Ever Wanted to Run a Game Company?

November 7, 2011 7:22 AM

The name is surprisingly accurate - Mob Rules Games. Among the many unusual kickstarter drives out there, this one is particularly weird - three gamemakers who are starting a company are using Kickstarter to raise funds for the first of their games, but with the pledge comes votes. Votes, that is, for what of three game ideas (strategy, hide and seek, time distortion) are going to be worked on first. Invest a little, get a few votes - invest a lot, dominate the discussions. In other words, gamification of the process of making games. Will it work? Over half a decade ago, Adbusters magazine, the anti-commercialism magazine, created the Blackspot Sneaker, a rebellion against overarching shoe companies conducted by making a different shoe company, one using practices Adbusters thought the big companies didn't engage in. With the purchase of a pair of shoes, you also were given a vote for the direction of the company. This experiment went in interesting directions.
posted by jscott (5 comments total)

To me it just makes this sound like their project is not fleshed out enough to invest in. Kickstarter is for when you know exactly what and how, and you just need the capital. Making a game is really complex. If their goal is so flabby that it could basically go any one of three ways, then I don't think they're at a stage where they should be asking for anything.

Why not just make the best game you possibly can, and then try to sell that? Don't ask people to pay for the honor of making all your hard decisions for you.
posted by hermitosis at 7:32 AM on November 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

I just want to say that these are some ugly fucking shoes. If you're going to give a big fuck-you to Nike, are the only two available routes either designing your own sneaker using a design that looks like something a) Tim Burton absentmindedly doodled on a napkin or b) Sketchers previously rejected for looking too openly knocked-off?
posted by griphus at 7:42 AM on November 7, 2011

Invest a little, get a few votes - invest a lot, dominate the discussions. In other words, gamification of the process of making games.

That's not gamification. That's plutocritization. Where the real winner is the ironically-named Mob Rule.
posted by DU at 7:45 AM on November 7, 2011

...are the only two available routes either designing your own sneaker using to use a design that...
posted by griphus at 7:46 AM on November 7, 2011

I bought a pair of blackspot sneakers 5 years ago and I don't think they are ugly. I like them and I liked the fact that I was purchasing a shoe that was ethically made (as far as I could tell). I've worn them on and off for about 5 years and they are still going strong, but starting to fray a little.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 7:49 AM on November 7, 2011