Crowdfunding: Connecting Creators and Patrons

ysabetwordsmith  has encouraged me to post some thoughts about an online game I patronize, and to share aspects of the crowdfunding model that's been the company's primary source of income since October, 2004.  It is a very tongue-in-cheek fantasy game, The Kingdom of Loathing, and it plays entirely in your web-browser of choice without the need to download any software.  Anyone with an e-dress can open a free account, create a character, and partake in quests geared to prepare you for the ultimate challenge: freeing the King from the clutches of The Naughty Sorceress.

Your character's stats fall into three very basic categories: muscle, mysticality, and moxie, one of which is chosen by you to be your main stat.  Each mainstat offers two distinct but related character classes: Turtle Tamers and Seal Clubbers for the muscle-bound; Pastamancers and Saucerors for the mysticality-minded; and Disco Bandits and Accordion Thieves for the moxie-driven.  Each class can learn a distinct set of skills as they progress, utilizing them to fight a wide variety of monsters.  Successful combat incurs multiple possible results, including stat gains, currency accumulation, and item acquisition, all of which improve your chances of taking on the even-stronger monsters you'll encounter at the next level. The game is almost exclusively text-based; the graphics are limited, more often than not, to simply stick-figures, although some limited animation does pop up at times. Puns abound throughout the Kingdom (for instance, the mining operation on Mt. McLargeHuge is known as the "Itznotyerzitz Mine"), as do pop culture (and other cultural) references ranging from Walt Whitman's poetry through 1960's TV cartoons on to current movie quotes and spoofs of the latest hip-hop tunes.  Once you've freed the King (after completing 13 levels of play), your character can either continue to advance in level, accruing wealth and goodies from still-more-difficult gaming zones, or choose to "ascend", re-incarnating as a different character class, but keeping many of the goods, all of the wealth, and one of the skills acquired in the just-completed life; characters will continue to accrue skills each time they ascend, becoming more powerful each subsequent lifetime.

There is a thriving in-game economy, as players can sell duplicated or otherwise unwanted items in a flea market, or purchase a store in the Mall of Loathing, where investing in advertising may attract you far more business than the catch-as-catch can flea market.  And it is in regard to this in-game economy that crowdfunding comes into play, for the designers have built a system which encourages, but does not require, the players to donate cash to acquire in-game items which are only available for a limited time, typically one month.

For a ten dollar donation, a player receives an item known as a "Mr. Accessory", which, unto itself, can be used in-game to increase all of the character's stats by 10 points while worn.  But Mr. A's (as they're short-handed in the game) can also be traded in at the "Mr. Store" for the "Item of the Month", which can be powerful equipment, unique skills, or "familiar" sidekicks to assist you throughout your game play.  Not only that, but Mr. A's have a value in in-game currency (average mall price is, as of this writing, approximately 8 million), so they can be sold to provide funds with which to purchase other equipment from either NPCs or the mall.  Given the ever-increasing number of players, most early Items of the Month are in far shorter supply than the current demand, and those players that choose to sell their earlier acquisitions can make a substantial in-game profit: many such IoM's regularly pull 7- and 8-figure prices when offered in the mall.

This 'investment' aspect seriously works in the company's favor, as many players will buy multiple Mr. A's per month, trading them in for that month's limited item, then to wait patiently for the price to (hopefully) rise to where they feel it's worthwhile to 'cash in'.  But even players who can't afford to donate regularly can still accrue enough currency in-game (eventually) to purchase the items they want from the mall, so nobody's excluded from collecting to the extent of their desire.  And the Kingdom's parent company, Asymmetric Publications, is providing full-time work for about half-a-dozen programmers and game developers, all of whom are being paid from donated funds!

The development team (AKA TPTB, "The Powers That Be") maintains much interaction with their patrons/player base, by way of a forums network and via twice-weekly podcasts, in which current developments and player questions are discussed.  There is a strong sense of community among the players, expressed both in- and out-of-game, via those same forums, formation of Clans within the game setting, multiple channels in an in-game chat room, and even a once-a-year live convention, held in the Phoenix, AZ vicinity of the company's home office.

The game's is defined by TPTB as being in a state of eternal Beta; new content is frequently added, and other aspects are tweaked as needed (or demanded by the players, to some extent).  It's been running since 2003, and exclusively crowdfunded since October of 2004.  Drop by, have a look, and if you like what you see, drop a k-mail (in-game e-mail system) to BillysBalloon to say "thanks" for having pointed you in that direction.

Disclaimer: I have no professional affiliation with KoL, TPTB, Asymmetric  Publications, or any of its members, owners, or staff, and have received no considerations (other than encouragement from my partner, ysabetwordsmith ) for plugging their materials in this forum.  I'm just a patron who's enjoyed their efforts for about the last 5 years, and continue to play the game daily.