Gamfound - the loss of fun campaigns, constructive criticism, and community

Now that's an easy fix, I have most portal games in my collection with most expansions, even the apps, they're leaving, I don't spend money on them in the future, I don't promote them, they aren't commented on passionately as must buys, they aren't played in the house.

wow, what an overly dramatic response to a forum comment getting deleted.

If I'm being completely honest, I rarely look at comments for crowdfunded games. For anything specifically related to the game I look elsewhere (YT content creators I follow, reddit subs etc). The comments section is a part of the "product page" so they have every right to filter it. It was kind of lame that they deleted your comment, but I guess they are going for that FAQ style comments section so they are heavily filtering. Likewise the opposite occurs in some KS comments section where gatekeeping and political campaigns erupt and its just not great for anyone, including the creator sometimes most of all.

If I read your post correctly though - it did feel like you had a bit of a harsh reaction to your comment being deleted? (i.e. perma-banning them from your life?)

That seems weird as people are putting tons of criticism in the comments (like with the stickers on dice) and they have addressed many criticisms in the update so far (each one has something about criticism).

Was your comment written in a genuine way or in a more aggressive/passive aggressive way?

I prefer the discussion, especially around the space the product is being sold. It sounds like Gamefound's moderation is turning out to be the double edged sword everyone suspected; In giving the companies the ability to shut down genuinely bad actors also allows them to shut down valid criticism or, as it sounds like in this case, an even vaguely opposed opinion.

Maybe it's my perspective from growing up in a capitalist society, but I just assume, by default, that real discussion and criticism of a product is going to have to take place far away from the advertising. I assume it's their right to control the message however they want in their own territory. We know it empowers companies because the criticism is then harder to find and all you're left with is sterilized, glowing praise.

The strength of the moderation is surely going to vary from project to project but, at this point, I'm going to treat the comment section like I would quotes on the back of the box: like it's cherry picked advertising and not necessarily representative of reality.

Neither, and I think both platforms are off the mark in their moderation policies.

The balance between fully open comments and effective moderation can be really tough. I think some of the vitriol that came out in the comments of the Tiny Epic Dungeons Kickstarter campaign is an example of the failings of a platform without moderation.

The full corporate moderation that you just experienced on Gamefound seems like an example of why the complete opposite is also a failing. Does it build community or goodwill for Portal to dictate what can and can't be said on its campaign? I feel disenfranchised simply knowing that this happened to you.

I'd like there to be a middle ground. I don't think the entity running the campaign should just have free reign to delete whatever comments they like, but I also don't like the unfettered toxicity that Kickstarter comments generate with almost no moderation tools.

If a commenter is toxic, the campaign should be able to report/hide those comments until they've been reviewed and either approved or deleted by some sort of moderation body. But just axing a comment because it might maybe offer negative feedback about something you're offering in your campaign seems.... overzealous.

This seems like a big stretch. You're taking the behaviour of one company using a platform and using it to describe every project on that platform. Your little anecdote says absolutely nothing about Gamefound other than it allows comment moderation, its about Portal not the platform.

I imagine Portal want to keep the chat to people asking them questions or general enthusiasm. I don't really blame them for not opening it their funding page as a general forum, especially if it's just so people can air their opinion that they aren't excited about a particular element of their game.

I will take sterile every time over the comment section of contentious Kickstarters.

Project creators on Gamefound can remove comments? That's ripe for abuse. There's no mechanism for backers to warn other backers about a problematic project creator if the project creator can delete any comments they want to.

Kickstarter's completely unmoderated comment section is worse as there's no protection from abusive backers for the project creator, but Gamefound's solution is not going to work long-term.

Comment sections in general are usually not worth the effort to look at.

There does seem to be a crackdown in general. Not just corperate levels but on anything not following the group think as wrong thought. Don't get me wrong, I understand a scant few ideas can't be tolorated due to paradox of them crushing it if allowed- but even minor disagreements over simple topics are considered derailing or dismissive by a growing number it feels.

It really is getting hard to have a discussion without extreme tiptoing anymore. Being so careful though really stiffles communication of ideas.

Here of course here on reddit if you disagree, you're downvoted into oblivion too. I assume kickstarter will be following the trend soon enough with allowing moderation in the comments. Probably by the kickstarter maker themselves.

Which we will then see abused in the first twenty four hours to shield scammers. Mark my words, that is an eventuality at this point. So enjoy the freedom to call out BS on kickstarter while you have it despite the drawbacks involved.

It wont last.

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I read a comment over there today about how a user hated the dice tower. Not sure if it was you or if there's someone else with your concern. Although it was NOT worded the way you wrote it here, but Ignacy himself responded to it.

Are you sure it's actually gone? If so, this is more of a Portal issue rather than a Gamefound issue.

Also, if it's gone, the comment was probably deleted due to the tone. When I first read it I thought it sounded rude. The user basically called it a trash SG and an absolute waste, even though other people were happy with it. Remember that a team of people put a lot of thought into the campaign to try to deliver an exciting product. Opinions can be voiced without shitting all over someone else's art/work.

Calling something they made "trash" was a stretch. I don't have a dice tower and will definitely use the one from this campaign. I don't really care if it's cardboard.

Are you "TheFrozenMeeple"?

Because I still see a post from TheFrozenMeeple that criticizes the dice tower (calling it garbage). So, either you're TheFrozenMeeple and you lied about getting your comment deleted or your post was deemed more offensive than TheFrozenMeeple in which case it probably deserves to get deleted.