Hadn't watched the video yet and here are my stars.

Is the donation level to get to participate reasonable or will only rich people get to personally strangle a kardaishian?

Probably some minimalist wallet

Kickstarter (or similar) seems pretty good for computer games. For example Shadowrun returns was kickstarted and whatever you think about it (I think its alright) they delivered what they said they would more or less on time.

Yeah. All the successful Kickstarter projects I can think of are game related. We're in an era where the unholy trifecta of funding (crowd sourcing), wide market distribution (digital) and PR/marketing (Internet) have aligned to become stupidly easy for Joe Blow Garage Band/Game Designer/Director to obtain. It now just comes down to having an idea worth doing...and then being a motivated enough person/group to see it through. If your game, music or movie idea is worth doing -- you have no more excuses to try and see it through.

The two major problems a lot of these things run into is the whole "worth doing" and "seeing it through".

I've gotten some good camera things, this guy basically started this company on kickstarter

https://peakdesignltd.com/

I've also backed some documentaries, books, games, and apps that were completed and delivered. I also supported the ARKYD space telescope which is still being built but has good chances.

Yeah, Shadowrun was pretty cool. And Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden 2 might not have come out yet, but they've been giving pretty convincing updates, and I got my Cyberdwarf body pillow at a more than reasonable turnaround.

Even with games, it seems like the likelihood of a decent finished product seeing the light of day is inversely proportional to the size of the maker's existing fan base. Schafer isn't going to create anything without triple the initial budget and schedule, and I'll eat a shoe if Richard Garriot or Chris Roberts' MMO opuses ever materialize.

The Ouya was "successful" in the sense that they shipped a product, but they reneged on just about every promise they made and the end product is a buggy unfinished mess with a proprietary marketplace full of shovelware and little else.

In the not-too-distant future, Scientists believe that we're all going to be connected to a vast network of interconnected computers, an "internet", if you will, and if we're wondering about a certain topic, there will be special programs called "search engines" which will enable us to search the whole network for information by typing in a term such as "successful kickstarter projects". Sadly, until that happy day arrives, we'll just have to try to answer this question off the top of our heads.

http://www.kickstarter.com/year/2012

I just got the ebook of Ryan North's choose your own adventure version of Hamlet. It's pretty great.

Deliverable within the next 12 months, at a time that works with both the backer's and Harry's schedules.

Pppffff. I doubt Harry Knowles has enough things going on in his life that he has a schedule.

THE PETER JACKSON WEDDING INVITATION VIDEO!!! You have NEVER seen ANYTHING quite like this, folks! This video was made by Lord of the Rings director and longtime friend, Peter Jackson as a custom created short film to celebrate the impending nuptials of Harry and his beloved wife, Patricia. This DVD will come in a gorgeous custom case autographed by Harry & Patricia.

Limited (30 of 30 remaining)

Goddamn this shit is FREE MONEY.

Come on, POETV. Time to start braintrusting our own kickstarter idea before dotcom bubble 2.0 hits.

If we raised 2.7 million, we could do a world tour of all our favorite exhibits in a documentary. I suggest it be called "MySQL Has Failed."

*****

You know how sometimes a politics or newsworthy trainwreck story can literally make you feel like your blood is draining out your asshole and you're slowly dying while watching it? The opening paragraph of that link was like that, except I had the strong desire to let my own blood to make the reading stop.

Jesus. theSnake's link. Good God.