I would, reluctantly on account of my utter hatred for my learning block, return to learning to program with the intention of eventually making something that exceeds the scope and vision this game promised, knowing what's possible now will be far exceeded in the timeframe I was originally expecting to have to wait to be able to make my game.

I only pledged what I'd be okay with never seeing again.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't pledge the same amount again unless I acquired a great deal of expendable income.

But I wouldn't never pledge again. Just I'd be far more conservative.

As for getting angry, life's too short to get hung up on that sort of thing. If everything goes tits up, then everything goes tits up. Time to go back to fallout 4.

I'd be disappointed and I would move on.

I assume these people will succeed with this one. They have a decent sized crew which appear to be qualified as far as I can tell. They have Improbable to work with. They have funding now.

If not them...then someone else will do a game similar. In 10-20 years there will be virtual reality versions of this game or a similar game. Unless of course western civilization falls apart and we are more worried about finding food than playing video games. So, I really hope this succeeds and marvel comes out with all their movies before the flames consume us all.

I was a kid reading Game Informer when Peter Molyneux promised the world in Fable. Bloodlines, trees that grow in real time, a dynamic and changing world with seasons, the ability to do whatever you wanted (within reason). Sound familiar? Yeah, I got burned pretty hard.

But CoE isn't made by Peter Molyneux. The tech is there. The promises are real. The expectations are high.

If CoE fails, falls through, whatever, I think I would be okay with the outcome. I would be disheartened, sure, but I wouldn't have pledged if I was willing to take the risk. I'd likely pledge again too, just because Caspian's dream has been with me for so long that I'd gladly support anything that made me feel that hopeful rush of excitement that reading about Fable did, all those years ago.

Then it's back to the sea of banality offered by the existing development studios...

I'd still be optimistic that somewhere, out there, someone could bring something like CoE to life. Let's not get negative already though lol

Did you pledge with with a Credit Card or did you use a debit card linked to a bank account?

If you used a Visa CC you have 540 days from the date of the transaction to do a charge back and let Kick Starter and Soulbound Studios figure it out, sure kickstarter might ban your account but you can always just make a new one.

I'd be surprised if it failed in a complete sense, considering the dedication and transparency I've been seeing. If it not becoming hugely popular outside of the community already here is seen as failure too, I'd be less shocked.

Then I'd be upset but hopeful that another studio would make an attempt. I'd be willing to put a lot of money into backing if they were asking for it, like I'm doing this time.

The whole scenario of them both not being able to deliver promises and having rampant hackers, etc. etc. etc. seems a bit dramatic. Not impossible and I understand this is hypothetical. Still, I hope that's not a fear which has been stopping others from pledging.

Not sure I'd be angry at the devs... it would depend on how it went. Most likely I'd be disappointed and maybe also a little understanding. I would hope I could keep in mind that ambitious thinking has led some of the best of us into trouble. Hopefully, overall, I would be grateful for all the information they tried to get out and the (what I perceive to be) laudable manner in which the community has been treated and interacted with.

I could understand negative reactions because not everybody gets much of a life to live. Everybody, grab your smallest violin for my sob story! Uh, to summarise, agoraphobic who is--for reasons I won't bore you with--highly unlikely to find conventional work, ever. I try to give to charity to combat that failure to entirely add to society and I also want to try to write for tabletop games eventually, but having something as large and seemingly immersive as CoE looks set to be is important for mental health, at least for me. Having this to encourage me to work on my pretty useless social skills is actually a big deal in my eyes.

I'm not interested in any other sort of MMO out there currently. So, yeah. I'm not going to write off peoples' emotions in terms of there being 'more important' issues to care about. Plus, I imagine that most do care about matters beyond gaming.

Conclusion: Surprised, sad, yet still hopeful for the future and willing to put the money where my idealistic mouth is.

I've been in something like that position with a game I backed heavily (similar level to CoE's "Count" level") 3 years ago. It has developed into a good game but it is frequently criticized for lack of content. More importantly it dropped several major development promises due to time constraints and unexpected network issues, and has added several other features that were never promised in the kickstarter and are not particularly popular.

It's just something you have to accept, deal with, and move on. I'm disappointed that the game is not now one for which I feel great enthusiasm, but I don't bear the company any malice. It just happened that way.

One thing is almost guaranteed - CoE will, over time, diverge somewhat from the plan as it is now. It will gain some new features and lose others - this is completely understandable. We are being involved in a very close manner, so we will see all the small changes that would normally never be seen by people buying a triple-A game title from a major publisher. It's important to understand this and accept whatever changes the company believes are for the best, providing they are still honestly endeavouring to meet their "ethical obligation".

Would I pledge more money on a kickstarter again? Of course - I just did :)

Yenno what, as long as they could look us all in the face and say the truth, explain what went wrong and how come they weren't able to make it work and show there are no other viable options, I would be fine. I only pledged the 25$ tier but I spent quite a bit on extra IP that I wanted to have as back up in case my family can't provide for me early on. So as long as you didn't spend beyond your means and SBS is upfront and honest about their situation, if they can reasonably say they couldn't make it work despite trying their absolute best I would be let down but accept that.

All that being said if it was financial troubles they had I wouldn't be above another KS I could give another 25$ even just for some silly seeds to keep the game alive if 10 000 people give 25 thats another 250k.

Chronicles of Elyria is love, Chronicles of Elyria is life. If it didn't work out I would have just gone out to sea and never returned, just like it would be in Chronicles of Elyria, at least that way it would feel real to me Feelsbadman.

I hope the game succeeds. That said, my philosophy for kick starters is not to pledge so much money that I would be sad to lose it with no return. For something innovative like this, that risk/reward calculation has me putting in more money than I would for, say, a cat licking rubber tongue.

I refuse to acknowledge any such possibility. 😋

I would be more disappointed in the game not made than the money lost. Having said that, I would be more cautious on any further KS.

I would curse my bad fortune for a week or two then start turning my interest towards Shroud of the Avatar. I played a early version of it about a year ago and bought a fine house and basement. But I didn't want to spoil the experience of playing the game so early so I stopped paying attention to it much. I was planning to get more involved with it soon as it is suppose to be coming out at the end of July but this little game has sort of distracted me from it.

I would be angry mostly because of the money I intend to spend building a computer for this game...