get a bunch of them organized. And even if they manage that, they will not likely reach anything substantial.

9 years ago
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The accounting of the money probably wouldn't be any more detailed than what they have already released. And since they say they have a negative balance already, there's nothing to be gained by suing.

Overall, I think projects failing like this is important for Kickstarter. People are a bit too eager to donate money to pipe dreams. Even if Kickstarter changed their terms so that a game has to be delivered, that would just result in companies "delivering" buggy and completely broken games, for the sake of delivery.

9 years ago
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I think that only applies if the project doesn't reach its goal in the 28 days limit say like a project needs 1000$ but it only gets 999$ at the end of the project all the money gets refunded to the pledgers but in this case i don't think there's an obligation to refund, it's like an investment that you hope will work not like a pre-order where you're sure you're gonna get the finished product

9 years ago
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No money is taken before project closes with full funding.

9 years ago
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