Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:
They are already talking about Werewolf 20th edition coming to Kickstarter soon

Dear White Wolf,

First of all, thanks very much for putting together these great
Kickstarter projects. I really enjoyed backing your V20 Companion
project, doing my best to spread the word and having fun watching the
support roll in from around the world. That was the first time I had
used Kickstarter and I thought it was a really cool idea. After all,
why should some middleman stand between me, a potential investor, and
you, a group of creators that I want to see succeed? I started to
support some other projects as well, including a card game called
Tentacle Bento to be made by Soda Pop Miniatures.

The game is about a tentacled space alien disguised as a girl at an
all-girls university capturing other students. Obviously, the game is
a wink at the bizarre hentai sub-genre of tentacle pornography. The
product seemed light hearted and well designed, with awesome art and
fun mechanics. I don't normally go in for manga/anime styled anything
but this game won me over quickly. I was not surprised, therefore,
when Kickstarter listed it on their front page as a "Staff Pick" nor
was I surprised that the project quickly exceeded its funding goal by
double. Sadly, I also was not surprised to see various bloggers rail
against the game as advocacy of violence against women.

What did surprise me, however, was when Kickstarter canceled the
project funding for Tentacle Bento. The moral or ethical implications
of the game are one thing and it's fine to have that discussion. But
I have a problem with this company Kickstarter, which exists only to
connect investors with creators by minimizing third-party control of
funding, stepping in to sever that very connection as a naked
demonstration of third-party control. Kickstarter had apparently not
only allowed Soda Pop to start the project in the first place but even
picked it out as deserving of special consideration for Kickstarter's
other customers. And then, right afterward, they stomped it out.

I wrote to Kickstarter to inquire why this happened. They refused to
comment as a matter of policy. Why the project went in a matter of
days from "Staff Pick" to shut down is something that Soda Pop
Miniatures has not disclosed, either. My own conclusion is that the
allegations of rape advocacy scared off Kickstarter once Kickstarter
itself had touted the project. I'm sure that you guys at White Wolf
have heard of the term "moral panic." As roleplayers, you must be
aware of the smear campaign against Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s.
I find it repugnant to see ostensible "geek culture" sites like Kotaku
engaging in this same sort of puritanical diatribe thirty years on
(despite Kotaku praising a novelty soda marketed as Tentacle Grape not
long before). In fact, in these thirty years, things have apparently
only gotten worse. Instead of rabid evangelicals totally ignorant of
D&D claiming that D&D is "satanic" and leads kids to suicide and
murder, we have people who call themselves gamers and claiming to be
knowledgeable about games unable to distinguish between a card game
and the systematic objectification and subjugation of women.

I admit that my conclusion that Kickstarter canned Soda Pop's project
based on the moralistic bullying of bloggers is just an inference
given the silence of both parties. It's an inference, however, that I
hope White Wolf will carefully consider. And even if you reject that
inference, please think about the message that Kickstarter is sending:
"to the extent that doing business with you inconveniences us, we
will stop your project -- even at the cost of all the funding you have
built up." This issue must be chilling to White Wolf, a company known
for products that have never shied away from violence and sexuality.

Finally, even if you guys at White Wolf have no concerns about
Kickstarter's unreliability as regards your own business, I want to
ask you to please consider your investors -- i.e., your fans. How can
you ask us to support you using Kickstarter when Kickstarter's
behavior toward a gaming company has been so clearly fickle, tying
right into the long and maddening history of moral panics decrying
comic books, roleplaying games, and video games? As things stand,
this issue is holding me back from pledging investment to Children of
the Revolution. Looking ahead, I can't believe that I might miss out
on the Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition book. Please
please please consider funding the Werewolf book through Indiegogo or
making copies available through other means, as with the Vampire: The
Masquerade 20th Anniversary edition.

I fully acknowledge that it's Kickstarter's right not to do business
with Soda Pop miniatures, for any number of reasons including moral
outrage on the part of their other customers. But it's also my right
not to do business with Kickstarter because they don't actually
provide the free contact between creator and investor that they claim.
Unfortunately, there is no parity between myself and Kickstarter. I
am only an individual customer. Knowing that White Wolf has a special
consideration for its fans, which is the whole spirit of the 20th
Anniversary edition releases, I am appealing to you despite being only
an individual customer.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and I look forward to
hearing back from you,

Bromsy wrote:Yes, I am definitely interested in their response, since my views on the whole tentacle bento thing closely mirror Manchus - and I reeeaally want W20.

Rich Thomas wrote:Thanks for letting us know about this situation. You raise a lot of good points and you're absolutely right that WW needs to be alert for situations where our mature products might get caught in a situation like this. (And in fact, we've fallen into similar situations in the past with distributors refusing to carry some or all of our products due to moral grounds even as late as the publication of Pimp: The Backhanding.) So I personally would be very unhappy if the KS team scrapped a project that was succeeding for those reasons.

I'll send a query to the KS team to see if I can get any clarity on the situation from them. As you also rightly point out, the situation may not be as clear as the one you're afraid occurred, particularly considering that KS has positioned themselves as the interface between creative folks and those who'd like to encourage them and the behavior you infer is certainly not conducive to maintaining that market position.

I would appreciate it if you would reconsider how you're intending to deal with this perceived situation. On the basis of how you've pieced together what has occurred (and you yourself have questioned whether or not you're on target with that, although you certainly could be right) you're going to "hurt" KS financially a wee little bit, but "hurt" WW a lot by not backing any of our projects. All on the basis of an unclear situation. Please understand that I firmly believe in your right to take the actions you believe are the right ones in life, I'm just asking that you look again at this particular situation and your intended course.

Manchu wrote:Dear Rich,

Has Kickstarter gotten back to you about this issue? From a business point of view, here is how I see the case: Kickstarter agreed to do business with Soda Pop and then reneged and also declined to explain to either Soda Pop or its investors why it did so. Absent further explanation by Kickstarter, this is purely an example of bad faith on Kickstarter's part. That bad faith has been directed at me as an investor on this project. By funding only through Kickstarter, you guys are asking me to do business with a company that has treated me badly in order to business with a company that has treated me well (White Wolf). That would be an easy decision to make if Kickstarter would simply clarify that something besides the potential moral panic over Tentacle Bento caused them to renege on their agreement.

But if Kickstarter's behavior is just another example of the long line of caving into prejudice directed at people who enjoy table top games and video games (an inference but a pretty darn reasonable one) then the question is not so simple. And I think that, combined with Kickstarter's demonstrable bad faith in this case, the inference should make White Wolf as nervous as it makes some of White Wolf's fans. Kickstarter has been a great venue for White Wolf so far and I have some rudimentary knowledge of how that successful partnership is relieving some of the pressures White Wolf is experiencing. The question that's coming to a head is are the creators aligned more with their investors or the third-party funding mechanisms. This problematic comparison is what Kickstarter is supposed to be around to address, making the situation all the more shocking and disappointing.

Thanks,

Manchu wrote:The lesson for me has been: the companies you like don't really give a gak about you, no matter what they say. So there's really no reason to give a gak about them. They want something I have ($$$) and that's not really much leverage. From now on, I don't care if companies like WW sink or swim. If they have something I want, and that's not really much leverage, either, as it turns out, I might fork over the minimum cash. But the idea of WW using Kickstarter to appeal to those who love their games just kind of repulses me now.