Black Isle is a Great Case Study in How to NOT Crowdfund Your Game
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Given the PV13 name, coupled with the fact that Black Isle says the game has been "in development for years," it's rather safe to assume that this is Fallout Online with all the Fallout references removed.
Fair enough, you say -- Interplay has had this in the works for years, and to throw all of the work away over a dispute would be madness. But here's where it gets tricky. Bulgaria-based Masthead Studios was working on the original Fallout Online build, with the plan that it would be published by Interplay. With this move to Black Isle, there's no word regarding whether Masthead is on the project anymore.
More notably, the pledge page for PV13 fails to describe the game in any detail, refusing to even list the type of genre that the game will fall under. "We've had to make some major changes recently," it reads, suggesting that the MMO angle may well have been dropped -- but in place of what?
Why would backers want to put cash down for a project outline that is so incredibly vague and disconcerting? And what happened to all the work that was done at Masthead all these years? Is there really not enough there to put together a prototype and seek proper funding?
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There is no way to receive a copy of the game by pledging -- even if you decide to put down $10,000 -- because the money isn't actually going towards a game at all. In fact, the money will be used to build a prototype, which Black Isle will then show to investors in the hope of gathering up moolah elsewhere.
And why is there no total figure shown at all? Shouldn't the entire point of open crowdfunding like this be that consumers can see how well the scheme is doing, and choose whether to be part of it? Hiding how much you've actually made is more than a little dodgy, truth be told.
