Kickstarter Theory and the Return of the RPG Superstar

Games.on.net is offering a small opinion piece on Kickstarter and “the return of the RPG superstar”, based on the latest RPG Kickstarters, Torment: Tides of Numenera and Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, from inXile and Richard Garriot’s Portalarium respectively. Here’s a snip:

Richard Garriott is a legend when it comes to game design, but that legend stems from his ability to innovate within his chosen genre, and to do interesting, if not always successful things with the structure and content. He’s a rockstar in his field and an icon to other developers. Perhaps this is why some of the first pledges to be snapped up on Shroud of the Avatar have been the $10,000, $5000, $3500 and $3000 tiers.

As of this writing there are only two slots each left for the $10000 and $5000 categories and none left for $3500 and $3000. Torment, a fan favourite, by comparison, has far more backers at the lower, sub $100 rungs and fewer at the top end. Whilst this could mean little in the grand scheme of things, I have a theory and it goes a little something like this.

Richard Garriott, the man who gave computer RPGs their shape and who can be argued has done more for the genre than pretty much anyone else, is all but venerated by other developers and has been absent from the development scene for a long while. This could account for why so many of the high end pledges were the first to be snapped up (these are often taken by other developers, studios or industry professionals looking for alternate avenues of investment) and why there are relatively few lower tiered pledges.