#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's John Sollitto

So it’s a pretty awesome time to be alive right now in the gaming industry. This is probably the most exciting thing that I’ve been alive for and privy to in regards to my industry.

If you’re not aware of the Kickstarter craze that is happening right now, then I’ll enlighten you. A few weeks ago, Tim Schafer set up a Kickstarter account for his company Double Fine. Tim Schafer is one of the gods of the gaming industry due to his work in the early point-and-click adventures and independent gaming genre now. Encouraged by a couple of people, two of them being Notch (the guy who brought the world Minecraft) and Steven Dengler (a friend of mine through the Nuka Break filming that I did way back when), Double Fine pitched the idea of making a new point-and-click adventure for fans of the genre and the company.

The whole pitch is online here, but the gist was that Schafer asked for $400,000. $100,000 would go towards filming a documentary of the game making process, while the $300,000 would actually go into making the game. After putting the pitch up on Kickstarter, Tim went to a convention and sort of forgot about it while he went and worked.

 

Literally hours after he had arrived and finished his day, he was receiving calls from the office saying that they had met their goals. That night? They passed it. The next day? They had made over a million dollars in donations. They still had a month to go. Now, the amount of donations is in the tens of thousands and the money raised is over 2 million dollars.

Why is this exciting? Well, for one, I love Tim Schafer’s games so I dropped the most amount of money I’ve ever donated to make sure that the game got made. My donations was pitiful compared to some people, but I like to think I contributed. Two, this could completely change the gaming industry. Like, for reals guys. This could actually have an impact on the industry in more than just a “this is how we play games” or “this is how games look” way.

I interviewed Steve for the Vault (the article can be read here at the Vault blog) and we broke down how awesome this whole thing was. Now, Steve is a business man and that’s awesome because we could actually talk in a professional sense rather than just two fans nerding out. Steve mentioned that if this became more than just a one-hit-wonder occurrence, that if several companies did this and did it successfully, then the way games are funded and made will change dramatically.

Think about it, fans putting money down to see the games they want made by the companies they like. No more would development studios have to rely on big publishers like Sega, Activision, or EA to tell them that it’s okay to make a sequel to a game they own the rights to. If the company can wrestle the licenses from the big dogs, they can go to Kickstarter and ask the community if they want more, and they can make funds directly from that.

The industry now thrives off of the Metacritic method. Metacritic is a site that compiles all the reviews of a game and gives it an overall score that devs and publishers can see. Based off of that and the commercial success of a game, they decide whether or not they should continue the franchise or drop it. That won’t matter anymore if people are willing to fund games regardless. Die-hard fans will have their love rewarded despite the naysaying of hard-hearted reviewers (like me).

Honestly, I’m freaking out. I’m chomping at the bit. If this takes off in the industry, it shows little indie publishers that it’s okay to take a chance if they’ve made several games that people like/love. Steam, the X-Box Live Arcade, and the PlayStation Network will become advertising grounds for small companies to show their skills and demonstrate their ability to deliver. After that, getting funded by fans might be a Kickstarter pitch away. Who knows?

So: I’m excited. You should be excited. We should all be excited. I’m so excited that if I die right now, my ghost will look like this:

 

#nerdsunite

Want more from John? Click here to follow him on the twitter!

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#WTF: Who am I? (a tale of self discovery)

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#NerdsUnite: The Ramblings of a Raconteuse (Choosing the Artist's Life)