Kickstarter

Continuing onwards from my discussion yesterday about purchasing new gadgets (and yes it counts as a discussion if it's one sided, that simply reflects my truth at home) I received a couple of updates this week from projects I've funded on Kickstarter.

I remember back in the day when I first came across Kickstarter and thought that all my dreams had come true. Getting in on the ground floor of projects that looked sweet. Gadgets, not only before anyone else gets them, but cheaper too.

And there were amazing ideas on there, with incredibly quick estimated delivery times.

I kept it casual at first. I purchased some jewellery which looked like leather but was made out of paper. I paid. It was sent. It arrived. I could never work out how it fastened, but it looks cool on my bedside table.

I became a bit more adventurous. I splashed out on a Mo Mug. This is a reusable coffee mug with a variety of moustaches on it, which was issued in honour of Movember for when you can't compete (by virtue of gender discrimination, or a lack of appropriately hair promoting testosterone).

So far, so good.

And then things took a slightly different turn.

There was the Pebble incident. Long delays, but it was so awesome when it came in the end I didn't care. And by the time it wore out, Samsung had got their act together and produced a much better 2nd gen of watches for my selection.

I am still waiting for Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa. Apparently some time during the campaign they decided instead of a short movie they'd go with a full-length feature, and then didn't actually tell anyone. Sure, we can laugh about that May 2013 delivery date now...

Now that we're at May 2015 and still waiting. So funny.

Here is a quick screenshot of the latest projects I've backed:

Homesick: July 2013. This is actually going okay. It's into final testing now. I'm kind of over it, and I'm not sure that the game with horror graphics which looked awe inspiring two years ago will still be relevant, but I still look forward to playing it through. Sometime. In 2015 maybe?

Watch Jewellery: On time.

Yolkr: A few months late.

NKV Watch: Ditto

Barmes Freebase: the most expensive piece of luggage I've ever purchased, if I've purchased it. A year later, still waiting.

Once the trend started, I eventually wised up. Jewellery, yes. Anything else, no.

I even went so far at to not order something on indiegogo because I was learning. I waited until they were about to send out their first orders, and then I pre-ordered it on their website. For my birthday. July 2014. I'm hoping it will be here soon. That would be a nice surprise gift.